Eco-Judaism

Mussar, Judaism’s ethical-psycho-spiritual wing, is a powerful tool for personal improvement, in which Torah and personal practice help us live with fuller meaning and intention. Insights from Mussar’s approach, including many of the middot (attributes) it bids us to work on, also powerfully inform a Jewish response to the great eco-challenges of our time. Deeper dives into anavah/humility (right-sizing our footprint), kavod/honor (toward the most disadvantaged as well as those closest to us), achrayut/responsibility and other core values can goad us to do more — and guide us to do better — as shomrei adamah, Jewishly-grounded Earth-protectors.  (In one session, or five, or twenty, or any number between)

In thought and theology, halacha and aggadah (law and lore), practice and potential, Judaism is a deep shade of green.  Let’s color it in, together, as we contemplate the values and texts and actions that make “Jewish” and “Ecological” near-synonyms of each other.

Few issues will define the decades ahead like climate change.  The science shows that we’ve already emitted enough greenhouse gasses to ensure that each coming generation will face harsher realities than the one before it, for centuries to come.  That’s hardly the legacy we intend, when we claim the heart of our tradition as “from generation to generation,”  L’dor Va’dor!

And yet: Few issues have as much Jewish resonance – and few efforts have as much to gain from a Judaic framing – as climate change.  Our sacred texts and core values offer guidance on how to proceed; goading to prod us to lead and succeed; and tikvah, hope. Together, let’s connect Torah with today, and figure out what we (as a group or a specific community, the Jewish people, society) can, and should and will do to make a difference.

When we appreciate what we have, we won’t pine (or extract, maim, compete) for more. When we let ourselves be blown away by the miracles already around us, we’ll always be happy.  “Who is rich?”, ask the rabbis in Pirkei Avot – “whoever is satisfied with their lot.”  In poems and images, texts and reflections, we’ll see how Jewish wisdom leads us toward both personal happiness, and biospheric sustainability.

We all have a certain level of “Jewish identity,” and similarly of “Ecological Identity,” though the ratios differ widely.  Those of us steeped in Jewish life and learning will find much commending the shvil ha’yarok, the green path within our tradition.  And those more deeply immersed in ecology will get a sustainable and strategically significant boost from linking it with their Judaism.  Let’s explore, and unite…

 A whole series of sessions at the intersection of sustainability and science and spirituality, of policy and practice.  Among them:

• Hope in a Greenhouse: Eco-Tikvah.   

• Shabbat as Weekly Earth Day. 

• Waste Not, Want Not: Bal Tashchit.   

• Judaism and Energy.

• Biodiversity in Jewish Thought.   

• Wilderness in the Jewish Imagination.   

• Public vs. Private: Talmud Says Err on the Communitarian Side. 

• Green Jewish Thumb: Texts & Poems on Gardening and Agriculture.   

• Eco-Eschatology: Jewish Environmentalism and the Messianic Age.    

• And more….