Statement By Israel Orthodox Rabbis On The Climate Crisis

In the hour when the Holy One, blessed be He, created the first man, he took him and let him pass before all the trees in the Garden of Eden and said to him: 

 

“See my works, how fine and excellent they are.  Now all that I created I created for your benefit.  Think upon this and do not corrupt or destroy my world.  For if you destroy it, there is no one to restore it after you.” 

Midrash: Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28

 

 

Today, 97% of climate scientists and all the major science academies worldwide – an overwhelming consensus – state that climate change is reality. Moreover, climate change is primarily caused by human activities, and must be addressed immediately in order for life on earth to continue to survive and thrive.

Scientific Facts on Climate Change:

• Every decade since the 1970s has been warmer than the previous decade and all of the 17 warmest years since temperature records were kept in 1880 have been since 1998. The three previous years have successively broken worldwide temperature records.

 

• Polar icecaps and glaciers worldwide have been melting rapidly, faster than scientific projections. This has caused an increase elevation in oceans worldwide with the potential for major flooding.

 

• There has been an increase in the number and severity of droughts, wildfires, storms, and floods.  

 

• Many climates experts believe that we are close to a tipping point due to positive feedback loops, when climate change will spiral out of control, with disastrous consequences, unless major positive changes soon occur. A just released  report in the respected science publication Nature, signed by over 60 leading climate scientists, that warned that failing to start to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 would likely result in increasingly severe climate events.

 

• While many climate scientists think that 350 parts per million (ppm) of atmospheric CO2 is a threshold value for climate stability, the world reached 400 ppm in 2014, and the amount is increasing by 2 – 3 ppm per year.

 

• While climate scientists hope that temperature increases can be limited to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), largely because that is the best that can be hoped for with current trends and momentum, the world is now on track for an increase of 4 – 6 degrees Celsius, which would result in major threats to human civilization.

 

• The Pentagon and other military groups think that climate change will increase the potential for instability, terrorism, and war by reducing access to food and clean water and by causing tens of millions of desperate refugees to flee from droughts, wildfire, floods, storms, and other effects of climate change. 

 

In light of the above and more, we, the Israeli Orthodox rabbis whose signatures are below, believe that Jewish teachings mandate that we do everything possible to help avert a climate catastrophe and other environmental disasters and to help shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path.

 

Genesis 2:15 indicates that the human role is to work the land but also to guard and preserve it:

 

“The Lord God took the human being, and He placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and conserve it. Who is the wise person? The one who considers the future consequences of his or her actions.” 

Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Tamid

 

We believe Jews should be on the forefront of efforts to help avert a climate catastrophe. Making this even more important is that Israel is especially threatened by climate change. The Middle East is a very hot, dry area and projections are that it will become hotter and dryer, making instability, violence, terrorism, and war more likely. Also, much of Israel’s population and infrastructure are threatened by a rising Mediterranean Sea inundating Israel’s coastal plain.

Reducing climate change must be a central focus of Jewish life today. We strongly recommend that our fellow rabbis, Jewish educators, and other Jewish leaders, and our synagogues, Jewish schools, and other Jewish individuals and organizations take major steps to increase awareness of climate threats and steps that must be taken to reduce them. We urge the Israeli government to shift from its widespread use of fossil fuels to a far greater emphasis on renewable sources of energy like solar and wind, and we urge the Knesset (Israeli parliament) to prioritize legislation that reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Here are the 43 Israeli Orthodox rabbis who have already signed the rabbinic climate change statement.

 

Rabbi Elan Adler, teacher and counselor, Maale Adumim

Rabbi Renee Samuel Sirat, former Chief Rabbi of France

Rabbi Dr. Raymond Apple, Officer of the Order of Australia, emeritus rabbi of the Great Synagogue, Sydney

Rabbi Dov Berkovits, Bet Av – Creativity and Renewal in Torah

Rabbi David Bigman, Yeshivat Ma’aleh Gilboa

Rabbi Yitzchak Blau: Rosh Yeshiva Yeshivat Orayta  

Rabbi Bob Carroll, Former Program Director, Edah, and Board Member of the Interfaith Encounter Association

Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, Rosh Yeshiva of Emit Orot Shaul.

Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen, Director of Education: Justifi: Jewish Social Justice 

Rabbi Menachem Cohen,  Chief Rabbi of Romania and rabbi of the Moshavim Movement in Israel

Rabbi Chaim Dovrat, Modi’in, formerly at Wellington Hebrew Congregation

Rabbi Yehoshua Engelman

Rabbi Seth (Shaul) Farber, Kehilat Netivot, Raanana

Rabbi Mike Feuer Sulam Yaakov – Educational Director

Rabbi Binny Freedman, Rosh Yeshivat (Dean ) Orayta

Rabbi Fivel Yedidya Glasser, Director, Nesiya

Rabbi Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy, Faculty/Director of Admissions, Director of SocialJustice Tract, Pardes Year Program Alumna  

Rabbi Shaul David Judelman, Educator, guide at Teva Ivri

Rabbi Ariel Konstantyn, MS, PT, Founding Rabbi, The Tel Aviv International Synagogue – Beit El, Rabbinic Consultant, Tzohar 

Rabbi Tzvi Koren, Rav of Kehilat Kinor David, Ra’anana

Rabbi Daniel Landes

Rabbi Aharon Ariel Lavie, Founder of the Hakhel Incubator for Jewish Intentional Communities

Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz, Sulam Yaakov – Dean, Jerusalem City Council Member 

Rabbi Hayim Leiter, Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies

Rabbi Ronen Lubitch, Rabbi Nir Etzion, president of the Ne’emanei Torah v’Avodah movement, member of the Executive Committee of the Adam, Teva VeDin Association.

Rabbi Dave Mason, Author of The Age of Prophecy series

Rabbi Michael Melchior   Rav of Kehilat Talpiyot Hachadasha, Yerushalayim

Rabbi Yonatan Neril  Founder and director of the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development

Rabbi Ronen Neuwirth   V’AhavT”A – TLV Jewish Experience

Rabbi Ariel Picard, Hartman Institute

Rabbi Chananel Rosen, Rabbi of Yakar Tel-Aviv, Director of Yakar Institutions 

Rabbi David Rosen  KSG CBE, International Director of Interreligious Affairs, AJC; International President, Religions for Peace 

Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Dov Rosen, Rabbi of the Yakar community in Jerusalem. 

Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger, Director of International Relations, Roots/Shorashim/Judur

Rabbi Meir Schweiger, Mashgiach Ruchani, Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies

Rabbi Yedidyah Sinclair

Rabbi Daniel Sperber, Professor of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University

Rabbi Pesach Dahvid Stadlin, Author and spiritual director of Eden Village

Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo, Founder and Dean of the David Cardozo Academy and the Bet Midrash of Avraham Avinu in Jerusalem

Rabbi Ariel Shalem

Rabbi Dr. Zev Farber

Rabbi Micha Odenheimer, Head of the Jerusalem-based NGO Tevel b’Tzedek

Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein