Published: 1 October 2019
Last updated: 5 April 2024
MY WIFE, A RABBI, used to have us skip shul with the kids on the second day of Rosh Hashanah to hike around Walden Pond in celebration of the birthday of the world. The kids would run ahead, shofar in hand, to find a beautiful spot to do family tashlich, as the colourful leaves of the surrounding woods would wave to us in the gentle wind.
The small pond in Concord, Massachusetts has an outsized influence in Western letters and thought due to the writings of Henry David Thoreau, a student of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who lived simply for two years in a basic cabin and wrote of his simple life. His transcendent thoughts on nature, the need for a spiritual awakening and the realisation how much humanity is inseparable from nature all flow through his signature book, Walden.
So much of Rosh Hashanah, and the Ten Days of Repentance, is about prayers, food and supplications that one would be forgiven for missing one of the central tenets of the holiday, taught by Thoreau: That material goods cannot fix inner brokenness. And only by fixing inner brokenness can we truly stand up to injustice in government and economic corruption in the world.
The scorching year will determine for millions of people who shall live and who shall die. Who by water - super storms and rising sea levels; and who by fire - increased wildfires due to drought. Who by famine - due largely to climate change and who by thirst, with growing desertification. And who by earthquakes - which now plague lands being fracked; and who by plague, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) warning that diseases will rapidly spread by bugs migrating from increasing heat zones.
And who will be at peace, who shall wander - note the record number of refugees in the world; and who shall be pursued.
The Jewish people have shown that when we put our minds to work, we can make miracles happen. We demonstrated that clearly with the improbable return to Zion after 2000 years, the various rescue operations of Jews in far-flung countries and the creation of one of the most innovative economies in history.
There is no more noble cause than saving humanity itself, ensuring that God’s covenant not to wipe out the planet with rising waters will be – in some small measure – because of our actions.
There is no more noble cause for the Jewish people than saving humanity itself, ensuring that God’s covenant not to wipe out the planet with rising waters will be – in some small measure – because of our actions.
It is for this purpose that we have been created, that we have survived and flourished. There is no higher fulfilment of the Jewish mission than to honour and save the majesty of God’s creation and to do so as individuals and as part of a global Jewish collective with Israel as our national platform.
It is time for the Jewish people to “choose life so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
This can be accomplished by community actions, positive examples from our leaders, vastly increasing donations for green activists in Israel and investing in sustainability, and, most importantly, by a grand theological awakening.
The process of raising, feeding, killing and transporting beef is one of the most destructive forces on the planet and demand is only increasing. Your grandma’s brisket and that pastrami on rye collectively contribute as much greenhouse gas emissions as all the world’s cars and trucks. By the next Shmita year (sabbatical year) in 2021, let’s eliminate all kosher beef consumption.
Chicken has one quarter of the carbon footprint of beef and plant-based beef substitutes are only getting better. Tel Aviv has been ranked by the Independent newspaper as “the vegan capital of the world”. Jewish communities worldwide should follow suit. Making this switch can be an example for other communities.
The other switch we can make with ripple effects globally is to electric vehicles. By the 2021 sabbatical year, let’s decree that anyone who purchases a combustion engine car in the Jewish community will be committing a hillul Hashem (desecration of God’s name). We are working now in Israel to ban the sale of petrol cars, and a draft government decision on electric vehicles awaits a new government.
Because of Shabbat observance in Israel, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by a third – and are nearly zero on Yom Kippur.
According to WHO, about six million people die each year from air pollution. Transportation contributes about 14 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, which is accelerating deaths by wildfires, extreme droughts, supercharged storms, civil wars, and soon a jump in sea levels.
When the rapidly melting Larsen and Ross ice shelves in Western Antarctica slip into the ocean, sea levels will rise enough to drown Amsterdam, Miami, New York and most island nations, especially in the Pacific. Hundreds of millions of lives will be threatened in the coming four years by the effects of climate change. Jewish people should provide leadership to save lives through our actions.
The Arava region of Israel is 100% powered during the day by the sun - and that includes the vacation city of Eilat and all its air conditioning. This should be the model for Israel and the world. And this can come about through investing in renewable energy, which is cost-effective and moral.
Indeed, religion, catalysed by the Jewish people, can save the planet. Because of Shabbat observance in Israel, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by a third – and are nearly zero on Yom Kippur. If every denomination of the Jewish people truly sanctified Shabbat as a non-consumer day of rest and this example was followed by other faith communities, then Shabbat would save the Jewish people along with the entire planet.
A universal day of rest could cut greenhouse gas emissions by one seventh, allowing our turbulent planet to calm back into balance.
Then the Jewish people could truly become a renewable light unto the nations.
