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Religion and the Environment: Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb Interview Extended Interview
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- martin buber mid 20th century theologian said it well that um ultimately love of the creator and love of that which god has created are one and the
- same if you don't love creation what does it mean to say that you love god who so loved creation so the two are from the very opening verses of genesis
- all the way to the last surah in the holy quran or any other great revelation consistently speak about a god who put the universe into play and
- cares deeply about it and with whatever degree of literalism or or however figuratively we approach the sacred text if we get one idea it's that god is big
- and stands for oneness and interconnection and we take our humble smaller place as part of that chorus of praise
- the earth is god's and the fullness thereof i think of it as god is the landlord and we are tenants and it's very easy for tenants who trash an
- apartment to forget conveniently that there's a landlord who could issue warnings and ultimately an eviction notice psalm 24 deuteronomy chapter 11
- says the same thing that god is the landlord and that if we don't pay the rent and we don't maintain the apartment then an eviction notice is a possibility
- and i don't know what else rising sees and loss of of uh you know such a huge amount of the genetic
- diversity that god put on earth and increasing vectors for communicable disease i don't know what those are if not the
- warnings that lead to the eviction note i think the reason why the jewish tradition is built so much around the passover story is to hold us accountable
- to say any of us could be pharaoh don't in fact the torah teaches over and over that you should not oppress a stranger you should love a stranger because you
- know the heart of a stranger you were one in egypt and whether that applies to immigration issues or whether that applies simply to the reality of climate
- change refugees and people who are affected by this passover is a warning about many of the key issues of the day climate perhaps
- number one among them classical jewish law has not 10 commandments but 613 and number 529 uh comes from deuteronomy chapter 20
- verse 19. it's a law in wartime about not cutting down the enemy's trees even when it could give you military advantage and perhaps even save
- combatants lives you're still not allowed because the trees are not your enemy what i love the about the rabbis in the talmud almost 2 000 years ago
- they elucidated an entire environmental ethic out of that one scriptural reference by saying if we're not allowed to cut down a tree that belongs to the
- enemy under such dire circumstances how much more should we not allow trees to be felt simply for the
- convenience of the international economy i think there are three moral calls related to climate change one is for all of creation god created millions of
- species or call it the creative power of the universe that god got going created speciation we have all this biodiversity and we're losing it in the
- sixth great extinction in geological time we are the cause we are the asteroid this time that's bad enough
- then there's the human health impact particularly to the least of these when you think about disease and and the loss of economy the loss of farmland the
- rising of floods and of sea rise the most vulnerable populations are the poorest folks who didn't do very much to bring the climate crisis about
- but they're the first victims if we care about poverty if we care about people if we believe that love your neighbor as yourself means something then we need to
- respond to climate change with all of the moral and religious urgency that we have and finally it's also le d'orvadore as our tradition says from generation to
- generation this is a cumulative impact crisis we have not even begun to see the worst of what we ourselves have wrought because carbon stays in the atmosphere
- for a hundred years that's the third and fourth generation of which exodus 34 speaks religion is the sector that thinks
- intergenerationally and we know that these things are getting worse we know that in the grand scheme
- this question of how how healthy and how vibrant an ecosystem how resilient a set of natural systems we leave for our descendants will be how
- we are measured in the 21st century there are other great issues that also demand our attention but this is in many ways the overarching moral concern and
- we can do right on everything else but if we ignore this then we are quite literally swamped so if you make an investment in
- something very unsexy and unreligious like a really efficient boiler it makes a tremendous difference sometimes
- stewardship both in the financial and the environmental sense is in those little behind-the-scenes ways where you can make the biggest difference
- so it's been very good for the bottom line of the congregation it's also been very good for the sense of why people are involved in a religious
- community we have gained new members and retained wavering members because they see that this is a place that is making a difference and sending a message and
- training a generation of people with all the profundity of the faith tradition and ritual and language to be better stewards of creation
- climate change is going to cause food scarcity the likes of which we have never seen so people who are now putting energy into staffing local soup kitchens
- that is well placed energy it is sacred volunteerism but the scope of the number of hungry people is about to radically shift
- because of what we do so if you drive your gas guzzler to volunteer at the soup kitchen are you making things better or worse we need to begin to ask
- those tough questions one day and seven is of course sabbath and that is a day of just being not of doing it's a
- stepping back from the rat race of production and consumption and as jews it's our most special time it's also the goal to which we hope the other days can
- measure up so if the most special time is when we are not polluting it is when we are not consuming it is when we are being when we are creating community and
- music and poetry and fellowship then we have redefined what is good in society so sabbath shabbat and with it the sabbatical cycle of every seventh year
- and the jubilee of every 49th reminds us that we need to create those islands in time for meaning and
- those need to then become the radiant centers on the calendar that infuse the other days the other years with that spirit of sustainability if there's one
- core jewish teaching or contribution to the environmental discourse i really think it is shabbat the idea that the most special most sacred time is not
- about production and consumption it's about enjoyment and being and that will radiate out in the other six days of the week if you it it's
- already beginning to if you bring a sabbath consciousness to the week which is what so much of of sabbath worship is about trying to make sure that we don't
- only have our religious experience on sunday morning or friday prayer or or saturday it's about letting that spirit infuse
- the rest of the week and for sabbath it's a spirit of sustainability and when you talk about materialism you're talking about consumerism
- that maybe we were way too preoccupied with consuming absolutely in the mishna 2000
- years ago it asks who is rich and the answer is whoever is happy with their lot so much of tradition is to remind us to
- be content with what we have and to redefine move the goalposts of happiness it's not consumer goods it's not more things all
- of which are produced and disposed of with some marginal social and environmental cost the true sources of meaning are that which
- religion has specialized in for thousands of years it's poetry and music and worship and fellowship these things matter and they sustain us