"LET YOUR VOICE
RESOUND LIKE A SHOFAR"
ON APRIL 14
A Call for Jewish Involvement and a Personal Reflection
This April 14th will be a National Day of Climate Action. Tens of thousands of Americans, including many faith community groups, will gather all across the country at meaningful, iconic places to call for action on climate change. Currently 1096 events in 50 states are being organized! With only two weeks to go, Pesach in the middle, and taxes due two days later, it will be challenging to organize something big. However, as one Social Action Chair told me: "I can see encouraging our membership to join something that is ongoing." How to do this is described in the bullits below. Will Jews make their voices heard?
Paris, the day before Tu B'Shevat. The New York Times reported: "In a bleak and powerful assessment of the future of the planet, the leading international network of climate change scientists has concluded for the first time that global warming is "unequivocal" and that human activity is the main driver. They said the world is already committed to centuries of warming, shifting weather patterns and rising seas. But the warming can be substantially blunted by prompt action…"
United Nations, February 28. The Los Angeles Times reported on a United Nations Foundation study that warned "there may be as many as 50 million environmental refugees by 2010."
I am sitting on our little bench overlooking the magnificent canyon of the North Fork of the Skykomish River in Washington State. This is a place of towering Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, thousands of creeklets and waterfalls and moss and salmon and Bald Eagles.
But the North Fork was a scary beast last November - a consequence of a "Tropical Punch", a very warm wet storm that melted much of our snow pack. The Governor declared an emergency in 18 counties. Loud crashing sounds frightened our dog as boulders and huge logs came barreling down our river. A neighbor's home was washed into the river. More of these storms are predicted with climate disruption. The gravest danger in the Pacific Northwest and much of the world is a disrupted water cycle.
I like to walk along the river in the early morning light, when the river shimmers gold. I dip my hands into the living waters and recite the blessing of N'tilat Yadaim. There is a legend of a sacred prayer that fell from the Heavens as beaten gold into the hands of the great rabbis of the Sanhedrin. "Blessed is the One who spoke the word and the whole world came to be. Blessed is the One who has compassion for the creation, for the earth, for the creatures…"
I envision our river carrying these blessings out to the world and opening the hearts of women and men. Those who receive such blessings will review every aspect of their daily lives. They will see with painful realization the many ways that they have been wasteful and the enormous suffering this will cause. They will assess their "carbon footprint" and make adjustments in their ways of living. And they will feel joy, for our Talmud teaches us there is simcha b'mitzvah.
But many others will also feel pain of another sort. For what value is their voice? What value is their freedom, if they do not speak truth to power? "God says, 'Cry out with a full throat, do not hold back, let your voice resound like a shofar!'" (Isaiah 58:1)
It is in this sense that our river is a river of Heaven as well as a river of earth. Genesis 1:7 speaks of these heavenly waters and earthly waters. I have a t-shirt with a beautiful image of a river flowing down from high mountains, a river that is upon closer inspection - a tallit - bringing blessings to the earth.
Let us resolve, as Jews, to stand up and be counted among the people of the world - for justice, for choosing life. The National Day of Climate Action is April 14.
· See: http://www.stepitup2007.org
· Ask your fellow congregants to bring their tallit to the rally, and form a river of tallitot - a river of blessings. A flyer and more resources for Jewish involvement will be available atwww.stewardcreation.org/
· Talk to colleagues.
· Consider other educational events
Rabbi Abraham Heschel said: "To be is to stand for, and what human beings stand for is the great mystery of being God's partner. God is in need of human beings." May HaShem bless you in your holy work of partnering on behalf of creation, on behalf of our future Barak Gale
B&B proprietor on North Fork Skykomish. Part time optometrist. COEJL Speaker.
