Living Green

    “Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity....We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on.  Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: Too late.”  These are the words of the late Martin Luther King, Jr.  They are timeless.

     I found this passage in Al Gore’s book, An Inconvenient Truth. It reminded me of the great catastrophes in the Bible – most were forewarned; most warnings were ignored. In our own time, during Hurricane Katrina, there were ignored warnings about the levees being unable to hold a storm surge.

     In his book and movie by the same name, Al Gore warns us of the worst potential catastrophe in human history: a global climate crisis that is deepening and rapidly becoming dangerous to human existence. Yet, do we heed his warnings? Do we scoff and say it could never happen? Not in our lifetime?

     And if “not in our lifetime” is true – then what legacy are we leaving to our children and our children’s children.

     As Jews, we have a concept known as tikkun ha-olam.  Literally meaning “repairing the world,” it refers to the practice of engaging others in a manner that honors and reveals our unity with all things in God – in all of God’s creation.

     From a Biblical point of view, we can look to the world that God imagined and created. A Garden of Eden, a perfect place. And God gave us fruits and vegetables to eat, and animals to name and tend. Adam and Eve were told to be fruitful and multiply. What a beautiful gift, an unblemished world. 

     Yet look at the mess we are in today: rampant population growth, lack of resources for the majority of the population, pollution, global warming; and in American, the land of opportunity, we watch as our education and medical systems erode and becomes less instead of more. 

     The concept of tikkun ha-olam has a history dating to  the 16^th century, when Isaac Luria, a Kabbalist coined this concept as a way to repair the spiritual nature of creation.  In our liturgy, there is reference to this repair in the Aleinu: “when the world shall be perfected under Your unchallenged rule.” Since the 1970's, the concept of tikkun ha-olam has been used by Jewish social activists as the framework for social justice, environmental work, peace initiatives.

     Regardless of its origin, the concept of repair of the world is one we should bring into our daily lives.  If not now, when? If not me, who?

     If we say it is too big a job for just one individual, then whose job is it?

     Jews often stand at the forefront of social reform; we are activists. We marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. We protest wars and injustice. And as Jews, it is up to each of us to take some action to repair the world.

     There are so many ways we can make a difference as just one person: Get a home energy audit, change your light bulbs to CFL bulbs (compact florescent lights - if every household in the United States substituted even one conventional bulb with a CFL, it would have the same effect on pollution levels as removing a million cars from the nation’s roads), carpool or group errands, consume less, bag groceries in reusable totes, don’t waste paper, carry your own refillable bottle for water or other beverages, buy local, take political action, support environmental groups. The list goes on - use your imagination and share ideas with friends and neighbors.

     Consider the words from om Pirkei Avot: You are not required to complete the work, yet you are not allowed to desist from it.

     Thinking Green, your rabbi, Ann White