Climate Change
Climate Change
Rabbi Alexander Davis
24 Tishrei 5778
“Vayar elohim ki tov And God looked and saw and it was good.”
“Vayar elohim ki tov And God looked and saw and it was good.”
“Vayar elohim ki tov And God looked and saw and it was good.”
Over and over, God looks out on creation and proclaims it good. But today, when look out, we see that things are far from good: A tragic fire in California; a hurricane season that was one of the worst ever; floods that have taken a heavy toll in lives and property; the third successive hottest year in recorded history; glaciers and polar ice melting and rates not seen in thousands of years.
In the face of these natural disasters, I wonder, what did God see that was so good? We might think that was the pristine, undisturbed nature of God’s original creation that is called, “good.” But if we look carefully, the first time God pronounces “good” it is not for all of creation but just one aspect.
“Vayar et haor ki tov God saw that the light was good.” Rashi explains the pshat, the straightforward meaning- God saw that it was good to separate light and darkness, “the two should not be confused and mixed up ein naeh l’or v’lchosesh shmishtamshim b’arbuviya.” One was given the day and the other the night.
We can appreciate Rashi’s explanation on a metaphorical because, of course, this light came three days before sunlight. Light is the symbol of learning, of enlightenment, of scholarship, of reason. Rashi thus challenges us to separate light from darkness, clarity from concealment, openness from obfuscation.
In that vein, when we look out on our world, we must separate obvious fact from fiction, intellect from ignorance. Specifically, there is no denying by anyone committed to reason and scientific inquiry that humans have a role in climate change. The final 2017 draft report on climate change complied by scientists from 13 US federal agencies, whose non-partisan research is mandated by Congress, sets forth evidence of “continuing, rapid, human-caused warming of the global atmosphere and oceans. It is “extremely likely,” the report concludes, “that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.”
Large-scale fossil-fuel combustion, widespread deforestation and other changes to the atmosphere and landscape have put us on this path of natural disaster. And the human toil that will follow will disproportionately affect countries and classes economically weaker and less able to cope.
But does it have to be that way? As we begin the Torah once again, we are reminded not only of the original creation but the original commandment. When God planted Adam in the Garden of Eden, God told him, your job is not just to work the earth but to protect it, l’voda ulshomra. If the Bible teaches anything, writes JTS Chancellor Arnie Eisen, it is human responsibility for the well-being of humanity, and especially the most vulnerable. That lesson has never seemed more relevant. The Earth itself now joins the vulnerable in dependence on us to save them.
The holidays are finally over but the shofar must continue to echo, the alarm must continue to sound calling us to act and inspiring us to build a world in which we proudly proclaim, vayar ki tov, it is good indeed.