Beyond the Light Bulb: Discovering Judaism’s Call for Environmental Stewardship

​Nahum Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis, pp. 11-12 on Genesis 1:26

Human beings are to enjoy a unique relationship with God, who communicates with them alone and who shares with them the custody and administration of the world.

At the same time, the pairing of the creation of man in this verse with that of land animals, and their sharing in common a vegetarian diet, focuses attention on the dual nature of humankind, the creatureliness and earthiness as well as the Godlike qualities.

The mysterious duality of man--the awesome power at his command and the starkness of his utter insignificance as compared with God--is the subject of the psalmist [Psalm 8].

They shall rule The verbs used here and in verse 28 express the coercive power of the monarch, consonant with the explanation just given for "the image of God." This power, however, cannot include the license to exploit nature banefully, for the following reasons: the human race is not inherently sovereign, but enjoys its dominion solely by the grace of God. Furthermore, the model of kinship here presupposed is Israelite, according to which, the monarch does not possess unrestrained power and authority; the limits of his rule are carefully defined and circumscribed by divine law, so that kingship is to be exercised with responsibility and is subject to accountability. Moreover, man, the sovereign of nature, is conceived at this stage to be functioning within the context of a "very good" world in which the interrelationships of organisms with their environment and with each other are entirely harmonious and mutually beneficial, an idyllic situation that is clearly illustrated in Isaiah's vision of the ideal future king (Isaiah 11: 1-9). Thus, despite the power given him, man still requires special divine sanction to partake of the earth's vegetation, and although he "rules" the animal world, he is not here permitted to eat flesh (vv. 29-30; cf. 9: 3-4)

Holy Ground
Words by Woody Guthrie, 1954, Music by Frank London (The Klezmatics), 2003

Take off, take off your shoes
This place you’re standing, it’s holy ground
Take off, take off your shoes
The spot you’re standing, its holy ground

These words I heard in my burning bush
This place you’re standing, it’s holy ground
I heard my fiery voice speak to me
This spot you’re standing, it’s holy ground

That spot is holy holy ground
That place you stand it’s holy ground
This place you tread, it’s holy ground
God made this place his holy ground

Take off your shoes and pray
The ground you walk it’s holy ground
Take off your shoes and pray
The ground you walk it’s holy ground

Every spot on earth I trapse around
Every spot I walk it’s holy ground
Every spot on earth I trapse around
Every spot I walk it’s holy ground

Every spot it’s holy ground
Every little inch it’s holy ground
Every grain of dirt it’s holy ground
Every spot I walk it’s holy ground

The Definition of Sustainability

In 1987, responding to a request from the United Nations, a Commission was formed for developing long-term strategies for achieving economic development while dealing more effectively with environmental concerns facing humanity and the planet. Named the "Brundtland Commission" after its chair, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Commission developed the most widely used definition of "sustainability," a concept which is in many ways an extension of the religious concept of stewardship. With environmental concerns as the immediate backdrop for its report, the Commission defined sustainability as:

"meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Lawrence Troster, An Environmental Al-Het, from: Laurel Kearns & Catherine Keller, editors, EcoSpirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth, p. 524-525:

Lord, our Creator, we awaken each morning to the dawn chorus of Creation. Our ears hear the birds of the sky singing to the world that they are still alive, Our eyes see the flowers of the earth opening to the light of the sun. We smell the scents of the fresh morning air. How many are the things You have made O Lord, the universe is full of Your creations! And yet we ignore these sounds, sights and smells. Instead of the birds’ song we hear only the sound of cars and machinery. Instead of the sight of green, brown and gold we see only the gray of concrete. Instead of the fragrance of flowers we smell only the stink of pollution. We experience only the fruits of our own creations. We know only of our own works which too often have wasted Your creation and silenced many of the voices of Your choir. We think we understand the world when only a fool thinks they can fathom the depths of Your designs. May You give us the strength and the wisdom to see, smell and listen to Your creation and be moved to protect and cherish the blessings that You have given us. May we no longer be moved by greed and destruction to waste Your world for if we destroy it there will be no other. We now know that the destruction of Your Creation is a sin.

And so for the sin that we have sinned against You by despoiling Your Creation, forgiving God, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.

What steps can you take to lower your carbon footprint? What steps can your school and community take?

Watch the Story of Stuff.

What is your ecological footprint? What steps can you take in your personal life to lower it? What can your school do?

R. Samson Raphael Hirsch, Horeb: A Philosophy of Jewish Laws and Observances

​This prohibition of purposeless destruction of fruit trees around a besieged city is only to be taken as an example of general wastefulness. Under the concept of bal tashhit, the purposeless destruction of anything at all is taken to be forbidden, so that our text becomes the most comprehensive warning to human beings not to misuse the position, which God has given them as master of the world and its matter, by capricious, passionate, or merely thoughtless wasteful destruction of anything on earth. Only for wise use has God laid the world at our feet when God said to humanity, "subdue the world and have dominion over it." (Genesis 1:28)...Destruction does not only mean making something purposely unfit for its designated use; it also means trying to attain a certain aim by making use of more things and more valuable things when fewer and less valuable ones would suffice; or if this aim is not really worth the means expended for its attainment. [For example] kindling something that is still fit for other purposes for the sake of light;...wearing down something more than is necessary;...consuming more than is necessary;.... On the other hand, if destruction is necessary for a higher and more worthy aim, then it ceases to be destruction and itself becomes wise creating. [For example] cutting down a fruit tree which is doing harm to other more valuable plants, [and] burning a vessel when there is a scarcity of wood in order to protect one's weakened self from catching a cold.

Sustainable Kosher Slaughter

A Kavanah for Fair Trade Chocolate and Coffee, Rabbi David Baum

An Introduction to Environmental Justice

Research demonstrates conclusively that those who are economically, racially and politically marginalized suffer disproportionately from environmental harm. A study in the late 1980s by the United Church of Christ’s Commission on Racial Justice showed the following:

• Communities that are poor and predominantly non-white are significantly more likely to have toxic waste sites than wealthier, whiter communities.
• Toxic sites in these poor, minority communities take longer to be classified as toxic sites by regulatory authorities. This classification is the first step required to begin a clean-up process.
• The methods chosen for clean-up and remediation in poor, minority communities are routinely less thorough, less expensive methods than those used in wealthier, whiter communities.
• When companies are penalized for polluting, fines are routinely higher for companies caught polluting in wealthier, whiter communities than for companies caught polluting in poorer, minority communities.

The environmental justice movement was born in the 1980’s when a landfill company tried to locate a dumpsite for highly toxic PCB’s in a county in rural, eastern North Carolina. Community members, clergy, and area activists protested the siting of this facility, which they feared would cause harm to the health of community members. Despite their protests, numerous arrests and national publicity, the dump was sited. However, the environmental justice movement was born.

The environmental justice movement defines the “environment” differently from many environmentalists or from the common image in peoples’ minds when they hear the term “environment.” Here is a definition of the “environment” from an environmental justice perspective:

“The environment is everywhere – where we work, live, study, play and pray.”

Environmental Justice Movement leaders also assert that in addition to a right to a clean, healthy environment, society’s most vulnerable have a right to participate meaningfully in the creation of environmental policies that impact their well-being, and that society should follow the “Precautionary Principle” when it comes to environmental decision-making – seeking first to avoid causing harm through human commercial/industrial activity.

Definition of Environmental Justice:

“The equitable distribution of environmental risks and benefits; fair and meaningful participation in environmental decision-making; recognition of community ways of life, local knowledge, and cultural difference; and the capability of communities and individuals to function and flourish in society.”

(Schlosberg, David. (2007) Defining Environmental Justice: Theories, Movements, and Nature. Oxford University Press)

Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, The Jewish Way, p. 34-36:

The overwhelming majority of the earth’s human beings have always lived in poverty and under oppression, their lives punctuated by sickness and suffering. Few escape damaging illness; even fewer dodge the ravages of old age (except by untimely death); no one, to date, has avoided death. Most of the nameless and faceless billions know the world as indifferent or hostile. Statistically speaking, human life is of little value. The downtrodden and the poor accept their fate as destined; the powerful and the successful accept good fortune as their due. Power, rather than justice, seems always to rule. Jewish religion affirms otherwise: Judaism insists that history and the social-economic-political reality in which people live will eventually be perfected; much of what passes for the norm of human existence is really a deviation from the ultimate reality. How do we know this? From an actual event in history—the Exodus. Mark the paradox: The very idea that much of history—present reality itself—is a deviation from the ideal and that redemption will overcome this divergence comes from a historic experience. That experience was the liberation of the Hebrew slaves, the Exodus from Egypt…The freeing of the slaves testified that human beings are meant to be free. History will not be finished until all are free…

No, the Exodus did not destroy evil in the world. What it did was set up an alternative conception of life. Were it not for the Exodus, humans would have reconciled themselves to the evils that exist in the world. The Exodus establishes the dream of perfection and thereby creates the tension that must exist until reality is redeemed…Where does Israel get the strength—the chutzpah—to go on believing in redemption in a world that knows mass hunger and political exile and boat people? How can Jews testify to hope and human value when they have been continuously persecuted, hated, dispelled, destroyed? Out of the memories of the Exodus.

Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 54b

All who can protest against [something wrong that] one of their family [is doing] and does not protest, is held accountable for their family.[All who can protest against something wrong that] a citizen of their city [is doing and does not protest], is held accountable for all citizens of the city.[All who can protest against something wrong that is being done] in the whole world, is accountable together with all citizens of the world.

Babylonian Talmud, Bava Kamma 50b:

Our Sages taught: …A certain man was removing stones from his domain to the public domain when a hasid, a pious man, found him doing so and said to him: "Fool! Why do you remove stones from a domain that is not yours to a domain which is yours!?" The man laughed at him. A while later, the man had to sell his field and was walking on the same public domain [where he had put the stones] and he stumbled over those very same stones. He said to himself: "The pious man was right when he said to me: 'Why do you remove stones from a domain that is not yours to a domain which is yours?' "

Mission Statement of the Ecokosher Network (http://www.ecojew.com/ecokashrut/index.html):

Kashrut teaches us that consumption can be a source of holy connection to the physical world. We can use and abuse our resources to the detriment of our bodies and souls, or we can form a conscious and responsible appreciation of the things that sustain us allow us to draw closer to our creator.

The products we use need to be healthy to ourselves and to the world. The goal of the ecokosher network is to promote awareness that the foods we eat have an impact on our health and the health of our communities and environment. We seek to promote products and models of development that take these values into account.

Our concern for health, social justice, and environmental sustainability is based on the mitzvot (commandments) that encourage actions towards these ideals.

Kosher laws teach that eating is a sanctified act, subject to restrictions in order to maintain spiritual holiness. This principle can be used to guide all of our consumption to accord with social and environmental values. The practice of Eco Kashrut helps sanctify consumption, so we can elevate the physical world by acknowledging the holiness of our relationship to God's world.

The mitzvah of shmirat haguf (safeguard the body) encourages healthy eating and an awareness of the food we eat. This includes seeking food that was grown organically, without pesticides, and avoiding food additives, preservatives, coloring agents and artificial flavors. It also includes learning about what foods are healthiest, and choosing a plant-based diet of foods that are fresh, organic, and nutritious.

Workers should be treated respectfully and compensated fairly for their labor. The health and well-being of others should not be compromised in the process of providing us with our sustenance. This is especially relevant as globalized food production separates us from the process of production of our food.

The mitzvah of bal tashchit warns us not to create waste. With limited resources on this planet it is important to remember that everything has a unique place in Creation. We should choose products that have less wasteful packaging and reuse and recycle whatever we can. Businesses that recycle and use recycled products at their facilities generate less wastes.

Tzaar baalei chayyim counsels us to not cause suffering to other beings. Other species should not be deprived of their habitat, or poisoned with our wastes. When animals are raised for food they should be treated in a humane manner.