Relating Tisha B’av to Today’s Environmental Crises

By RICHARD H. SCHWARTZ

Tisha B’Av (the 9th day of the month of Av) which we commemorate this year on July 24, reminds us that over 2,000 years ago Jews failed to heed the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah, which resulted in the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem.

Now the entire world, not just Jerusalem, faces destruction according to many climate scientists and environmentalists — modern day “Jeremiahs.” Some noted climate experts, including James Hansen of NASA, are warning that global warming could reach a tipping point and spin out of control within a decade, with catastrophic consequences, unless major changes are soon made. In a recent report, 11 retired US generals and admirals stated that the effects of global climate change, including droughts, flooding, wildfires and severe storms, will sharply increase the number of refugees and increase the prospects for instability, violence, terrorism and war. A recently released UN report indicated that the genocidal conflict in Darfur has been driven by climate change and environmental degradation, which threaten to trigger a series of additional wars across Africa unless more the damage is soon contained.

Israel is also endangered since global climate change could reduce the rainfall that Israel is so dependent on and could cause the Mediterranean Sea to rise, threatening the 60 percent of Israelis who live in its coastal plain. Israel also has other major environmental problems. More Israelis die from air pollution than from terrorism and automobile accidents combined and Israeli rivers are badly polluted.

Environmentalists are also warning about rapid species extinction, destruction of tropical rain forests and other valuable habitats, soil erosion and depletion and many additional environmental threats. Unfortunately, as in the time of Jeremiah, these increasingly strong warnings are generally being ignored.

On Tisha B’Av, Jews fast to express their sadness over the destruction of the two Temples and to awaken us to how hungry people feel. So severe are the effects of starvation that the Book of Lamentations (4:10) states that “More fortunate were the victims of the sword than the victims of famine, for they pine away stricken, lacking the fruits of the field.” Yet, today, an estimated 20 million people worldwide die annually because of hunger and its effects, and global warming and widening water shortages threaten to decrease food supplies even further.

Jeremiah stressed that people should apply basic Jewish teachings to avoid the looming catastrophe. Today, as well, the application of basic Jewish teachings can help us avoid modern perils. These teachings include:

• We are to be co-workers with God in working to protect the environment.
• We are to work the land and to guard it (Genesis 2:15); hence, we are to be shomrei adamah, guardians of the Earth.
• We are not to waste or unnecessarily destroy anything of value (bal tashchit, based on Deuteronomy 20: 19. 20).

Jewish sages connected the word “eichah” (alas! what has befallen us?) that begins the reading of Lamentations on Tisha B’Av and a word that has the same root “ayekah” (“Where art thou?”), the question addressed to Adam and Eve after they had eaten the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. In order to avoid having to mournfully recite “eichah” regarding present threats, perhaps we have to properly respond to “ayekah” today by answering “hineni,” here I am, ready to apply Jewish teachings in response to current environmental threats.

The reading of the book of Lamentations on Tisha B’Av is meant to awaken the Jewish people to the need to return to God’s ways, by showing the horrors that resulted when God’s teachings were ignored. The readings on Tisha B’Av help to sensitize us so that we will hear the cries of lament and change our ways. Rabbi Yochanan stated “Jerusalem was destroyed because the residents limited their decisions to the letter of the law of the Torah, and did not perform actions that would have gone beyond the letter of the law” (‘lifnim meshurat hadin’) (Baba Metzia 30b). in this time of major environmental threats, widespread hunger, and epidemics of chronic degenerative diseases, perhaps it is necessary that Jews go beyond the strict letter of the law and play out our mandated role to be a “light unto the nations” in leading in efforts to reduce global warming and other environmental problems.

This Tisha B’Av, we should learn from our history and heed the holiday’s basic lesson that failure to respond to proper admonitions can lead to catastrophe. The Jewish people must make tikkun olam (the repair and healing of the planet) a major focus in Jewish life today, and consider personal and societal changes that will start to move our precious, but imperiled, planet to a sustainable path. By doing this, we would be performing a great kiddush Hashem (sanctification of God’s Name).