Climate Change & Rosh Hashanah - 5782

#RoshHashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a time of prayer, family gatherings, special meals & sweet-tasting foods.

Rosh Hashanah & the Days of Awe that follow remind those who celebrate to pause, look inward to our souls, and reflect on the past year. It is a time to undertake an accounting of the soul, a cheshbon hanefesh, and to ask of ourselves and of each other questions that go beyond our own individual faiths: Whom do I want to be? What type of world do we want to create?

That is the message and gift of the Jewish New Year – a reminder of our infinite capacity to transform our lives and begin anew. That we may take care of brothers, sisters and more - to continue to rebuild our communities through empathy, acts of kindness, and compassion. To fix the broken systems- Tikkun Olam - repair the world. To make sure that all that are suffering are being seen and helped. To see the pain and joy. Celebrating the simchot (happy celebrations) through the darkness and seeing the damage we have done to the earth.

The connection between #climatechange and Rosh Hashanah might not be immediately apparent — unless, that is, you’re familiar with the Jewish custom of “shmita.” Shmita is a sabbatical year on the Jewish calendar. During shmita, Jews are commanded to let the land lie fallow. They may not sow, harvest or even buy and sell crops they produce from the land. They can only pick what grows on its own. Shmita is a biblical proof-text that there’s a time to sow, reap and a time — decreed from on high — for society to let nature recover. To every season, am I right?

Judaism, of course, knows from personal responsibility. Indeed, the prime directive of the New Year is atonement, making good with each person you have wronged so that you can make good with the almighty. And yet, the lesson of shmita clarifies that when it comes to caring for our planet, Earth, we must act together. Only climate action can prevent a tragedy of the commons.

To seek forgiveness, or teshuva, when we have fallen short of our values and our humanity and the land. Rosh Hashanah is a recommitment that we are each endowed, by the universe and our common humanity, with the ability to bridge the gap between the world we see and the world we seek.

May the year 5782 be a year of health, healing, and progress. And may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life.

Shanah Tovah U’Metukah. May it be a sweet, healthy, and happy new year.