Why the silence about climate change in Torah sources?
Until now we have examined arguments that climate change should not be a concern based on what the Torah says. We will now consider arguments based on what it does not say. If climate change is really something to be concerned about, we would expect that our Torah texts would somehow address it. After all, the Torah is our guide to life and the lens through which we view the world. If issues like climate change do not receive any coverage in our Torah sources, is this not evidence that this issue does not merit our concern?
Is there really anything the Torah does not address?
To claim that Torah texts do not address climate change, or any issue for that matter, is fundamentally incorrect. After all, we were taught by Ben Bag-Bag in Pirkei Avot, “Turn it over and turn it over for everything is in it”. The Torah is not silent on any matter. It’s just a question of whether you know how to look and how hard you try.
Nevertheless, if climate change is so consequential to world history, we still might expect that it would have featured more prominently and explicitly in the landscape of Torah sources, wouldn’t we?
“My thoughts are not your thoughts”
The assumption behind that question is that Hashem would prioritize the things that we would prioritize. But if you think about for a second, does that actually ring true? For example:
Did the Black Plague that killed 30-60% of the population of Europe and 30% of the population of the Middle East feature prominently in earlier Torah sources? What about the secularization of the vast majority of Jews in the 19th and early 20th centuries? What about the destruction of a third of world Jewry in the Holocaust? What about the establishment of the State of Israel led predominantly by secular Jews? Were these issues not worthy of our concern?
We need to acknowledge that although the Torah gives us guidance on all matters which may confront us, it is Hashem who sets the agenda of what should feature more or less prominently in the Torah, not us. Our task is to apply Ben Bag-Bag’s adage and toil to extract the Torah’s messages. And that is part of what this website seeks to do.
