The story of the Biblical Flood is one way to frame our spiritual practice. The dates recorded in Genesis for the beginning and end of the Flood are exactly six months apart. These dates are the 17th of Cheshvan, when Noah's ark rested on Mt. Ararat, which was the end the Biblical flood, and the 17th of Iyar when the flood rains began (or vice versa) – roughly speaking, November and May. Could we each take on one new thing every six months?

Another thing we can do is to make Shabbat or whatever time you designate as your weekly Sabbath a time to give up electricity and cars and various technologies, in whatever form you are prepared to do so, a kind of weekly practice for the deep social changes to come.

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A Practical Suggestion:

Find a partner (a chevruta) with whom you can share your commitment, and help each other stay on track. Pick a goal you know you can accomplish in the following six-month period. Make it a change for every single day of the week, but if that's not possible, make a change for one day a week, like not driving on your Sabbath. More importantly, make it something you can really accomplish, something that depends on you only.

Make a phone or lunch date when you can check in with each other to see if you have accomplished what you set out to do. If you made your commitment, pick the next thing you're going to do. If you didn't finish it, help each other revise your plan to make it work.

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The other date in Genesis is the 27th of Iyyar, when the animals, along with Noah's family, left the ark, and the rainbow appeared. The 17th of Iyyar also happens to be the day before Lag B'omer, with all of that day's connection to fire and Kabbalah. The rainbow signified a new covenant between God and the land. It's time for us to imagine a new covenant between humanity and the land, one that we start to live by more and more, through steady change in our lifestyles and habits. And maybe it's time to celebrate that new covenant as it takes shape. Last year the anniversary of the rainbow fell on June 1.