JUDAISM AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Awareness and Intimacy:
Jewish Mindfulness as the Foundation for Environmental Action

by Rabbi Jonathan Slater, Program Director, Institute for Jewish Spirituality

Jewish mindfulness practice as a spiritual discipline has the capacity to both awaken Jews to the significance of the environmental crisis and their relation to it, and to support sustained, effective action in response. One way of understanding how Jewish life and thought may have dulled Jews’ attentiveness to the natural world and care for its well-being is the experience of exile. This experience alienates one from oneself, from the world and from God. Yet, the Jewish tradition has also claimed that Jews (and people in general) are God’s partners in perfecting creation.

Distant from God, alienated from their true home and their true self, Jews may have come to sense that God is not involved in the workings of the world, and that we alone must do God’s work. This attitude, verging on idolatry, is reflected in the consequence of exile: abuse of the earth. This is not to argue that Judaism or Jewish texts support or do not support a positive attitude toward the natural world or the preservation of the environment. Rather, the experience of exile produced a perception that may actually have stood opposed to the best teachings of Judaism. It is attending to and acknowledging that felt experience and its consequences that mindful Jewish practice may support.

Mindfulness is a practice that helps us to wake up to the truth of our experience. It challenges us to consider how our perceptions have been shaped by our conditioned experience, how we live by stories that may not be true. While it may be true that Jews live in exile from the Land of Israel, the question must be asked if this means that, by necessity, they are cut off from God, or if it implies a fundamental alienation from the experience of truth and wholeness. The question that arises in mindfulness practice is: What is true? Pursuing the answer to this is the path to a relationship with God. The seal of the Holy One is Truth (emet). Why emet? In answer to this, R. Shimon b. Lakish said: Alef is the first of the letters [of the alphabet], mem the middle one and tav the last [spelling emet]. In this manner it corresponds to the verse, ‘I am the first, and I am the last, and beside Me there is no God’” (Is.46:6; Gen.R.81:2). Seeking to know the truth is to seek God.

This, too, is the goal of Jewish spiritual practice, particularly as the commandments are perceived as a means to connect with, and serve, God. Experiencing moments of this awareness reveals not only our own connection to God, but the deep connection we have to all other beings. The very breath that sustains us, recognized as that which God placed in us to bring us into life, is not ours alone, but is shared with all of existence. As we become more aware of the truth of the moment, we also become aware of our ability, desire and obligation to respond to that truth. We experience a sense of commandment, that which must be done. Serving God, through the awareness of the truth, through observance of commandments, means to serve all existence as well. Even when we do not follow through in that moment, the awareness remains, and we are moved, slowly but forcefully, to act in truth. Mindfulness is a means to support ongoing, sustained awareness and action.

These experiences and moments of awareness are the product of mindfulness meditation and mindfulness practice. We become aware of how our perception of and response to the events of our lives are shaped by our conditioned experience, which in turn lead us to color and explain these events and our response to them in the form of stories. Mindful awareness can help to liberate us from these stories so that we can more clearly see the truth of the moment. Central to this process is the awareness of how painful it is to experience aspects of our lives. Even those stories that we use to comfort ourselves can be painful in the end. We seek to soothe the pain we feel in our experience of change and impermanence through having, getting and possessing things. To free ourselves we will want to offer ourselves some compassion, loosening our attachment to these stories, and opening us up to perceive the suffering of others. Our sense of compassion toward others will lead us to seek justice for all beings, to be generous in our expression of care and concern for them. In this manner we will come to see our interconnection with all of creation. As we see the impermanence of all existence, we will develop a degree of equanimity and steadfastness.

Judaism offers practices that can support mindful awareness and energize our more positive, compassionate and righteous response to the experience of our lives and our engagement in and use of the natural world. Two examples are the practice of Shabbat and awareness of the limits the Torah sets on our use of the world through the institutions of the seventh year of release and the jubilee.

Judaism as a system of thought and belief has many valuable and meaningful teachings relative to creating and maintaining a healthy world environment. Those teachings, however, to have an effect on Jews in their lived lives, must do two things: provide clear practices by which Jews can be guided in their lives; and provide practices that address the felt sense of existence in this moment. The latter is particularly significant. Most Jews today do not immediately feel compelled to follow Jewish law or instruction. If they are to do so, those practices must be felt to improve their lives; and help them live in a complex and difficult world. Further, if those practices are to be effective in changing peoples’ behavior and their felt sense of their place in the world, to overcome a sense of alienation and exile, they must lead to a more balanced awareness and evenness of spirit. Mindful Jewish awareness is a tool toward that end.