4 Elul: Turn to the Soil, Turn to the Soil Again, for Everything is in It

I have loved writing these etudes over the years. I just looked back and saw my first one was in 2013. That makes this my b’mitzvah year. So I’m going back to that first post, reviewing and renewing. At that time, I was growing a food forest in the Chicago suburbs; now, I am creating one in North Carolina.

Then, there were grapevines, artichokes (yes! In Chicagoland), multiple beds of veggies, herbs, berries, and fruit trees, including a peach tree. Now we have deer fences – sad but necessary – and three huge cedar raised beds just built – cardboarded and mulched – awaiting soil. We have our first fruit trees: nectarine, fig and pomegranate. The one lovely connection to the old house is the peach tree; a volunteer I potted and brought with me from the Chicago suburbs when I moved here in 2018, which we finally put into Mama earth’s loving hands last fall. She is so happy to be in the ground, and even gave peaches this year.

The earth turns. As we do, in teshuvah. Much stays the same, yet much changes. I am saddened and horrified this year at events in Israel and Gaza, saddened and horrified at events here in our country. And yet when I go to the earth, I know that renewal is possible. How much will it take for us to return to Mother Earth’s teachings? To remember that giving is receiving, that nourishment is in the soil – it literally feeds us – that harmony is everywhere, that we are interconnected beings, one with another, and one with the planet?

This is my teshuvah – reminding myself that all wholeness is right here, right now. And anytime I need a reminder, all I need to do is step outside and smell the leaves, the grasses, the wood. And then I dip my hands in the soil. I know that I am one. I know from whence I came, and with what I am completely intertwined.

Rabbi Robin Damsky (she/her) runs Limitless Judaism, a project of Body-Spirit-Gaia, exploring the interconnectedness of personal well-being, spiritual practice and planetary well-being. Her work includes publications, spiritual direction, in person and online courses in meditation, song, art, movement, spiritual exploration, and planting and tending our planet. Sign up for her Elul course, Touching the Beloved Within. Inst & FB: @limitlessjudaism