Earth Etude for Elul 19

Greenwashing Initiatives Pollute the Mikvah

by Andy Oram

~Insincere gestures toward saving the climate fill the news these days. Governments classify biomass as a low-carbon energy source when many types of biomass¹ put more carbon in the air. Carbon offsets, vaunted by many companies, also are mostly for show. ²

Insincerity is a perennial human trait, of course. Someone promises to give up smoking and then takes up vaping. A corporate manager decides to stop micromanaging employees while installing computer software that tracks their clicks and keystrokes. Most of us want to look like better people than we are.

And we often fool other people. But we cannot fool God—or Nature.

The Jewish tradition addresses the need for sincerity directly when discussing t’shuva, the turn back to ethical paths during the High Holidays.

Maimonides talks about confession and repentance in Mishneh Torah, the chapter named Hilchot Teshuva. In verse 2:3 (which draws on the Talmudic verse Taanit 16a.14-15), Maimonides says that promising to improve one’s behavior, without an honest resolution in your heart to change, is like holding an unclean creature while immersing in a mikvah.

Let’s trace this odd metaphor back to its Biblical and Talmudic sources. The focus of the metaphor is a creeping creature (sheretz), a noun that springs from a Hebrew root meaning to swarm, teem, or infest. These creeping creatures appear in the Bible as early Chapter 1 of Genesis, on the fifth day of creation when God creates them along with other animals. So sheratzim (lizards, etc.) are a perfectly fine part of creation.

However, Chapter 11 of Leviticus labels creeping creatures as a source of ritual impurity, like corpses and improper genital emissions. Ritual impurity has essentially no meaning following the destruction of the Temple because this impurity governs such things as who can offer a sacrifice and who can eat food that was sanctified for the priests. But the concept is still metaphorically useful.

People used to enter the mikvah specifically to purify themselves after touching a creeping creature. So, bringing one into the mikvah with you would be absurd.

Similarly, actions that are advertised as beneficial to the climate, but actually are detrimental or useless, invalidate the intentions involved. We adopt eco-friendly products in the hope of making some tiny difference; but often we find that the changes had no impact or were balanced by some other harm. Greenwashing pollutes public discourse as the sheretz pollutes the mikvah.

Let’s follow Maimonides’ words about true repentance. This year, our repentance can lead us to seek out and be honest about the actual impacts on the world of our behavior and consumer choices.

Andy Oram is a writer and editor in the computer field. Print publications where his writings have appeared include The Economist, the Journal of Information Technology & Politics, and Vanguardia Dossier. Andy has lived in the Boston, Massachusetts area for 50 years and been a member of Temple Shir Tikvah, Winchester for more than 30 years. He has created numerous essays and poems on Jewish themes.

¹ many types of biomass (for more information click on link–Ed’s note)

2. Carbon offsets, vaunted by many companies, also are mostly for show. (for more information, click on link –Ed’s note)

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