By Chava Israel
Photograph by Michael Simon
In 2019, Rabbis Beth Cardin and Avram Israel Reisner presented a Teshuvah (Responsa) to the Conservative Committee on Jewish Law and Standards to address the need for a comprehensive environmental ethic rooted in halachah and ethical writings. The goal was to determine major Jewish teachings and recommendations in response to climate change and environmental degradation.
The paper outlines two fundamental mitzvot that underpin our responsibilities toward environmental sustainability: Yishuv Ha’Olam – to create and maintain a habitable world, and Bal Tashchit – to not destroy or waste resources that sustain us.
Bal Tashcit is derived from Deuteronomy 20:19-20, the commandment to not destroy fruit trees during wartime. This was expanded in the Talmud by a common rabbinic method of deriving a logical wider inference from a more narrow stringent case. If we must not destroy a source of sustenance during a time where destruction is the norm, then this applies even more so to our everyday lives and the lives of future generations.
Yishuv HaOlam is derived from the commandments given in the two creation stories, specifically Genesis 1:15 and 2:15 and a verse in Isaiah (45:18). “It is God who creates the heavens, who fashions the earth and makes it … God did not create the world to be chaos. God fashioned it to be inhabited.” The first describes an unproblematic and entirely self-sustaining creation, where we are commanded to fill and master the earth.
The second presents the core of our predicament. Our role is now clearly symbiotic with nature: we make it habitable through our work and maintain it by guarding it, but we are presented with a dilemma. There are now fruits that are forbidden, and we choose to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. This is the story of our loss of innocence and separation from the self-sustaining world of Genesis 1, but it also hints at how we fulfill that first commandment of Yishuv HaOlam.
Our knowledge of extracting earth’s resources, which we have used to create civilization, has allowed us to fulfill the commandment to master nature. However, it also has the potential to disrupt nature at a global level. We are now at a turning point where each of us must consciously act to bring these two mitzvot together.
About the Ann Arbor Jewish Climate Circle (A2J CC)
Most Jews in the Ann Arbor area believe that climate change is an important issue—perhaps the most significant challenge of our generation. Most of us also understand that Jewish tradition calls us to improve the world for future generations.
The A2J Climate Circle is designed to bring our community together in climate action and create momentum and support.
Started by the JCRC (Jewish Community Relations Committee) of the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, with Annie Wolock (Federation) as the leader, the A2J Climate Circle Planning Committee currently includes Ellen Abramson (Jewish Family Services), Rena Basch (Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation), Mike Shriberg (Temple Beth Emeth), and Michael Simon (Beth Israel Congregation). The Planning Committee contacted local Jewish organizations to partner with A2J CC on this initiative.
All area Jewish organizations and groups, large and small, are encouraged to join us.