Reflections from the Tri-Abrahamic Dialogue on the Climate Crisis
Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, Founder and CEO of Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action
It was an honor to be in dialogue last fall with Dr. Ibrahim Özdemir, Rev. Dr. Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam, and Ashley Kitisya as part of the Parliament of World Religions’ webinar. We spoke about what our faith demands of us: to care for creation in this time of climate emergency. I shared a Jewish teaching, based on a line from Kohelet/Ecclesiastes. (Kohelet Rabba 7:13)
ְּב ָׁש ָעה ֶׁש ָּבָרא ַה ָּקדֹוׁש ָּברּוְך הּוא ֶאת ָאָדם ָה ִראׁשֹון, נְ ָטלֹו וְ ֶה ֱח ִזירֹו ַעל ָּכל ִא ָ ילנֵי ַּגן ֵעֶדן, וְָא ַמר לֹו, ְר ֵאה ַמֲע ַׂשי ַּכ ָּמה נָ ִאים ּו ְמ ֻׁש ָּב ִחין ֵהן, וְ ָכל ַמה ֶּׁש ָּבָר ִאתי ִּב ְׁש ִב ְ ילָך ָּבָר ִאתי, ֵּתן ַּד ְע ְּתָך ֶׁשֹלא ְת ַק ְל ֵקל וְ ַת ֲח ִריב ֶאת עֹו ָל ִמי, ֶׁש ִאם ִק ְל ַק ְל ָּת ֵאין ִמי ֶׁשיְ ַת ֵּקן ַא ֲחֶריָך
When the Holy Blessed One created Adam the first human, God took Adam and showed him all the trees in the Garden of Eden, and God said to him: ‘See My creations, how beautiful and exemplary they are. Everything I created, I created for you. Take heed that you do not ruin and destroy My world, for if you do destroy it, there will be no one to mend it after you.
Embodied in this teaching is first a recognition of the beauty and power of creation. In our Shabbat morning liturgy we proclaim multiple times the line from Psalms 92:6: יהוה מעשיך גדלו מה How great is your work, oh God. We are called to recognize the awe and beauty of creation in all its glory. This teaching also makes clear that the responsibility for protecting creation rests with us. Stated in the negative, we must not destroy or ruin God’s creation.
In the face of the climate emergency, the final line resonates particularly powerfully. If we destroy creation, there will be no one after us to mend it. This has especially painful resonance. One of the most central concepts in Jewish life is the power and truth of generations – that we live and should continue to live l’dor v’dor, from generation to generation. The climate crisis now threatens our very ability to do this – a crisis we ourselves have brought about and have an obligation to address.
Our tradition calls us to ensure that as we care for creation and address the climate crisis, we focus on the impacts on communities that are marginalized, discriminated against, and on the front lines of devastation. In the United States, this often means Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor communities.
Jewish tradition calls us to make sure that the future we are envisioning and building is one that is livable, sustainable, and also more just for all people, for generations to come.
In the webinar we also discussed the fact that within many communities, caring for our climate is sometimes still perceived as optional or secondary. Faith leaders and communities play a vital role in shifting this narrative — making the climate crisis central to both spiritual life and moral responsibility.
How is this? To begin with, they are uniquely positioned to raise the big existential and moral questions of our time. To say the hard things. To name the proverbial elephant in the room: the climate crisis is unfolding even more quickly and severely than expected.
It is accelerating at a pace that is surprising even to many scientists who have been studying climate for decades. We must not stop talking about this, raising the alarm, and keeping the climate crisis front and center as the existential issue of our time.
Second, hand in hand with this alarm, we must remind people of their agency, their strength, and their ability to do hard and courageous things. We have a very real ability to collectively make change, and we must inspire and support people to access that capacity.
Finally, it can be difficult to face the truth of what is at stake on an emotional and psychological level. Without massive change, we are hurtling towards a world in which much of the earth will become uninhabitable; our children and grandchildren will not have enough food to eat or clean air to breathe or water to drink; and many major cities will be underwater. This can feel like too much to take in, so we disassociate, turn away, or distract ourselves. How can our souls and psyches bear such a painful possibility? So part of our work as faith leaders and communities is to spiritually resource people and communities to confront the climate crisis. We must provide spaces for people to grapple with the emotional, psychological, and spiritual dimension of the climate crisis – the anxiety, sadness, anger, grief, and pain it can raise. The climate crisis is not only a political, ecological, and social justice issue; it is also an issue of the soul. We have the opportunity to offer people spiritual resources, grounded in our traditions and rituals, to confront the crisis with their eyes and hearts open.
Together these three approaches – naming hard truths, supporting people to access their agency to make change, and spiritually resourcing people in the face of the climate crisis – can support people to make caring for creation and addressing the climate crisis more central in their lives.
The story at the core of the Jewish people’s narrative is the journey out of a mitzrayim, Egypt, or literally, a narrow place. It is a place of oppression – like so many peoples have faced. While wandering in the desert, God reminds us that the path forward, and our redemption, is not in the heavens or beyond our reach. הואִ םִמיַ שָּׁבַ לאֹ lo b’shamayim hi. Our redemption is in our hands.
In Deuteronomy God says, Surely, this instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach.
It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?’
ִּכֽ ָ י־ק֥רֹוב ֵאֶ֛ליָך ַהָּדָ֖בר ְמ֑אֹד ְּב ִ֥פיָך ּו ִ ֽב ְל ָב ְב ָ֖ך ַל ֲעׂשֹ ֽתֹו׃
No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it. (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)
The future of the world is in our hands. In our hands, as in, it is on us. It is up to all of us. And, also it is in our hands. We have the capacity. We have the science. We have the resources. We have the people. And we have the power.
We have the opportunity to close the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be. Driving home just how important it is for us to understand and claim our power to act, God continues saying to the Israelites, See, I set before you this day life and prosperity, death and adversity…Choose life – that you and your offspring will live. (Deuteronomy 30:15;19)
Since we gathered for our webinar a year ago, our government has stripped away more climate protections; many of our state leaders have backed away from their climate commitments, slowing our urgent need to transition to clean, renewable energy; and millions more people have suffered from massive heat waves, fires, smoke, floods, severe storms, and hurricanes. What has changed is not what is needed from faith leaders and communities, or from all of us. Rather, the urgency has grown. The scientific reality of the climate crisis does not slow for humans to catch up. It therefore has become only more essential that we recognize what we must do, right now.
מיםִ חֲ רַ לאֵ מָ אלֵ El melah rachamim, God full of compassion, bestow on us the wisdom to accept the call of our tradition and truly internalize the knowledge that we have the capacity to birth a more just and sustainable world. הואִ םִמיַ שָּׁבַ לאֹ Lo b’shamayim hi. It is not in heaven. The capacity, and yes, the responsibility, lie with us.
Please God give us the strength to act courageously, coming together to build the world we so desperately need so that all people may live and thrive for generations to come.
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