The Baal Shem Tov, or Besht —  the founder of Chasidism — 
met the soul of the Messiah during an ascent to heaven. 
The Besht asked him, "When will the Master come?" 
The Messiah answered, "When your wellsprings break forth to the outside!" 
(from a letter written by the Besht to his brother-in-law about one of his soul ascents) 

Publications and Events – R. David Seidenberg

Prayground Minyan of the Pioneer Valley

To find out about bringing Rabbi Seidenberg to teach in your community, click here. David does multiple events for Tu Bishvat every year and also teaches frequently on subjects like Rebbe Nachman's theology of dance (during the Dance Flurry Festival in Saratoga Springs NY), Maimonides, and Buber, and leads eco-spirituality rituals adapted for Jewish contexts like the Cosmic Walk.

Learn about David's groundbreaking work, "Kabbalah and Ecology: God's Image in the More-Than-Human World", published in 2015 by Cambridge University Press. You can read many of David's published articles on neohasid.org and on other websites, including the Huffington Post, The Times of Israel, and the Jewish Journal. Click here for a more comprehensive list that includes academic articles and papers.

Here are links to some of David's online publications, academic articles, and curricula:

• "Starlight and menorah light: Three Hanukkah teachings about holy darkness", in The Times of Israel
• "The King is the Field – Chabad Insights on the Divinity of Creation", in Tikkun.
• "Bal Taschit: What’s Wrong With the Jewish Law Against Destruction and Waste — and How to Fix It", in Tikkun.
• "Ba'nu Choshekh L'kadesh: Savoring Darkness, Seeding the Light" on Chanukah, in The Times of Israel
• "Dennis Prager has a point: Halakhah in transition: A response to Dennis Prager on transgender Jews", in the Jewish Journal
• "Digging wells: The Open Orthodoxy “controversy” and being a (sometimes) Conservative Jew", in The Times of Israel
• "Lynn Margulis: Radical Biologist", in The Forward
  
• "Battling Climate Change, the Jewish Way", in The Forward
  
• "Kashroots: An Eco-History of the Kosher Laws", on Jcarrot.org
  
• "The Earth on Your Fork: An Ecology of Kashrut", in CAJE's Jewish Education News, Summer 2008
  
• "Agro About Agriprocessors" – why t'shuvah isn't enough for Agri to be eaten, on Jcarrot.org
  
• "The Meat of the Argument: Do Jewish Enviros Have to Be Vegetarian?", on Jcarrot.org
  
• "To Prey or to Pray? The Lessons of Famine on Tisha B'Av", on Jcarrot.org
  
• "Human Rights and Ecology" – on the conflict between the two, in Tikkun, July-Aug 2008
  

• "Animal Rights in the Jewish Tradition" – from The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, 2005
  
• "Maimonides' Thought In Relation to Ecology" – from The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, 2005
  
• "Kabbalah and Ecotheology" – foundations for earth-centered Judaism, from The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, 2005
  
• "The Body in Kabbalah: A Study in Jewish Renewal" – new and old approaches to Kabbalah, in New Menorah, 2002
  
• "Jacques Derrida's Impact On Jewish Studies" – an obit for the master, for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Oct 2004
  

• "Genesis, Covenant, Jubilee, Shmitah and the Land Ethic", on Jewcology.org
• The Rainbow Day curriculum, on Jewcology.org
• "Midrash on Noach and the Preservation of Species" – curriculum for Coalition on Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL), 1994
  
• "Cosmology and Biodiversity: The Divine Purpose in Creating Many Species" – curriculum for COEJL, 1994

News about upcoming classes, events, and SIR (scholar-in-residence) gigs is occasionally posted here. Examples of scholar-in-residence and teaching events are listed here. You can write to him at rebduvid86 at gmail dot com for booking teaching and Shabbaton events.

Design in progress © Rabbi David Mevorach Seidenberg 2006