Rabbis: Scripture Says ‘If We Refuse to Let Earth Rest, It Will Rest Anyways’

With Pope Francis’ forthcoming encyclical on climate change due out on June 18, religious communities are preparing to seize this rare moment of environmental spotlight.  The much anticipated papal declaration will lay out the church’s views on the subject, and now members of the Jewish community — inspired by the church’s efforts — have released a letter of their own calling for “vigorous climate action.”

The Rabbinic Letter on the Climate Crisis, which was initiated by seven rabbis from across the spectrum of Jewish faith, has been signed by more than 340 rabbis.  Released in late May, it calls for “spiritual leadership of the Jewish people to speak to the Jewish people as a whole and to the world on this deep crisis in the history of the human species and of many other life-forms on our planet.”

In other words, it is a call for a “new sense of eco-social justice.”

According to Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of the Shalom Center and one of the seven authors, the the rabbis came up with three main reasons to take immediate action on climate change.

As laid out in an article in the American Jewish publication Forward, Waskow states that the rabbis wanted to bring “unique Jewish wisdom” to the efforts to heal the world from climate change; to remind the Jewish community that the “relationship between humans and the earth is encoded in the Torah;” and to connect with the younger generation of Jews who are concerned about the damaged world they and their children may inherit.

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