Today, Oct. 24, 2009, hundreds of thousands of people in 180 countries across the globe are participating in the International Day of Climate Action, a day of teaching the world the number 350. 350 is the number of parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere that scientists say is the safe limit for humanity. We’re currently above that at over 387 parts per million of CO2. Around the world, large and small actions are taking place today in what is largest ecological event in world history, to try to convince world leaders to craft policies to help bring atmospheric concentrations of CO2 down to 350 parts per million, the amount that will enable life to continue to thrive on the planet. After Shabbat, you can read more about this at www.350.org.
This particular day was chosen not only because today is United Nations Day, but also because the United Nations is working on a global climate treaty, which is supposed to be completed in December of 2009 at a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. But the current plans for the treaty are much too weak to get us back to safety, so a world-wide grassroots movement, including faith communities and the Jewish community are telling world leaders that we need to reduce carbon emissions to get back down to 350.
What the organizers of this day did not realize is that today, the Jewish world is reading parashat Noach, the story in the Torah that more than any other, prophetically proclaims an ecological message for the world. This is either an amazing coincidence, a sign of Divine Providence, or proof of those conspiracy theories about Jews!
You all know the story of flood and the ark and the pairs of animals that were saved by Noah, but let’s look more closely at the Torah’s message for us on this day of International Climate Action.
First, in the Torah, why does God want to destroy most of life on earth? Va'timale ha'aretz chamas, — the earth was filled with violence. We might assume that this means people fighting, stealing, and destroying. But one midrash (Talmud Yerushalmi, Bava Metzia 4:2), however, proposes that the crime of the generation of the flood was petty theft, stemming not from scarcity, but from abundance and plenty. Because of their extraordinary prosperity, they lost respect for each other, for God, and for God’s creation.
So that’s why God brings the flood. Secondly, what about Noah? We generally think of him as a good guy who loved animals. The Torah says he was a righteous man, so God wanted to save him. But the Jewish tradition sees it as more complex than that. The Torah says Noach Eish Tzadik tamim hiyah b’dorotav – Noah was a righteous man in his generation. According to one view, he was relatively good in a corrupt generation, but was not as good as Abraham and, if he had lived in the time of Abraham, wouldn’t have been considered particularly righteous or special.
Look at the difference between Noah and Abraham. When God told Noah that the earth is to be destroyed, Noah does not say a word. He simply builds an ark and saves his own family — but nobody else. Not once does he argue with God to save another person’s life. But Abraham, when confronted with the proposed destruction of just two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, argues fiercely with God. The name “Noach” means comfortable, and reveals the character of Noah. He was only concerned with his own comfort, not the rest of the world around him. Perhaps that’s why we’re b’nei Avraham and not b’nei Noach because, the Jewish tradition wants us to be activists, concerned with our community, our world and not just with our own personal comfort and safety.
Thirdly, there’s another fascinatingly prophetic feature about the Noah story that must be mentioned on this International Day of Climate Action. Rashi, citing the midrash, explains that it took Noah 120 years to build the ark – remember he lived for 950 years – and why did it need to take so long? So that, according to Rashi, others would see him building the ark, ask what he was doing, he would answer them, “God is going to bring a flood upon the world,” and then they could repent and change their ways. In other words, God didn’t just destroy the earth, God gave us a warning for 120 years that the earth will be destroyed if we don’t change our ways!
So, what is parashat Noach teaching us? To review,
The flood comes from the collective actions of humanity who lost respect for the earth in their prosperity and over-abundance
We remember Noah, but we don’t consider him a hero to be emulated because he was more concerned with his own comfort than with saving the world
God gave us plenty of years of warning to change our ways and prevent the flood from taking place.
Finally, at the end of the story, after the flood, God makes a covenant, a brit, with everything on earth never to destroy the earth again, and the sign of that covenant is of course the rainbow – a big beautiful promise in the sky that we’ll never have another flood. Does that mean we don’t have to worry about global warming, and the floods, droughts, and weather disasters associated with climate change? No! Remember, a brit, a covenant is a two-way agreement. In order for it to be upheld, both parties have to do their part. In this case, it’s not just God, but we human beings who are responsible for the future of life on earth.
In concert with 350.org and the International Day of Climate Action, the Jewish people internationally have embarked on our own “Jewish Climate Change Campaign” (see www.jewishclimatecampaign.org) to make changes as individuals, institutions, and communities. You can go on the website and be one of 600,000 Jews (the same number that stood at Sinai) to affirm our covenant with God and to sign onto a pledge and see ways to get involved and take action.
And for those of you who are part of our Kol Shofar community, I invite you to join our Green Chavurah, a group of folks who want to make our community as green as possible. We have some wonderful plans in the works for our new building to be the greenest synagogue in the bay area, primarily because most of the materials are recycled and reused from our old building, but also including: energy saving lighting, a solar powered Ner Tamid (and plans for more solar power if we can raise enough money for it), a high efficiency dishwasher and dishes so we don’t have to throw disposables into the landfill each time we have Kiddush together.
But there’s so much more we can do in the meantime, namely: we’re trying to find a way to make our current Kiddush zero-waste, but we have not been able to find a place in Marin County that will compost our waste if we were to use all biodegradable plates and utensils – if you have any leads on this, please see me. It pains me every time we make Kiddush on a little plastic cup of wine, with all the resources, energy, and pollution that went into it, we use it for 10 seconds and then throw it into the landfill – in the name of sanctifying the holy day of Shabbat and celebrating the creation of God’s world. There’s got to be another way. Please join me and the Green Chavurah, if you’d like to change this.
Let’s pay careful attention to the urgent message of our Torah: we have a covenant with God for the well-being of our planet and the future of life on earth, we have a responsibility and an opportunity to make changes to make sure that a great flood will never again destroy life on earth.
Shabbat Shalom
Thanks to Nigel Savage and Jessica Haller, Daniel Bloom, and Ellen Bernstein for their ideas and pointing to texts used in this drash. See:
HYPERLINK "http://ajws.org/what_we_do/education/publications/dvar_tzedek/5770/noach.html#f3" http://ajws.org/what_we_do/education/publications/dvar_tzedek/5770/noach.html#f3
HYPERLINK "http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c55_a16996/Editorial__Opinion/Opinion.html" http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c55_a16996/Editorial__Opinion/Opinion.html
HYPERLINK "http://www.theshalomcenter.org/node/1604" http://www.theshalomcenter.org/node/1604
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