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April 21, 2000/16 Nisan 5760, Vol. 52, No.33
Does Shabbat always resemble Earth Day?
Torah Study
RABBI ARTHUR WASKOW
Chol ha'moed/Exodus 33:12-34:26
Earth Day - the planet-wide celebration of the planet's web of life, interwoven with demands for action to heal the endangered strands in that endangered web - is April 22. This year, Earth Day falls on Shabbat chol ha'moed Pesach, the Shabbat in the midst of Passover week. It is a Sabbath traditionally marked by reading Shir HaShirim, the Song of Songs, about the flowing, loving relationships between human beings; human beings and God; and adam (human) and adamah (Earth).
In two contemporary translations of the song, one by Marcia Falk and one by Chana and Ariel Bloch, the Hebrew's sensuous delight in earthiness comes alive far better than in previous English versions.
The Song of Songs eloquently draws on Jewish tradition in celebrating the Earth and human relationships with it. The Hebrew words "adam" and "adamah" teach a profound ecological lesson; their sounds echo the interconnectedness of humans and Earth.
Passover itself has strong earthy roots in the sprouting of barley and the birth of lambs. Originally, there were two celebrations: a shepherd's festival that offered lambs to the source of their birthing in the spring, and a barley farmer's festival of eating the simplest of breads, made of flour and water, without yeast or flavoring. The Israelites' liberation from slavery in Egypt gave these festivals new meaning. At Passover we commemorate the birth of a people, the birth of freedom. And our tradition goes beyond this teaching to enrich our lives with adamah.
No wonder it all happened in spring; no wonder we read the Song of Songs, with its poetic celebration: The long wet months are past, the rains have fed the earth and left it bright with blossoms. Birds wing in the low sky, dove and songbird singing in the open air above. Earth nourishing tree and vine, green fig and tender grape, green and tender fragrance (Song 2: 11-13; Falk).
In the story of the Exodus, the plagues demonstrate that that an unjust society creates ecological disasters (blood in the rivers, frogs, disease-bearing mosquitoes). Conversely, the traditional prophetic reading for the Shabbat in the midst of Passover is Ezekiel's awesome vision of new life given to dry bones - a river of skeletons, the shattered bones of earth in desperate drought as well as of a human community bereft (Ezekiel 37). The bones are renewed by "ruakh," Hebrew for "wind, " "breath" and "spirit." The winds of the world blow into them, become their breath - and so God's spirit revives what had been dead.
Today, we can turn our despair over what may seem irremediable devastation of our air, our rain, our soil, to hope if we open ourselves to Ruakh Elohim, the God-Spirit, the Breath of Life.
Imagine a two-day Jewish celebration of Earth Day: Shabbat as Shir HaShirim Day, including a walk in the open air among trees and flowers, and a reading of the song followed by discussion of its meaning. We would recite the special blessing the ancient rabbis taught us to say in this month of Nisan when we see a blossoming tree: "Barukh attah Adoshem elohenu melekh/ruakh ha'olam she-lo khisar b'olamo davar, u'vara vo briyot tovot v'ilanot tovim l'hanot bahem b'nai adam." (Blessed are you, our God/spirit of the universe, who has left nothing lacking in your world but has created in it beautiful creatures and beautiful trees that give delight to the human heart).
On the second day, Sunday, we would assemble at a joyful protective gathering at a place that is endangered by sprawl, by pollution, by autos. We would spend a moment filled with direct, experiential joy and an activist/political impact.
Shabbat offers the opportunity every week to celebrate what Abraham Joshua Heschel called the great challenge to a society that has become addicted to making and doing, to controlling and exploiting. On every Shabbat we can celebrate the Earth as she simply is, loving and being.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow is director of The Shalom Center; author of Down-to-Earth Judaism; co-editor of Trees, Earth, and Torah: A Tu B'Shvat Anthology; and editor of Torah of the Earth: Exploring 4,000 Years of Ecology in Jewish Thought.
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