The mystical and sometimes mystifying Leslie Goldman wants to change your world with chocolate peppermint. Article by Claire Schneider from the San Diego Jewish Journal, a few years back.

Date:   12/21/2006 1:22:00 PM ( 18 y ago)

10:27 AM
December 6, 06

This is an excellent article that
was written by Claire Schneider
in the San Diego Jewish Journal
a few years back.

from:
http://www.sdjewishjournal.com/stories/feb04_3.html

Leslie

___

The Enchanted Gardener

The mystical and sometimes mystifying
Leslie Goldman wants to change your world with chocolate peppermint.

As I sit down to talk with Leslie Goldman, also known as the Enchanted Gardener, he asks me to rub some chocolate peppermint between my hands and inhale deeply three times. He tells me my whole world can change in less than 15 seconds.
I'm not sure I'm ready to have my world change that fast.
"All the things you would do to make a plant grow are… symbolic of the things you and I need for our lives to grow," Goldman says. "I call that Plant Parenthood. In other words, letting the plants teach us how to find room in our lives for the things that are naturally meant to be part of our lives that we've forgotten."
Still confused, I ask him exactly what part of my life I've forgotten.
"We've forgotten our essence, a way of living that is soul-inspired," Goldman explains patiently. "The path of nature is a way to restore this essential connection."
Goldman gives me some seeds called Job's Tears and tells me that if I take the time to plant them, my dreams will come true.
I pocket them. They are later pummeled by the washing machine.
Goldman is a poet and mystic who takes much of his inspiration from an early Jewish mystical sect called the Essenes. The Essenes lived in the Middle East from the second century B.C.E through the first century C.E. They were pastoral people who grew their own food, practiced communal living and eschewed material excess, according to members of the Tree of Life Center, a neo-Essene retreat in Arizona.
The neo-Essene movement began with the publication of several books by the religious scholar Edmond Bordeaux Szekely in the early 20th century, says Susan Miller, Assistant Director at Tree of Life. Szekely inspired both Jews and non-Jews to embrace a simple holistic lifestyle of meditation, raw vegan eating and ritual bathing.
While Goldman believes strongly in the Essene way of living, he would rather call himself an Enchanted Gardener than an Essene because of the modern-day controversy that swirls around the ancient sect.
At the forefront of this controversy is the Essenes' relationship to Jesus. Jesus is thought to have lived within the sect, but religious scholars debate his role. Some believe the Essenes may have revered him as a Messiah; others feel he was merely an exalted teacher.
But Goldman points out that Essene philosophy predates Jesus by centuries. "I sense he saw himself as a man and a child of G-d, as we each are. I have no idea how many people in his day regarded him as a Messiah," Goldman says. "Those ideas were not promoted until several hundred years after Jesus' death.
"Many of us only know Jesus in the context of modern Christianity," Goldman continues. "Because of an association with Essene and Jesus we Jews are concerned that someone teaching about the Essenes may be trying to convert us; Essene teachings have nothing to do with this.
"The key is, I believe, is that [Jesus] was a teacher, who had tremendous gifts, but gifts no more significant than you or I," Goldman says. "We can each develop the same kinds of gifts if we take the time to come into contact with nature."
Goldman has suffered signs of crippling arthritis since the age of 15, and the Essene philosophy helped him find a way to survive, he says.
Goldman applied Essene philosophy to his own life when he spent two consecutive winters in the hospital for hip revisions. He introduced organic foods and natural healers to the hospital staff with the hope that these Essene values might some day become a permanent part of modern medical practice. He wrote a book about the experience titled Getting Hip, a reference to his acceptance of his disability and to the possibility of "modern medicine getting hip to all it can be," he says.
Goldman had just graduated from Cal State Northridge in 1971, when he met Doctor Bernard Jensen, an early proponent of the healing arts. Jensen had traveled around the world studying philosophy, Goldman says, and the Essenes were his favorite school.
Unable to find a writing job at the time, Goldman began working for Jensen and eventually helped author two of Jensen's books. Jensen introduced Goldman to Szekely, who eventually ordained Goldman an Essene minister.
"My soul was calling me to a deeper purpose," Goldman says. "I was a good writer. I was writing about American Indians and had won numerous national feature awards. But the door that opened to me was in Escondido. It was like, as much as I found the Essenes, the Essenes found me."
Today, Goldman says he feels most comfortable at Jewish Renewal gatherings held in outdoor settings. He says B'nai Horin, a Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, is most receptive to his ideas. He often brings plants and seeds with him to services and gives them as presents to fellow congregants.
"Leslie asks us to recognize gardening as a sacred task," says Rabbi Stan Levy of B'nai Horin. "I really think he is referencing Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the garden of paradise. This earth, too, can be a paradise, as long as we treat it respectfully. Growing food for financial greed is not treating the earth respectfully. That's why Leslie supports organic foods and farmers."
Goldman feels strongly about getting to know the people who grow the food we eat. Not knowing who is growing our food, he says, is like being intimate with a stranger.
"In Judaism, we are always blessing our food," he explains. "For peace in our lives and the health of our community, I would like to see the Jewish people eating food that was blessed from the seed. When we buy food from farmers we know, we are both giving and receiving a blessing. Supporting local farmers will directly create better health in our homes."
Goldman regularly attends the Hillcrest Farmers Market.
"There's an opportunity here, it's like going back to our lineage," Goldman says. "Historically, Jews lived very close to the land. Shopping at the farmers market is a way to restore this deep-rooted expression of Judaism."
Goldman says his most important mission is to create peace on earth. By teaching people about the Essene way of life, writing poetry and supporting local farmers, he says, he plants the seeds for peace, one person at a time.
A few days after meeting Leslie, I found myself coming down with a cold. I went looking for chocolate peppermint.
The Hillcrest Farmers' Market is held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Sunday in the DMV parking lot, 3970 Normal Street. More information about Leslie Goldman can be found at http://www.lesliegoldman.com. More information about the Tree of Life Center can be found at http://www.treeoflife.nu/.
For feedback, contact editor@sdjewishjournal.com.


 

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