Pesach in the Desert
Posted on Friday, April 05, 2013
05Apr
I spent the end of Pesach just outside of Death Valley with the remarkable bay-area group: Wilderness Torah. Of all the Jewish oudoor and environmental organizations, WT is the closest to TorahTrek and I naturally gravitate to their activities. It is not by accident that two of their staff members are becoming TorahTrek Guides. The next edition of the eJournal will highlight Wilderness Torah and co-founder Zelig Golden, so I will be brief here.
Creating a village of over a hundred people on a waterless splotch of pristine desert is an amazing feat, and where else in the Jewish world do tens of under-40's gather, as many men as women, where the LBGT community is welcomed. It feels miraculous. Only Adventure Rabbi's Passover festivals and Hazon bike rides come close.
Creating an actual community in the desert, and the resulting sense of miracle, is the closest I've felt to what it might have been like for the children of Israel to travel across the Sinai desert.
I was contacted before Passover by the Washington Post regarding a Pesach activity. TorahTrek does not offer holiday celebrations, so I referred them to Wilderness Torah. Here is the resulting article.
Walk in peace,
Rabbi Mike