Lessons from the Jungle

Friday February 13, 2026/26 Sh'vat 5786/Parashat Mishpatim-Shabbat Shekalim

Hevre/Friends,

My daughter Nomi and I came to Costa Rica to celebrate her 25th birthday with four days in the jungle and the balance at a yoga resort. The precious days we’ve had together have gifted us so many opportunities for deep mother-daughter conversation and sharing; something we, thankfully, enjoy regularly with each other. But being away from the busy-ness of life and today’s chaotic world has made focusing on each other without distractions that much easier. 

While I like to think I’ve accumulated some wisdom to share with my children, what I’m grateful for is all the wisdom our adventures into the wilds of the cloudforest imparted to both of us. And I’m not just talking about how we learned to conquer our fears by ziplining above the tree canopies and even cycling (!) across a cable 70 meters high above a gorge. I’m talking about the wisdom at the heart of creation teaching us that life is meant to be filled with grace, humility, and compassion. For all the cultural and religious exhortations calling on us to be more generous and kind to one another - as many of the laws contained in this week’s Torah portion of Mishpatim do - Nature’s teachings just might be the most compelling.

Touring the rainforest around La Fortuna’s Arenal Volcano National Park, our guide, Franklin, pointed out the many ways different life forms communicate with and protect each other. Trees grow leaves towards the top of their trunks not only to capture more sunlight for photosynthesis but doing so also allows bushes to grow larger leaves so that they, too, can harness light from their more limited position closer to the ground. The Cecropia tree allows insects to drink its sap and burrow into it for shelter, and the insects, in turn, are careful not to destroy its bark or diminish its stability. This kind of mutualism or symbioticism reminds me of the zebra and the wildebeest who traverse the African veldt together, proving safety in numbers. The sharp-eared and strong-nosed wildebeest listens for predators and sniffs for food while the zebra leads using both its keen vision and long memory to identify water holes and warn of aggressors. As grazers and browsers, they’re both adaptable to changing food landscapes and don’t compete for nourishment because they enjoy different vegetation. That’s not to say there aren’t instances of these species clashing. But the relationship they’ve developed sees them through these inevitable moments. 

It’s mind-boggling and so depressing that we humans can’t seem to internalize Mother Nature’s lessons about how to fairly and peacefully provide each other access to the world’s bounty; that we exist in what feels like an endless loop of competition - for resources, for power, for truth, for justice; that we refuse to build the mutuality and symbiosis that sustains Nature in our human yearnings for fulfillment and peace - a dynamic that could help us through our inevitable conflicts.

This week the most dramatic elimination of our ability - and responsibility - to protect the environment was enshrined in American law with the largest climate deregulation action in U.S history enacted by the Trump administration as they continue to repeal 100 environmental protection laws. Nature needs us and we’ve turned away from her calls. Shame on us. What we also fail to understand, though, is how badly we need Nature. More shame on us.  

Again, there’s no idyllic setting where every creature gets everything they want or even need. But there’s an ideal way to try and ensure that every creature gets enough. As Michael Pollan wrote in The Omnivore's Dilemma, “More grass means less forest; more forest less grass. But either-or is a construction more deeply woven into our culture than into nature, where even antagonists depend on one another and the liveliest places are the edges, the in-betweens or both-ands..... Relations are what matter most.”

From here in Nosara, Costa Rica, where at sunset we’ll be joining the community for “Shabbat on the Beach”, I send blessings for a Shabbat of peace, of mutuality, of sufficiency, and of love. 

Namaste,  

Dini

(Photo by Ronen Avisror)