Canfei Nesharim

The Spiritual Roots of the Environmental Crisis

Beyond the physical causes, the widespread degradation of the natural world indicates that our way of life is out of balance. Thus the environmental crisis also reflects a spiritual crisis. Human-caused disruptions to the natural world emerge from the inner imbalance within billions of human beings. The change required of us to correct this is, to a significant degree, of a spiritual nature.
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Holy Use: Relating to Resources Sustainably

People living in consumer society relate to material objects in a vastly different way than people did in previous times. Age-old Jewish teachings reveal a Jewish vision for 'holy use' of the material world and relate deeply to today’s need for sustainable resource use.
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Countering Destruction: Lessons from Noach

The ancient story of Noah and the flood relates to many ecological issues facing the modern world. For example, the preservation of our environment depends on individuals taking accountability for their deeds.
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Slowing Down on Shabbat - A Remedy for Modern Times

In modern society, we are running, speaking, and thinking at an exceptional rate. Oftentimes we continue all week long without slowing down. We can get so caught up in the doing that we could spend our whole lives on the go. If being too busy is a malady of modern man, slowing down on Shabbat may be a key remedy.
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Sustainability in Settling the Land

Before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., the Jewish and gentile population expanded to about 2.1 million inhabitants.  During the period before and after the destruction of the Second Temple (20 C.E. to 200 C.E., also known as the Mishnaic period), the people living in the Land of Isarel were fed in good part from grain, wine, and oil produced in Israel.  At this time and for centuries afterward, most Jews still farmed the Land.
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Compassion for All Creatures

A basic rule of Jewish ethics is the emulation of God's ways. In the words of the Talmud, "Just as He is merciful, so shall you be merciful" (Tractate Sotah 14a). Therefore compassion for all creatures is not only God's business; it is everyone’s. Moreover, rabbinic tradition describes God's mercy as above all other divine attributes. Thus, compassion must not be reckoned as one good trait among others; rather, it is central to the entire Jewish approach to life.
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Summoning the Will Not to Waste

The commandment of Bal Tashchit-- do not destroy or waste-- has long been considered central to a Jewish environmental ethic. Indeed, Rabbi Norman Lamm understands it to be “the biblical norm which most directly addresses itself to the ecological situation.”  What is the basis for the commandment not to waste?
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Trees, Torah, and Caring for the Earth

An oft-quoted Midrash teaches: “When G-d created the first man He took him and showed him all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to him 'See My works, how beautiful and praiseworthy they are. And everything that I created, I created it for you. Be careful not to spoil or destroy My world - for if you do, there will be nobody after you to repair it.'"
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