Facing an environmental crisis. (Reviews).

Facing an environmental crisis. (Reviews). Judaism and Environmental Ethics: A Reader. MARTIN D. YAFFE, ed.Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2001. When a well-known scholar and wellread environmentalist environmentalista person with an interest and knowledge about the interaction of humans and animals with the environment. criticizesthe assumption that humans exist to play "the conqueror role"and demonstrates this assumption through the biblical Abraham, our earsperk up perk?1?v. perked, perk��ing, perksv.intr.1. To stick up or jut out: dogs' ears that perk.2. To carry oneself in a lively and jaunty manner. . "Abraham," Aldo Leopold Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 - April 21, 1948) was a United States ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He was influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and in the movement for wilderness preservation. claims, "knew exactlywhat the land was for: it was to drop milk and honey into Abraham'smouth," (1) Leopold's condemnation of the view that identifieshuman beings as conquerors over the natural environment is not new. Andthe move to locate the roots of this view, and of the presentenvironmental crisis, in Judeo-Christian beliefs is, by now, familiar.Indeed, the environmentalist often learns to look at Judaism andChristianity with uneasy suspicion and a critical eye that sees in thesetraditions the sign of a devastating dev��as��tate?tr.v. dev��as��tat��ed, dev��as��tat��ing, dev��as��tates1. To lay waste; destroy.2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. rupture between the human and thenon-human world. It is precisely this environmental crisis and accusation thatJudaism and Environmental Ethics: A Reader works to address. Martin D.Yaffe does a line job presenting a collection of essays by variousscholars that together offer a muchneeded meditation on Judaism as itfaces an urgent, world-wide environmental crisis. Including five piecesoriginally published in JUDAISM (2) and an array of articles bycontributors from various disciplines, the collection complicates whathas become a commonplace focus on Genesis 1:28 and its assertions ofhuman "dominion" and obligation to "fill the earth andmaster it." This focus has historically resulted in the debatebetween an interpretation of absolute domination and that ofstewardship, a dichotomy that the essays in this anthology transforminto a much more nuanced discussion about the relationship between thehuman being and the natural world. In this collection, this relationshipbecomes a debatable de��bat��a��ble?adj.1. Being such that formal argument or discussion is possible.2. Open to dispute; questionable.3. In dispute, as land or territory claimed by more than one country. , many-sided issue with which the Jewish traditionhas consistentl y concerned itself. It becomes a discussion not endingwith domination nor stewardship, but rather moving to ask what theseterms might indicate and what alternative perspectives might be moreuseful. This discussion takes place with an acknowledgment of what Yaffecalls "rhetorically opportunistic" interpretations of Genesis1:28 that use the biblical text as an explanation for the origin ofenvironmentally destructive behavior (8). In this sense, the Biblebecomes a site of blame through false and unexamined, and we might sayconvenient, use. It is this rhetorical abuse that Judaism andEnvironmental Ethics clearly combats as it reveals potential points ofconnection, agreement, and disagreement among the arenas of Judaism,ecology, and philosophy. Weaving together these three the-maticapproaches, the essays in this book result in a testimony to the urgencyof an environmental crisis that asks Judaism to revisit re��vis��it?tr.v. re��vis��it��ed, re��vis��it��ing, re��vis��itsTo visit again.n.A second or repeated visit.re and reexamine re��ex��am��inealso re-ex��am��ine ?tr.v. re��ex��am��ined, re��ex��am��in��ing, re��ex��am��ines1. To examine again or anew; review.2. Law To question (a witness) again after cross-examination. its beliefs and to articulate how it does indeed speak to the currentsituation. In particular, the anthology uncovers these misinformed rhetoricalmoves as opportunistic by offering a series of essays that takeinterpretation of biblical and rabbinical rab��bin��i��cal? also rab��bin��icadj.Of, relating to, or characteristic of rabbis.[From obsolete rabbin, rabbi, from French, from Old French rabain, probably from Aramaic sources very seriously. Theessays participate in an interpretive dialogue, often referring to oneanother, that includes various views in the attempt to work out anappropriate relationship between the Jew and his! her naturalenvironment. Together, then they also give testimony to an immenselyrich interpretive tradition. Jeremy Benstein, in an essay originallypublished in this journal, (3) places pointed value on this tradition asone of interpretation: "Part of the richness of Judaism--and theexcitement of Jewish learning--is the ongoing dialogue between thefrequently disparate voices of that tradition" (210). It is thesevoices that make interpretation a living force as they call out tocontemporary moments. Indeed, Yaffe successfully organizes the reader as such a dialogueamong voices. The essays speak and respond to one another, creating apowerful sense of conversation that gives the environmental crisis aspiritual side. He divides this conversation into three thematicsections: historical, ethical, and philosophical approaches. It is auseful organization that provides a general order while allowingconnection to be made across sections. A brief description of the topicsof each section will help to give an idea of what one can expect toencounter in this collection of essays. The historical section focuses on the Hebrew Bible and looks at thedegree to which biblical texts do or do not have a responsibility forthe current environmental crisis. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke"put differently , authors in thissection ask what it is that the Hebrew Bible historically teachesconcerning the natural world. E. L. Allen and Jeanne Kay are right topoint out that there is no Hebrew word for "wilderness" or"nature" in the Bible, a fact that helps us see that the issueis much more complex than simple domination or stewardship. Nature as anabstract entity from which the human can separate and control ormaintain simply does not exist in the Hebrew Bible. Rather, nature canbe seen as a divine moral tool as well as a creation over which thehuman has only limited mastery. Thus Arthur Schaffer recognizesIsrael's utter dependence on the rains that are given by god to avery dry land. These perspectives suggest a necessary element ofrestraint in biblical texts as the human faced an array of naturalforces that in fact we re out of human control. Other contributors focuson the need to see rabbinical law as a testimony to the role of thisrestraint in a still human-centered perspective. This entailsinterpretations of the sabbatical year sabbatical yearn.1. A leave of absence, often with pay, usually granted every seventh year, as to a college professor, for travel, research, or rest.2. , jubilee, and other arenas ofbiblical law that support ecologically friendly restraint. These discussions of the historical texts then give way to theethical section which moves into an interaction between Jewish teachingsand the contemporary environmental crisis. Which teachings can be seenas directly addressing this crisis? The various authors in this sectionanswer the question by moving between the poles of a need to rework re��work?tr.v. re��worked, re��work��ing, re��works1. To work over again; revise.2. To subject to a repeated or new process.n. oralter Jewish practice and a need to recognize Jewish practice as alreadyinclusive of inclusive ofprep.Taking into consideration or account; including. environmentally friendly Environmentally friendly, also referred to as nature friendly, is a term used to refer to goods and services considered to inflict minimal harm on the environment.[1] beliefs. For example, whileLawrence Troster Rabbi Lawrence Troster is the Jewish Chaplain of Bard College, where he is an associate of the college's Institute of Advanced Theology. Troster also serves as director of the fellowship program and rabbinic scholar in residence at GreenFaith, an interfaith environmental coalition suggests a compatibility of the Gaia movement withGenesis 1:26--27 if one reconstructs a view of god as bothtranscendentally separate from nature and everywhere inside nature, HansJonas Hans Jonas (may 10 1903 - February 5 1993) was a German-born philosopher.He is best known for his influential work The Imperative of Responsibility (German 1979, English 1984). His work centers on social and ethical problems created by technology. stresses the need to return to and focus on the idea of nature asdivinely created and the human as created in god's image. The wayin which the same Jewish teachings are addressed from multiple angles inthis reader makes it an important and enriching collection, therebycreating a play of debates within the Jewish tradition itself. Although these debates occur within the tradition, they are alsopart of a broader discussion that asks how ecology (or science),Judaism,and philosophy can possibly fit together. This is the theme ofYaffe's third, philosophical section. Here the strands of previousessays are again taken up, but expanded to include questions ofdiaspora, urbanization, animal experimentation, genocide and dietarylaws. StevenS. Schwarzchild controversially begins the section with anassertion of the basic rupture that makes the jewish people appear to bein an inevitable position of "alienation from and confrontationwith nature" (269). The existence of such an absolute separation isquestioned as other authors show how biblical and rabbinical textsgrapple with complex issues of domination, restraint, and preservationin ways that ask the Jew not to be at odds with nature, but rather torecognize particular interactions with it that demand various degrees ofenvironmental awareness. Keeping these interactions in mind, David Ehrenfeld and Philip J.Bentley remind us that "Judaism was one of the first greatenvironmental religions," an assertion that informs the entirereader (125). As a whole, this collection of writings asks that we seeEhrenfeld and Bentley's assertion as a very plausible evaluation ofa tradition that does incorporate beliefs and practices that speak toour current situation on earth. Just how and to what degree judaism iseco-friendly is the question. The authors, then, stand on a continuum inregard to this question: their views range from an unalterable rupturebetween the jew and nature to a role of limited mastery, to more urgentrestraint, and to an outright call for a modification of Jewishpractice. But where these gradations differ, most of the authors do agreethat Genesis 1:28 is not the only text that needs to be considered. Andeven if it were, it should not be interpreted as a justification tocarelessly wield a destructive domination over the created world. Thebook fills a gap by adding valuable considerations and voices to adiscussion that has been too long controlled by the domination andstewardship camps. However, one voice that seems to have been overlookedby Yaffe bears on the central issues of this book, and I recommend it beincluded in subsequent editions. It is an essay by Noam Cook entitled"Technology and Responsibility: A Reading of Genesis 1-3." (4)With these added nuances create a much-needed sensitivity to acontemporary crisis absolutely relevant to Jewish thought and teaching.The value of Judaism and Environmental Ethics lies in the way in whichit reveals an active working of the interpretive tradition throughdialogue. Realistic about the variety of perceived eco-friendly andnon-friendly strains in Judaism, the essays in this reader enter aconversation that contemplates the present environmental situation. Itis a conversation well worth entering and, in fact, a conversationcentral to the role of the Jewish person in an age of environmentalcrisis. NOTES (1.) Aldo Leopold, "The Land Ethic," in EnvironmentalEthics: Divergence and Convergence, edited by Susan J. Armstrong andRichard G. Botzler (New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1993), p. 374. (2.) Jeremy Benstein, "'One, Walking andStudying...': Nature vs. Torah," Judaism 44 (Spring 1995):146-68; David Ehrenfeld and Philip J. Bentley, "Judaism and thePractice of Stewardship," Judaism (34) (Summer 1985): 301-11; EricKatz, "Nature's Healing Power, the Holocaust, and theEnvironmental Crisis," Judaism 46 (Winter 1997): 79-89; Zeev Levy,"Ethical Issues of Animal Welfare in Jewish Thought," Judaism45 (Winter 1996): 47-57; Ejion Schwartz, "Judaism and Nature:Theological and Moral Issues to Consider While Renegotiating a JewishRelationship to the Natural World," Judaism 44 (Fall 1995) 437-47. (3.) Jeremy Benstein, "'One, Walking andStudying...": Nature vs. Torah," Judaism 44 (Spring 1995]):146-168. (4.) S. D. N. Cook, "Technology and Responsibility: A Readingof Genesis 1-3," Judaism 45 (Fall 1996): 412-420. KELLY PETERSON is a graduate student in the Literature Departmentat the University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university, one of the ten campuses of the University of California. , with a special interest inliterature of spiritual experience in the natural environment.