The Spiritual Roots of the Environmental Crisis

By Rabbi Yonatan Neril

In our times we are beginning to witness the planet's ecological balance weakening due to human influence: rainforests shrinking, deserts expanding, forests burning, the planet heating.[2] What is driving the deterioration of the natural world? To be sure, there are physical reasons, as well as deeper societal structures causing our environmental challenges. Yet to answer 'fossil fuels' or 'wood use' or even 'consumerism' would provide only partial answers.

Beyond the physical causes, the environmental crisis conveys a deeper message. The widespread degradation of the natural world indicates that our way of life is out of balance. Thus the environmental crisis also reflects a spiritual crisis. Ecological disruptions reflect the inner imbalance within billions of human beings. The change required of us to correct this is, to a significant degree, of a spiritual nature.

The Talmud shows us that in order to truly understand a problem, we need to look under its surface to understand the underlying causes, which center not on the physical but on the spiritual health of human beings. If one only sees physical causes (such as, in the case of the Temple, the foreign armies), one may incorrectly view them as the only reason for an effect occurring. The response to the problem, then, will also be limited to the physical level alone. Yet if we neglect the underlying spiritual source, the problem will keep reemerging in different physical forms, growing out of the underlying root. On the other hand, as Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet (the Rashba, Spain, 13^th century) taught, when you address the roots of a problem, the outer problems naturally fall away.[6]

Our usual pattern today is to turn to scientists and politicians for technological solutions to our environmental challenges. If the problem is too much carbon in the atmosphere and too much fossil fuel use, the solution must be hydrids cars, incandescent light bulbs, and other technological solutions. Yet these solutions are not sufficient to address today’s global problems. For example, the problem of addressing climate change and other significant environmental challenges cannot be solved with technology alone, but also requires people to change their attitudes and action on energy use. A report from the McKinsey Global Institute cited how China relies on coal-burning power plants to produce as much as 85% of its electricity. The report estimated that were China, an emerging leader in electric cars, to replace gasoline-powered cars with similar-size electric cars, it would only reduce the greenhouse emissions from those cars by 19 percent.[7] This is because the electric cars would draw on energy generated by burning coal for their electricity. Scientists have stated that humanity must reduce its emissions by many times that amount in order to reduce the impact of climate change.

The most important and powerful aspect of a Jewish environmental approach may be our understanding that unless we repair the spiritual roots of the environment crisis, the problems branching outward will not be addressed in any meaningful way. Over the last decades we have seen and at some level addressed numerous environmental challenges, from reducing the depletion of the ozone layer to decreasing garbage through recycling campaigns. Still, environmental problems continue to spring up faster than before; even if we address today’s issues we can see clearly that more difficulties lie ahead. This is because we have not addressed our environmental challenges at the root.

Let us explore—through the prism of Jewish teaching-- several fundamental root causes of our contemporary environmental challenges. Some of these roots include arrogance, insecurity, desire for honor, modern man's disconnection from nature and from other people, and the need to feel in control. We will focus on three: shirking responsibility for one's actions, desire for instant material gratification, and lack of being present.

Being responsible and taking responsibility is key to being human. G-d placed humans in the Garden of Eden l’ovda u’leshomra, 'to work it and protect it.' Rabbi Shlomo Riskin teaches that to be a shomer (a protector) means to be responsible. This is very clear from Cain's response to God when asked of Abel's whereabouts: "Am I my brother's keeper? (shomer) -in the sense of protection. The Bible resoundingly answers, yes! In this vein, Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik taught this core Jewish value: I am responsible, therefore I am.

Humans have the ability to choose to do evil, and therefore our responsibility to exercise our freedom of choice properly is tremendous.[8] Yet human beings do not always succeed in the challenge of being responsible. In fact, after this instruction to be a protector, the Torah continues with the story of Adam and Eve’s failure to take responsibility for their actions.[9] The Talmud extends this to taking responsible for one's family, community, and world, when others will listen to the person's call to others to improve their ways.[10]

Today, not being responsible for our actions allows us to avoid attending to the significant environmental challenges of the world. We use the resources of the world – trees, mineral ores, petroleum – without sufficient attention to how these resources are produced, transported, and disposed of. We likely do not see the impacts on our air and water and on people’s health in faraway places. To awaken the Jewish value of being responsible, we must broaden our perspective to include people we do not know, and the children of the next generation. We will use our resources more responsibly if we can be attentive to the broader effects of our actions.

The tendency to avoid responsibility affects most people today. To address this root in your own life, try expanding your sense of responsibility for others and your small, invisible impacts on them. Then, think of one specific action you can do to take on greater responsibility for how you live and consume.

Rabbi Daniel Kohn helps us understand what it means to be present:

Say, for instance, you were looking at the sweet face of a small child, beatific and shining as he holds a candle, vibrant with life and with Presence. Say, then, you would soften your glance, and emotions, and simply be present to this dear moment; not in judgment, nor in thought, but in simple, sweet, presence. Your initial connection to what is at that moment indeed may be through your eyes, but as you ''soften'' into what is here, your experience will become more of '''resonance'' with this life that is beaming, with this warmth of vital sentience, with something you, and this child, share and are united by. It may only be a moment, before you think ''how beautiful'' or ''how cute'' or ''where's the camera, I never want to forget this''... But at that moment, that child's face, that sense of good, become windows to all that is, to all of Creation in its vibrancy, goodness and light.[16]

Being present satiates a person spiritually and cultivates humility and modesty. A person becomes less driven toward environmentally destructive material consumption, and more aware of how their consumption impacts others.

Today we desperately need this long-term thinking as we approach our complex environmental challenges. Though climate change receives the most attention, our problems extend beyond this single issue. The Pulitzer-prize winning scientist Jared Diamond identifies what he sees as the twelve greatest current environmental problems, among them water scarcity, overfishing, soil salinization, and biodiversity loss.[21] Today, Diamond writes that these twelve problems are like time bombs in our modern society, each with fuses of less than 50 years.[22] Clearly, a more fundamental cultural and spiritual shift is needed.

Rabbi Yonatan Neril founded and directs Jewish Eco Seminars, which engages and educates the Jewish community with Jewish environmental wisdom. He has worked with Canfei Nesharim for the past six years in developing educational resources relating to Judaism and the environment.

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