A Religion of Nature

Abstract

Abstract Gordon gradually disengaged himself from the “shackles” of the halakha (the Jewish ceremonial law). However, he never distanced himself from the Jewish tradition. Schooled in an Orthodox Eastern European community, Gordon knew the Jewish tradition well and worked within it, even though he was moving beyond its established rituals toward the liminal sacred realm where man and nature merge. By attributing religious significance to the cultivation of the Land of Israel, Gordon substituted a hoe for phylacteries (tefillin), and the sacred silence of the tiller of the land for the traditionally verbal prayer. Placing Gordon in the tradition of nature-intoxicated thinkers and writers such as Rousseau, Thoreau, and Tolstoy, the chapter explores the unique array of concepts, arguments, and poetic images that Gordon contributed to the canon of environmental literature and ecocriticism.