Parashat B'hukotai
We must pray for beneficial rain, and then follow through with
environmental action.
By Jonathan Neril
This
commentary is provided by special arrangement with Canfei Nesharim. To learn
more, visit www.canfeinesharim.org.
Praying for rain is a key part of the
spiritual life of a Jew. For almost half of the year, our daily prayers include
praise of God as the One who "makes the wind blow and the rain
descend" and a request that God will "give dew and rain for a
blessing on the face of the earth."
A special
blessing for rain appears in the liturgy of the holiday of Shemini Atzeret,
at the beginning of Israel's rainy season. We pray that the Divine bring
beneficial rain, which falls at the right time to nourish our crops and fill
our reservoirs. As the Talmud says, "The day when rain falls is as great
as the day on which heaven and earth were created (Ta'anit 8b)."
Rain as Blessing and Curse
But it is not enough to just pray for rain. The Torah
teaches that our actions impact the rain as well. At the beginning of this
week's Torah portion, B'hukotai, we read that rainfall is a function of our
doing God's will. If Israel keeps the Torah, God says, "I will give your
rains in their time, the Land will yield its produce, and the tree of the field
will give forth its fruit... you will eat your food to satiety, and you will
live in security in your land, and I will grant peace in the Land (Leviticus
26:4-6)."
This promise of
abundant rains and prosperity is followed by a warning that, should Israel
ignore the Torah, God will "make your skies like iron"--cease all
rains and bring drought, according to the Midrash. Conversely, the fact that we specifically
ask that the rain be "for a blessing" acknowledges that too much rain
is just as dangerous as not enough.
In a number of
instances in the Tanakh, God sent rain that was a curse, not a blessing.
The Flood came to punish the generation for transgressing God's will. Rashi
explains that the rains of blessing became a destructive flood when the people
refused to repent. In
the time of the prophet Samuel, God brought thunder and rain to chastise the
people (Samuel I 12:17-18).
Human Impact on Rain
For centuries it was a core principle of Jewish faith that
living in line with God's will brings the blessing of healthy rains and crops.
With a modern scientific understanding that human actions affect the quality
and quantity of the rain, the warning of B'hukotai warrants our attention. We
must reawaken the awareness that our actions impact the entire planet.
The effect of industrialized society on rain through
pollutants has been well-known for decades--we have all heard of acid rain. In
the 21st century, our impact on rain is becoming even more pronounced. A
consensus of scientists states that human-caused climate change is increasing
storm intensity and raising the seas.
By burning
fossil fuels in our cars, homes, factories, and planes, we are increasing the
carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere. This causes a greenhouse effect, which
alters the climate. Global climate models project that climate change may
increase precipitation by 7-15% at high latitudes, causing stronger and
potentially more destructive storms in those areas. Climate change may decrease
precipitation at mid and low altitudes, where the bulk of farmland lies,
contributing to more severe regional droughts.
We not only affect how rain comes down, but also how that
rain affects the land when it does fall. With increasing urbanization in the
world, land that once soaked up rainwater is being covered in pavement, which
prevents the rainwater from replenishing underground aquifers (also referred to
as "groundwater" or "the water table").
Aquifers
directly provide more than one-third of drinking water in America, and
contribute, in some part, to all drinking water sources. In some places, like
Florida, aquifers provide 100% of the drinking water as well as the majority of
clean water for industrial and agricultural use. When rainwater is prevented
from replenishing the water table, one of our most necessary resources--clean
drinking water--is compromised.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the amount
of U.S. land covered by sprawling urban development increased by 50% during the
1980s and 1990s. Increased building covers the land with impervious paving,
which prevents the land from absorbing rains back into the water table.
Unabsorbed rainwater becomes runoff, flowing through drainage systems (or
causing floods when drains and sewers are overburdened), picking up pollutants along
the way, which are then dumped into lakes, streams, and oceans.
Atlanta, which was struck by a major drought in 2007, leads
American cities in lost rainwater, with up to 132.8 billion gallons lost
per year. The volume of water lost in the United States each year would provide
tens of millions of people their annual water needs.
Impacting large urban areas like Los Angeles, Phoenix, and
Toronto, this new reality is also quite pronounced in Israel. In a matter of
decades, a near-continuous urban settlement will stretch from the northern
coast to the southern coast, from Nahariya to Tel Aviv to Ashkelon to Gaza.
Another urban belt extends for miles north, south, and east of Jerusalem.
Travel to any population center in Israel today and you will
see the massive infrastructure work being done on roads and highways, adding
more impervious paving to a land that is already living at the edge of a water
crisis. Israel's water resources are so limited (and disputed) that we cannot
afford to deprive the coastal and mountain aquifers of precious rainwater.
Prayer & Action
Today we have an unbelievably complex understanding of how
the earth's systems work, and how we impact them. In viewing the connection
between humans and the environment through scientific analysis and statistics,
we must be careful not to forget the true lesson of B'hukotai--God has created
the world in such a way that, when we contradict God's will by living out of
balance, our lives are thrown out of balance in response.
Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi Ashlag, a leading kabbalist of the
twentieth century, wrote that God established the laws of nature in the world,
and a person or society that transgresses one of these laws will be punished by
means of nature. He likens nature to a judge God established to punish those
who violate the laws of nature.
We see from this that we cannot ignore the connection
between our actions and the physical conditions which surround us. Scientific
explanations of storm patterns, aquifer absorption, and rain toxicity should
not obscure the influence of the Infinite One. Rather, they reveal to us the
true greatness of Divine wisdom, and confirm that we really are obligated to
live in balance with and be stewards of God's Creation, as the Torah requires.
Praying for beneficial rain and then ignoring the problems
of global warming and unchecked urban development is like praying for good
health and then continuing to eat poorly and smoke a pack of cigarettes a day.
We are acting against our own expressed interests when we excessively burn
fossil fuels and contribute to unchecked urban expansion.
Our prayers for beneficial rain are extremely important, and
our actions should be consistent with the emphasis of our prayers. We must live
as earnestly as we pray. Praying for rain is a beginning, but we must follow
through by acting on the awareness that we now contribute to bringing either
rains of blessing or destructive storms and water shortages. By doing so, we
can give our children the gift of a world that is blessed, as God promises,
with rains of abundance, prosperity, and peace.
Suggested
Action Items:
1.
Consider switching to a low flow toilet, which alone can annually save several
thousand gallons of water per household.
Look into low flow shower heads, and think about taking shorter showers.
2.
Consider filling the sink or a dishtub with water, washing the dishes,
and then gently rinsing them off, rather than leaving the water running the
whole time. Brush teeth with the water off.
3. If you are planning to build a house with a driveway,
use pervious paving
materials or alternative paving solutions that incorporate plants into the
pavement. Advocate for your town to take up green alternatives to regular
concrete and asphalt paving.
4. Use products and services from companies that promote low greenhouse gas
emissions, water conservation, and conscientious waste management
Jonathan Neril is a rabbinical student at the Bat Ayin Yeshiva in Israel's Gush Etzion
region and is currently in his fifth year of Jewish learning in Israel. He
holds an MA and a BA from Stanford University with an emphasis on global
environmental issues. He serves as Canfei Nesharim's project manager for Eitz
Chayim Hee: A Weekly Environmental Torah Commentary for Learning and Action.
