Today is the Jewish holiday of Shavuos. It is about humility and blessings. Rabbi Neal Joseph Loevinger, who is a Board Member of the Coalition On the Environment and Jewish Living (COEJL), wrote the following:
Jewish environmental thinking brings together strands
of traditional Jewish theology and key points of contemporary
environmentalism; among those strands is the recognition that we have to move from thinking of the Earth as a mere resource for human benefit to something that is fundamentally not
"ours" to do with as we please. Some call this the ethic of stewardship, drawing a distinction between a steward and a master: the steward recognizes that he is not the owner, but one appointed to guard and protect something precious. Stewardship implies humility,thoughtfulness, and self-control, which any environmental thinker would agree are qualities that our society needs to rebalance its relationship with the Earth we live on.Click on the link to read more:
<http://www.coejl.org/celebrate/shv_humility.php>
I agree with the rabbi. We are stewards of this earth, and so far we have not been good ones. We have to do better because the very life of this planet depends on it. I encourage you to go see the documentary movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," about global warming. It is opening this week at a limited number of theatres around the country. Log on to: http://www.climatecrisis.net/ to read more about the movie, when and where you can see it. It's critical that as many people as possible go to see this movie the first week so that the theatres will continue to show it. Unfortunately, box office receipts determine if a movie stays in the theatres. This is an important movie and needs to be seen by everyone in the country. Get the word out by telling all your friends, relatives and neighbors.
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