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Parshat Va’era: The Earth is the Lord’s

By Dr. David Goldblatt View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet Divine chastisement, brought in the form of affliction and suffering, can be an effective, if undesirable, instrument for individual and social learning. The ten plagues that G-d visits on the Egyptians and their Pharaoh in this week’s portion Va’era (as well as in next week’s portion Bo) publicly demonstrate G-d’s power to both Egypt and Israel. In the warnings and reproofs accompanying the plagues, G-d and Moses ...

Parshat Bo: Taking Notice in Our Time

By Rabbi Shaul David Judelman View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet The original Jewish geography, according to our mystical tradition, has three components- Place, Time and Soul (Olam, Shanah and Nefesh). These are the basic dimensions in which we exist and interact with our world. Environmental thought often dwells in the realm of place, as clearly the physical world has inherent ecological import. Therefore, when we read the Torah for its environmental wisdom, we usually look for passages relating ...

Parshat Yitro: Love of G-d and Material Desire

By Yonatan Neril View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet The Ten Commandments given in this week’s Torah portion Yitro culminate with the command not to covet: “You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or whatever belongs to your neighbor.”[1] The 19th century Torah commentator Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg explores this commandment, and in so doing ...

Parshat Mishpatim: Humans as Co-creators, Co-owners as well [1]

By Rabbi Norman Lamm, PhD View Printable Version l View Source Sheet In this week’s Torah portion of Mishpatim, G-d commands the Jewish people concerning the laws of borrowing and guarding property.[2] The relations between G-d, people, and nature may be clarified by referring to the Halakhah (Jewish law) concerning the relationships between owner, material, and artisan. The Mishnah discusses the case of a man (owner) who gave some material to an artisan to fashion it. The artisan, instead of repairing, spoiled the object. The law is that the artisan must pay the amount of the damages to the owner. The question then arises ...

Parshat Terumah: Is G-d present in our Consumption

By Ariel Shalem View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet The Mishkan (Sanctuary), the traveling “House of G-d” built by the Israelites in the desert, is an elaborate structure built of royal and expensive materials. Reading the passages that describe its construction, one could easily be led to ask, “What does such a grandiose and this-worldly building have to do with G-d?” Yet the ...

Parshat Tetzaveh: All That’s Gold Doesn’t Glitter [1]

By Shimshon Stüart Siegel View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet The Torah portion Tetzaveh continues the instructions for the building of the Mishkan, or Sanctuary, which were begun in last week's portion, Terumah. The Mishkan is the center of the Israelite camp, the locus of the Divine Presence on earth, and the precursor of the Temple in Jerusalem. Appropriately, the ...

Parshat Ki Tisa: The Coin of Fire-Rectification of Material Wealth

By Shimshon Stüart Siegel (with research by Yonatan Neril) View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet Parshat Ki Tisa opens with G-d commanding Moses (Moshe) to take a census of the Children of Israel by collecting a half-shekel coin from each adult. The silver from these coins is to be used to make the sockets that hold the planks of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle that will be G-d's ...

Parshat Vayakhel: An Ecological Message in Shabbat [1]

By Yonatan Neril View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet Our Torah portion this week, Vayakhel, begins with Moses (Moshe) assembling the entire community of Israel and commanding them in the mitzvah that many say is the essence of Judaism: "These are the things that the Lord commanded to make. Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have ...

Parshat Vayikra: The Pending Guilt-offering and the Global Climate

By Rabbi Shlomo Levin and Yonatan Neril [1] View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet This week’s Torah portion of Vayikra describes the various voluntary and obligatory sacrifices that G-d commands the Jewish people to bring. Two types of offerings, the chatat ...

Parshat Tzav: When Eating Meat was a Sacrifice

By Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D. View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet And that which is left thereof [from the meal-offering] shall Aaron and his sons eat; it shall be eaten without leaven in a holy place; in the tent of meeting they ...

Parshat Shemini: An Abundance of Fish

By Candace Nachman View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet In this week’s Torah portion, Shemini, the Jewish people are given the laws concerning fish consumption. Leviticus 11:9-12 explains that all creatures in the waters, in the ...

Parshat Emor: Our Relationship to Other Creatures

By Ora Sheinson View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet Rabbi Judah said in the name of Rav: Everything that the Holy One, Blessed Be, created in G-d's world -G-d did not create a single thing in vain. (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 77b) In Genesis, G-d looked at all that G-d created and saw that it was very good.[1] Since then, the vast diversity of life on the planet has not gone unnoticed by Jewish Sages. Explicitly because the Torah ascribes G-d’s intention as well as G-d’s satisfaction to the existence of every life form, they were moved to derive a deep lesson. The Midrash on Exodus Rabbah ...

Parshat Behar: The Mitzva of Shemitah

By Noam Yehuda Sendor View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet Before the sin of Adam and Chava (Eve), the Earth provided sustenance not through the plotting and plowing of people, but rather through prayer. In the Talmud (200 C.E.-~500 C.E.), the Sage Rav Assi expounds that the vegetation would not break through the Earth until Adam came along and prayed to G-d to have mercy on the Earth. The rains fell and the Earth sprouted.[1] The removal of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil can be interpreted as a decision to derive pleasure from G-d’s Earth without paying attention to the consequences it would ...

Parshat Bechukotai: The Blessing of Rain

By Yonatan Neril View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet Praying for rain is a key part of the spiritual life of a Jew. For almost half of the year, our daily prayers include praise of G-d as the One who “makes the wind blow and the rain descend” and a request that G-d will “give dew and rain for a blessing on the face of the earth."[1] A special blessing for rain appears in the liturgy of the holiday of Shemini Atzeret, at the beginning of Israel's rainy season. We pray that the Divine bring beneficial rain, which falls at the right time to nourish our crops and fills our reservoirs. As the Talmud ...

Parshat Naso: Learning from Our Mistakes

By Evonne Marzouk View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet In the Torah portion of Naso, we learn of the treatment of the Sotah, a wife who is suspected of adultery. Because her guilt cannot be proven by witnesses, but her husband suspects her and cannot forgive her without proof of her innocence, a miraculous test determines her innocence or guilt. The woman is forced to drink “bitter waters that cause curse”[1], formed of water, the dirt of the sanctuary, and the ink of an erased curse. If the woman is guilty, she will die; if she is innocent, she will be cleared of all suspicion. I...

Parshat Beha’aloscha: Balancing Natural Forces

By Dr. Jon Greenberg View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet This week's Torah portion begins on a positive, confident note. Moshe (Moses) is commanded to transmit the Divine instructions for lighting the oil-lamp menorah to Aharon (Aaron), and to dedicate the tribe of Levi to the service of the mishkan (Tabernacle). The instructions are clear, simple, and direct, and the imagery is positive—light, bathing, cleanliness, consecration. Yet, by the end of the parshah, the Jewish nation has degenerated to the point that they are punished with mass destruction and burial at Kivrot ...

Parshat Shelakh: Very, Very Good

By Miriam and John Schlackman View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet Our world abounds with mistreatment of the earth. From climate change and ozone layer depletion to urban sprawl and water pollution, our misuse of resources is stunning. But should we be surprised, when ‘Western’ culture seems so heavily invested in the delusion that personal fulfillment can come from just one more wide-screen TV or SUV? The good news is that the portion of Shelakh not only gives us the deepest of understanding of what is happening, but also points to how we can get out of this ...

Parshat Korah: Becoming Holy

By Rabbi Yehudah Levi View Print Version l View Source Sheet The portion of Korach is named for the rebellious Levite Korach who started a dispute over the issue of kedushah. The concept of kedushah is central in Judaism, and its meaning can have profound impact on the environment today. Kedushah or the corresponding adjective, kadosh, are usually translated obscurely as "sanctity" or "holy"; its real meaning is: devotion to a sublime ideal.[2] In our portion the Torah tells us that, following his demagogic ...

Parshat Chukat: Water Consciousness

By Yonatan Neril View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet This week's Torah portion, Chukat, can be viewed as a narrative about the Jewish people and water. Mayim (water in Hebrew) is mentioned twenty-two times. The portion begins with G-d’s command to mix water with the ashes of a red cow for purification. Next, Miriam dies, and the well which provided the Israelites with water (based on Miriam’s merit) disappears.[1] The Jewish people quarrel with Moses, kvetching, “There is no water to drink!" [2] Moses and Aaron then strike the rock and G-d ...

Parshat Mattot: Living in Balance

By Yonatan Neril View Printable Version | View Source Sheet This week’s Torah portion, Mattot, conveys a profound message about the ways in which we struggle to balance material and spiritual aspirations. With the Jewish people poised on the east bank of the Jordan River in what is now modern-day Jordan, the tribes of Reuven and Gad make a strange request of Moses. They ask his allowance to settle where they are rather than receiving their portion in the Land of Israel [1]. In describing the event, ...