A lot of people have asked me what "Earth Based Judaism" means. The fact of the matter is, like lots of things in the Jewish world, it can mean different things to different people. (Stick two Jews in a room with one question for one answer and they'll come out with at least three answers.) For my purposes, though, it describes the structure on which my faith practice rests (Jewish tradition) and the lens through which I view that structure (Earth based).
Jewish tradition provides more than 3000 years worth of ideas about how to connect with God, what it means to be a good spouse or a good farmer, how people should relate to each other, how to be more mindful in your daily life,... In a few thousand years you can build up a lot of tradition. Not only that, you can build up a lot of conflicting traditions. That's part of why we Jews like to debate so much. It's actually, quite literally, part of our tradition! The Talmud is a 66 volume long debate across several generations, with even more debate layered in from later generations in the margins.* And that's not all the preserved tradition we have. We have the ancient mystical Hechalot literature that describes methods of reaching altered states through prayer, meditation, fasting, mantras, and other practices.
Most people think of Judaism as being something studied in dusty synagogues or yeshivot (seminaries), a tradition of book learning, tied to urban life and a rejection of superstition and any form of magic(k). Of course, that image of Judaism is true, but that's only one aspect of this great and varied tradition.
Judaism was not created in the cities of Europe. It was forged in the farms, fields, and wilderness of the ancient Middle East. The base of that ancient Israelite religion was the experience of the ancient Israelites: the land, the seasons, the cycles of life and death. That Earthy base didn't get wiped away as the people were taken away from the Land or left it of their own accord in one generation after another.
The cycles of the Land of Israel are part of the Jewish calendar. The acknowledgement of the seasons are part of the daily prayers which change during the year to ask for "wind and rain" or for "dew" as needed in the Land of Israel. The counting of the months, in ancient times, was based on physically seeing the first sliver of moon and then two witnesses arriving at the Temple to announce the new month. Only then could the rituals for a new month begin, and the counting towards the next holiday progress. The current calendar system was adjusted with a complex mathematical calculation only because so few Jews still lived in the Land, while most lived abroad and needed a more reliable way to make sure that all of us were counting the calendar in the same way. Even so, the accuracy of the calendar is so good that nearly every year, within a day of the change over from praying for "dew" to praying for "rain", the first rains start in Israel.
But there's more than just the calendar to look at if you want to find something Earth Based about Judaism. There are many commandments in the Torah specifically about how to grow plants, how to treat livestock, how to treat wild animals, and what you are and are not allowed to do with wild plants. Did you know that it's against one of the commandments to cut down fruit baring trees in a land that you conquer or occupy? Did you know that there's a commandment that specifically cares for the psychological wellbeing of a wild mother bird whose eggs you want to take for food?
The Jews also have a rich and varied magickal tradition which to some might seem nothing short of Pagan. It only seems Pagan now because in the last three hundred years there has been strong pressure to deny or wipe out magickal ideas and practices because they were seen as too "superstitious" and not in keeping with modern science. Meanwhile, students of the occult looked into Jewish traditions wherever they could in order to find some hint of the magick that Jews were reputed to control. After all, during the middle ages, if you wanted an amulet to protect a baby or a spell to protect your country, you might go to a Jewish magician to get that, since he wasn't banned by the Catholic Church from performing such things.
If you are trying to find magick in Judaism, it doesn't help that even those Jews who practice the old magick often deny that it's magick at all. "This isn't magick because that would be witchcraft, and that's not allowed! This is part of our tradition! Magick is stuff those other people do." Yes, of course. It's all a matter of perspective. If you ever visit Israel, though, you will not have any difficulty finding an array of amulets, house blessings, car blessings, and business blessings (or shall we say, spells), and all sorts of folk knowledge that many an American Witch would consider good, homegrown kitchen witchery.
So, that is the path that I walk. A path set by my forebears, but also forged anew each day as I see the path through different colored lenses than my parents did.
* Actually, you could almost say that the Talmud is nearly all margin notes, but I'll explain that in another post.
