Halachic sensitivity to the natural world
Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz, renowned Talmid Chacham and Rebbe at Yeshivas Ohr Somayach, has spoken about the fact that you can see from the Torah and Tehillim that our ancestors were very in-tune with the natural cycles of the earth, and saw themselves as living in the rhythms of the natural world. This played a major part in their avodas Hashem (service of Hashem). He laments that, for a number of reasons, we no longer have the same level of sensitivity to nature, and our avodas Hashem has been significantly impoverished as a result. He believes that Torah values support the development of a heightened environmental consciousness and that this should be incorporated into our Torah hashkafa (world-view).
He gives some examples of the sensitivity we once intuitively had.
Involvement with agriculture
A huge proportion of the Jewish people in the times of the Tanach and Mishna worked in agriculture. People were very attuned to the seasons. The Shalosh Regalim (the 3 pilgrim festivals) were not merely celebrated because of their historical/spiritual significance, but because of their agricultural/spiritual significance, where they would celebrate Hashem’s beneficence that He supplied us via the land that He gave us:
Pesach: The first ripening of the grain.
Shavuos: The harvest festival.
Sukkos: The ingathering of the produce that was drying out in the field.
We’ve lost that dimension of appreciation for a few reasons:
We were in exile from our land for 2,000 years.
Jews in Europe were not allowed to own land and were forced into business.
Modern man’s lifestyle has become very distant from the natural world.
Other examples
People were also very attached to the daily rhythms of the sun, moon, stars and planets. Davening times were aligned with the motion of the sun, ideally davening Shacharis with sunrise and Mincha before sunset and Ma’ariv and the evening Shema with the emergence of the stars*.
He notes that the advent of electric lighting has marred the distinction between day and night.
* More information on these times
here
.
I would note in this regard the Gemara's statement
that the scrupulous people (“vasikin”) would make sure
to daven the Shacharis amida when the sun was out based
on the verse in Tehillim, “yira’ucha im shemesh” -
“may they have awe of You with the sun”.
(Berachos 9b)
In other words, davening was seen to be an integral
part of the song of praise that the natural world
sings to Hashem.
Further conclusions
Rabbi Breitowitz goes on to discuss at length how halachic sources should form the basis of a Torah philosophy around looking after the environment, many of which we have discussed in our Halachic Considerations section. He points out that he is not a scientist and therefore he is not in a position to say that this is a real crisis, but notes that on the basis of the scientific consensus it does seems to be one, which would make us responsible to try and do something about it.
Whether we should see climate change as a message from Hashem is not part of Rabbi Breitowitz’s discussion. As I said in my introduction, it doesn’t really matter whether it specifically is or is not. Hashem wants us to grow as ovdei Hashem and human beings, and Rabbi Breitowitz has highlighted an area of avodas Hashem that needs growth, to which climate change has helped sensitize us.
To hear Rabbi Breitowitz’s full shiur, click here.
