The earth is our source. The spirit is our nourishment. The body is our means to connect and exalt the two. We are interconnected. The three can only thrive when in sacred relationship. This forms the foundation of Limitless Judaism.

From the time I was a young child, I marveled at the earth. Living on a dead-end street with a wild sand field that led to the canal of the Great South Bay on Long Island, I was enchanted by the fleabanes, chicory, mullein, and other wild plants that grew there. I loved the smell of the salt water, and learned the tides by scent. Sunrise and sunset at the water's edge was a balm to my soul.

In school I began to study botany. It honed my attention to the growing things and created within me a lifelong love of growing plants and trees, now focused on food, medicinal plants, pollinators and native species.

Simultaneous to this internal path was one my mom set me on at the age of three: dance class. It was a part of my world for as long as I remember. It was never a serious endeavor, however, until a fluke in college had me studying for and earning a BFA in dance. This training – studying improvisation and choreography – opened me up to the internal creative juices of being human, just like being with the earth and her flora and fauna connected me with the creativity of our sacred Creation.

These were the birthplaces of my spirituality, although it would be years before I would begin to formally study spiritual practices – first in the form of macrobiotics, later yoga and eventually, Judaism; the faith into which I was born. And while I maintained my tending of the earth, it would be years later still that I would begin to connect my body to spirit and earth through mindfulness and meditation, eventually reclaiming dance as part of the trio of body-spirit-gaia.

What has become evidently clear to me in recent years, all the more so with COVID-19, is that our personal and physical well-being is inextricably linked to our spiritual practice and to our earth. The health of the one affects the health of the other two. And so Limitless Judaism was born, to help us feel joy in our bodies as we explore creativity in embodied practices like meditation, movement, chant and art; to guide us deeper on our own spiritual journey of discovery through study, reflection and practice; and to revel in the earth and the gifts she brings us – seen and unseen – as we invest in nourishing her through all the cycles of growing.

I enjoy sharing this journey with you. May the interlacing of these practices enhance our vitality, our wisdom and compassion, bringing us more together as a human family as we bring more wholeness to ourselves and our earth.