Judaism and Nature and God

"Developing a Relationship with a Personal God in the 21st Century"- Rabbi Miriam Hoffman

Pantheism and Panentheism - Pantheism is the belief that God and the universe are identical; “God is everything and everything is God.” God is the life force that animates the world, which is to say that the whole is present in each of its parts. Panentheism goes one step further. Literally “all-in-God,” panentheism “claims God encompasses the world in a reciprocally influential relationship, however, God also transcends it.” Both pantheism and panentheism offer a spiritual dimension to the entire world, imposing a Divine spirit within every leaf, pebble, and grain of sand on this earth, with panentheism also arguing for a transcendent, above-us God.

Discussion Qs:

1. In your own words, what is the difference between pantheism and panentheism?

2. Do you find either of these theologies compelling?

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)

“Whatever is, is in God, and nothing can be or be conceived without God”.

After stating his proof for God’s existence, Spinoza addresses who “God” is. Spinoza believed that God is “the sum of the natural and physical laws of the universe and certainly not an individual entity or creator”. God is just the sum of all the substances of the universe. God is the only substance in the universe, and everything is a part of God. “Whatever is, is in God, and nothing can be or be conceived without God”.

^{https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/131214415.pdf Cohen, Spinoza and the Nature of Pantheism, Yitzhak Y Melamed, John Hopkins University, 2018}

Discussion Qs:

1. What does "God is just the sum of all the substances of the universe" mean?

2. What implications does subscribing to this theology have on how human beings should behave?

3. How does Spinoza see the world around him?

^{What Is Pantheism? - Analysis of Spinoza
In order to establish a common ground, I suggest a working definition of pantheism as the view that “whatever is, is in God.” Instead of claiming that finite things are parts of God, Spinoza consistently asserts that finite things (as well as some infinite things) are modes of God. Call this view substance-mode pantheism. Pantheism is sometimes distinguished from panentheism. I am familiar with two clear manners of drawing this distinction. According to one, pantheism asserts a symmetric dependence between God and the world of finite things (a view sometimes expressed by the formula that “the world is in God, and God is in the world”), while panentheism asserts an asymmetric dependence of the world on God. (Thus, the midrashic formula, “God is the place of the world, but the world is not His place” (Bereshit Rabbah, 68/9), seems to be a nice illustration of panentheism according to the first way of drawing the distinction.) An alternative way to draw a distinction between pantheism and panentheism is to say that pantheism asserts an identity between God and nature – as the totality of bodies (and mental items) – while panentheism asserts that all bodies (and thoughts) are in God, yet do not exhaust God – i. e., there are some aspects or elements of God that are beyond physical (and mental) nature.}

Discussion Qs:

1. Where is God in pantheism vs. panentheism?

"Panentheism and Judaism" - MyJewishLearning

The panentheistic doctrine is Jewishly unconventional but traces of it are found in some Jewish sources. The Zohar speaks of God both ‘filling all worlds’ and ‘surrounding all worlds.’ The Kabbalist Hayyim Ibn Atar writes, in his Commentary, Or Ha-Hayyim (to Genesis 2:1), ‘The world is in its Creator and the light of the Creator is in the whole world.’

The panentheisic doctrine surfaced again in Hasidism, especially in the Chabad version. While the Misnagdim understood the verse: ‘The whole earth is full of His glory (Isaiah 6:3)’ to mean no more than that God is manifest in the universe and His providence extends over all, in the Hasidic understanding the verse means that God is literally in all things.

Discussion Qs:

1. The Chasidic interpretation of Isaiah 6:3 has lead some Jews to say that God exists in every atom that makes up the universe, thus forming the building blocks of all things. What do you think of this interpretation?

2. If God is everything, how are we meant to exist in the world?

Environmentalism is a core Jewish value

Discussion Qs:

1. Why are we meant to spare the trees? What value do they hold?

"Repairing Our World: Jewish Environmentalism through Text, Tradition, and Activism" - Joelle Jackson

“Six years you shall sow your land and gather its produce; but in the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow. Let the needy among your people eat of it and what they leave, let the wild beasts eat.” (Exodus 23:11)

This verse from Exodus describes the Jewish tradition of shmita, or the sabbatical year. The Torah commands Jews to allow the land and the people to rest every seven years.

...

Noa Baron, a college organizer for the Workers Circle College Network, sees the idea of shmita as an important reminder in their work: “We are in relation with the land that we live on, that it’s not just something we can take from and take from and take from.” To them, it’s also a reminder that people have been thinking about this relationship for a long time. “I think people think of climate justice as a twenty-year-old phenomenon, and it’s not. People have known these things for a long time. And we haven’t always listened.”

These roots of these activist traditions are found in Jewish text. To Rabbi Fitzerman, the Book of Psalms is a powerful example of Jewish teachings on environmental stewardship. He cites a passage in which “the poet suddenly abandons his focus on the covenant between God and the people of Israel and opens to a wider concern: ‘The heavens belong to the Holy One, but the earth God gave to human beings.’” (Psalms 115:16). He says that it is a statement about stewardship and responsibility: “In the great design of the universe, we each have a role to play, and ours is to protect our planetary home.”

Discussion Qs:

1. Every 7 years, the land is meant to rest (shmita). Why? What do we learn from this commandment?

2. How do you interpret Psalms 115:16? What is our responsibility to the earth?

"The World is Broken, So Humans Must Repair It: The History and Evolution of Tikkun Olam" - Brandeis University

Tikkun olam isn't mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Instead, it first appeared in the Talmud, rabbinical commentaries compiled during the 1st millennium CE. In the Talmud, the rabbis wrote about mipnei tikkun ha-olam, Hebrew for "for the sake of the betterment of society." In this context, tikkun olam justified rabbinic interventions designed to maintain the social order. Tikkun olam also appeared in the prayer Aleinu, which dates to the 3rd century CE, though it only became part of the liturgy in the early 1200s. The verse, translated from Hebrew, reads: "Let the time not be distant, O God, when all shall turn to You in love, when all the brokenness in our world is repaired by the work [tikkun olam] of our hands and our hearts, inspired by Your words of Torah." Here, it lost its economic connotation and took on a religious dimension. It was a messianic idea — repairing the world will bring about the Kingdom of Heaven. It was the belief that at the end of time, the brokenness of the world would be replaced by a more just and godly world. Eventually, tikkun olam became associated with social justice.

In 1973, three havurah movement activists published "The Jewish Catalog," a best-selling countercultural, do-it-yourself guide to being Jewish. In it, tikkun olam is specifically about making the world a better place. For example, ending the Vietnam War was seen as an act of tikkun olam. So was combating deforestation and caring for the Jewish elderly in transitioning urban neighborhoods.

Discussion Qs:

1. How has the meaning of "tikkun olam" changed over time?

2. What does it mean to you?

3. How can we take the various meanings of tikkun olam and apply them to environmentalism?

"HOW GREEN IS JUDAISM? EXPLORING JEWISH ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS" - David Vogel

According to the talmudic tractate Sanhedrin, “Our masters taught: Man was created on the eve of the Sabbath – and for what reason? So that in case his heart grew proud, one might say to him: Even the gnat was in creation before you were there.”

-

“When God created Adam he led him past all the trees in the Garden of Eden and told him, `See how beautiful and excellent are all My works. Beware lest you spoil and ruin My world. For if you spoil it there is nobody to repair it after you.’” [This verse] is followed by a clear restriction on man’s domination of nature: people are only permitted to eat plants. And in the second creation story in Genesis 2:15, God places man in the Garden of Eden and instructs him “to work it and watch it” – which explicitly invokes the principle of stewardship. The general principle is expressed in the Shulkhan Arukh, (a major codex of Jewish law compiled in the 16th century): of Jewish law: “It is forbidden to destroy or injure anything capable of being useful to men.”

Discussion Qs:

1. What do these quotes teach us about human beings' relationship with the earth?

2. It's clear that there is a reciprocal relationship between us and the earth - we work and care for the land and in return, we can eat from it. Is this a fair relationship? Is it a relationship that is still functional today?

Environmentalism is not a core Jewish value

Discussion Qs:

1. If God is able to destroy the land so easily, why are we meant to care for it?

2. Is caring for the world a core Jewish value if God is willing to destroy it (multiple times) out of anger?

Discussion Qs:

1. Adam is told that he has dominion over all of the earth. So much so, that animals are meant. to fear human beings. What type of relationship does this expose?

2. Is it possible for human beings to be kind/benevolent owners of the land?

Discussion Qs:

1. What is the Talmud inferring here?

2. Why is the person guilty?

3. What do we learn about the Talmud's priorities?

So, is environmentalism a core Jewish value?