What a lovely tradition this is. Thank you for including me and welcoming me. And thank you for bringing us the idea of co-sponsoring the event last month on Rabbi Evan Moffic’s book, First the Jews. This kind of join programming is important. I think it actually saves lives. And make no mistake, the friendship that has developed between Father Don and I, between Don and David and Simon and I has helped to save lives. He told you about my showing up at the hospital. But who do you think showed up the first morning of chemo for my husband, with a Saint James prayer blanket?! And who do you think would drive him home if I had to work?
This program in particular reminds me of the early days of the kibbutzim, where young halutzim really understood the connection to the land. The land is important. It is an honor to be here today, to share this message. You see, my father, when he was a medical school professor at Northwestern, was part of the first national Earth Day in 1970. We referred to our home in Evanston as Dandelion Acres. Because even back then we were “organic,” we weren’t using those harsh chemicals that might destroy the environment.
Look around you. This is beautiful. Be quiet and hear the birds. Marvel at the notion that at 6 AM it was pouring, then there was a rainbow and now this. Enjoy the breeze. Wind, and spirit are both ruach in Hebrew. Wind is the very breath of G-d.
From the beginning of the Bible, the Torah, as you have just read, G-d created the world and saw that it was good and as Bishop Tutu said, smiled. And the Ruach Elohim, the spirit of G-d, merachefet, fluttered over the water.
This is very good, man woman and child. All are good.
Rabbi Chaim Stern edited the Reform Movement Gates of Prayer and included his prayer that became a song:
When G-d made the world, G-d made it full of light.
The sun to shine by day
The moon and stars by night
G-d made it full of life
Lilies oak and trout
Tigers and bears, sparrows, hawks
And apes. (laughter, as anticipated)
And God took clay from earth’s four corners to give it the breath of life,
And God said:
This is very good. This is very good. This is very, very good.
Man , women, and child: all are good.
Man woman and child resemble god.
Like God, we love, like God we think, like God we care.
Man, woman and child all are good.
Just as the song and the Bible itself suggests, each of us is created, b’tzelem elohim, in the image of G-d. And each of us has an obligation to be a partner with G-d in the works of a creation. As co-creators, caretakers, partners.
This is a covenantal relationship. A covenant is a promise. It can be a legal contract or a treaty. If you do x I will do y. This past year, Congregation Kneseth Israel spent the year looking at covenant. There are 346 mentions of covenant in the Bible, (don’t worry, we are not going to do all of them!) 270 mentions in the Hebrew Scriptures alone. There are several different covenants in the Bible:
The covenant of creation, which we are enjoying right here, right now today, out here in this beautiful setting, of the Garden of Eden where G-d commands Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and while they have dominion over the earth, they need to be caretakers of the earth and G-d’s partner in creation.
The covenant with Abraham, and of Moses, where circumcision and Shabbat are the signs of the covenant.
Perhaps most relevant to us today is the covenant with Noah. where G-d promises never to destroy the world again by flood. The sign of that covenant is the rainbow which some of us were treated to early this morning. There is a Jewish blessing for a rainbow. Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha’olam, zochair habrit. Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, who remembers the covenant.
That promise that G-d makes to never destroy the world again. Listen carefully. Never again through water.
“And I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.” (Gen. 9:15)
The words of the Gospel spiritual says. Anyone know it? I promised not to try to sing this one. Perhaps if I had been totally on my game, Luke could have amplified the Youtube clip. I’ll send Father Don the link.
It’s gonna rain (2x),
you better get ready and bear this in mind.
God showed Noah by the rainbow sign,
no more water, but fire next time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GdL8i6QQAQ
But fire next time. It is happening now. July was the hottest July on record. This is an indisputable fact. https://www.noaa.gov/news/july-2019-was-hottest-month-on-record-for-planet?fbclid=IwAR1t-OiI7ZP5TPLWoKn6U2a61-swJY1aZFDX6CUmoFRb86-SZ6oTezQcgas
Today is Tisha B’av. A Jewish fast day commemorating the destruction of the two Holy Temples in Jerusalem. Anything bad that happened to the Jews happened on Tisha B’av. The first set of tablets of the 10 commandments were smashed. The two temples destroyed, the expulsion of the Jews from England and then later from Spain. That was in 1492 and that is a different story for another time but very relevant to those of us who live in the Elgin area.
Since the 1970s, Jewish rabbis have been talking about Tisha B’av with its fires of destruction as a way to talk about two much more recent issues. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And the issue of scorched earth policy.
This earth, this very earth that we are standing on today, is our Holy Temple. If we destroy it by fire, we will have nothing. If we destroy it with our dependence on fossil fuels and we destroy the ozone layer, the very thing my father was worried about back in the 70s, we will have nothing. If we destroy it by refusing to listen to the prophet/scientists warning on climate change, we will have nothing.
We are the generation that stands
between the fires:
Behind us the flame and smoke
that rose from Auschwitz and from Hiroshima
And from the burning of the Amazon forest;
Before us the nightmare of a Flood of Fire,
The flame and smoke that could consume all earth.
It is our task to make from fire not an all-consuming blaze
But the light in which we see each other fully.
All of us different, All of us bearing
One Spark.
We light these fires to see more clearly
That the earth and all who live as part of it
Are not for burning.
We light these fires to see more clearly
The rainbow in our many-colored faces.
Blessed is the One within the many.
Blessed are the many who make One.
Here! I will send you
Elijah the Prophet
Before the coming
of the great and terrible day
of YAHH, the Breath of Life.
And he shall turn the heart
Of parents to children
And the heart of children to their parents.
Lest I come and
Smite the earth
With utter destruction.
(From Malachi 3)
Here! we ourselves are coming
Before the great and terrible day
of smiting Earth —
For we shall turn the hearts
Of parents to children
And the hearts of children to their parents
So that this day of smiting
Does not fall upon us.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
https://theshalomcenter.org/content/flaming-fire-consuming-everything-tisha-bav-time-climate-crisis
Yesterday, Jews around the world began reading the book of Deuteronomy. Later in the book, we are told Tzedek, tzedek tirdof, justice, justice shall you pursue. It is not just something we can wait for in our pews and our homes. It is something we have to run after and work for. It is something we have to actively seek out. It is said that there are no extra words in the Torah, so why then does the word justice repeat. For emphasis, surely. But that extra word also reminds us that we need to seek out justice, here in our own communities, and out there in communities further away.
Later in that very reading, we are given the rules for waging war. It was my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah portion. It tells us to bal taschit, don’t destroy. Specifically don’t destroy a fruit tree. Do you grow any fruit trees here? If so don’t destroy them! What the text says, if you are sieging a city, don’t destroy the fruit trees. The people in the city must not be deprived of their food source. This principle of bal taschit, don’t destroy is then applied to the whole range of environmental justice.
We have an obligation therefore, as part of our covenant to never destroy the world. To do no harm. Like we learned at Girl Scout camp, to leave a place better than we found it. This very world we need to leave better than we found it.
A story from the Talmud as retold by Peninah Schram:
One day, Honi the Circle Maker was walking on the road and saw a man planting a carob tree. Honi asked the man, “How long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?” The man replied, “Seventy years.” Honi then asked the man, “And do you think you will live another seventy years and eat the fruit of this tree?” He answered, “Just as my ancestors planted for me, I must plant for my children and grandchildren.” I tell this story at least once a year. Usually at the Jewish holiday of Tu B’shevat, the New Year of the Trees. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be back out here for that? Never mind. That’s usually January!
As part of our exploration of covenant this past year, the Hebrew School used the book, A Kid’s Mensch Handbook, A Step by Step Guide to a Lifetime of Jewish Values. Scott Blumenthal argues on the very first page that our actions matter. That if you throw a rock into a pond, a lake, an ocean, there is a ripple effect. Maimonides, centuries earlier make a similar argument…that our individual actions can tip the scale.
Both say that your actions matter. It is like the starfish story that I often retell:
A grandfather and his granddaughter are walking on the beach. Every so often she picks up a starfish and throws it out into the water. He stops her and says, “Why are you doing that? You can’t possible save them all.”
She bends down, picks up another starfish and throws it into the sea, “It makes a difference to this one.” Her grandfather then joins her, hurling starfish back into the sea. (Adapted from the Star Thrower by Loren C. Eiseley)
At Girl Scout Camp, we learned graces, prayers that were said before meals to thank G-d for the bounty of the earth. My favorite was one that goes like this:
“Back of the bread is the flour and back of the flour is the mill and back of the mill is the wind and the rain and the father’s will.”
What we learn from these stories is that the Father’s will, is not enough. It has to be G-d together with us, committed to being partners and co-creators in a covenantal relationship that will help save this precious Creation.
But perhaps the song I should leave you with is one written by Hannah Shenesh. Hannah lived on a kibbutz near Caesaria. She was a poet and she was a paratrooper. During WWII she was parachuted behind enemy lines in Hungary where she was captured and murdered in Auschwitz. This is her song,
Eli Eli
Shelo v’gamer l’olam
Hachol v’hayam
Rishrush shel hamayim
Barak hashamayim
Tefilat ha’adam
Oh Lord, my G-d
I pray that these things never end
The sand and the sea
The rush of the water
The crash of the heavens
The prayer of the heart.
Together, as part of our covenant with G-d, we can make that so. We must. It is part of our covenantal relationship. You can make that difference. You can tip the scale. Amen!
10 Ways You Can Help the Planet: The Ripple Effect
- Use less water. Turn off the water while you are brushing your teeth. Fix the leaky toilet or sink. You can save 200 gallons a day. Or try a low flush toilet like they have at the Morton Arboretum. Install a rain barrel as we will here to water the community garden.. Try tap water—or filtered water rather than all the plastic bottles. Wash your clothes in cold water.
- Leave your car at home. If you can stay off the road just two days a week you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 15,90 pounds per year according to the EPA. So combine your errands. It will save gas and time.
- Walk or ride your bike to work. Do what Pastor Katie from Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren does. Bike. All over town. Great for health as you burn some calories. If you can’t walk or ride (or run)—try mass transit or carpooling. One of the great things about Elgin is the Metra—quick and easy way to get into Chicago and now the Pace Bus over at Jane Addams. Also the series of bike trails. Try the one along the river.
- It reduces pollution just by remembering to put the bottle or can in the recycling bin. Here at CKI we have single stream recycling—and we have bins in the office and the kitchen.
- We used to have compost here at CKI. It would be great to start up again as a way to feed our community garden and keep additional “trash” out of our landfill.
- Look up. The lights above you are now LEDs, using on average 2/3rds less energy. Our newest appliances at CKI are Energy Star rated. Energy Star estimates that since December 2013 it has helped families and businesses save $295 billion on utility bills and prevented more that 2.3 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions from being released in the past two decades. My dream is to one day have a solar ner tamid, our Eternal Light. My teacher Rabbi Everett Gendler, installed and dedicated the first solar ner tamid in 1978 at Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley. The sun is eternal—or at least we think. This is an important symbolic act—because our actions matter.
- Make your home—and CKI—more energy efficient. It saves money. Clean your air filter. Get a programmable thermostat—as CKI has already done. Reduce the temperature when you are sleeping.
- Maintain your car. Underinflated tires decrease fuel economy and increase air pollution. And underinflation increases tire wear, so you will save money—on gas and new tires. While you are at it:
- Drive smarter. Drive slower. Save more gas. Save more money.
- Turn off lights when you are not in the room and unplug appliances when you are not using them.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/save-earth-top-ten1.htm