Yom Kippur Morning

            Good Yontif and good morning. This morning we read the words of Nitzavim, from chapters 29 and 30 of Deuteronomy. In it, Moses tells the people of Israel that the Torah belongs to each of them, and they are all equally responsible for upholding it. There is no hierarchy or intercessor when it comes to Torah. All have an equal share in it, and all are responsible for it, and it is a living document that dwells among them. It is not in the heavens, it is not far away, and no one needs someone else to bring it to them. It is for each and every one of them, and for all of their descendants.

            As their descendants, we may continue to adapt with a changing world and reinterpret this living document in every generation, but we do not turn away from it completely. As Jews who self-identify as such, who come to shul on Yom Kippur, even if only on Yom Kippur, there is still a clinging to the holy Torah that our soul instinctively does. We do not turn our noses up at it because someone else wrote it or handed it down to ancestors that came before us. We don’t defer responsibility and feign ignorance. We know that if we did, not only would we deprive ourselves of the spiritual benefits of embracing it, but we would cut off our own descendants from being a part of the long, unbroken chain of the Jewish people.

            And yet, we do essentially all these things to our Mother Earth, our bodily realm, where Shekhinah dwells. We abdicate responsibility, we deny the imminent crisis of our climate, we pretend it is far away and is for others to concern themselves with. We damage our ability for future enjoyment of Earth’s blessings, and risk the viability of future generations surviving on this planet at all.

            On the High Holy Days, we read the words of Rabbi Amnon of Mayence, Unetanah Tokef: “who shall live and who shall die? Who shall perish by water and who by fire, Who by sword and who by wild beast, Who by famine and who by thirst, Who by earthquake and who by plague, Who by strangulation and who by stoning, Who shall have rest and who shall wander, Who shall be at peace and who shall be pursued, Who shall be at rest and who shall be tormented, Who shall be exalted and who shall be brought low, Who shall become rich and who shall be impoverished.” These words are meant to signal to the great mysteries of life, that God knows what will become of each of us, while we cannot imagine our fates. Yet as the Amazon burns and the ocean levels rise, it becomes more certain for many on this Earth who will burn and who will drown. As the global climate change affects regular weather patterns, we will see greater death tolls from natural disasters and the diseases that follow flooding and displacement. As big corporations continue to exploit natural resources to drive profits while common consumers are pressured into buying reusable straws and bags, we know who becomes rich and whose purse suffers. As resources become scarce and disparate groups fight over what remains, we may soon see clearly who will die by violent deaths resulting from these skirmishes.

            But, just our liturgy tells us: repentance, prayer, and righteousness can avert the severe decree. What would teshuvah to our Mother Earth look like? Planting more trees, like we do on Tu Bishevat? A river clean-up? As with all teshuvah, it will not be easy and require more than simple acts of apologies. It will require introspection and a true desire and plan to change our lifestyles. To sustainably halt the damage we’re doing and hopefully undo some of it will need more than some saplings and a local trash pick-up. We will need to drastically reduce our collective carbon emissions. This may be where righteousness will overlap with repentance. It could cost money at the start of such changes, even if in the long run it could boost the economy. How we power our country would need to change at nearly every level – from our transportation choices to how we heat or cool our homes, how we shop, how we power our whole electrical grid. Those with means may need to foot that bill. That would be tzedakah, a great service to the whole Earth and all of humanity. Another option for righteous repentance is that as a whole, people in the developed world need to eat less meat. Where once we killed animals in sacrificial offerings to God, now we must sacrifice our desire for meat as an offering the Shekhinah, the Divine presence that dwells among us on Earth. It’s not that the killing of the animal is destructive to the environment, and this is not to say everyone needs to be a vegetarian. However, the industrialized meat industry has contributed to 90% of the deforestation of the Amazon. While oxygen-producing trees are cut down, they are replaced by methane-producing cows in abundance, creating disaster for our atmosphere, and that’s just in the cattle raising itself. Slaughterhouses also require a lot of energy, produce a lot of hazardous waste, and then plastics are used and gas is burned to package the meat and ship it to our grocery stores. If people ate less meat, contented themselves with that which could be sustainably raised on local grassy lands without displacing other necessary ecodiversity, we would see dramatic change in our greenhouse gas emissions.

These are just a few examples that would yield the biggest results. We need change at every level if we want to fix the environmental crisis we are finding ourselves in now. That does include, of course, reducing our own plastic usage, planting new life where we can, and cleaning up pollution and litter in our own communities. I use reusable shopping bags and a metal straw without resentment and had no concerns that buying such things would break my bank. I love Tu BiShevat and local clean-up efforts, and do think these acts can contribute to a greater whole. However, I know that this alone will not save. We will need great acts of teshuvah and tzedakah, and likely a fair amount of praying to redeem our world.

In an interview about his new book (We Are the Weather), Jewish author Jonathan Safran Foer said that his research while writing the book showed that the vast majority of Americans are concerned about climate change and claim to be ready for a change. But our collective actions don’t seem to be moving us toward solutions to the problem. The main reason for this, he posits, is that it feels far away. Even though this is a global problem that will eventually affect us all, the complexity of the science and the intersections of environmental realities with social dynamics and systemic oppression can make the issue feel very much like it’s out of our hands. Similarly, he expressed feeling the responses to Greta Thunberg have missed the mark and put unfair pressure on her and other youth leaders of the recent climate strike. He worries that putting her or others like her up on a pedestal allows older adults to abdicate responsibility. As Greta herself said in response to international leaders fawning over her inspirational power, “I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic … and act as if your house is on fire. Because it is.”  As we learn in today’s Torah reading, that which sustains us is not far away, in the heavens, or across the ocean, and we cannot defer our obligation to it and ask that someone else take care of it and bring to us the yields. Our earthly and spiritual necessities are both near at hand when we need them and both require attention and protection in order to sustain their benefits for us. We each deserve an equal share in the Torah and in the great bounty of natural resources this Earth has to share, but in order for that to continue to be true for everyone and our descendants, we know that we are each equally responsible for preserving these treasures. We cannot hold out hope for one person or even one generation to uphold our values for us. This work requires each of us, all of us, together.

            This Yom Kippur, I implore you to look within yourself and around at your home and community, and determine what you can do now to start the hard and necessary work of teshuvah, tefillah, and tzedakah for our Earth. May we all find ways to address the harm done, and may we live to see a healthier environment in the not-too-distant future. Amen and G’mar Chatimah Tova.