DAYS OF AWE:

The Environmental Connection to the Yamim Noraim, Days of Awe

by Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb

• “Be gracious to us and respond to us,” Avinu Malkeinu. The Ten Days of Repentance emphasize hierarchy – God is Parent / Sovereign; we are children / subjects. God is Sculptor and Shepherd, we are clay and sheep. We powerless ones beseech the One to act kindly with us, to show us grace. But then we return to a world in which we have the power. Might we hear Bangladeshis, displaced or drowning in low-lying coastal zones of grinding poverty, asking beneficence of Americans who burn a gallon of gas to bring home a gallon of milk? We, who wish for grace, must extend grace; we who pray for mercy must act mercifully. Today grace and mercy will require real, systemic change on our part.

• Sin, Al Het. “For the sin we have committed against You by our arrogance and pride… by our avarice and greed… by unwillingness to change… knowingly or not.” So reads the traditional Yom Kippur text, speaking afresh today when the resources of five Earths (!) would be needed just for everyone today to enjoy the standard of living that we upper-middle-class Americans now do. We might transpose: “for the sin of putting comfort above conscience; for the sin of putting convenience above compassion” – or more specifically, “for the sin of low MPG; by misuse of the thermostat; by reaping the quarterly dividends of un-sustainability.” The whole nature of our vidui / confessional is newly relevant.

• “Who by fire and who by water,” Unetaneh Tokef. The gases we release exacerbate deadly heat waves (thousands killed in western Europe) and deadly storms (thousands killed along the Gulf Coast). Nature is amoral, but compounding its effects is our own immorality.

• Choosing Life, uvacharta bachayim. The Yom Kippur morning Torah reading (Deut. 30:19) reminds us that we, empowered to embrace either curse or blessing, enjoy free will – then it bids us “choose life, that you and those after you may live.” The choices we make indeed dictate life or death, for those alive today but more so for those in “the third and fourth generation.” What world do we leave them?

Depressing as all this may be, hope does remain. We can choose life and blessing; we can avert the severity of the decree through our repentance/tshuvah, our prayer/tefillah, and our righteousness/tzedakah. Our incremental actions really can bring measurable change, even to the whole biosphere. And: if we can meaningfully address such a long-term, complex, global issue as climate change, how much more so can we improve on the myriad immediate, simple, private concerns where most of our tshuvah centers. May our repentance this season be thorough, meaningful, and sustainable. Shanah tovah.”