ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL JUSTICE
Judaism As An Earth-Centered Belief... ...continued from page 11 vals after pagans, saints and martyrs. For instance, the Jewish holi- days, starting with Passover then 49 days later, Shavuot, paschal and barley harvest, was transformed into Easter, named from the Teuton goddess of fertility ceremonies. In Judaism, it was a season of climate uncertainties and fear of drought, locusts and inclement weather. Easter became the Feast of the Resurrection. It featured the return of Christ, and linked it to phallic maypole dances, and fertility sym- bols (rabbits, eggs). Interestingly enough, for the next 500 years, the newly established Roman church engaged in the destruction of sacred groves by armed Christian woodcutters. The groves were replaced by churches and cathedrals. The Unconventional Pursuit of Judaism As interesting as the agricultural origins of Judaism can be, it is not typically on the forefront of teaching in Hebrew schools or con - nections made in Rabbis’ sermons and teaching in the United States. Secular Israelis are often taught this history in their schools, and bib - lical archeologists have intimate knowledge and insights, way beyond what I know as a farmer. When I once spoke at over 25 Sunday schools in Washington and Baltimore, I asked mostly 13-16-year-old Jewish children the same introductory question, “Who can explain the difference between Suk - kot (harvest festival) and Shavuot (spring festival of wheat and first fruits).” None of the kids knew the answer. In all modesty, my pre - sentation usually enthralled the students, because the topic is quite fascinating. Shavuot, to traditional Jews, foregrounds the religious aspects of
the holiday that marks the giving of the Torah from God to Moses. This explanation is taken as strictly literal — God revealing Himself directly to hundreds of thousands of wandering Jews, standing at Mt. Sinai and receiving the Torah, dictated by God to Moses. In our tradi - tion we think of that moment as if all Jews, throughout time, stood at Mt. Sinai. But in current Jewish schools and synagogues, the historical agrar- ian origins of those holidays are not usually included in their teaching. This is unfortunate, because the agricultural origins could be more ex- citing to learn. Agricultural roots have a better chance of enlightening than the strictly religious explanations. I presume that the same could be said in Protestant and Catholic Sunday schools. Real history, with its pagan, agrarian and earthly environmental roots, make the religion more interesting and relevant to younger people. Curiously, in one of the local Jewish Day schools our daughter at - tended (Jewish Primary Day School), the first graders knew the answer to the difference between Sukkot and Shavuot! I stopped giving these (free) presentations when, at a Baltimore city-wide Jewish teachers’ conference, the Director of Jewish Education asked me to leave the conference because I had the audacity to suggest the holidays had ag - ricultural roots and were not divinely inspired. The idea is as radical now as it was then, but I believe it is worth exploring as a means to start important conversations for cross-cultural and cross-spiritual connection. A professor of Jewish history at the now defunct Baltimore Hebrew University said he opened his classes by saying, “Please forget every - thing you ever learned in Sunday schools when you take this course. That information is simply historically irrelevant!” Nevertheless, history is not necessarily religion. There’s a separa - tion between the sacred and the profane. In order to be a true Chris -
32—PATHWAYS—Summer 22
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