In the middle of August, after a two-hour hike, on a barren hillside in Iceland, around 100 people gathered. As the sun held its position in the sky, the mourners arrived. The mayor was in attendance and a representative from the UN. Together, they shared poems, held a moment of silence, and reminisced. It wasn’t much different than any other funeral you may have been to, except that in this case, the funeral wasn’t for a beloved statesman or a famous daughter of Iceland. No, these folks gathered to mourn the loss, the death, of a glacier, some 700 years old.
Just last week, a small crowd of 250 gathered in Switzerland at the site of the Pizol glacier to say goodbye. They know that by the year 2030, just 11 years from now, the glacier will be no more. Overall, The Alps are expected to lose around 50% of their glacier mass by the year 2050.
Matthias Huss, a geologist at ETH Zurich University said of the occasion: “We can’t save the Pizol glacier anymore. But if people acted now, many of the negative effects of climate change could be contained. “Let’s do everything we can, so that we can show our children and grandchildren a glacier here in Switzerland a hundred years from now.”[1]
In Iceland, the mourners set up a monument to the departed. It reads: “In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.”
A message to the future. Only you know if we did it. Only the next generation, our children and grandchildren, will know whether or not we accepted the evidence and did all that we could in order to combat the effects of climate change: rising temperatures, rising sea levels, extinctions up and down the food chain, the death of our oceans, and if we continue to look away, the ultimate death of our species and planet.
We are a ledor vador people, a generation to generation people who pride ourselves on leaving something of value and import for the next generation. We teach our children the importance of teaching their children. It’s why we are here today. We are a people who, for thousands of years, have told again and again our sacred story, the story of a God who is able to overcome nature, splitting seas, sending locusts, turning water into blood and staves into snakes. We tell these stories to recognize that only God rises above the forces of nature. It has become clear that we were wrong. Storms are stronger, temperatures more extreme, and the effects, from human migrations to famines to flooded cities, are our doing, not God’s. We have played with the equilibrium of the climate, by pumping carbon into our atmosphere, and have altered the creation God left us, to leave to our children. But we can still change the future. The Days of Awe remind us that the future is not yet written, and we are always able to turn our attention and to change our actions.
Just last week, a new UN report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted the damage we are doing to our oceans. This report is the product of “[m]ore than 100 authors from 36 countries [who] assessed the latest scientific literature related to the ocean and cryosphere[, areas covered in ice,] in a changing climate…referencing about 7,000 scientific publications.”[2] The results are startling but not surprising to anyone who has been paying attention.
I’m not a scientist. That’s my brother’s department. I’m the rabbi. But, I have read the same reports and reporting that you have, and I am convinced of the following:
First, to quote Ko Barrett, Vice-Chair of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: “‘The world’s ocean and cryosphere have been ‘taking the heat’ from climate change for decades, and consequences for nature and humanity are sweeping and severe, forcing people from coastal cities to remote Arctic communities to fundamentally alter their ways of life.’”
Second: Sea levels are rising: In the 20th century, the oceans rose globally by about 15 cm, but that has already increased to twice that rate. Even if greenhouse gas emissions are mitigated, the sea may still rise between 60 and 110 cm—that’s between 2 and almost 4 feet.
Third: Ever since the Industrial Revolution, when fossil fuels became the primary means of providing energy for our planet, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere has gone up. As carbon has gone up, so have the temperatures. A graph of temperature trends over the last 2,000 years shows that after a long period of gradual cooling, beginning in the 20th century, the mean temperature on earth has steadily and sharply risen.[3]
Finally, and most importantly: This is a human-created problem and will require a human solution. The Dean of Science at Columbia University explains that today, anywhere between 80 and 100 percent of the unusual warming we’ve seen is due to greenhouse gasses.[4]
That is what we know. The only questions are what we do about it and why we ought to care.
Today, as we celebrate the creation of the world, we are called also to work to protect it, so that our children will know that we did the work to leave it for them, so that we uphold our status as a ledor vador people! At the end of our Shofar service, we proclaim: “Hayom Harat Olam,” today is the day of the world’s creation, jubilantly and with literal fanfare from our Shofarot! As we celebrate and express our gratitude to God for creation, we ought to be cognizant that we are also acting less than gratefully to God by neglecting the commands that we have to be stewards of this earth, caretakers for the next generation.
Our tradition makes it clear that the earth is ours to watch over and protect. The Psalmist sang: הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם שָׁ֭מַיִם לַיי וְ֝הָאָ֗רֶץ נָתַ֥ן לִבְנֵי־אָדָֽם׃, The heavens belong to the Eternal, but the earth God gave over to humanity.[5] The story of our origins makes this even more clear.
In the second chapter of the book of Genesis, after God creates Adam, God creates Eden and places Adam therein, but with purpose. “The Eternal God took Adam and placed him in the garden of Eden, to till it and protect it.” The Hebrew for protect in that verse is from the root shamor, the same word God uses when teaching us about keeping Shabbat. We protect things that are important and Holy, worthy of our protection, worthy of our partnering with God in the endeavor. God intended that humanity always be stewards of the earth, to help it provide for humanity. Even before God creates Eve, God reminds Adam that his responsibility, and therefore humanity’s, generation after generation, dor lador, is to watch over the earth.
In the midst of the Garden, the
Midrash sees God going even further than the Torah’s sparse words. God impresses upon Adam that the earth is not
an infinite resource. It will require
care and concern. The earth is fragile,
and there is only one. We read in the
midrash to the book of Ecclesiastes that God says to Adam: “Look at My works! See how beautiful they
are—how awesome! I created them all for your sake. See to it that you do not
spoil and destroy My world; for if you do, there will be no one else to repair
it.”[6] Adam is cautioned to take care with this
world, because it is Divinely created.
It is the only One God will be creating.
Even in the time of the rabbis who penned this Midrash, there was already a recognition that the
earth is a finely balanced system and requires upkeep.
In
the morning liturgy, we read: Mah Gadlu,
ma’asecha Adonai, kulam bechochmah asitah – How glorious are your
creations, Adonai, you made them all in wisdom.[7] Each morning, we recognize the beauty of
creation, the divine design left in our hands to administer.
We
know and understand what happens when nature does not do what we expect. Our Torah is filled with stories of our
ancestors living with the consequences of the whims of nature. Abraham and Sara, and then Jacob and his
family, arrive in Egypt due to a famine, looking for food. Noah and his family survive a cataclysmic
flood due only to their righteousness, but also their recognizing the signs and
preparing for the deluge. At the end of
the story, God tells Noah that They will not again destroy the earth in this
way and seals that promise with a rainbow.
But, God says nothing about how humanity may come to do so.
Our prayers call out to God to give rain in
its proper season. The rabbis of old
understood the dangers of unpredictable weather. They understood it as a message from
God. What a shame if we don’t understand
it in the same way, a message from God, telling us to open our eyes and save
what we see!
On
Yom Kippur afternoon, we read the book of Jonah. The story of Jonah begins with a man called
by God to go to Nineveh and tell the people to repent of their sinful ways. Nineveh is to the East, and Jonah goes West
to the port of Yaffo to flee from God’s call by sea. While on the boat, Jonah goes to take a nap
and sleeps through a gathering storm on the waters. As the boat is tossed to and fro in the
tempest, he continues to sleep. The captain
has to wake him up! The crew recognizes
that someone’s God is trying to send them a message. When they realize it’s Jonah, he says to
them: “Cast me overboard into the sea, so that the sea may calm around you, for
I know that this terrible storm surrounds you on my account.”[8]
Ultimately,
they throw him over the side of the boat, the sea is calmed, and a great fish
swallows him. You can find out what
happens to Jonah next on Yom Kippur afternoon, but the message this morning is clear: sometimes the waters around us are trying to
send us a message, and all we need to do is wake up and listen to it. We need to listen to the cry for help from
our planet and jump into solutions that we know will work. We have the power in our hands and our minds
to change the course of this impending calamity, if only we decide that we have
the will to do it as well.
This
is a problem that took a few hundred years to create. How can any one of us make a difference? Important question.
To
answer, I’d like to talk about one more boat this morning. The zero-emission boat that 16-year-old
climate activist Greta Thurberg piloted across the Atlantic Ocean to America in
order to plead her case and the case of her generation to the powers that be in
Washington and at the UN. If you haven’t
yet had the opportunity to hear her remarks either before Congress or at the
UN, I urge you to find them and listen to her.
A
year ago, Greta began a protest in her native Sweden. For three weeks leading up to the elections,
she skipped school and sat outside Parliament House. After the elections, she continued to protest,
but only on Fridays, dubbing her effort Fridays for the Future. She was by herself. She was one young woman, a sign, and a belief
that the adults in the world owe her generation a livable world and solutions
for how to ensure that happens. Greta
would not remain the only one protesting the climate crisis like this. Inspired by her, a young woman named Alexandria
Villaseñor began protesting every Friday at the UN beginning last December. And there were others, inspired by Greta or
not, trying to do the same. Cut to one
year later, and the largest global climate protests on record, just last week,
which started in part because of one 15-year-old. From one person to more than 4 million
people. From one city in one country to more than 2,500 events in more than 163
countries covering all seven continents, organized and populated by and large
by the youth.
Responding
to the global climate strikes, Rabbi Nicole Roberts commented:
The children are protesting. They are frustrated, angry, disappointed, and
scared. Adults aren’t doing enough, they say, to heal the climate in time,
before the damage is irreversible, and our children and children’s children pay
the consequences. Ma’asei avot siman
l’banim, our sages said. “The actions of the parents are a signal for the
children.” Our inaction has prompted them to act. Good for them.[9]
Good for them indeed; and thank God for
them!
Who says one person cannot make a
difference? We can each have an impact. And as we do our work, we ought to be guided
by three main values: Ledor Vador, from generation to
generation. Im lo achshav aimaitai,
if not now, when? And Lo aleicha hamlacha ligmor, it is not up
to us to finish the task, but neither are we free to desist from it.
What can our congregation and community
do? First, I am announcing a new
initiative here at TBT, called TEVA.
TEVA is the Hebrew word for nature, but for us it stands for Temple
B’nai Torah Environmental Vision and Action.
After the Holidays, I will be reaching out to see who would like to work
on this in conjunction with me and the Social Action/Social Justice
committee. Under the auspices of TEVA,
we will be exploring ways that we can work to make our congregation, in
particular our building, more environmentally conscious. How can we reduce energy use? How can we reduce consumable usage and
plastics? How can we seek to have less
of a carbon footprint? How can we use
our property in the best way? Once our
building is covered we expand our reach and ask: how can we help our congregants do
similarly at their homes?
All of these questions have a variety
of answers, many of which we hope to find as we work to become a sustainable
congregation under the seal of HAZON, a not-for-profit organization, guided by
Jewish values, seeking to create sustainable and healthy Jewish
communities. We will join HAZON and work
with their help toward our goal.
Finally, I want us to plant trees. I want our congregation to be responsible for
planting 5780 trees, one for each year of creation, between now and our Mitzvah
Day in late May. I want us to use an
old, Jewish solution to a global problem.
Our ancestors understood the importance of planting trees. So important is that act, that even if the
Messiah arrives while you have the sapling in your hand, you are supposed to
finish planting the tree before going to greet him, according to the sages.[10]
After the fires in the Amazon this past summer
and global deforestation in the last decades, the earth just doesn’t have
enough trees to filter the carbon dioxide.
While it may take many millions even billions of trees to reverse
climate change, we can still do our part and our tradition tells us we must. There are not-for-profit organizations who
work to reforest areas of the globe for as little as a dollar a tree.[11] Our religious school students will be raising
tzedakah for this purpose.
Imagine if this coming year, for every
birthday, anniversary, bar and bat mitzvah, baby naming, confirmation,
graduation, basically every time Hallmark makes a card, if you took one dollar
and planted a tree, what a difference we could make. You want to plant a tree in Israel, go for
it! You want to plant a tree in your
yard? Go for it! But, keep me informed of all of them! We will be tracking our progress on a
Tree-mometer which is being made from recycled materials and which will be
displayed. We will have a check-in at Tu
B’Shevat, the date when in the ancient world the trees were counted for tax
purposes. And, I’ve already started us
off. To wish you all a Shanah Tovah, I
have planted one tree for every member family of our congregation. 550 trees! (I rounded...)
Now, we know what we can do and how to start. Over the year, we will be sharing more ideas
with you. We can see our way out of this
mess. We can begin to turn back the tide
of climate change, but we have to act quickly.
Time is running out. Dr. Kate
Marvel, an associate research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute, reminds
us: “there is no scientific support for inevitable doom. Climate change is not pass fail. There is a real continuum of futures, a
continuum of possibilities.”[12] The future is in our hands, it is not yet
written. As ledor vador people, we owe the future our fight and our hard work. Let this day, creation’s birthday, be the day
we make that commitment!
This work is exciting because it is necessary
and important. Let today be the day when
we as a congregation said to ourselves that, though we will not be here in 200
years, we see what is coming. Let our
great-great-grandchildren know and understand that we fought like their lives
depended on it because we knew that they did.
Let them know that we did it. Let
them look back at us so that rather than hang their heads in shame on their houseboats, they look back with pride that we came together to save that which
was left to us to leave to them; and let them be inspired by us to do the same
for their future.
Master of the Universe, in whose hand is the
breath of all life and the soul of every person, grant us the gift of this New
Year. With all of our senses may we perceive the glory of Your works. Fill us
with Your goodness, that we may attest to Your great deeds. Strengthen us to
become Your faithful partners, preserving the world for the sake of future
generations. Adonai our God and God of our ancestors, may it be Your will to
renew Your blessing of the world in our day, as You have done from the
beginning of time.[13]
Amen.
Shanah Tovah
[2]
IPCC Press release, September 24, 2019. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/3/2019/09/SROCC_PressRelease_EN.pdf
[3]
Cf. Mann, et al., 1999.
[5]
Ps. 115:16
[7]
Yotzer Or
[8]
Jonah 1:12
[9]
Used with permission of author
[10]
Avot de Rabbi Nathan, 31b
[11]
Onetreeplanted.org
[12]
In NYTimes: Schwartz,John Will We Survive Climate Change, Nov. 19, 2018
[13]
Nevins, Rabbi Daniel, Prayer for the Renewal of Creation, Siddur Lev Shalem, pulled
from: http://hazon.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/JCAN-HIGH-HOLIDAY-CLIMATE-PACKET.pdf
