James Lovelock, whose Gaia theory has inspired many in the environmental and climate change movements, died this week, on his 103’rd birthday. I have quoted him many times in shiurim about the environment and climate change, as he has an interesting message for us as Jews. He said:
The notion of religion becoming involved in the environment, I think, is nothing but a good thing, provided that they cure themselves – and most religions have it – of a strange concept called stewardship of the Earth. We are not stewards of the Earth – we never could be. It’s sheer foolish pride to imagine that we’re clever enough yet to regulate the Earth. It is an unbelievably complex system, and we couldn’t possibly take on the job. But if, on the other hand, the religions… would look at the Earth as God’s creation and sacred and not something to be desecrated, then I can’t see anything but good coming from it.
In the midst of the hottest UK summer on record, it is becoming harder to deny the impact of human behaviour on our precious planet. Genesis certainly asks us to tend and care for the earth, but Torah can also be read as if we have, as Lovelock suggested above, a role of stewardship, or even of domination, over the earth. We are certainly capable of dominating the earth, and in doing so we have largely focussed on what would most benefit us in the short, immediate term. We have often forgotten that this is a long game to be played.
While our ancestors have been around for about six million years, the modern form of humans only evolved about 200,000 years ago. Life on earth is estimated at beginning somewhere around 3.5-3.8 billion years ago. The earth itself is thought to have formed 4.5 billion years ago.
Essentially we have been around for less than 1% of earth’s history. Lovelock is right, we do not need to steward the Earth for Earth’s sake – the planet manages very happily without us. But we need the earth – something Torah reminds us of in a multitude of ways, from the creation of the sabbatical year, known as the Shmitta, which this calendar year happens to be, during which we let the land lie fallow and acknowledge we cannot endlessly demand of the earth’s resources –. Many of our festivals are rooted in agricultural cycles, reminding us that we are dependant on and therefore should celebrate the produce of the land.
So while Genesis might offer us a model of stewardship or even domination of the earth, the Torah goes on to present other models reminding us of our reliance on and need for partnership with the earth. And rabbinic Judaism takes this even further, creating a category of sin known as Bal Taschit – wastefulness, defined as those who burn more oil than needed to create light, who throw away food, or who needlessly damage clothing. In a world where new and replacement goods can be delivered within hours, and in 2021 where the UK wasted 40% of household food, this message of what it is to waste the worlds resources is urgently needed. It is not just new-fangled modern ethics, but an understanding Judaism has valued for over 1500 years.
In fact I suspect James Lovelock would have approved of one of my favourite Midrashim, from Kohelet Rabbah 7:13:1
When the Blessed Holy One created the first human, God took them and led them round all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to them: “Look at My works, how beautiful and praiseworthy they are! And all that I have created, it was for you that I created it. Pay attention that you do not corrupt and destroy My world: if you corrupt it, there is no one to repair it after you.
I have always been slightly astonished that a text which is at least 1500 years old already understood that we cannot do as we please, and expect God to waltz in and fix all our messes for us. This was a society that believed God carried out communal punishments, such as the destruction of the Temple which we will mark next weekend on Tisha B’av, because of our sins. Yet they also formulated a theology that suggested God has given us the world, and it is our responsibility to ensure its future for everyone’s sake without God having to clean up after us like spoilt children.
We are currently in a time of the year known as the 9 days – they are 9 days of mourning that lead up to Tisha B’av and in which traditionally we might avoid meat and music (except on Shabbat), shaving, laundry and wearing leather shoes. Groups in the Jewish community have over the last few years begun using this time as a time to publicly lament the growing environmental crises we are facing. A Talmudic tradition suggests the Temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred (Yoma 9), and that is certainly causing huge problems to us in the 21st Century too. But I find myself wondering if the destruction of the world around us will be due to simpler things, more easily missed things, such as a sense of overwhelm, or not being able to see how to make a difference? Our consumption is a tricky thing to label as sinful, but we know that collectively we are creating problems for the future that may be undoable if we continue unchecked.
Trying to plan anything like a wedding over the last few years, as Adam and Katie have done, has been a tricky thing to navigate. But we also need to be living now as if we are planning for there to be a future. Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis suggested that the Earth functions as a self-regulating system, and that we must learn to be part of that balanced system, rather than endlessly sending it out of kilter.
For me this has always been the joy and the power of being in a community. Our ability to act and to affect change is amplified when we act together. A few weeks ago Maurice noticed we were still using disposable Kiddush cups that had returned to EHRS during the pandemic, even though pre-Covid we had invested in small glass cups. We flagged this, and within a week, we returned to our washable glasses, removing thousands of disposable plastic cups from our annual waste as a congregation. We recently received our Bronze award as a member of Eco-Synagogue, but that is only the beginning – if we heed Kohellet Rabbah we know it has to continue from here – we have to take responsibility and be the ones to make a difference. God isn’t going to sort the mess out for us.
James Lovelock spent his long life working to educate the world around him and wake us up to the need to restore balance to the incredible system that Gaia is. One lone voice won’t do it though, and while we may find the protests of Extinction Rebellion and groups like them a huge inconvenience, Climate change will, as we saw in this month’s heat, cause far greater inconveniences.
As we finish the book of numbers this Shabbat we say the words offered at the end of every book of Torah – Chazak Chazak v’nitchazek – Be strong, Be strong, and we will be strengthened. We must all find the strength to make changes individually, and together, it will strengthen us all, and create hope for the future, a future Adam and Katie are just beginning together, and that the children of the community who will join us shortly for their birthday blessings are facing ahead of them. Let us strengthen one another as we walk together into that future.
Chazak Chazak V’nitchazek – may this be God’s will. Amen.
