Temple Sinai and Climate Change

Jewish tradition emphasizes many values that speak to our nation’s need for energy policies that are environmentally responsible and that pay due attention to the public health and safety of both present and future generations. Humankind has a solemn obligation to improve the world for future generations. Addressing climate change requires us to learn how to live within the ecological limits of the earth so that we will not compromise the ecological or economic security of those who come after us. Genesis 2:15 emphasizes our responsibility to protect the integrity of the environment so that its diverse species, including humans, can thrive: “The human being was placed in the Garden of Eden to till it and to tend it.” Similarly, Jewish tradition teaches us that human domain over nature does not include a license to abuse the environment. The Talmudic concept bal tashchit, “do not destroy,” was developed by the rabbis into a universal doctrine that dramatically asserted God’s ownership of the land. Psalm 24 notes, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” From this basic concept it follows that any act of destruction is an offense against the property of God.

Link to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s climate change homepage: http://rac.org/advocacy/issues/issuecc/challenge/

Link to the “Greening Synagogues” campaign of COEJL (Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life) http://www.coejl.org/greensyn/gstoc.php

Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13
“God led Adam around all the trees of the Garden of Eden.
God said to Adam: ‘See My works, how good and praiseworthy they are? And all that I have created, I made for you. [But] be mindful that you do not spoil and destroy My world—for if you spoil it, there is no one after you to repair it.”