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Rabbi Everett Gendler of the Jewish Theological Seminary emphasized a new awareness of “nature elements in Jewish worship” as a contemporary spiritual option open to the modern Jew, reminding us of the nature mysticism of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav.
Gendler maintains that Judaism has allowed itself to become historically oriented that ties with the natural world have been broken, and that therefore the natural world has ceased to be a source of wonder to the Jew. “To be sure,” Gendler indicates, “the break with paganism was vitally necessary for the development of Judaism. But the break can go too far,” he contends. “It can become a chasm, an unbridgeable gap. We are at a stage now where we must begin to redress the balance is renewing our contact with nature. And furthermore, there originally were nature elements in Judaism, which we must revive.” He advocates that we renew our contact with nature and that we pray out of door in which “periods of silence and meditation on trees and shrubs” are part of the worship. He also recommends walking among grass and trees from earliest spring to latest autumn, seeing those aspects of nature as eloquent testimonials to the power of Chei Ha-olamim, the Life of the Universe, and chanting a prayer such as the following: “Master of the Universe, grant me the ability to be alone; may it be my custom to go outdoors each day among the trees and grass, among all growing things, and there may I be alone, and enter into prayer, to talk with the One that I belong to.”
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