We do tikkun olam
“When God created the first human beings, God led them around the Garden of Eden and said: “Look at my works! See how beautiful they are – how excellent! For your sake I created them all. See to it that you do not spoil and destroy My world; for if you do, there will be no one else to repair it.” Midrash Kohelet Rabbah, 1 on Ecclesiastes 7:13. We fulfill these obligations by doing tikkun olam. Tikkun olam, repairing the world, is a mitzvah. Every project we undertake, every community program we offer, and every worship experience we’re involved in has tikkun olam at its core.
We teach people, from the youngest child to the oldest adult, what the Torah has to say about our sacred responsibility to be good stewards of the earth, tilling, tending, caring for and protecting it for generations to come.
There is a principle of learning the Torah called kal v’chomer (Hebrew for “the simple from the more difficult”). This means that whenever the Torah gives a specific prohibition within a specific context, that the prohibition applies to any context less difficult than the one stated in the Torah. In the case of bal tashchit, our rabbis understood that there is no situation more difficult than that of warfare. Consequently, the law of bal tashchit applies to every aspect of our lives. So, cleaning up our local environment is bal tashchit in action.
Southern Arizona COEJL could not be Tucson’s organizational voice for Judaism and the environment without strong community partnerships. Whether it be a program or event that we initiate, or one we’re invited to join, forming alliances with the Jewish community is among our highest priorities.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “a mitzvah is a prayer in the form of a deed,” and that by doing mitzvot, we are literally “praying with our feet [and our hands].” Here are some examples of how we do this.
- We’ve organized work parties to collect litter from the Rillito River bed (one year using goats as schleppers!), and, every spring and fall, we join with the local Hadassah chapter to pick up litter on the roads bordering the Tucson JCC (followed by a nice lunch for the volunteers).
- We do an Earth Day Project with Temple Emanu-el’s Babies and Bagels group.
- We dreamed that we could bring a solar demonstration project to the community, and the dream came true, with a Tucson Electric Power Greenwatts solar array installed at the Tucson Hebrew Academy.
- We collaborate with the community on environmental mitzvot, organizing or joining with others to keep our local environment clean.
- We joined many other community volunteers to clean up Mt. Lemmon homesites after the 2003 fire (check out the slideshow!).
We help educate the community.
- After the Mt. Lemmon fire, we had a panel discussion on the role of fire in our local and surrounding ecosystems and what the Torah has to say about fire.
- We showed “An Inconvenient Truth”, including a panel discussion on what local voices of many faiths had to say about protecting the environment, and what the scientists had to say about the future.
- We shared faith and scientific perspectives on protecting endangered species with an interfaith audience.
- With the Israel Center, we brought renowned Israeli ornithologist Yossi Leshem to Tucson in a “Birds Know No Boundaries” week.
If you’d like programs, workshops, speakers and hands on demonstrations about energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, conservation, greening homes and other “what can I do to protect the environment?” for your synagogue, school or organization, we’re ready to facilitate such conversations.
How can we work with YOU?
We create or participate in rituals that reflect Jewish environmental values
- One year, we went on a Pesach hike with Congregation Or Chadash. At the end of our hike, we reached a fire pit overlooking Sabino Canyon, and baked matzah as we guessed our ancestors did, and talked about modern plagues and prayed for the earth.
- In October 2008, we had our first annual Sukkot waterpouring ritual, symbolically harkening back to the days of the Temple in Jerusalem.
- We had a Tu B’Shevat environmental meditation with some Tucson Hebrew Academy students – we envisioned ourselves as trees and vividly described how that felt.
- Every year, we’re part of the Jewish Federation’s Outreach Connections Program, Hanukkah Mall Madness. We do a Hanukkah-themed craft, incorporating “reduce, reuse, recycle” as the core of our project.
If you’d like to have an eco-Shabbat service service or hike, we’d love to participate with you.
How might we infuse YOUR worship and rituals with Jewish environmental values?
It is not upon you to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it either.
Rabbi Tarfon, Pirke Avot 2:21
