By Rabbi Josh Whinston, Temple Beth Emeth
Probably the best-known Jewish teaching on the climate crisis comes from Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of midrashim on Ecclesiastes. In Kohelet Rabbah 7:13, we read:
“When the Holy One blessed be God created Adam, the first human being, God took Adam and showed him all the trees in the Garden of Eden. God said: ‘See My creations, how beautiful and exemplary they are. Everything I created, I created for you. Make certain that you do not ruin and destroy My world, for if you destroy it, there will be no one to mend it after you.’”
There is something gentle yet piercingly true about this midrash. We are invited to imagine God and Adam on a walk through this new home, God pointing out the wonders of creation, Adam wide-eyed and speechless. At the end of the tour, God hands Adam the keys and makes a startling declaration: from this moment forward, humanity is responsible. God, in infinite power and majesty, steps back, and Adam, that is, human beings, become the caretakers.
Kohelet Rabbah was composed between the sixth and eighth centuries, yet its moral clarity feels totally modern. Long before the hum of factories, the haze of smog, or the first plastic bottle, our sages understood something essential about human nature: the power to create is shadowed by the power to destroy. They warned us that this world is breathtakingly beautiful, but also fragile, and singular. This is not a rehearsal. There is no spare Earth stored away for later.
Jewish tradition asks us to see stewardship not as a burden but as a spiritual calling. To care for creation is to respond to a sacred trust placed in our hands. Each choice we make about how we live can be a small but meaningful act of partnership with the Divine.
We are living in the moment our ancestors feared and imagined. The door has been opened, the keys are in our hands, and the tour is over. We have destroyed so much of this earth, but there is still time to repair some of what is broken. To honor creation is to honor its Creator; to protect this world is to protect the future entrusted to us. Our task is ancient and urgent, and it begins each day again with the choices we make for the one home we have.