Rosh Hashanah falls in the seventh Hebrew month of Tishri, characterized as early fall and which follows the warm winds of summer. It is referred to as the birthday of the world so it fits that Rosh Hashanah is celebratory in nature, but it is also a time when we focus on spiritual truth and raise our heads toward heaven, away from the Earth. We have worked hard for six months and in this seventh month, like the seventh day, we are ready for renewal and look toward the coming year.
As I think about the themes that have become prevalent in my life over the past months and reflect on their meaning, I am reminded that my thoughts are universal; I am not alone. In July, I wrote a diary about my personal connection to Climate Change and how I presented it to my congregation in the context of a service for Tisha B’Av. There were two other presenters and as it turned out, each of us shared our concerns about the world our children will grow up in; we each in our own way expressed our concern for future generations. It is this concern that leads me back to the new year because this year I experienced Rosh Hashanah as not only a time for reflection and self evaluation, but as a call to action.
When the shofar blasted its wake up call I was reminded, that although I am experiencing an internal transformation encouraging me to lower my carbon footprint and that of my family's, it is not enough. Many cultures and Judaism included, teach that we must care for our world; in fact, the laws of the Torah reflect a strong attachment to the Earth, and yet, instead of caring for it and tending it, we have managed to dominate it. While Rosh Hashanah is said to be the birthday of the world, it is clear that we have failed at being ‘shomrei ha’adamah,’ guardians of our Earth.
Deuteronomy 20:19-20
“When, in your war against a city, you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees… You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down…” “You must not destroy.”
This principle is further specified in Jewish legal writings of the 12th century by
Maimonides,
“Whoever breaks vessels, tears garments, destroys a building, clogs a well, or does away with food in a destructive manner violates the negative mitzvah of bal tashchit. (Kiddushin 32a)" (Mishna Torah, Laws of Kings and Wars 6:8-10).
Given this, recycling can be viewed as a core value and profoundly religious action in Jewish culture.
I am reminded of Wounded Knee and his plea to non-Native Americans to stand with him in solidarity with Mother Earth.
Years ago, I remember watching a friend of mine separate paper, cans and glass and go to the trouble of driving his containers to the recycling center. At that time I didn’t know anything about recycling and it seemed a waste of time. How is it my focus has shifted to one of mindfulness of my daily actions? For sure, this transformation has been working its way to my conscious and clearing the obstacles that make changing behaviors possible. Now that I am further along in this process, it is easier to see the forces present that have and are impacting this ‘transformation’ by shifting from the actions of dominating to tending. I know in my heart, in some or most part, it is because of my daughter, her generation, and those that will follow. It is not enough to tend to her, I must also tend the world in which she will live when I am no longer here. And she must learn how to do this from me so she can teach her children and continue LaDor V'dor, from generation to generation.
I am reminded of The Lorax who speaks for the trees:
“But now that you’re here,
the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear.
Unless someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better,
It’s not.
By waiting too long to take individual action, we place too much responsibility on our children. This is a matter of survival, for me, Jewish survival. As the hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards by rotating its wings in a circle, so must we transform our lives to learn once again how to tend the Earth.
When I told my Rabbi I was writing a diary about Rosh Hashanah and Climate Change she sent me this sermon written and presented by her friend and colleague, Rabbi Laura Geller. In it, Rabbi Geller makes the case that as a Jewish community we must respond collectively to global warming as we have to other Jewish crises, (i.e., Israel in Crisis, for protection of the Jewish State) because Climate Change is...
not a political issue. It is not a partisan issue; it is not about being a Democrat or a Republican. It is a religious issue, a moral issue, a Jewish issue, and that's why we need to focus on it, today... as we begin a new year, as we celebrate the "birthday of the world."
In her sermon she launched the "Greening the Synagogue Campaign" challenging each and every member of the Congregation to lower their carbon footprint by 20%. She states,
If we could lower our carbon footprint by 20%, then we could make a significant difference. Not just Temple Emanuel, of course, but if we do it, and other religious communities do it, we will have begun to repair the world, literally, before all that is left is a stump.
She asked the Congregation to determine their carbon footprint by entering their information into a Carbon Footprint Calculator. I used
Carbon Footprint Calculator, here are the results for my family based on last year:
remembrance family carbon footprint
My synagogue has done well in greening and lowering their carbon footprint. Now it is my turn to face the facts. Our carbon footprint is measured at 13.60 metric tons per year, below the national average of 20.40 but well above the worldwide target to fight climate change, at 2 metric tons. We have a lot of work to do to squish that big foot into our tiny shoe. For today, I have joined with the hummingbirds and am doing what I can.
Please take the time to enter your information into the Carbon Footprint Calculator and if you can, tell us what your carbon footprint is.
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"Hummingbirds" Blogathon: September 9-September 13, 2013
In May 2006, the late environmental activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai addressed 7,000 international educators who had gathered in Montreal for the 58th annual conference of the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA). Here is the story she shared with them.
One day a terrible fire broke out in a forest - a huge woodlands was suddenly engulfed by a raging wild fire. Frightened, all the animals fled their homes and ran out of the forest. As they came to the edge of a stream they stopped to watch the fire and they were feeling very discouraged and powerless. They were all bemoaning the destruction of their homes. Every one of them thought there was nothing they could do about the fire, except for one little hummingbird.
This particular hummingbird decided it would do something. It swooped into the stream and picked up a few drops of water and went into the forest and put them on the fire. Then it went back to the stream and did it again, and it kept going back, again and again and again. All the other animals watched in disbelief; some tried to discourage the hummingbird with comments like, "Don't bother, it is too much, you are too little, your wings will burn, your beak is too tiny, it’s only a drop, you can't put out this fire."
And as the animals stood around disparaging the little bird’s efforts, the bird noticed how hopeless and forlorn they looked. Then one of the animals shouted out and challenged the hummingbird in a mocking voice, "What do you think you are doing?" And the hummingbird, without wasting time or losing a beat, looked back and said:
"I am doing what I can."
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In this time of escalating climate change, this is our challenge.
To refuse to surrender to the apathy of denialism and fatalism.
To be fierce in our defense of the Earth.
To continue to fight in the face of overwhelming odds.
And always, always, to do what we can.
Because it is only by each of us doing what we can, every day, that we will save the Earth – for ourselves, and for the generations to come. Like the hummingbird.
Our Daily Kos community organizers are Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, boatsie, rb137, JekyllnHyde, citisven, peregrine kate, John Crapper, Aji, and Kitsap River. Photo credit and copyright: Kossack desertguy and Luma Photography. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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Given the challenges we face as a people on our only Earth, we need to harness as much a collective power and energy as we can to defeat the unreasonable forces against us. Organizing along the spiritual route by inculcating ecology of religions into Climate Change can help move us forward on this difficult path.
~Tisha B'Av and Climate Change: James Hansen, A Modern Day Jeremiah?