Should we just have Emunah and Bitachon?
(Faith and trust in Hashem)
Background
From what we’ve seen so far, human beings have created a problem that is already causing significant damage in the present and, if left unstopped, is expected to cause far greater damage in the future to both human beings and the natural world. Considered from a completely secular viewpoint, once one accepts that this is true, it should be a “no-brainer” that we must take action to try and prevent dire consequences. While it may be costly and inconvenient to do so, there can be little moral justification to continue on a track that will likely permanently damage future generations and the world they inhabit without even making some attempt to do something about it. We only have one world and there would be no one else to preserve it if we didn’t.
But looking from a Torah perspective, there is Someone else whose involvement we have to consider - namely, Hashem. Examining this issue from a Torah perspective, we have to wonder whether it makes sense to say that:
Hashem would allow such a situation to unfold, and
That it would fall upon us to try and prevent it.
For many of us, it might seem highly counterintuitive to believe that climate change could be happening. Speaking for myself, there have been times when I have heard one dire prediction or another and my intuitive emotional response was to feel that Hashem couldn’t really allow such things to happen. I’ve encountered this response in others as well. One example comes to mind which I will use as the basis of our analysis. Several years ago, I was walking home from shule with someone and brought up the concern of climate change. His cynical response was: “Well, I believe Hashem made the world and I think He can handle it.”
If we were to unpack his point, it might go something like this:
Hashem created and runs the world. We should not speculate and panic about frightening future outcomes and we don’t need to try and intervene ourselves, because that is like “playing G-d”. Instead we should just have faith and trust that Hashem has it all sorted out.
Many of us can probably appreciate the appeal of such an argument, having strong faith in Hashem and not being overcome by fear. We might assume that this is what it means to have bitachon in Hashem, as expressed in the famous verse in Yirmiyahu, “Blessed is the man who trusts in Hashem” (Jeremiah 17:7) and the way a strongly believing Jew should proceed. But is this approach really the way to go?
The Danger of the ‘Chasid Shoteh’ (The ‘Pious Fool’)
‘What could possibly be the problem?’ you may be asking. The issue is that sometimes in adopting an approach that sounds righteous and holy, one can actually be falling into a trap, one that Chazal entitle being “chasid shoteh” - “a pious fool”. The Talmud states:
What is an example of a “chasid shoteh”? Such as in a case where a woman is drowning in a river and a passing man says it is not appropriate for him to gaze at her and save her. (Sotah 21b)
In his concern to not gaze inappropriately at a woman, which is an appropriate concern in most contexts, he nevertheless ignores what is the far more significant obligation in this context of saving her life. The great Rabbi Yehoshua would say that pious fools are “destroyers of the world” (mevalei olam).
Is trusting in Hashem’s oversight in this context a highly appropriate and admirable expression of faith or the behavior of a chasid shoteh? To answer this question we must carefully examine whether this faith is supported by actual Torah principles. Now, presumably this kind of faith is not something that just appears ex-nihilo; if people feel this way presumably it somehow finds its origins in Torah principles among other sources. So let us first determine the underlying principles from which such faith might emerge, and then examine each of these principles carefully to determine whether this faith emerges authentically from them.
Bitachon-based Arguments for Dismissing Climate Change
If we examine the above argument carefully, we can tease apart numerous sub-arguments which are based on Torah principles. In the ensuing discussions, we will examine arguments from:
1. Hashgacha (Divine providence): Hashem runs the world. It follows that looking after it is His business, not ours. Furthermore, He is all-powerful and all-knowing, so we can rest easy that He knows what He’s doing and everything will be ok. It would be a chutzpa (audacity) for us to think that we can change the climate.
2. Sachar v’onesh (reward and punishment): Surely it is evil and sin that destroy the world, not greenhouse gas emissions caused by the normal daily living of ordinary people minding their own business. They are not being evil, just doing what Hashem expects them to do.
3. “Shomer p’sayim Hashem” (“Hashem protects the simple”): Even if emitting greenhouse gases involves an element of danger, because it is a necessity for nomal living, this Torah principle teaches us that we may rely on Hashem to protect us.
4. “Tamim tihye” (“You shall be wholehearted with Hashem, your God”): When it comes to future uncertainties, Hashem expects us to trust in Him and not to try and explore what the future may hold.
In our coming pieces, we will examine each of these arguments and see whether they can reasonably form a basis to disregard concern about climate change. (Spoiler alert: None of them really stand up to scrutiny.)
If you want to skip all these discussions and just jump to our conclusions, read the Summary at the bottom of our final article on this topic where we discuss what bitachon is really all about.
