Seven Jewish values for the ecological challenge

OUR ACTIONS, AND THEIR consequences, endure. Our iniquity poisons the wells from which our own great grandchildren will yet drink. That notion is no metaphor, or figure of speech; it’s both Torah and science. Throughout our holy days we recite the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy: Adonai, Adonai, El Rachum v’Chanun (God, God, Ruler who is Compassionate and Kind).  Depending on how you count, that final attribute, v’nakeh, makes just 12.

What’s missing from the original quote (Ex. 34:7) is quite the opposite:  v’nakeh LO yinakeh. And God wipes the slate clean?  No, God doesn’t wipe it clean!  God passes the guilt of parents onto their children; their grandchildren; and onto the third and fourth generation.

Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, lasts, on average, a couple decades. This is bad enough. Carbon dioxide endures for a century.  Yes, the coal burned for a moment’s power in Paris or Perth and the petrol consumed to get once around Pittsburgh or Petach Tikva will wreak atmospheric havoc long after we’re gone.

It’s just not sustainable, or just – but that’s the scientific reality in which we’re all complicit. Changes will require moral clarity and spiritual fortitude. Enter Judaism.

Jews tend to be pro-science. The Talmudic rabbis who shaped Jewish law sought secular knowledge and empiricism for their rulings. Medieval masters were agronomists (Rashi), doctors (Maimonides), and astronomers (Ralbag, Rabbi Levi Ben Gershon). We thank the maker of the natural world and bring our God-given intellect to its study.

So where are we now, as Jews, on the defining challenge of our times? In the beginning, God announced the interconnected Creation project as tov me’od, (very good, Gen. 1:31) – yet in today’s clear scientific consensus, we are now remaking the biosphere in our image. Our fossil fuel addiction, and the concomitant spike in atmospheric carbon dioxide, shows no sign of abating.