Stewards of our Earth

May 3-4, 2013 / 24 Iyar 5773

Day 39 of the Omer

Shabbat Behar-Behukotai

Torah Portion:  Leviticus 25:1-27:34 / Haftarah Portion: Jeremiah 16:19-17:14

“Stewards of our Earth”

Dear Friends,

It finally feels like spring.  The days are warming, the trees are in bloom, and everywhere I look, people are spreading chemicals on their lawns… Recent flooding is washing pollutants of all kinds into our rivers.  The effects of decades of soil, water, and air pollution are being suspected in our health and in the wellbeing of our ecosystems. Yet, as a society, we continue to pollute.  This week’s Torah portion has a strong message to share with us.

Im bechukotai teilechu v’et mitzvotai tishmoru

If you will keep my laws and follow my commandments...

I will give you blessing, food, security, abundance, peace, and happiness.

You will live on the land and shall not know fear...

But if you reject my laws and disobey my commandments...

Life will be bitter and you will be hungry and defeated.

Recently, I read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.  Some say that it was the book that sparked the environmental movement in America by exposing the terrible effect of chloro-hydrogen chemicals on our environment.  It got so bad in the 1960’s that she was predicting the breakdown of ecosystems and a time when songbirds would vanish, hence the title, ‘silent’ spring.

DDT, Chlorodane, and a vast array of industrial chemicals, insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, and neurotoxins of all kinds have been released into the environment and washed into rivers and streams causing fish kills and the destruction of food chains. These same chemicals are entering water tables and contaminating wells, too. 

Because of Rachel Carson’s book, the environmental movement was born and much of what she warned is being addressed.  The work is far from done, however.  New problems she could never have predicted have created concern. Carbon buildup in our atmosphere leading to climate change is a new threat to our existence. Fish are showing increasing deformities in reproductive organs.  The culprit may be the vast amount of reproductive hormones, similar to estrogen, which we put into our waterways, much coming from birth control medications and BPA in plastic water bottles. Recent research into the phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder in beehives is pointing to a new class of insecticides called neonicotinoids.

I have seen areas of tremendous habitat destruction and environmental degradation.  I have also hiked through parks where habitat is being restored and life is thriving in Nevada, Florida, Massachusetts, New Mexico, California, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and even here in Illinois.  Species are returning to these areas and the health of the ecosystems is improving.

These wild areas are places of profound Jewish experience, part of God’s splendid creation. This week’s Torah portion teaches that if we are careless and injurious to our environment, then destruction, sickness, lack and loss will follow. Yet, if we will only follow our Jewish tradition and the Torah’s command to choose life and health, to seek justice and compassion, and to live in harmony with all life, then we will not destroy our beautiful world, but rather emerge as good stewards and caretakers.  In return, life will thrive; we will eat, we will be content and we will bless.

This is an ancient Jewish environmental message for today. The fate and future of the world is in your hands.  We must be bright and aware.  Let us live make our world a healthier place. Enjoy the glorious spring!

Zye a mentsch – Be a good person. 

L’Shalom,

Eitan

Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow