I have a friend in Israel. Yosef Abramowitz. He is the son of a dear friend in Massachusetts, Devora Abramowitz, who we have known for years at Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley. Yossi is a writer, an entrepenuer, having started Babaganewz when he still lived in Newton. Now he is selling solar panels all over the world, a lot in African countries. He is putting Israel on the map and increasing relations between peoples. He has been named by CNN as one of the six leading “green pioneers on the planet as CEO of Energiya Global Capital and last year he ran for President of Israel

He had an article in Friday’s Jerusalem Post about the connection between Passover and Earth Day (http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/When-Passover-and-Earth-Day-meet-451978 ) and he laid down a challenge. What rabbi would take up the charge? I said I would gladly do it!

We all know that I didn’t go to synagogue when we lived in Evanston. We spent most weekends at some political rally or other. So this social justice stuff, making the world a better place, is something I come by, you might say, genetically. And that might be the point….you see my father, the geneticist, first worked for a man named Barry Commoner, who I gather was quite the character. He even ran for president of the United States at one point. But I digress. Barry’s office in Saint Louis, coined the phrase ecologist And so it should come as no surprise that I was actually at the first Earth Day celebrations.

And the science on climate change really is irrefutable, What may be less clear is the connection between Earth Day and Passover. So let me explain and be perfectly clear.

We are told in Genesis that we are to be partners with G-d in Creation. That we are to be caretakers of this earth. That G-d will not destroy the world again. That is the covenant G-d made with Noah after the flood. That is why I am wearing this rainbow tallit this morning.

For you early birds, as we went through the first part of the service, I pointed out the parts of the service that praise G-d for this glorious Creation. And what a beautiful morning we have for this.

I want to look at two other prayers. The second paragraph of the V’ahavata says that we are entering a good land where G-d will give rain to your land, the early and late rains, that you may gather in your grain, your wine and your oil.” If, and there is an if, we are partners with G-d by loving G-d and fulfilling G-d’s commandments. I would add, however, we interpret that.

Those early and late rains is part of what connects this first morning of Passover to Earth Day. Today we add the prayer for Tal, dew, at the beginning of the Musaf service. At the end of Sukkot we will add the prayer for rain. These are prayers that cantors love. They are beautiful piyyutim, poems that have had gorgeous music written for them.

They remind me of Honi the Circle Drawer. We know two Honi stories, both from the Talmud. But they bear repeating.

Honi was bothered by a verse, “When God returns us to Zion, we will have been as dreamers.” (Psalm 126:1). Could it be that a person can sleep for 70 years continuously? One day, as he was walking he saw a man planting a carob tree. “How long will it be before this tree produces fruit?” “Seventy years,” the old man answered. “Will you still be alive then?” Honi questioned. The man answered, “Just as my ancestors planted for me, so I plant for my children and my children’s children.” (B Ta’anit 23a)

Usually we tell this story on Tu B’shevat, sometimes called the Jewish Arbor Day. But when Passover and Earth Day collide, it make sense to tell it again. All of Passover is set up to tell our children stories. It is the great “lador v’dor”, from generation to generation. We want our children to ask questions so that we can tell them what the Lord did for us, for me, when I went forth from Egypt. We want that there is a land, a good land, one flowing with milk and honey as our Haftarah portion alludes to, that our children can inherit, just as G-d promised to Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob, Rachel and Leah.

And there is a second Honi story, one we don’t tell as often.

It once happened that they said to Honi ha-M’aggel, the Circle Drawer: “Pray that rains may fall.” He said to them: “Go out and bring in the [clay] ovens for the Paschal sacrifices so that they will not dissolve.” He prayed, but rains did not fall. What did he do? He drew a circle and stood within it and he said before Him: “Master of the Universe! Your children have turned their faces to me, for I am like a member of your household. I swear by Your great Name that I will not move from here until You have mercy on Your children.” Rains began to come down in drops. He said: “I did not ask this, but rains [to fill] pits, ditches and caves.” They began to come down angrily. He said: “I did not ask this but [for] rains of benevolence, blessing and generosity.” They fell in their normal way, until Israel went up out of Jerusalem to the Temple Mount [high ground] because of the rains. They came and said to him: “Just as you prayed for them that they should fall, so pray that they should go away.”…Shimon ben Shetach [the Nasi, or chief officer of the Sanhedrin] sent for him: “If you were not Honi I would decree a ban upon you. But what shall I do to you, for you act like a spoiled child before God and yet He does your will for you, as a son who acts like a spoiled child with his father and yet he does his will for him? And about you the verse says: “Your father and your mother shall be glad and she who bore you shall rejoice.” (M. Taanit 3:8)

So today we begin to pray for dew. We recognize that in Israel, this is the beginning of the dry season. We recognize that these stories and prayers are about the land of Israel in particular. However, I believe we have an sacred obligation to take care of the land of Israel, our obligation extends to the whole earth. That is why this celebration of Earth Day, falling as it does during Passover, is so critical.

The organizers of Earth Day say, “Let’s make big stuff happen. Let’s plant 7.8 billion trees for the Earth. Let’s divest from fossil fuels and make cities 100% renewable. Let’s take the momentum from the Paris Climate Summit and build on it.” http://www.earthday.org/#sthash.VBq88cir.dpuf

Then they proposed a series of things that we CAN do. Things that if we take them on as individuals or as a congregation really will make a measurable difference. Things that if we do them, we can be like Honi the Circle Drawer so that there will be carob trees in the next generation, lador vador and beyond.

What are these things? Here are Four Ways, to echo the Four Questions, Four Cups of Wine and Four Children for this Passover Earth Day.

1. Eat less meat (I know—it is a meat Kiddush today, and I thank you for that!)

Why does this make a difference?

It reduces our carbon footprint. (A side note, trying to type carbon and carob is hard as a dyslexic, but maybe that is important too!) Simon’s old More with Less Cookbook, which we used extensively during the SNAP Challenge reminds us that for every pound of beef, it takes 11 pounds of grain. Something to think about the next time I cut into my beloved steak. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the meat industry generates nearly one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that are acceleration climate change worldwide.

It minimizes water usage. An estimated 1800 to 2500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef. Soy tofu produced in California requires only 220 gallons of water per pound.

It reduces fossil fuel dependence. About 40 calories of fossil fuel energy are needed for every calorie of beef in the US compared with only 2.2 calories of fossil fuel for plant based protein.

I am not suggesting that we give up meat completely. Others can make that argument. But what if we declare one day meatless.

2. Buy local produce—one of the best things about Elgin is the Harvest Market. And our local CSAs. Use them. Tonight as part of the seder, every family will go home with a packet of seeds. Grow them. Bring the produce here and we will donate them together with the produce from our community garden produce to Food for Greater Elgin.

3. Start composting

Since we now have a thriving community garden, I am bringing the composting bin back. I think I have located a spot closer to the kitchen so it is easy and becomes second nature. Similarly, we are going to get a rain barrel and have the Torah school students decorate it so that we can use the rain water for watering the community garden.

4. Use less fossil fuels and reduce our carbon footprint

I have talked about this before and I am sure Yossi will love this one. The congregation that Simon and I met in, Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley, has the first solar Ner Tamid, Eternal Light, in the country. Rabbi Everett Gendler, quite the visionary, felt stronger that as a symbol the Ner Tamid should be driven by solar power. They dedicated that Ner Tamid on Chanukah 1978 http://gendlergrapevine.org/solar-ner-tamid/

Since the sun is eternal, we most certainly hope, especially on this Pesach Earth Day, It is a simple process and fairly inexpensive. Commit with me to get this done by Chanukah 2016. There are other ways that we at CKI can reduce our carbon footprint.

Why does this matter? How are these Jewish issues?

Because, as I said early, we are Jews are commanded to be stewards of the earth, caretakers with G-d in this glorious creation. We cannot just rely only on G-d. We must be partners.
The underlying principle is Bal Taschit, to not destroy. This comes from the verse in Deuteronomy, part of Sarah’s Bat Mitzvah Torah portion that says, “Justice, Justice shall you pursue.” It then gives us the rules for engaging in war. “When you besiege a city for many days to wage war against it, to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them, for you may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down.” (Deut 20:19-21).

As Yonatan Neril of Chabad explains, “The general prohibition is against needless destruction, derived from the verse on fruit trees, concerns not destroying directly or indirectly anything that may be of use to people. It applies to wasting energy, clothing, water, money or more. According to the Talmud, this prohibition includes wastefully burning oil or fuel. Many rishonim (commentators between c. 1000 and 1500 CE) conclude that wasting any resources of benefit to humans is a Torah prohibition. For example, Maimonides (1135–1204, Spain) explains that a Jew is forbidden to “smash household goods, tear clothes, demolish a building, stop up a spring, or destroy articles of food.”3 Rabbeinu Yerucham (1280–1350, Spain) rails against wasting water when others are in need. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yishmael makes another logical inference: if the Torah warns us not to destroy fruit trees, then we should be even more careful about not destroying the fruit itself.4 Currently, in Israel, Rabbi Moshe Yitzhak Forehand notes that all rabbinic authorities agree, based on this teaching, that it is forbidden from the Torah to destroy edible fruit. This applies to all food that is fit to be eaten, and not only the fruit of trees.” (http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1892179/jewish/Judaism-and-Environmentalism-Bal-Tashchit.htm)

This not wasting is important. So Simon and I are working on another challenge following up on the SNAP Challenge. The Zero Waste Passover Challenge started by my friend and colleague, Rabbi Cindy Enger. We are using stuff up, We are not wasting food.

Because really, we realized in doing the SNAP Challenge and again in preparing for the study session yesterday on Birkat Hamazon, that there is enough food to go around, if we did a better job distributing it and managing it.

Birkat Hamazon has a seemingly inexplicable line. “I was young and now I am old and I have never seen a just man hungry or his children beg for bread.” (Psalm 37:25) This verse has puzzled me since I was in college. How is it possible to say this line when so clearly there is hunger—and it has only gotten worse? Some people just delete it. They just don’t say it. Which is exactly what my Hillel rabbi did and what the editors of our prayer book did. They simply don’t include it.

What if, instead of past tense, this is future tense? That it is aspirational and full of hope? What if, as has been suggested, there really is enough food to go around, so that it is not G-d’s fault, rather we need to be better partners, better stewards, in figuring out global distribution channels. I am proud to have played a small role getting Congressman Peter Roskam to sign onto the Global Food Security Act. I consider that the highest outcome of the SNAP Challenge. He was the last congressman of either party to do so in Illinois. But that is only a start. We need to exercise a collective will to end hunger, right here in Elgin with its 19,000 food insecure people, in America and around the world.

Part of that fits squarely with this message of Earth Day Passover. Again, from Yonatan Neril, “According to a 2011 study commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year—approximately 1.3 billion tons—gets lost or wasted. In the United States, less than three percent of this waste was recovered and recycled…The environmental impact of this waste occurs not only in the garbage dumps where it is deposited, but also in the resources used to produce it. Fossil fuels, water and land are all required to produce food..By heeding the Torah’s call not to waste, we can therefore generate ecological, social and financial benefits.”

So this Earth Day Passover, commit to live out our Judaism more fully. By being that very caretaker of the earth that G-d demands. Then our children and our children’s children can continue to gather around the seder table and tell the story of what the Lord did for me, for each of us, when we went forth from Egypt. Then our children and our children’s children will continue to reap the benefits of Honi’s carob tree.