Rosh Hashanah & Earth-Keeping

 

This evening marks the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This is the beginning of a ten day period of reflection and repentance. It has been noted by some Jews that because Rosh Hashanah recognized the creation of the world it is also an opportunity to consider how we 

Rosh Hashanah marks the anniversary of the creation of the world. In addition to the themes of repentance, self-reflection and prayer that are traditionally thought about during the Yamim Noraim (High Holy Days), we mark and celebrate God’s work in creating the world. As we contemplate our actions, both good and bad, during the past year, we turn our thoughts to the world around us and our role as stewards of Creation.

Religious Action Center of Reform Jews

We are approaching the conclusion of the Season of Creation/Creation Time/Creationtide in the Christian Year and it seems appropriate that we note that much of what our bible says about "living with respect in Creation" (UCC New Creed) comes from the passages about Creator and Creation in the Hebrew or Jewish scriptures. 

I think of Ellen Bernstein today, a river guide who became a rabbi and environmental writer. In 1988 she founded Shomrei Adamah, Keepers of the Earth, the first Jewish environmental organization. Bernstein died earlier this year at the tender age of 70 and because she sounded the shofar, the ram's horn, for environmental justice, I will share some of her thoughts with you: 

The Creation story, Jewish law, the cycle of holidays, prayers, mitzvot (good deeds) and neighborly relations all reflect a reverence for land and a viable practice of stewardship... 

Rabbi Bernstein Ecology & the Jewish Spirit: Where Nature & the Sacred Meet

Humanity's role is to tend the garden, not to possess it; to "guard it and keep it" (Genesis 2), not to exploit it; to pass it on as sacred trust, as it was given. Even though we are given the authority to have dominion over the earth and its creatures, we are never allowed to own it, just like we can't own the waters or the air. "The land cannot be sold in perpetuity" (Lev. 25:23). The land is the commons, and it belongs to everyone equally and jointly.

Ellen Bernstein, "Rereading Genesis: Human Stewardship of the Earth,” Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice