Judaism & Ecology

1970 was the dawn of the environmental movement in the United States and the world at large. My father uses the story of creation to remind us of the gift that was entrusted to mankind as stewards of the Earth. He sees our failure to take care of the planet as a lack of social responsibility.

We got into this state because we failed to realize the effect of our advanced technology, but what we sometimes fail to realize, however, is that this whole question of the degradation of our environment is…perhaps, even more significantly a question of values.

THIS IS THE WEEK WHEN WE BEGIN AGAIN to read the Torah from its very beginning[1] — and as was alluded to in the brief excerpt that we read a few moments ago, the Torah begins by speaking to us of the creation of the world. The concept of creation that we are given by the Torah is that the world is the handiwork of God. The Torah has no uncertainty about the beginning of this planet or of the beginning of life. It states very positively that the world was created from nothingness by the divine command, and that God also placed upon it the various forms of life that exist, and that the last form of life to be created was man who was considered the highest form of life and who was commanded to populate the earth and to rule over the earth and all that is therein.[2]
 
Throughout the centuries it has been generally accepted that man was, indeed, the highest and most intelligent form of life and that he did, indeed, have the capacity to rule over the earth. It is only quite recently that we have begun to have our doubts.[3]  It is not only that man does not get along with his fellow man that is the problem. That is after all an old story. That problem was foreseen even in these very first chapters of the Torah in the story of Cain and Abel.[4] From the very beginning we have seen how man could be cruel to his fellow man, but what is comparatively a new development is that we have become aware that man does not seem able or does not seem to be willing to take care of the world itself in a proper manner, and that man is abusing the planet and may perhaps even ultimately render it unfit for habitation and choke out his own life by his foolish ways.
 
Suddenly the word ecology has become important to our vocabulary. We have become aware that the dominion over nature, which the Torah tells us that God gave to man at the very beginning, is something that can end in disaster. God, we are told, looked upon the world which he created and he found that it was good, but then he turned it over to man and he did not realize that perhaps this was not so good.
 
What has been happening? A new pamphlet entitled The Crisis of Ecology—Judaism and the Environment has just been published by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. It was written by Albert Vorspan[5] and is intended to be a supplement to his book used in religious school classes entitled Jewish Values and Social Crisis. This pamphlet begins with a mock obituary notice written by a student at the University of Illinois as follows:
​

Michigan, Lake.[6] Memorial services for Lake Michigan will not be held as such; however, visitation will remain in effect indefinitely. The lake, aged 23,031, died recently after many years of abuse, stemming primarily from pollution. The lake, once a popular sports and recreation area for millions of people, is survived by the Lakes Superior and Huron. Lake Michigan was preceded in death by Lakes Erie and Ontario

This sounds humorous, of course, and it might be funny if it were not so tragic and if it were not part of a greater picture of deterioration in our own environment which does, indeed, threaten the survival of mankind in the not too distant future.
 
The pamphlet, Judaism and the Environment, goes on to point out a few more of the disastrous things that have been happening such as the fact that the State of California is suffering from a constant increase of nitrogen acid in the air which could eventually filter out all sunlight, the fact that Lake Erie is so polluted that there is even the fear that it might catch on fire; the fact that Santa Barbara's beautiful beaches have been so damaged by oil leakage that the beaches and all fish and wildlife in the area have been tremendously damaged; the fact that more than 140 million tons of smoke and noxious fumes are belched into the air over the United States in a year; 7 million automobiles are discarded, 20 million tons of paper, 48 billion cans, 28 million bottles and jars; 50 trillion tons of hot water bearing various kinds of acids and muck are poured into our rivers and other waters, and even more. Insecticides have penetrated virtually the entire fish and animal population of the world. And it might also have mentioned that we, in this area, are also suffering constantly from the air pollution in New York City which is seldom at a satisfactory level; and we read regularly of the industrial pollution of the shoreline of Long Island, and the horrible state of the Hudson River, and so on.
 
What a mess we are making of this world that God saw was good! We got into this state because we failed to realize the effect of our advanced technology. But what we sometimes fail to realize, however, is that this whole question of the degradation of our environment is not merely a technological issue. It is not merely a question of how do we prevent the pollution that is taking place. It is, perhaps, even more significantly a question of values. Religious and theological and moral questions are also involved here. Vorspan puts it very meaningfully. What is man? Is he inherently greedy? What is man's relationship to nature? Has God endowed man with dominion over nature? Is competition or cooperation the nature of man's relationship to man? What does it mean to be human? How can human life be made precious once again in an age of onrushing technology and crushing population pressures?
 
The question might well be raised whether the Torah reading tonight does or does not sanction what man has been doing. We have read,

Be fruitful and multiply and populate the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and over all living things on earth.[7] 

It seems to imply that man is to be the master and that he is given the authority to do as he well pleases with the natural world that God has put at his disposal. This is not, however, how Judaism has interpreted these words. Against the statement that man has dominion over all must be balanced the words of the psalmist, "The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the world and all that is therein."[8] Man has power but it is God's world nevertheless, and man is responsible to God for what he does with it. The prayerbook reads, "We are the stewards of what we possess." This applies to nature as well. We are the stewards of the natural world, and we have no license to slaughter its creatures indiscriminately or to abuse the environment. Man, as far as Judaism is concerned, has a social responsibility.
 
The rabbis offer a number of statements in this vein. Here is one that should interest our armed force in Vietnam as well as those lumber companies who thoughtlessly denude our forests.

When you besiege a city, you shall not destroy the trees by wielding an ax against them, for is the tree of the field a man that it should be besieged?[9]

That would seem to object to a scorched earth policy.[10] We read also:

Woe to the man who stands on earth and does not see what he sees, for in every drop of water in the sea and every grain of dust in the earth have I created its own image... Of everything God created, nothing was created in vain, not even the things you may think unnecessary such as spiders, frogs or snakes... Man was not created until the sixth day so that if his pride should govern him, it could be said, “Even the tiniest flea preceded you in creation...."[11]

Also another statement most pertinent today:

When God created man he showed him everything in the Garden of Eden and said to him: "See my work, how good it is. Know that everything which I have created, I have created for you. And now take care, lest you spoil and destroy my world, for if you spoil and destroy it, no one will rebuild it after you."

It is almost as if the rabbis foresaw the problem of today and were trying to influence us with regard to it, and remind us that our dominion is not the right to run wild, but is power to be used with intelligence.
 
Much of our ecological problem today is due to the fact that each industry thinks in terms of its own selfish interests and there is a blindness to the welfare of the group or society as a whole. A utility that wants a power plant will think only of its own interests in the production of power. A factory that produces harmful waste material will think only of how it can most cheaply and easily dispose of it by dumping it into the river. A builder that wants to develop an area will not concern himself about wildlife or centuries old trees. Examples could be multiplied. Judaism believes in freedom of action but not in that way. The greedy were condemned by the prophet Isaiah when he spoke up against those who "join house to house and field to field and are unconcerned about their fellow man."[12] You will recall there was even a provision for a sabbatical year for the ground. Once in seven years the ground was not to be tilled or sown[13] lest it be drained of its fruitfulness by overproduction. The individual would seem to be the loser by this rule but it was thought that in the long run society as a whole would benefit.
 
The rabbis called not only for social responsibility, but for reverence for all of nature which was God's creation. “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork,"[14] sang the psalmist. Nature reflected God's majesty and man was to act accordingly in his relationship to nature. In fact, man was to act in concert with nature in giving homage to God, if we may again quote the psalmist:

​Praise the Lord. Praise Him sun and moon. Praise Him all you shining stars... Mountains and all hills and all cedars. Beast and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds... Kings of the earth and all peoples... Young men and maidens together, old men and children.[15]

Man and beast and inanimate nature altogether are called upon to pay their homage to God. And man is hardly fulfilling this ideal when he destroys the beauty of nature and is careless with respect to the life that is part of nature both wildlife and human.
 
A major problem in curing the situation that now prevails is the cost which would, indeed, be astronomical for many years. Some experts say we need to spend about $25 billion a year if we want to reverse the trend. But what is perhaps more significant than the tremendous cost is the need of recapturing our sense of values. We need an economic system that will control the greed that now makes for pollution. We need less rugged individualism and more cooperation. We need again to recapture a reverence for life and a sense of awe as we confront nature. We need a reaffirmation of the biblical concept of social responsibility. Technology and money can solve many problems, but only if there are also the will and the motivation to do so. Man who was given dominion over all nature according to the Bible and who has indeed asserted his dominion in so many magnificent ways, is now challenged to discipline his powers and to apply his intellectual resources not to the shortsighted accumulation of material benefits that tend ultimately to destroy him, but rather to the farsighted consideration of the problem of his own survival.

[1] Simchat Torah, lit., "Rejoicing of Torah") is a Jewish holiday that celebrates and marks the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings, and the beginning of a new cycle. It follows immediately after the festival of Sukkot in the month of Tishrei (occurring in mid-September to early October on the Gregorian calendar).

[2] Genesis 1:28 “And God blessed them; and God said unto them: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth.'  And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; swarm in the earth, and multiply therein.'”

[3] Spurred by a devastating oil spill on the beaches of Santa Barbara, and by the Cuyahoga River in Ohio catching fire, 1970 became the year the environmental movement really took off and began to have an impact on our national policy and our daily lives. The first Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970.

[4] Genesis 4:1-8 “…And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.”
 
[5] Albert Vorspan (born 1924) is an author and long-time leader of Reform Judaism. He is director emeritus of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism.

[6] During the 1970's, the use of the Great Lakes as a disposal site for agricultural, industrial and domestic wastes became an increasingly widespread concern due to detrimental effects on fish and wildlife, and the potentially adverse effects on human health.
 
[7] Genesis 1:28

[8] Psalm 24:1

[9] Deuteronomy 20:19

[10] A scorched earth policy is a military strategy which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. Throughout the 1960s, the US employed herbicides (chiefly Agent Orange), as a part of its herbicidal warfare program Trail Dust to destroy crops and foliage in order to expose possible enemy hideouts. Agent Blue was used on rice fields to deny food to the Vietcong. Napalm was also extensively used for such purposes.

[11] Sanhedrin 38a

[12] Isaiah 5:8 "Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no room, and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!"

[13] Exodus 23:10 “And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and gather in the increase thereof; but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie fallow….”

[14] Psalm 19:2

[15] Psalm 148