by rabbi arthur waskow & rabbi jeff sultar
There are three levels of wisdom through which Chanukah invites us to address the planetary dangers of the global climate crisis — what some of us call “global scorching” because “warming” seems so pleasant, so comforting.
1. The Talmud legend about the Maccabees. To rededicate the Temple desecrated by the Seleucid Empire, it took only one day’s oil to meet the needs for eight days. It’s a reminder that if we have the courage to change our lifestyles to conserve energy, that courage will sustain us.
2. The vision of the Prophet Zechariah. His passages are read on Shabbat Chanukah about how the Temple menorah was itself a living being, uniting the worlds of nature and humanity. The menorah was not only fashioned by human hands in the shape of a tree of light, as the Torah teaches, but was flanked by two olive trees that fed olive oil directly into it. What better symbol is there of how intertwined we are with the wounded earth that sustains us?
3. The memory that a community of “the powerless” led by people as determined as the Maccabees can overcome a great empire, giving us courage to face our modern corporate empires of oil and coal when they defile our most sacred Temple: Earth itself. And the reminder, again from Zechariah, that we triumph “not by might and not by power” but by the divine spirit.
We are taught not only to light the menorah but to publicize the miracle, to turn our individual actions outward for the rest of the world to see and be inspired.
So this Chanukah might be just the moment to join in the Shalom Center’s Green Menorah Covenant: Take action — personal, communal and political — to heal the Earth from the global climate crisis.
After lighting your menorah each evening, dedicate yourself to making the changes in your life that will allow our limited sources of energy to last for as long as they are needed and with minimal impact on our climate.
No single action will solve the global climate crisis, just as nobody alone can make enough of a difference. Yet if we act on as many of the areas below as possible, and act together, a seemingly small group of people can overcome a seemingly intractable crisis. We can, as in days of old, turn this time of darkness into one of light.
Day 1. Household: Call your electric-power utility to switch to wind-powered electricity. (Every home that operates at 100 percent wind power reduces carbon dioxide emissions the equivalent of not driving 20,000 miles in one year.)
Day 2. Synagogue, Hillel or JCC: Urge your congreg-
tion or community building to switch to wind-powered electricity.
Day 3. Your network of friends, your IM buddies and the members of civic or professional groups to which you belong: Connect with people such as newspaper editors, real estate developers, architects, bankers, and other influential people to urge them to boost the green factor in all their decisions, speeches and actions.
Day 4. Automobile: If possible, choose today (it will be Shabbat) or another day every week to not use your car. Other days, reduce driving. Shop online. Cluster errands. Car-pool. Don’t idle your engine more than 20 seconds.
Day 5. Workplace or school: Urge your bosses or the top school officials to arrange an energy audit. Check with the utility company about getting one free or at low cost.
Day 6. Municipality: Urge town or city officials to require the greening of buildings through ordinances and executive orders. Creating change is often easier on the local level.
Day 7. State government: Urge state representatives to reduce subsidies for highways and to increase them for mass transit.
Day 8. Federal government: Urge your senators to strengthen and pass the Lieberman-Warner America’s Climate Security Act.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow is the director of the Shalom Center in Philadelphia, the author of many books on “down-to-earth Judaism” and a frequent speaker at Jewish institutions.
Rabbi Jeff Sultar is the director of the Shalom Center’s Green Menorah Covenant. For more information on the covenant, contact Sultar at greenmenorah@shalomctr.org.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California