How do we find solace when the world aches?
Where do we turn when tragedy strikes?
With whom do we share our aspirations and joys?
At 18, I left home for my freshman year of college. Hardest of all was leaving my dog behind, he was my brother since I was three. I tried figuring out how to bring him with me, but the school required that I live in the dorms my freshman year, and no dogs were allowed. At the time he was older, and I began school excited at a new life but heartbroken.
Upon returning home for the summer, he was in decline, and a month later I experienced a life-changing grief for my beloved dog.
Two individuals have had the most profound influence on my spirituality: my mother, an inspiring religious school principal, and my dog. In my grief, I found no comfort from my congregation nor my religion. Our rabbi, Sanford Saperstein, moved by my questions and convictions, encouraged me to reexamine Jewish thought regarding our relationships with other animals and all life on Earth.
As a child of the 60s, when social revolutions (civil rights, women’s lib, environmental and peace movements, back-to-nature, anti-colonialism) were everywhere on airwaves and in the air we breathed, I soaked in the nature-based spirituality of Jewish camps and youth retreats. My mother introduced the Chavurah movement to our local synagogue with the ideals of forming a more thoughtful and compassionate world. Yet none of these experiences addressed personal relationships with animals.
At the onset of grieving, I immediately could no longer eat animals – no animal would suffer because of me – and I recalled in Genesis, that’s how humans lived in Eden. I could only recall a few Jewish teachings related to kindness to animals, and wondered if there were others. Thus began a life-long investigation into, and wrestling with, Jewish thought and practice, as well as those of other religions and of society at large. When I returned to school, I developed the first transdisciplinary program in animals and cultures studies – an inquiry designed to belong to all people, everywhere.
I remembered that, even as a young boy, I wanted Judaism to cherish my relationship with my dog. Later, I found some congregations and clergy who were sympathetic to my views of animals and veganism, but hadn’t felt entirely comfortable in any congregation. I needed more than an accommodation; I desired a spiritual community to call home, that was fully aligned with kindness to all animals, which was embraced by Nature, and which shared a broader sensibility of social acceptance, support, family, and love.
Over the years I spoke with others to see if there was a shared interest in starting a new congregation. Most of those who felt similarly about animals identified as atheists (which was fine – but they were often anti-religion, perceiving religion through a narrow lens), while others preferred activism.
Finally, in 2010 I began imagining Chayot HaKodesh – a community and spiritual movement rooted in the Tanakh and other Hebraic wisdom writings. We could explore the development of Jewish thought in tandem with other Abrahamic religions, as well as other religions around the world. After all, there ought to be no walls or fences to inquiry and thought – by learning from one another we raise each other up. But a community cannot rest on the shoulders of one person.
In 2011, while discussing my plans with Rabbi Paula Marcus from Temple Beth El in Santa Cruz, she suggested the name Chayot HaKodesh, and I’ve been patiently waiting to launch it once interest sufficiently ripened. In the meantime, I founded a nonprofit, Family Spirals, designed in part to reinvigorate a commitment to families within faith-based communities, including our families with animals. Chayot will network with Family Spirals and its Center for Families with Animals, which hosts the Green Pet-Burial Society, in supporting congregants and their families.
If this is of interest, I’d love to hear from you and have you join us in building a gentle, intellectually vibrant, spiritual community.
L’hitraot!
Eliyahu
July 8, 2017
revised October 15, 2025
Chayot 