jewish environmental ethics essay

• Advanced Search
• All new items
• Journal articles
• Manuscripts
• All Categories
• Metaphysics and Epistemology
• Epistemology
• Metaphilosophy
• Metaphysics
• Philosophy of Action
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Religion
• Value Theory
• Applied Ethics
• Meta-Ethics
• Normative Ethics
• Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality
• Philosophy of Law
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Value Theory, Miscellaneous
• Science, Logic, and Mathematics
• Logic and Philosophy of Logic
• Philosophy of Biology
• Philosophy of Cognitive Science
• Philosophy of Computing and Information
• Philosophy of Mathematics
• Philosophy of Physical Science
• Philosophy of Social Science
• Philosophy of Probability
• General Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of Science, Misc
• History of Western Philosophy
• Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
• Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy
• 17th/18th Century Philosophy
• 19th Century Philosophy
• 20th Century Philosophy
• History of Western Philosophy, Misc
• Philosophical Traditions
• African/Africana Philosophy
• Asian Philosophy
• Continental Philosophy
• European Philosophy
• Philosophy of the Americas
• Philosophical Traditions, Miscellaneous
• Philosophy, Misc
• Philosophy, Introductions and Anthologies
• Philosophy, General Works
• Teaching Philosophy
• Philosophy, Miscellaneous
• Other Academic Areas
• Natural Sciences
• Social Sciences
• Cognitive Sciences
• Formal Sciences
• Arts and Humanities
• Professional Areas
• Other Academic Areas, Misc
• Submit a book or article
• Upload a bibliography
• Personal page tracking
• Archives we track
• Information for publishers
• Introduction
• Submitting to PhilPapers
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Subscriptions
• Editor's Guide
• The Categorization Project
• For Publishers
• For Archive Admins
• PhilPapers Surveys
• Bargain Finder
• About PhilPapers
• Create an account

How Green is Judaism? Exploring Jewish Environmental Ethics

Reprint years, other versions.

No versions found

PhilArchive

External links.

• From the Publisher via CrossRef (no proxy)
• journals.cambridge.org (no proxy)
• pdcnet.org (no proxy)
• cambridge.org (no proxy)

Through your library

• Sign in / register and customize your OpenURL resolver
• Configure custom resolver

Similar books and articles

Citations of this work, references found in this work.

No references found.

• Search Menu

Sign in through your institution

• Browse content in Arts and Humanities
• Browse content in Archaeology
• Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Archaeology
• Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
• Archaeology by Region
• Archaeology of Religion
• Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
• Biblical Archaeology
• Contemporary and Public Archaeology
• Environmental Archaeology
• Historical Archaeology
• History and Theory of Archaeology
• Industrial Archaeology
• Landscape Archaeology
• Mortuary Archaeology
• Prehistoric Archaeology
• Underwater Archaeology
• Zooarchaeology
• Browse content in Architecture
• Architectural Structure and Design
• History of Architecture
• Residential and Domestic Buildings
• Theory of Architecture
• Browse content in Art
• Art Subjects and Themes
• History of Art
• Industrial and Commercial Art
• Theory of Art
• Biographical Studies
• Byzantine Studies
• Browse content in Classical Studies
• Classical Numismatics
• Classical Literature
• Classical Reception
• Classical History
• Classical Philosophy
• Classical Mythology
• Classical Art and Architecture
• Classical Oratory and Rhetoric
• Greek and Roman Papyrology
• Greek and Roman Archaeology
• Greek and Roman Epigraphy
• Greek and Roman Law
• Late Antiquity
• Religion in the Ancient World
• Social History
• Digital Humanities
• Browse content in History
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Diplomatic History
• Environmental History
• Genealogy, Heraldry, Names, and Honours
• Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
• Historical Geography
• History by Period
• History of Emotions
• History of Agriculture
• History of Education
• History of Gender and Sexuality
• Industrial History
• Intellectual History
• International History
• Labour History
• Legal and Constitutional History
• Local and Family History
• Maritime History
• Military History
• National Liberation and Post-Colonialism
• Oral History
• Political History
• Public History
• Regional and National History
• Revolutions and Rebellions
• Slavery and Abolition of Slavery
• Social and Cultural History
• Theory, Methods, and Historiography
• Urban History
• World History
• Browse content in Language Teaching and Learning
• Language Learning (Specific Skills)
• Language Teaching Theory and Methods
• Browse content in Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Forensic Linguistics
• Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
• Historical and Diachronic Linguistics
• History of English
• Language Evolution
• Language Reference
• Language Variation
• Language Families
• Language Acquisition
• Lexicography
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Linguistic Theories
• Linguistic Typology
• Phonetics and Phonology
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Translation and Interpretation
• Writing Systems
• Browse content in Literature
• Bibliography
• Children's Literature Studies
• Literary Studies (Romanticism)
• Literary Studies (American)
• Literary Studies (Modernism)
• Literary Studies (Asian)
• Literary Studies (European)
• Literary Studies (Eco-criticism)
• Literary Studies - World
• Literary Studies (1500 to 1800)
• Literary Studies (19th Century)
• Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)
• Literary Studies (African American Literature)
• Literary Studies (British and Irish)
• Literary Studies (Early and Medieval)
• Literary Studies (Fiction, Novelists, and Prose Writers)
• Literary Studies (Gender Studies)
• Literary Studies (Graphic Novels)
• Literary Studies (History of the Book)
• Literary Studies (Plays and Playwrights)
• Literary Studies (Poetry and Poets)
• Literary Studies (Postcolonial Literature)
• Literary Studies (Queer Studies)
• Literary Studies (Science Fiction)
• Literary Studies (Travel Literature)
• Literary Studies (War Literature)
• Literary Studies (Women's Writing)
• Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
• Mythology and Folklore
• Shakespeare Studies and Criticism
• Browse content in Media Studies
• Browse content in Music
• Applied Music
• Dance and Music
• Ethics in Music
• Ethnomusicology
• Gender and Sexuality in Music
• Medicine and Music
• Music Cultures
• Music and Media
• Music and Culture
• Music and Religion
• Music Education and Pedagogy
• Music Theory and Analysis
• Musical Scores, Lyrics, and Libretti
• Musical Structures, Styles, and Techniques
• Musicology and Music History
• Performance Practice and Studies
• Race and Ethnicity in Music
• Sound Studies
• Browse content in Performing Arts
• Browse content in Philosophy
• Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
• Epistemology
• Feminist Philosophy
• History of Western Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Moral Philosophy
• Non-Western Philosophy
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Perception
• Philosophy of Action
• Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
• Practical Ethics
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Browse content in Religion
• Biblical Studies
• Christianity
• East Asian Religions
• History of Religion
• Judaism and Jewish Studies
• Qumran Studies
• Religion and Education
• Religion and Health
• Religion and Politics
• Religion and Science
• Religion and Law
• Religion and Art, Literature, and Music
• Religious Studies
• Browse content in Society and Culture
• Cookery, Food, and Drink
• Cultural Studies
• Customs and Traditions
• Ethical Issues and Debates
• Hobbies, Games, Arts and Crafts
• Natural world, Country Life, and Pets
• Popular Beliefs and Controversial Knowledge
• Sports and Outdoor Recreation
• Technology and Society
• Travel and Holiday
• Visual Culture
• Browse content in Law
• Arbitration
• Browse content in Company and Commercial Law
• Commercial Law
• Company Law
• Browse content in Comparative Law
• Systems of Law
• Competition Law
• Browse content in Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Government Powers
• Judicial Review
• Local Government Law
• Military and Defence Law
• Parliamentary and Legislative Practice
• Construction Law
• Contract Law
• Browse content in Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure
• Criminal Evidence Law
• Sentencing and Punishment
• Employment and Labour Law
• Environment and Energy Law
• Browse content in Financial Law
• Banking Law
• Insolvency Law
• History of Law
• Human Rights and Immigration
• Intellectual Property Law
• Browse content in International Law
• Private International Law and Conflict of Laws
• Public International Law
• IT and Communications Law
• Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
• Law and Society
• Law and Politics
• Browse content in Legal System and Practice
• Courts and Procedure
• Legal Skills and Practice
• Legal System - Costs and Funding
• Primary Sources of Law
• Regulation of Legal Profession
• Medical and Healthcare Law
• Browse content in Policing
• Criminal Investigation and Detection
• Police and Security Services
• Police Procedure and Law
• Police Regional Planning
• Browse content in Property Law
• Personal Property Law
• Restitution
• Study and Revision
• Terrorism and National Security Law
• Browse content in Trusts Law
• Wills and Probate or Succession
• Browse content in Medicine and Health
• Browse content in Allied Health Professions
• Arts Therapies
• Clinical Science
• Dietetics and Nutrition
• Occupational Therapy
• Operating Department Practice
• Physiotherapy
• Radiography
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Browse content in Anaesthetics
• General Anaesthesia
• Clinical Neuroscience
• Browse content in Clinical Medicine
• Acute Medicine
• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Clinical Genetics
• Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology and Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• Genito-urinary Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Toxicology
• Medical Oncology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Medicine
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology
• Rheumatology
• Sleep Medicine
• Sports and Exercise Medicine
• Community Medical Services
• Critical Care
• Emergency Medicine
• Forensic Medicine
• Haematology
• History of Medicine
• Browse content in Medical Skills
• Clinical Skills
• Communication Skills
• Nursing Skills
• Surgical Skills
• Medical Ethics
• Browse content in Medical Dentistry
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Paediatric Dentistry
• Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics
• Surgical Dentistry
• Medical Statistics and Methodology
• Browse content in Neurology
• Clinical Neurophysiology
• Neuropathology
• Nursing Studies
• Browse content in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Gynaecology
• Occupational Medicine
• Ophthalmology
• Otolaryngology (ENT)
• Browse content in Paediatrics
• Neonatology
• Browse content in Pathology
• Chemical Pathology
• Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics
• Histopathology
• Medical Microbiology and Virology
• Patient Education and Information
• Browse content in Pharmacology
• Psychopharmacology
• Browse content in Popular Health
• Caring for Others
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Self-help and Personal Development
• Browse content in Preclinical Medicine
• Cell Biology
• Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Reproduction, Growth and Development
• Primary Care
• Professional Development in Medicine
• Browse content in Psychiatry
• Addiction Medicine
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Forensic Psychiatry
• Learning Disabilities
• Old Age Psychiatry
• Psychotherapy
• Browse content in Public Health and Epidemiology
• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Browse content in Radiology
• Clinical Radiology
• Interventional Radiology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiation Oncology
• Reproductive Medicine
• Browse content in Surgery
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Gastro-intestinal and Colorectal Surgery
• General Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Paediatric Surgery
• Peri-operative Care
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• Transplant Surgery
• Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
• Vascular Surgery
• Browse content in Science and Mathematics
• Browse content in Biological Sciences
• Aquatic Biology
• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology and Conservation
• Evolutionary Biology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Microbiology
• Molecular and Cell Biology
• Natural History
• Plant Sciences and Forestry
• Research Methods in Life Sciences
• Structural Biology
• Systems Biology
• Zoology and Animal Sciences
• Browse content in Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Computational Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Environmental Chemistry
• Industrial Chemistry
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Materials Chemistry
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Mineralogy and Gems
• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Polymer Chemistry
• Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry
• Browse content in Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Architecture and Logic Design
• Game Studies
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Mathematical Theory of Computation
• Programming Languages
• Software Engineering
• Systems Analysis and Design
• Virtual Reality
• Browse content in Computing
• Business Applications
• Computer Games
• Computer Security
• Computer Networking and Communications
• Digital Lifestyle
• Graphical and Digital Media Applications
• Operating Systems
• Browse content in Earth Sciences and Geography
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Environmental Geography
• Geology and the Lithosphere
• Maps and Map-making
• Meteorology and Climatology
• Oceanography and Hydrology
• Palaeontology
• Physical Geography and Topography
• Regional Geography
• Soil Science
• Urban Geography
• Browse content in Engineering and Technology
• Agriculture and Farming
• Biological Engineering
• Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Building
• Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Energy Technology
• Engineering (General)
• Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology
• History of Engineering and Technology
• Mechanical Engineering and Materials
• Technology of Industrial Chemistry
• Transport Technology and Trades
• Browse content in Environmental Science
• Applied Ecology (Environmental Science)
• Conservation of the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Environmental Sustainability
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Environmental Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Environmental Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environmental Science)
• Nuclear Issues (Environmental Science)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Environmental Science)
• History of Science and Technology
• Browse content in Materials Science
• Ceramics and Glasses
• Composite Materials
• Metals, Alloying, and Corrosion
• Nanotechnology
• Browse content in Mathematics
• Applied Mathematics
• Biomathematics and Statistics
• History of Mathematics
• Mathematical Education
• Mathematical Finance
• Mathematical Analysis
• Numerical and Computational Mathematics
• Probability and Statistics
• Pure Mathematics
• Browse content in Neuroscience
• Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
• Development of the Nervous System
• Disorders of the Nervous System
• History of Neuroscience
• Invertebrate Neurobiology
• Molecular and Cellular Systems
• Neuroendocrinology and Autonomic Nervous System
• Neuroscientific Techniques
• Sensory and Motor Systems
• Browse content in Physics
• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Biological and Medical Physics
• Classical Mechanics
• Computational Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Electromagnetism, Optics, and Acoustics
• History of Physics
• Mathematical and Statistical Physics
• Measurement Science
• Nuclear Physics
• Particles and Fields
• Plasma Physics
• Quantum Physics
• Relativity and Gravitation
• Semiconductor and Mesoscopic Physics
• Browse content in Psychology
• Affective Sciences
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Criminal and Forensic Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Health Psychology
• History and Systems in Psychology
• Music Psychology
• Neuropsychology
• Organizational Psychology
• Psychological Assessment and Testing
• Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction
• Psychology Professional Development and Training
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Browse content in Social Sciences
• Browse content in Anthropology
• Anthropology of Religion
• Human Evolution
• Medical Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology
• Regional Anthropology
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Theory and Practice of Anthropology
• Browse content in Business and Management
• Business Ethics
• Business History
• Business Strategy
• Business and Technology
• Business and Government
• Business and the Environment
• Comparative Management
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Entrepreneurship
• Health Management
• Human Resource Management
• Industrial and Employment Relations
• Industry Studies
• Information and Communication Technologies
• International Business
• Knowledge Management
• Management and Management Techniques
• Operations Management
• Organizational Theory and Behaviour
• Pensions and Pension Management
• Public and Nonprofit Management
• Social Issues in Business and Management
• Strategic Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Browse content in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice
• Criminology
• Forms of Crime
• International and Comparative Criminology
• Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
• Development Studies
• Browse content in Economics
• Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics
• Asian Economics
• Behavioural Finance
• Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics
• Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
• Economic History
• Economic Methodology
• Economic Systems
• Economic Development and Growth
• Financial Markets
• Financial Institutions and Services
• General Economics and Teaching
• Health, Education, and Welfare
• History of Economic Thought
• International Economics
• Labour and Demographic Economics
• Law and Economics
• Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
• Microeconomics
• Public Economics
• Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
• Welfare Economics
• Browse content in Education
• Adult Education and Continuous Learning
• Care and Counselling of Students
• Early Childhood and Elementary Education
• Educational Equipment and Technology
• Educational Strategies and Policy
• Higher and Further Education
• Organization and Management of Education
• Philosophy and Theory of Education
• Schools Studies
• Secondary Education
• Teaching of a Specific Subject
• Teaching of Specific Groups and Special Educational Needs
• Teaching Skills and Techniques
• Browse content in Environment
• Applied Ecology (Social Science)
• Climate Change
• Conservation of the Environment (Social Science)
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Social Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Social Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environment)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Social Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Social Science)
• Sustainability
• Browse content in Human Geography
• Cultural Geography
• Economic Geography
• Political Geography
• Browse content in Interdisciplinary Studies
• Communication Studies
• Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences
• Browse content in Politics
• African Politics
• Asian Politics
• Chinese Politics
• Comparative Politics
• Conflict Politics
• Elections and Electoral Studies
• Environmental Politics
• Ethnic Politics
• European Union
• Foreign Policy
• Gender and Politics
• Human Rights and Politics
• Indian Politics
• International Relations
• International Organization (Politics)
• Irish Politics
• Latin American Politics
• Middle Eastern Politics
• Political Behaviour
• Political Economy
• Political Institutions
• Political Theory
• Political Methodology
• Political Communication
• Political Philosophy
• Political Sociology
• Politics and Law
• Politics of Development
• Public Policy
• Public Administration
• Qualitative Political Methodology
• Quantitative Political Methodology
• Regional Political Studies
• Russian Politics
• Security Studies
• State and Local Government
• UK Politics
• US Politics
• Browse content in Regional and Area Studies
• African Studies
• Asian Studies
• East Asian Studies
• Japanese Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Native American Studies
• Scottish Studies
• Browse content in Research and Information
• Research Methods
• Browse content in Social Work
• Addictions and Substance Misuse
• Adoption and Fostering
• Care of the Elderly
• Child and Adolescent Social Work
• Couple and Family Social Work
• Direct Practice and Clinical Social Work
• Emergency Services
• Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
• International and Global Issues in Social Work
• Mental and Behavioural Health
• Social Justice and Human Rights
• Social Policy and Advocacy
• Social Work and Crime and Justice
• Social Work Macro Practice
• Social Work Practice Settings
• Social Work Research and Evidence-based Practice
• Welfare and Benefit Systems
• Browse content in Sociology
• Childhood Studies
• Community Development
• Comparative and Historical Sociology
• Disability Studies
• Economic Sociology
• Gender and Sexuality
• Gerontology and Ageing
• Health, Illness, and Medicine
• Marriage and the Family
• Migration Studies
• Occupations, Professions, and Work
• Organizations
• Population and Demography
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Theory
• Social Movements and Social Change
• Social Research and Statistics
• Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
• Sociology of Religion
• Sociology of Education
• Sport and Leisure
• Urban and Rural Studies
• Browse content in Warfare and Defence
• Defence Strategy, Planning, and Research
• Land Forces and Warfare
• Military Administration
• Military Life and Institutions
• Naval Forces and Warfare
• Other Warfare and Defence Issues
• Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
• Weapons and Equipment

• < Previous chapter
• Next chapter >

23 Jewish Environmental Ethics: Intertwining Adam with Adamah

Arthur Waskow, Rabbi, Ph. D., founded (1983) and continues to direct The Shalom Center 〈www.theshalomcenter.org〉. Among his seminal works on Jewish thought and practice have been the Freedom Seder; Godwrestling; Seasons of Our Joy; Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of Life ; Godwrestling—Round 2: Ancient Wisdom, Future Paths; and as co-author with Rabbi Phyllis Berman, A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven: The Jewish Life-Spiral as a Spiritual Path and Freedom Journeys: The Tale of Exodus and Wilderness across Millennia. He co-authored The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims with Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, and Murshid Saadi Shakur Chisti (Neil Douglas-Klotz). He had primary editorial responsibility for two pioneering anthologies on eco-Judaism: Torah of the Earth: Exploring 4,000 Years of Ecology in Jewish Thought; and (with Ari Elon and Naomi Mara Hyman) Trees, the Earth, and Torah: A Tu B’Shvat Anthology. In 1963 he received a Ph.D. in U.S. history from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and was ordained to the Rabbinate in 1995 by a transdenominational beit din under the authority of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal.

• Published: 28 January 2013
• Cite Icon Cite
• Permissions Icon Permissions

This chapter discusses Jewish environmental ethics. It focuses on what two central biblical stories—the Garden of Eden and the Flood—tell us about Jewish ecological ethics as the Torah itself tells those stories, and as the later rabbis interpreted and expanded them, with special concern for the emerging ethics of Eco-Judaism. In so doing, the chapter illustrates how the Jewish tradition uses midrash , the interpretation of texts and their literary nuances, to discover meanings in sacred texts that make them ever relevant to us in changing times and circumstances. It briefly develops one of the Torah's laws on ecology, and an emerging interest on the part of some Jews to understand God differently to reflect our current ecological understanding of life as one integrated whole, in order to demonstrate how Jewish law and theology are relevant to ecology.

Personal account

• Sign in with email/username & password
• Get email alerts
• Save searches
• Purchase content
• Activate your purchase/trial code
• Add your ORCID iD

Institutional access

Sign in with a library card.

• Sign in with username/password
• Recommend to your librarian
• Institutional account management
• Get help with access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.

• Click Sign in through your institution.
• Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
• When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
• Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:

• Click Sign in through society site.
• When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

• View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
• View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.

• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Rights and permissions
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Ask Yale Library

My Library Accounts

Find, Request, and Use

Help and Research Support

Visit and Study

Explore Collections

Theology & the Environment: Judaism and Ecology

• Journals and Databases
• Reference Works
• Introduction
• Animals, Food & Land
• Laudato Si'/Catholicism
• Protestantism and Orthodoxy
• Judaism and Ecology
• Ecofeminism
• Economics and Politics
• Reading Bible Ecologically
• Hebrew Bible and Ecology
• New Testament and Ecology
• Practical Theology
• Ecotheology and Creation
• Ecological Justice
• Ecotheology and Doctrine
• Natural Theology
• Liberation Theology
• Liturgy and Ecology
• Ecospirituality
• Special Collections

Judaism and the Environment

• << Previous: Protestantism and Orthodoxy
• Next: Ecofeminism >>
• Last Updated: Aug 23, 2024 4:38 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.yale.edu/ecotheology

Site Navigation

P.O. BOX 208240 New Haven, CT 06250-8240 (203) 432-1775

Yale's Libraries

Bass Library

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Classics Library

Cushing/Whitney Medical Library

Divinity Library

East Asia Library

Gilmore Music Library

Haas Family Arts Library

Lewis Walpole Library

Lillian Goldman Law Library

Marx Science and Social Science Library

Sterling Memorial Library

Yale Center for British Art

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

@YALELIBRARY

Yale Library Instagram

Accessibility       Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion      Giving       Privacy and Data Use      Contact Our Web Team    

© 2022 Yale University Library • All Rights Reserved

• Browse by Subjects
• New Releases
• Coming Soon
• Chases's Calendar
• Browse by Course
• Instructor's Copies
• Monographs & Research
• Intelligence & Security
• Library Services
• Business & Leadership
• Museum Studies
• Pastoral Resources
• Psychotherapy

Judaism and Environmental Ethics

Edited by martin d. yaffe - contributions by e l. allen; rabbi bradley shavit artson; jeremy benstein; philip j. bentley; j david bleich; gerald blidstein; jeremy cohen; david ehrenfeld; joan g. ehrenfeld; hans jonas; leon r. kass; eric katz; jeanne kay; aldo leopold; ze'ev levy; eric rosenblum; robertd sacks; arthur schaeffer; eilon schwartz; steven s. schwarzschild; lawrence troster and michael wyschogrod, also available.

Brill | Nijhoff

Brill | Wageningen Academic

Brill Germany / Austria

Böhlau

Brill | Fink

Brill | mentis

Brill | Schöningh

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

V&R unipress

Open Access

Open Access for Authors

Transformative Agreements

Open Access and Research Funding

Open Access for Librarians

Open Access for Academic Societies

Discover Brill’s Open Access Content

Organization

Stay updated

Corporate Social Responsiblity

Investor Relations

Policies, rights & permissions

Review a Brill Book

Author Portal

How to publish with Brill: Files & Guides

Fonts, Scripts and Unicode

Publication Ethics & COPE Compliance

Data Sharing Policy

Brill MyBook

Ordering from Brill

Author Newsletter

Piracy Reporting Form

Sales Managers and Sales Contacts

Ordering From Brill

Titles No Longer Published by Brill

Catalogs, Flyers and Price Lists

E-Book Collections Title Lists and MARC Records

How to Manage your Online Holdings

LibLynx Access Management

Discovery Services

KBART Files

MARC Records

Online User and Order Help

Rights and Permissions

Latest Key Figures

Latest Financial Press Releases and Reports

Annual General Meeting of Shareholders

Share Information

Specialty Products

Press and Reviews

Share link with colleague or librarian

Stay informed about this journal!

• Get New Issue Alerts
• Get Advance Article alerts
• Get Citation Alerts

The Promise of Jewish Theistic Naturalism for Jewish Environmental Ethics

Hans jonas and arthur green.

This paper seeks to explain the greater appeal of Jewish naturalistic theologies given our greater appreciation today of the ecological vulnerability of our world. By examining the theological writings of two prominent twentieth-century Jewish thinkers—Hans Jonas and Arthur Green. The paper demonstrates that their espousal of naturalistic yet theistic worldview in their interpretations and reconstructions of Jewish tradition shares significant affinities and promotes an ethical attitude toward the environment. First, I show that Jonas and Green reject reductive forms of naturalism and embrace a nonreductive or “expansive” style of naturalism. Then, I argue that their theologies intend to stimulate a sense of responsibility toward all creation by envisioning humans as partners of a non-omnipotent God. I conclude by noting the metaphysical, epistemological, and moral promises of theistic naturalism to Jewish environmental ethics.

Access options

Get access to the full article by using one of the access options below.

Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

Other access options

Institutional Login

Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials

Personal login

Log in with your brill.com account

Barbour, Ian G. 1993. Ethics in an Age of Technology . San Francisco, CA : HarperSanFrancisco.

Berger, Peter L. 1969. A Rumor of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural . Garden City, NY : Doubleday.

Berry, Thomas. 1999. The Great Work: Our Way into the Future . New York: Bell Tower.

De Caro, Mario, and David Macarthur. 2004. “Introduction: The Nature of Naturalism.” In Naturalism in Question , edited by Mario De Caro and David Macarthur, 1–17. Cambridge, MA and London, England: Harvard University Press.

Ellenson, David. 2014. “A Theology of Fear: The Search for a Liberal Jewish Paradigm.” In Jewish Meaning in a World of Choice: Studies in Tradition and Modernity , 89–107. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society.

Ellis, Fiona. 2014. God, Value, and Nature . Oxford; New York, NY : Oxford University Press.

Fossa, Fabio. 2019. “Tradition and Critical Thinking: On the Value of the Past in Hans Jonas’s Critique of the Modern Mind.” Philosophical Inquiries VII (2): 35–59.

Green, Arthur. 1978. “The Role of Jewish Mysticism in a Contemporary Theology of Judaism.” Shefa Quarterly: A Journal of Jewish Thought and Study 1 (4).

Green, Arthur. 1984. “Neo-Hasidism and Our Theological Struggles.” Raayonot 4 (3): 11–17.

Green, Arthur. 2002. “A Kabbalah for the Environmental Age.” In Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word , edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, 3–15. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press.

Green, Arthur. 2010. Radical Judaism: Rethinking God and Tradition . New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Green, Arthur. 2015a. “God’s Need for Man: A Unitive Approach to the Writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel.” Modern Judaism 35 (5): 247–261.

Green, Arthur. 2015b. The Heart of the Matter: Studies in Jewish Mysticism and Theology . Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society.

Green, Arthur. 2020. Judaism for the World: Reflections on God, Life, and Love . London and New Haven: Yale University Press.

Guzi, Bar. 2018. “Jewish Process Theology and the Problem of Evil: The Cases of Hans Jonas and Bradley Shavit Artson.” Zeramim: An Online Journal of Applied Jewish Thought 2 (1): 39–67.

Herskowitz, Daniel M. 2021. “Reading Heidegger against the Grain: Hans Jonas on Existentialism, Gnosticism, and Modern Science.” Modern Intellectual History : 1–24.

Hogue, Michael S. 2010. The Promise of Religious Naturalism . Lanham, MD : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Hösle, Vittorio. 2008. “Hans Jonas’s Position in the History of German Philosophy.” In The Legacy of Hans Jonas: Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life , edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Christian Wiese, 19–38. Leiden: Brill.

Jonas, Hans. 1974a. “Contemporary Problems in Ethics from a Jewish Perspective.” In Philosophical Essays: From Ancient Creed to Technological Man , 168–182. Englewood Cliffs, NJ : Prentice-Hall.

Jonas, Hans. 1974b. “Technology and Responsibility: Reflections on the New Tasks of Ethics.” In Philosophical Essays: From Ancient Creed to Technological Man Englewood Cliffs, NJ : Prentice-Hall.

Jonas, Hans. 1984. The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age . Translated by Hans Jonas and David Herr. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.

Jonas, Hans. 1994. “Vergangenheit Und Wahrheit: Ein Später Nachtrag Zu Den Sogenannten Gottesbeweisen.” In Gedanken Über Got: Drei Versuche , 7–25. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

Jonas, Hans. 1996a. “The Concept of God after Auschwitz: A Jewish Voice.” In Mortality and Morality: A Search for Good after Auschwitz , edited by Lawrence Vogel, 131–143. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.

Jonas, Hans. 1996b. “Epilogue: The Outcry of Mute Things.” In Mortality and Morality: A Search for Good after Auschwitz , edited by Lawrence Vogel, 198–202. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.

Jonas, Hans. 1996c. “Immortality and the Modern Temper.” In Mortality and Morality: A Search for Good after Auschwitz , edited by Lawrence Vogel, 115–130. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.

Jonas, Hans. 1996d. “Is Faith Still Possible? Memories of Rudolf Bultmann and Reflections on the Philosophical Aspects of His Work.” In Mortality and Morality: A Search for Good after Auschwitz , edited by Lawrence Vogel, 144–164. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.

Jonas, Hans. 1996e. “Matter, Mind, and Creation: Cosmological Evidence and Cosmogonic Speculation.” In Mortality and Morality: A Search for Good after Auschwitz , edited by Lawrence Vogel, 165–197. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.

Jonas, Hans. 2001a. The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity . 3rd ed. Boston: Beacon Press.

Jonas, Hans. 2001b. The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology . Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.

Jonas, Hans. 2008. Memoirs . Translated by Krishna Winston. edited by Christian Wiese. Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press.

Jonas, Hans. 2017. “Responsibility Today: The Ethics of an Endangered Future.” In Global Ethics and Moral Responsibility: Hans Jonas and His Critics , edited by John-Stewart Gordon and Holger Burckhart, 9–21. Ashgate Publishing Company.

Keen, Sam. 1973. Apology for Wonder . New York: HarperCollins.

Lawee, Eric. 2015. “Hans Jonas and Classical Jewish Sources.” Journal of Jewish Thought & Philosophy 23 (1): 75–125.

Levy, David J. 2002. Hans Jonas: The Integrity of Thinking . Columbia: University of Missouri Press.

Lubarsky, Sandra B. 2008. “Jonas, Whitehead, and the Problem of Power.” In The Legacy of Hans Jonas: Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life , edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Christian Wiese, 397–418. Leiden: Brill.

Mayse, Ariel Evan. 2015. “Arthur Green: An Intellectual Profile.” In Arthur Green: Hasidism for Tomorrow , edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron W. Hughes, 1–52. Leiden; Boston: Brill.

Sideris, Lisa H. 2017. Consecrating Science: Wonder, Knowledge, and the Natural World . Oakland, CA : University of California Press.

Thornhill, Chris, and Ronny Miron. 2020. Karl Jaspers. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy edited by Edward N. Zalta.

Vogel, Lawrence. 1996. “Hans Jonas’s Exodus: From German Existentialism to Post-Holocaust Theology.” In Mortality and Morality: A Search for Good after Auschwitz , edited by Lawrence Vogel, 1–40. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.

Wiese, Christian. 2007. The Life and Thought of Hans Jonas: Jewish Dimensions . Translated by Jeffrey Grossman and Christian Wiese. Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press.

Wiese, Christian. 2008. “ “God’s Adventure with the World” and “Sanctity of Life”: Theological Speculations and Ethical Reflections in Jonas’s Philosophy after Auschwitz.” In The Legacy of Hans Jonas: Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life , edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Christian Wiese, 419–460. Leiden: Brill.

Wolin, Richard. 2001. Heidegger’s Children: Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith, Hans Jonas, and Herbert Marcuse . Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press.

Wolin, Richard. 2008. “Ethics after Auschwitz: Hans Jonas’s Notion of Responsibility in a Technological Age.” In The Legacy of Hans Jonas: Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life , edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Christian Wiese, 1–15. Leiden: Brill.

Content Metrics

Reference Works

Primary source collections

COVID-19 Collection

How to publish with Brill

Open Access Content

Contact & Info

Sales contacts

Publishing contacts

Stay Updated

Newsletters

Social Media Overview

Terms and Conditions  

Privacy Statement  

Cookie Settings  

Accessibility

Legal Notice

Terms and Conditions   |   Privacy Statement   |  Cookie Settings   |   Accessibility   |  Legal Notice   |  Copyright © 2016-2024

Copyright © 2016-2024

• [81.177.182.136]
• 81.177.182.136

Character limit 500 /500

• Email Signup

Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology

Overview Essay

See also Hava Tirosh-Samuelson's article on Judaism from the Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology

Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Arizona State University

Any generalization about Judaism and ecology should take into consideration the ambiguity of the term “Judaism” and the fact that the Jewish experience encompasses both religious and secular forms.  Indeed, the various conceptualizations of “nature” or “environment” illustrate the complexity of the modern Jewish experience.  Thus the contribution of Jews to environmentalism is more extensive and the impact of environmentalism on contemporary Judaism is more profound than is commonly acknowledged.  In Israel and in the diaspora the ecological crisis has generated many Jewish responses as Jewish theologians, scholars, educators and activists have subjected the entire Jewish tradition to rigorous reinterpretation, identified relevant literary sources, distilled the ecological insights of the tradition, articulated new ecological theologies, and spelled out policies and educational programs (Tirosh-Samuelson 2002a; 2005; 2006). 

Judaism and Ecology: Ambiguities and Possibilities

As the oldest of the Western monotheistic religions, Judaism is indispensable to the discourse on religious and ecology (Bauman, Bohannon and O’Brien 2010; Grim and Tucker 2014), but Judaism also occupies an ambiguous position in this discourse.  To begin, Judaism problematizes a generic definition of “religion.”  Although Judaism had articulated the concepts that framed the western religious vocabulary (e.g., creation, revelation, covenant, prophecy, Scripture, redemption, and messiah), Judaism differs from other traditions because it is a religion of one group of people—the Jews.  Thus Jewishness consists not only of beliefs, rituals, norms and practices that cohere into a way of life, but also a collective identity, be it ethnic or national.  In the modern period, however, processes of secularization have problematized Jewish existence, giving rise to secular Jews, namely born Jews who do not live by the strictures of the Jewish religious tradition.  Interestingly, secular (i.e., non-observant) Jews have been at the forefront of the environmental movement, a point that has received little recognition. 

For example, Barry Commoner, the Jewish ecologist and who led the campaign for nuclear disarmament made environmentalism into a political cause (Commoner, 1971). Murray Bookchin, another son of East-European Jewish immigrants in America, articulated Social Ecology, insisting that human responsibility toward nature could be carried out only if humans first eliminate social exploitation, domination and hierarchy by developing communitarianism (Bookchin 1990; Biel 1997; Light 1998). Peter Singer, the son of Jewish refugees from Austria who settled in Australia, theorized the Animal Liberation  movement, arguing that humans have an obligation to serve the interests or at least to protect the lives of all animals who suffer or are killed, whether on the farm or in the wild (Singer 1975[1990]).  Hans Jonas, the German-Jewish philosopher and student of Heidegger, is regarded as the “father” of the European Green movement because he applied the “imperative of responsibility” to the environment criticizing modern technology (Jonas 1984).   Starhawk (aka Miriam Simos), an American Jewish feminist, environmentalist and peace activist, has promoted the Goddess religion, giving rise to Earth-based feminist spirituality (Starhawk 1995; Salomonsen 2002).  Finally, David Abram is an American eco-phenomenologist who coined the term “the more-than-human world” to signify the broad commonwealth of earthy life which both includes and exceeds human culture (Abram 1996; 2010).  These are all born Jews who have profoundly shaped the theory and practice of contemporary environmentalism, but without appealing to Judaism as an authoritative tradition.  In some cases, their ideas reflect the secularization of traditional Jewish ideas and beliefs, and more often their environmentalist vision either substitutes for a commitment to Judaism or directly critiqued Judaism for its presumed limitations or failures.

In the context of the discourse on religion and ecology Judaism is ambiguous for yet another reason: the Bible, the foundation document of Judaism, was accused of being the very cause of ecological crisis (White 1967).  Lynn White Jr., the medieval historian, was the first to charge that the Bible commanded humanity to rule the Earth (Gen. 1:28), giving human beings the license to exploit the Earth’s resources for their own benefit.  A lay Presbyterian, White intended the charge as prophetic self-criticism that will generate self-examination (Santmire 1984), and indeed he was exceedingly successful: his short essay compelled Jews and Christians to examine the Bible anew in light of the ecological crisis.  Is the Bible and “inconvenient text” (Habel 2009) or is the Bible a text whose ecological wisdom has been ignored or misinterpreted? Does the Bible authorize human domination and exploitation of the Earth or rather does the Bible set clear limits on human interaction with the non-human world and commands humans to care responsibly for the Earth and all its non-human inhabitants? Since 1970 Jewish religious environmentalists have examined the Bible in light of the ecological crisis whether to defend the Bible against various (Christian) misreadings (e.g., Cohen 1989), identify a distinctive ecological sensibility (Kay 1988 [2001]; Artson 1991-92 [2001]; Bernstein and Fink 1992; Bernstein 2000; 2005; Benstein 2006; Troster 2008), or articulate Jewish environmental ethics of responsibility (E. Schwartz 1997 [2001]); Waskow 2000; Troster 1991-92 [2001]).  For the past four decades the close study of the Bible has made clear that the Jewish sacred text espouses deep concern for the well-being of the Earth and all its inhabitants, because it asserts that “the Earth belongs to God” (Ps. 24:1) and humans are but temporary care takers, or stewards, of God’s Earth; their task is “to till and protect” the Earth (Gen. 2:15) not as controlling managers but as loving gardeners (Tirosh-Samuelson 2017). 

A third source of ambiguity is the fact that in Judaism ecological wisdom is found not in the natural order itself but in divinely revealed commands that instruct humans how to treat the Earth and its inhabitants.  Scripture declares that the world God had created is “very good” (Gen. 1: 31) but it is neither perfect nor intrinsically holy.  Only human beings, who are created “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:28), are able to perfect the world by acting in accordance with divine command.  At Sinai God revealed His Will to the Chosen People, Israel, by giving them the Torah (literally, “instruction) which specifies how Israel is to conduct itself in all aspects of life, including conduct toward the physical environment.  In the Judaic sacred myth, divine revelation establishes the eternal covenant between God and Israel, an unconditional contract whose collateral is the Land of Israel.  As long as Israel observes the Will of God, the Land of Israel is fertile and fecund and Israel flourishes, but when Israel sins, the Land loses its fertility and the people suffer (Deut. 6:10-15).  When the sins become egregious, God punishes Israel by exiling the people from the Land.  In this manner the Bible set up the causal connection between religious morality and the wellbeing of the environment. 

Biblical law spells how Israel is to treat the Earth, vegetation and animals.  Viewing Israel as God’s tenant-farmers, Scripture commands that a portion of the land’s yield be returned to its rightful owner, God (Leviticus 19:23). Since creation was an act of separation, Scripture prohibits mixing of plants, fruit trees, fish, birds, and land animals thereby protecting biodiversity (Deut. 22: 9-11).  The human being is indeed given responsible authority over other animals and is allowed to consume animals, but human consumption of animals is presented as divine concession to human craving, suggesting that vegetarianism is the ideal (R. Schwartz  2001) and radically limiting what humans are allowed to consume.  Scriptural legislation is also attentive to the perpetuation of species by prohibiting the killing of the mother hen with her off-springs (Deut. 22:6) or the cutting of fruit-bearing trees in time of siege (Deut. 20:19).  Compassion to domestic animals is evident in the prohibition on the yoking together of animals of uneven strength and is praised as a desired virtue.  Since Scripture allows for human sacrifice of animals, the relationship between humans and animals exhibits inequality, but “this inequality is relative not absolute … because it is based on an analogy: as God is to Israel, so is Israel to its flocks and herds” (Klawans 2006, 74).  Most importantly, the Bible commands rest on the Sabbath for humans and domestic animals putting “moral limits to economic exchange and commercial exploitation” (Sacks 2012, 169).  Extending the Sabbath to the land, the laws of the Sabbatical year ( shemitah ) protects the socially marginal (i.e., the poor, the hungry, the widow, and the orphan) by making sure that crops that grow untended are to be left ownerless for all to share including poor people and animals.  In the Bible the allocation of nature’s resources is a religious issue of the highest order and social justice is eco-justice. Divinely revealed environmental legislation enables Israel to sanctify itself and the Land of Israel.

In the Second Temple period (516 BCE-70 CE) the Bible became the canonic Scripture of the Jews, shaping the life of the People of Israel in the Land of Israel and in the diaspora.  With the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, Jewish political sovereignty in the Land of Israel came to an end, but Jewish religious and legal autonomy remained intact under the leadership of small scholarly elite, the rabbis.  Seeking to fathom the meaning of the divinely revealed Torah, the rabbis expanded biblical legislation through creative exegesis, giving their interpretations the status of Oral Torah which became normative Judaism. For example, from Deuteronomy 22:19 the rabbis derived the principle “Do not Destroy” ( bal tashchit ) which prohibits wanton destruction, a precept that defines the unique Jewish contribution to environmentalism: Judaism focuses on the duties of humans toward nature as opposed to the intrinsic or inherent rights of nature (Schwartz 1997 [2001])).  Similarly, on the basis of Deut. 22:6 the rabbis articulated the general principle of tza`ar ba`aley hayyim prohibits the affliction of needless suffering of animals.  Although rabbinic ethics is undoubtedly hierarchical and human centered, for example, cruelty to animals is forbidden because it leads to cruelty toward humans (Kalechowsky 1992; 2006; R. Schwartz 2012; ), the rabbis often presented animals as moral exemplars and recognized special animals as “animals of the righteous,” who live in perfect harmony with their Creator (Rosenberg, 2002). 

While the rabbis praised virtues that can be conducive to creation care, rabbinic Judaism also generated a certain distance between Jews and the natural world, which is the fourth source of ambiguity.  Because the rabbis regarded Torah study to be the ultimate commandment, equal in value to all the other commandments combined, the Torah itself (both Written and Oral) became the prism through which Jews experienced the natural world.  From the second century onward rabbinic Judaism has evolved as a textual, scholastic culture that privileges the study of sacred texts at the expense of interest in the natural world for its own sake.  The urbanization of Roman Palestine in the 3 rd and 4 th centuries, the Jewish transition from agriculture to commerce and trade in the early centuries of Islam and the limits on Jewish ownership of land in the Christian West exacerbated the departure of Jews from agriculture and the emergence of Jewish culture as a text-based community.  This is not to say that Jews were oblivious to their physical surroundings, but that pre-modern Jews interacted with the natural world through textual exegesis.  Thus rationalist Jewish philosophers in Spain and Italy sought to fathom how the laws of nature (as understood by Aristotle) reflect the inner esoteric structure of Torah; Pietists in Germany regarded nature as a secret code that could be decoded by the use of secret magical, verbal, and numerical formulas; and kabbalists in Spain saw nature as a symbolic text that mirrors the structure of the Godhead (Shyovitz 2017).  All three intellectual strands of pre-modern Judaism treated nature as a linguistic text that has to be interpreted rather than a physical reality that can be sensually experienced by embodied humans (Tirosh-Samuelson 2002; 2011a).     

The centrality of sacred texts in Jewish life was critiqued in the modern period first by the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah) and later by Zionism.  For the proponents of the Jewish Enlightenment ( maskilim ), knowledge of physical nature was necessary for the modernization of the Jews and their entry into European society and culture.  In their journals, novels, and satires, the maskilim presented knowledge about the natural world as conditional to the healing of Jews from excessive bookishness and called for the return of Jews to productive labor, especially agriculture. Going further, Zionism, the Jewish nationalist movement which was an offshoot of the Haskalah, preached the return of Jews to the Land of Israel as the solution to the ills of exilic life.  The Zionist movement generated a fifth source of ambiguity in the Jewish relationship to nature.  Zionism sought to create a new type of Jews as well as a new, Hebraic, modern culture that will be rooted in the remote agricultural past of ancient Israel, by passing rabbinic Judaism.  Zionism endowed the physical environment of the Land of Israel, its topography, flora and fauna, with spiritual (albeit secular) significance, inculcating intimate knowledge of the Land through nature hikes, field trips, and camping.

Paradoxically, the resulting outdoor culture has enabled secular Israelis to understand the natural imagery and metaphors of the Bible (Feliks 1990; Hareuveni 1980), the document that legitimized the Zionist national project (Schweid 1985).  More problematically, the successes of the Zionist project exacted a toll on the fragile environment of the Land of Israel (Tal 2002): steep rise in population, rapid urbanization, the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, and initial mistakes about natural resource management have generated a long list of environmental problems (e.g., air and water pollution; soil erosion, over use of water, etc.) requiring legislative solutions (Tal, Orenstein and Miller 2013).  Today the state of Israel addresses these environmental challenges through a mixture of policies, legislation, and alternative technologies and environmentalism thrives in Israel through green political parties, numerous environmental NGOs, and creative educational and training programs (Tirosh-Samuelson 2012).  Many of these environmental initiatives and organizations (e.g., Adam, Teva ve-Din; Sevivah Israel, or Hayyim u-Sevivah) deal with concrete environmental problems without reference to Judaism, but some organizations (e.g., Teva Ivri, Shatil, and the Heschel Center for Sustainability) draw direct inspiration from Jewish religious sources in their theoretical justification and educational programs.  The degree to which Israeli environmentalism should be grounded in traditional Jewish sources is hotly debated in Israel and the movement is quite different from its American counterpart (Mann 2012, 148-15).    

Eco-Judaism: Practice and Theology

In Israel, where Jews are the majority, environmentalism encompasses advocacy, education, public policy, legislation, sustainable architecture and agriculture, science and technology with limited appeal to the religious sources of Judaism.  By contrast, in the diaspora, where Jews are small religio-ethnic minority, Jewish environmental public discourse has to be carried explicitly in religious categories.  Since its emergence in the mid-1980s, Jewish environmental activism has brought about the “greening” of Jewish institutions (e.g., synagogues, schools, communal organizations, Jewish community centers, and youth movements).  Today, a variety of organizations, programs, and initiatives promote sustainable practices (e.g., energy efficiency, elimination of plastics, recycling and waste reduction programs), reduce consumption and promote new eating habits, plant community gardens, link sustainable agriculture to urban Jewish life and education, include environmental issues in the education of youngsters and adults, organize nature walks and outdoor activities, celebrate Jewish holidays (especially Sukkot, Shavuot and Tu Bishvat) with attention to environmental agricultural themes; promote justice in food production with attention to sustainable agriculture and compassionate treatment of farm animals, and encourage Jews to live sustainably. These programs transcend congregational and denominational boundaries and are often carried out in inter-faith settings in collaboration with non-Jewish organizations.  Eco-Judaism consists of environmental activism and eco-theology.

As a grass root movement, Jewish environmental activism educates Jews about environmental matters, inspires Jews to lead an environmentally correct life, implements “green” communal practices, and rallies Jews to support environmental legislation and interfaith activities. The main activities of Jewish environmental organizations and initiatives consist of nature education, environmental awareness, advocacy on environmental legislation, and community building. The programs of Teva Learning Alliance (previously called Teva Learning Center) exemplify how activities are structured to sensitize the participants to nature’s rhythms, inspiring them to develop a meaningful relationship with nature and their own Jewish practices.  Through traditional Jewish rituals (e.g., blessings, prayers, and reflections) participants become aware of nature as divine creation or learn about the vital connection between Judaism and environmental stewardship.  Elat Chayyim Center for Jewish Spirituality is another example where various programs promote environmentally concerned Judaism as a spiritual practice.   One of its programs, ADAMAH: The Jewish Environmental Fellowship, offers leadership training program that teaches the Fellows to live communally and engage in a hands-on curriculum that integrates organized agricultural and sustainable living skills, Jewish learning and living, leadership development and community building.  The newly reconstituted Aytzim: Ecological Judaism is an example how environmental education, advocacy, and activism link the Jewish religion with Zionism and how the Internet is used to advance environmentalism: the website Jewcology is now managed by Aytzim.  These programs and the Coalition of Jewish and Environmental Life (COEJL), which focuses on educational, legislative, and interfaith programming, illustrate eco-Judaism in practice. 

An important aspect of contemporary eco-Judaism is attention to food, since food is the intersection point of humans and animals as well as the intersection between diverse social groups of producers and consumers.  Hazon: Jewish Lab of Sustainability is a case in point because it has given rise to the Jewish Food Movement that stresses the redemptive aspect of land cultivation and just production, distribution, and consumption of food. The Jewish Food Movement, which supports organic farming attempts to change the relationship between farm workers, processing/packing house workers, truckers, hospitality and hotel workers and other people involved in the food production industry.  As an educational effort the Jewish Food Movement is connected with other environmental initiatives, including the Jewish Farm School in Philadelphia (which focuses on urban permaculture), the Eden Village Camp in Putnam Valley NY (an eco-summer camp that teaches sustainability and outdoor activities), Shomrei Adamah (a Hazon program for Jewish day schools that emphasizes energy flow, natural cycles, biodiversity and interdependence), Kayam Farm at the Pearlstone Center in Maryland (which harvests food for the retreat center and teaches stewardship and sustainability), Ekar Farm in Denver (a communal project that combines food security, environmentalism and urban farming) and Farm Forward in Oregon (a non-profit organization that promotes humane and sustainable animal agriculture) are all designed to bring Jews to integrate knowledge about food and farming with the Jewish tradition.

The concept that gives coherence to eco-Judaism is Eco-Kosher Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi coined the term in 1968 during the labor protests in California led by Cezar Chávez.  Schachter-Shalomi defines Eco-Kosher as “a new kind of kashrut that would combine the ancient ways of thought, consumption, and avoidance of cruelty and violence with the new awareness of the wider repercussions of some of our actions” (Schachter-Shalomi and Segel 2013, 157).   Eco-Kosher connects concerns about industrial agriculture, global warming, and fair treatment of workers with the Jewish dietary laws about food production, preparation and eating. Eco-Kosher means that Jews should only consume products that meet both Jewish dietary laws as well as Jewish ethical standards, and eco-kosher consumers should encourage food producers to care for the environment, animals and their workers.  Since the 1970s Arthur Waskow translated the concept into a full-fledged program of environmental justice in regard to economic and racial inequity, the unjust labor practices, and the causal connection between the exploitation of the Earth resources and unjust political policies, especially in Israel (Waskow 1996).  Other rabbis have fused Eco-Kosher with kabbalistic principles as well as with non-Jewish traditions such as the ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui, an ecologically based art of spatial arrangement that incorporates human-made objects with natural surroundings.  The concept of Eco-Kosher has also inspired Jewish entrepreneurs to market eco-kosher meat products and the Conservative Movement to issue the Magen Tzedek Initiative, a certification program that assures consumers and retailers that “kosher food products have been produced in keeping with exemplary Jewish ethics in regard to labor, animal welfare, environmental impact, consumer issue and corporate integrity” ( http://www.magentzedek.org )

Combining sustainable agriculture, fair labor practices, and ethical treatment of animals, “eco-Kosher” generates a comprehensive life style whose goal is to bring about Tikkun Olam (literally, “repair of the world”).  In rabbinic texts (e.g., Mishna, Gittin 4:2) “ letaken olam ” means to act in accordance to Jewish law so as to usher the Kingdom of God.  This utopian notion was given an abstract, cosmic, metaphysical meaning in medieval Kabbalah, especially the 16 th century version of Lurianic Kabbalah.  According to Lurianic Kabbalah, rituals performed with kabbalistic intention can bring about not only the amelioration of the human world or even the physical cosmos, but also the divine world (the world of the ten Sefirot) which experiences brokenness and disharmony (symbolized by the separation of the masculine and feminine aspects of the Godhead), due to human sinfulness.  In the second half of the 20 th century Tikkun Olam has become the slogan of Jewish social activism, including environmentalism, although few Jews who invoke the term understand its original kabbalistic meaning.  In Jewish environmental organizations, the goal of Tikkun Olam is usually linked to two other ethical values: responsibility and interconnectedness . The former highlights human responsibility toward the Earth and its inhabitants and the latter insists on the relationality of all living beings.  Both of these values are derived from biblical and rabbinic sources and are invoked in a wide variety of educational programs (Tirosh-Samuelson 2012).      

If Jewish environmental activists use “Tikkun Olam” as slogan to mobilize Jews to social actions, with little understanding of its kabbalistic underpinning, several Jewish eco-theologians deliberately build on Kabbalah and Hasidism to articulate Jewish ecological spirituality that could address the ecological crisis.  Schachter-Shalomi, the founder of Jewish Renewal Movement, was the first to call for a “paradigm shift” within Judaism, signifying a shift from transcendence to immanence, from monotheism to pantheism, from dualistic to non-dualistic thinking, from patriarchy to egalitarianism (Schachter-Shalomi, 1993).  He called this shift “Gaian Consciousness” and argued that Judaism has a distinctive (albeit not exclusive) role to play in the healing of the cosmos: the key ecological precept of Judaism—“Do Not Destroy”—enables Jews to act in ways that prevent what he called, the crime of “planetcide.”  Recasting Judaism as pantheistic monism that reframes all the major themes of traditional Judaism and gives rise to new rituals, this New-Age thinker saw his project as “trying to help the Earth rebuild her organicity and establish a healthy governing principles” (Magid 2006, 65; Magid 2013). 

Schachter-Shalomi’s friend and colleague, Rabbi Arthur Green has gone further to articulate a systematic ecological Jewish spirituality promoted as “Neo-Hasidism” (Green and Mayse 2019; 2019a)  In Green’s “mystical panentheism” Kabbalah and Hasidism are fused with the theory of evolution into a worldview that depicts the “bio-history of the universe” as “sacred drama” (Green 2003, 111).  Green presents a holistic view of reality in which all existents are in some way an expression of God and are to some extent intrinsically related to one another (Ibid, 118-119; Green 2010).   Although Green’s lyrical depiction of evolution is closer to medieval Neoplatonism than to Darwinism, Green offers contemporary Jews “a Kabbalah for the environmental age” (Green 2002).  The systematic fusion of Kabbalah, Hasidism, and environmentalism is presented in the work of Rabbi David Seidenberg who argues that by “applying the principles of Kabbalah to constructive theology, we can train ourselves to see the image of God in all of these dimensions, in a species, in an ecosystem, in the water cycles, in the entirety of this planet, and so on” (Seidenberg 2015, 312).  Seidenberg is one example of Jewish spiritual teachers, artists, story tellers, and healers who find in Kabbalah, as well as other spiritual traditions (either Native American or Asian) resources for a syncretistic Jewish ecological spirituality.  This ecological spirituality is given a feminist twist in the work of Rabbi Jill Hammer (Hammer 2016; Hammer and Shere 2015), the founder of Tel Shemesh, a web-based spiritual resource center that merges kabbalah and Earth-based feminist spirituality ( http://www.telshemesh.org ).  The syncretism of Jewish ecological spirituality brought some critics to question the Jewishness of Jewish environmentalism and to view it as an unacceptable revival of paganism (e.g., Gerstenfeld 1999).

Jewish Environmentalism and Environmental Humanities

The humanities are the disciplines that inquire about the values, norms, meanings, languages and cultures.  Beginning in the 1970s, but increasingly in the 1980s and 1990s, a growing number of humanities scholars have begun to argue that ecological matters are not marginal but foundational to their disciplines. The discourse of religion and ecology is considered today part of the environmental humanities, a multi-disciplinary and multi-perspectival inquiry that comprises also of environmental history, environmental philosophy and ethics, ecocriticism, animal studies, queer ecologies, ecofeminism, environmental sociology, political ecology, eco-materialism and posthumanism) (Glotfelty and Fromm 1996; Buell, 2005; Clark 2011; Opermann and Iovino  2017). 

The ecological reinterpretation of Judaism has developed with relatively little attention to the environmental humanities.  Why?  First, the discourse of the environmental humanities is decidedly secular, whereas Jewish environmentalism (at least in the diaspora) is a religious endeavor that uses religious categories.  Second, the environmental humanities are theoretical discourses carried out within the bounds of the academy, whereas Jewish environmentalism is a grass-root movement of non-academic activists who care about praxis rather than theory.  Third, the academic discourse of environmental humanities is inherently critical, displaying skepticism, distance, and irony, whereas Jewish environmentalism calls for conviction, action, and social transformation.  Finally, while some environmental humanities, especially eco-criticism, have attempted to bring the material sciences to the foreground of the humanities in order to understand the relationship between human and non-human organisms, Jewish environmentalism (and one could say Jewish public discourse in general) has been insufficiently attentive to the natural sciences.  This is not to say that Jewish environmentalism cannot or should not become informed of the environmental humanities.  To the contrary: familiarity with the environmental humanities (i.e., the various strands of environmental philosophy and ethics and eco-criticism) can enrich Jewish environmentalism immensely, but such dialogue could take place only if the academic interlocutors become more informed about and interested in Judaism not as the culprit of the ecological crisis, but as a tradition that could creatively address the crisis.

The dialogue between Jewish environmentalism and environmental humanities could begin in the context of postmodern environmental thought (Oeschlaeger 1995; Zimmerman 1994) and the field of eco-phenomenology (Brown and Toadvine 2003), since Jewish philosophers have greatly contributed to them.   Eco-phenomenology is the merger of phenomenology and contemporary environmental thought, according to which the human cognition that “nature has value, that it deserves or demands a certain proper treatment from us, must have its roots in an experience of nature” (ibid, xi).  Eco-phenomenology consists of two claims: “first, that an adequate account of our ecological situation requires the methods and insight of phenomenology; and, second, that phenomenology, led by its own momentum, becomes a philosophical ecology, that is, a study of the interrelationship between organism and world in its metaphysical and axiological dimensions” (ibid., xii-xiii).  Jewish philosophers trained in the phenomenological tradition—Martin Buber (d. 1965), Hans Jonas (d. 1993), and Emmanuel Levinas (d. 1995) and Derrida (d. 2004)— contributed to eco-phenomenology by framing the relationship between humanity to the natural world in dialogical terms, emphasizing nature as a subject to whom humans are deeply responsible , and by erasing rigid boundaries between humans and animals.

Martin Buber was the first to speak about nature as a subject and to call for a non-instrumental (I-Thou) relationship with nature.  Although Buber was not an environmentalist, his relational, dialogical philosophy has exerted deep influence on Christian environmental ethics (McFague 1997; Santmire 2008).  If Buber made nature into a moral subject with whom humans can have personal relationship, Hans Jonas endowed life itself with intrinsic moral value as he exposed the ontological basis of the ethics of responsibility, and conversely made ontology informed by ethics (Jonas 1984).  Jonas’s philosophy of nature highlighted the purposiveness of all life, arguing that nature commands ultimate respond, allegiance, and final moral commitment (Donnelley 2008).  It is the objective goodness of things that determines not only what ought to be but also what humans ought to feel, think, and do, since humans are an integral part of organic life.  For Jonas, the “imperative of responsibility” encompasses human responsibility for the continued existence of life in a planet where life is seriously endangered by modern technology.  Awareness of the looming disaster generates a “heuristic of fear” that guides us to act so as to protect nature from the possibility of destruction.  Humanity is responsible for its own future and must act with concern toward future generations, ensuring that they will have the conditions for life.  Jonas’s philosophy of nature was developed in response to the devastation of WWII in which Auschwitz and Hiroshima came about because of modern technology.  

Like Jonas, Emmanuel Levinas (yet another student of Heidegger) saw responsibility as the core of the ethical, but went further than Jonas by arguing that responsibility comes first: each person is responsible for the other who faces him.  If Jonas argued for collective responsibility of humanity, Levinas argues for infinite individual responsibility : every person has an obligation to his/her neighbor, expanding gradually to cover all living humanity.  Levinas’ ethics is decidedly human-centered since he insisted that ethics is “against-nature, against the naturality of nature (Levinas 1998, 171).  However, several postmodernist environmentalists have applied Levinas’ ethics to nature which is identified with the absolute Other (Llewelyn 1991; Atternon 2004, and Edelgrass, Hatley and Diehm 2012).  How should Levinas’s ethics be applied to nature is still a matter of debate but no one can correctly understand Levinas without acknowledging his Jewishness.  

Even more influential than Buber, Jonas, and Levinas, another Jewish philosopher trained in phenomenological tradition—Jacque Derrida—has stimulated postmodernist environmental thought and the field of eco-phenomenology.  Derrida’s deconstruction of traditional binary dichotomies characteristic of Western philosophy (e.g., nature/culture; human/animal; transcendence/immanence) exposed the connection between phallologocentrism and “carnivorous virility” (Gross 2015, 142).  Derrida criticized the “sacrificial structure of subjectivity” and exposed the links between the hatred of the Other, the hatred of animals, and the hatred of Jews that run throughout Western history and culture (Benjamin 2011).  The deconstruction of human/animal boundaries (Derrida 2008) has stimulated the newly emerging field of Animal Studies (e.g., De Mello 2012; Gross and Vallely 2012; Waldau 2013) although the Jewishness of Derrida is often glossed over.  Recently scholars of Judaism have begun to interpret the canonic sources of Judaism in light of the insights and methodologies of Animal Studies and environmental humanities (e.g., Belser 2015; Wasserman 2017; Berkowtiz 2018; and Geller 2018), highlighting the connection between constructions of Jews, animals, and difference. Jewish Animal Studies consists of reflections on textual representation of otherness rather than on addressing environmental problems that result from the ecological crisis. 

Jewish environmentalism is still a small but growing strand in contemporary Judaism that is attractive to previously unaffiliated Jews, to Jews who have limited or no Jewish education, to seekers who have walked other spiritual and religious paths, and to Jews who are traditionally observant.  Commitment to Jewish environmentalism can mean different things: for some, Jewish environmentalism means extending the ethics of responsibility to include the environment, for others environmentalism means a new, holistic, ecological consciousness that overcomes the disruptive dualism of scripture and nature, and for still others, environmentalism signifies the return to earth-based spirituality that links Judaism to other traditions.  However interpreted, a plethora of Jewish environmental organizations promote communitarianism, environmental and social justice, and a range of educational programs based on outdoors activities that inculcate respect for nature.  Benefiting from the creation of the Internet, Jewish environmental activism disseminates ideas and information about activities through social media and the websites of these organizations make available relevant literary sources, commentaries, organized activities, fellowship programs, and leadership training.  While the work of Jewish environmentalism rarely engages the environmental humanities, the dialogue between these discourses could enrich both:  Jewish environmentalism could become more theoretically informed and the environmental humanities could openly acknowledge its debt to Jewish ethics of responsibility.   

Abram, David.  2010.  Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology .  New York: Vintage Books

____. 1996.  The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human-World . New York: Vintage Books.

Artson, Bradley Shavit.  1991-92 [2001]. “Our Covenant with Stones: A Jewish Ecology of Earth.  Conservative Judaism 44: 25-35.  Reprinted in Judaism and Environmental Ethics: A Reader , ed. Martin D. Yaffe, 161-170. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books..  

Atterton, Peter.  2004. “Face to Face” with the Other Animal?” In Levinas and Buber: Dialogue & Difference , ed. Peter Atterton, Matthew Calarco and Maurice S. Friedman, 262-281.  Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press. 

Bauman, Whitney, Richard Bohannon, and Kevin O’Brien (eds.). 2010.  Grounding Religion: A Field Guide to the Study of Religion and Ecology .  New York: Routledge. 

Belser, Julia Watts. 2015.  Power, Ethics and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity: Rabbinic Responses to Drought and Disaster .  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Benjamin, Andrew.  2011. Of Jews and Animals: Frontiers of Theory .  Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press. 

Berkowitz, Beth A. 2018.  Animals and Animality in the Babylonian Talmud .  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Benstein, Jeremy. 2006. The Way into Judaism and the Environment .  Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights..

Bernstein, Ellen. 2005.  The Splendor of Creation: A Biblical Ecology. Cleveland:  Pilgrim Press.

Bernstein, Ellen (ed.) 2000.  Ecology & the Jewish Spirit: Where Nature and the Sacred Meet .  Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing.

Bernstein, Ellen and Dan Fink. 1992.  Let the Earth Teach You Torah: A Guide to Teaching Jewish Ecological Wisdom .  Wyncote, PA: Shomrei Adamah.

Biel, Janet (ed.).  1997.  The Murray Bookchin Reader . Montreal, New York, London: Black Rose Books.   

Bookchin, Murray.  1990.  Remaking Society: Pathways to a Green Future . Boston, MA: South End Press.

Brown, Charles S. and Ted Toadvine.  2003.  Eco-Phenomenology: Back to the Earth .  Albany, NY: SUNY Press. 

Buell, Lawrence.  2005.  The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination .  Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Clark, Timothy. 2011.  The Cambridge Introduction to Literature and the Environment .  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cohen, Jeremy.  1989.  “Be Fertile and Increase, Fill the Earth and Master It: The Ancient and Medieval Career of a biblical Text .  Ithaca: Cornell University Press.   

Commoner, Barry. 1971.  The Closing Circle .  New York: Bantam Books.

De Mello, Margo (ed.).  2012. Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies.   New York: Columbia University Press. 

Derrida, Jacques.  2008. The Animal That Therefore I am , trans. David Wills.  New York: Fordham University Press.

Donnelley, Strachan.  2008. “Hans Jonas and Ernst Mayr: An Organic Life and Human Responsibility.”  In The Legacy of Hans Jonas: Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life , ed. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Christian Wiese, 261-286. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

Edelglass, William, James Hatley and Christina Diehm. 2012. Facing Nature: Levinas and the Environment .  Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.

Feliks, Yehuda.  1990. Nature and Man in the Bible: A Chapter in Biblical Ecology .  New York: The Soncino Press.

Geller, Jay. 2017.  Bestiarum Judaicum: Unnatural Histories of the Jews .  New York: Fordham University Press.

Gerstenfeld, Manfred.  1999. “Neo-Paganism in the Public Square and its Relevance to Judaism.”  Jewish Political Studies Review 11 (3-4): 11-38. 

Glotfelty, Cheryll and Harold Fromm (eds.).  1996.   Ecocriticism Reader .  Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

Gottlieb, Roger S.  (ed.) 2006.  The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology .  Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Green, Arthur.  2010.  Radical Judaism: Rethinking God and Tradition .  New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

 _____.  2003. EHYEH: A Kabblaah for Tomorrow .  Woodstock, VT: Jewish Light Publishing. 

_____.  2002. “A Kabalah for the Environmental Age.” In Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word , ed. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, 3-16.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.   

Green, Arthur and Ariel Evan Mayse (eds.). 2019.  A New Hasidism: Roots .  Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society/Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

_____.  2019a. A New Hasidism: Branches .  Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society/Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Grim John and Mary Evelyn Tucker. 2014.  Ecology and Religion . Washington, DC: Island Press.

Gross, Aaron S. 2015. The Question of the Animal and Religion: Theoretical Stakes, Practical Implications .  New York: Columbia University Press.

Gross, Aaron and Anne Vallely (eds.).  2012. Animals and the Human Imagination: A Companion to Animal Studies .  New York: Columbia University Press. 

Habel, Norman C.  2009.  An Inconvenient Text: Is a Green Reading of the Bible Possible? Adelaide, Australia: ATF Press.

Hammer, Jill. 2016.  The Book of Earth and Other Mysteries . Morrisville NC: Lulu Press.

Hammer, Jill and Taya Shere. 2015.  The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership.   Teaneck, NJ: Ben Yehuda Press. 

Hareuveni, Nogah. 1980.  Nature in Our Biblical Heritage .  Kiryat Ono, Israel: Neot Kedumim. 

Jonas, Hans. 1984. The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age .  Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Kalechofsky, Roberta. 2006. “Hierarchy, Kinship, and Responsibility: The Jewish Relationship to the Animal World.  In A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics , ed. Paul Waldau and Kimberly Patton, 91-99.  New York: Columbia University Press.

Kaleschofsky, Roberta  (ed.).  1992.  Judaism and Animal Rights: Classical and Contemporary Responses .  Marblehead, MA: Micah Publications.

Kay, Jeanne. 1988 [2001]). “Concepts of Nature in the Hebrew Bible.”  Environmental Ethics 10: 309-27.  Reprinted in Judaism and Environmental Ethics: A Reader , ed. Martin Yaffe.  Lanham, MD: Lexington Press  

Klawans, Jonathan.  2006. “Sacrifice in Ancient Israel: Pure Bodies, Domesticated Animals, and the Divine Shepherd.” In A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics , ed. Paul Waldau and Kimberly Patton, 65-80.  New York: Columbia University Press

Levinas, Emmanuel.  1998.  Of God Who Comes to Mind , trans. Bettina Bergo.  Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Light, Andrew.  1998.  Social Ecology after Bookchin .   New York and London:  The Guilford Press.

Llewelyn, John.  1991.  The Middle Voice of Ecological Conscience: A Chiastic Reading of Responsibility in the Neighborhood of Levinas, Heidegger and Others .  New York: St. Martin’s Press. 

Magid, Shaul.  2013.  American Post-Judaism: Identity and Renewal in a Postethnic Society .  Bloomington, IN.: Indiana University Press. 

_____.  2006. “Jewish Renewal, American Spirituality, and Post-Monotheistic Theology,” Tikkun Magazine (May/June); 62-67.

Mann, Barbara E.   2012. Space and Place in Jewish Studies .  New Brunswick, NJ and London: Rutgers University Press.    

McFague, Sallie. 1997.  Super, Natural Christians: How We Should Love Nature .  Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Oeschlaeger, Max (ed.).  1995.   Postmodern Environmental Ethics .  Albany, NY: SUNY Press. 

Oppermann, Serpil and Serenella Iovino (eds.). 2017.  Environmental Humanities: Voices from the Anthropocene .  London and New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

Rosenberg, Shalom.  2002. “Torah and Nature in Jewish Thought.”  In Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word , ed. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, 189-226. 

Salomonsen,  Jone.  2002.  Enchanted Feminism: The Reclaiming Witches of San Francisco .   London and New York: Routledge

Santmire, Paul H.  1984 “The Liberation of Nature: Lynn’s White Challenge Anew.  The Christian Century 102: 18: 530-33.

_____.  2008. Nature Reborn: The Ecological and Cosmic Promise of Christian Theology .  Minneapolis: Fortress Press.   

Schachter-Shalomi, Zalman and Joel Segel. 2013.  Jewish with Feeling: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Practice .  Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing. 

Schachter-Shalomi, Zalman,  1993. Paradigm Shift: From the Jewish Renewal Teachings of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi , ed. Ellen Singer.   Northvale, NJ and Jerusalem: Jason Aronson.

Schwartz, Eilon.  1997 [2001]). “Bal Tashchit: A Jewish Environmental Precept.”  Environmental Ethics 19: 355-74. Reprinted in Judaism and Environmental Ethics: A Reader , ed. Martin D. Yaffe. 230-249.  Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Schwartz, Richard. 2012. “Jewish Traditions.” In Animals and World Religions , ed. Lisa Kemmerer, 169-204. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Schweid, Eliezer.  1985.  The Land of Israel: National Home or Land of Destiny .  Rutherford, Madison, Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, and London and Toronto: Associated University Presses.

Seidenberg, David Mevorach.  2015.  Kabbalah and Ecology: God’s Image in the More-Than-Human World .  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Shyovitz, David I.  2017. A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz .  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Singer, Peter.  1975 [1990].  Animal Liberation . 2 nd ed. New York: Random House.     

Starhawk. 1995.  The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess .  San Francisco: Harper and Row.

Tal, Alon. 2002. Pollution in the Promised Land: An Environmental History of Israel .  Berkeley, CA and London: The University of California Press.

Tal, Alon, Daniel Orenstein, and Char Miller (eds.). 2013.   From Ruin to Restoration: Israel’s Environmental History .  Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press.

Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava.  2017. “Jewish Environmental Ethics: The Imperative of Responsibility.” In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Ecology , ed. John Hart, 179-194.  Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

_____.  2012.  “Jewish Environmentalism: Faith, Scholarship and Activism.  In Jewish Thought, Jewish Faith , ed. Daniel Lasker (English section), 1-53.  Beer Sheba: Ben Gurion University Press.

____.   2011. “Judaism and the Science of Ecology.”  In Routledge Companion of Religion and Science , ed. James Haag, Gregory R. Peterson, and Michael L. Spezio, 345-355.  New York and London: Routledge.

_____.  2011a. “Kabbalah and Science in the Middle Ages: Preliminary Remarks.” In Science in Medieval Jewish Cultures , ed. Gad Freudenthal, 476-510.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

_____.  2006.  “Judaism.”    In Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology , ed. Roger S. Gottlieb, 25-64.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.

_____.  2005.  “Judaism.”   Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature , ed. Bron R. Taylor, 525-537.  London: Continuum.   

____.  2002.  “The Textualization of Nature in Jewish Mysticism.” In Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word , ed. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, 389-402.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava (ed.).  2002a.  Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word .  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

Troster, Lawrence.  2008.  “God Must Love Beetles: A Jewish View of Biodiversity and Extinction of Species.” Conservative Judaism 60.3: 3-21.

_____.  1991-92 [2001]. “Created in the Image of God: Humanity and Divinity in an Age of Environmentalism.”  Conservative Judaism 44: 14-24.  Reprinted in Judaism and Environmental Ethics: A Source Reader , ed. Martin D. Yaffe.  Lanham: Md., Lexington Books.     

Waldau, Paul.  2013. Animal Studies: An Introduction . Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Wasserman, Mira. 2017.  Jews and Gentiles and Other Animals: The Talmud after the Humanities .  Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Press.

Waskow, Arthur.  1996. “What is Eco-Kosher.?”   In This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment , ed. Roger S. Gottlieb, 297-300.  New York and London: Routledge.

Waskow, Arthur (ed.).  2000.  Torah of the Earth: 4000 Years of Jewish Ecological Thinking .   Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publication.

White, Lynn.  1967.  “The Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis.” Science 155:153-157.

Yaffe, Martin D. (ed.).  2001.  Judaism and Environmental Ethics: A Reader .  Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Zimmerman, Michael.  1994. Contesting Earth’s Future: Radical Ecology and Postmodernity .  Berkeley: University of California Press.

Header photo: ©Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Sea of Galilee

• Subject List
• Take a Tour
• For Authors
• Subscriber Services
• Publications
• African American Studies
• African Studies
• American Literature
• Anthropology
• Architecture Planning and Preservation
• Art History
• Atlantic History
• Biblical Studies
• British and Irish Literature
• Childhood Studies
• Chinese Studies
• Cinema and Media Studies
• Communication
• Criminology
• Environmental Science
• Evolutionary Biology
• International Law
• International Relations
• Islamic Studies

Jewish Studies

• Latin American Studies
• Latino Studies
• Linguistics
• Literary and Critical Theory
• Medieval Studies
• Military History
• Political Science
• Public Health
• Renaissance and Reformation
• Social Work
• Urban Studies
• Victorian Literature
• Browse All Subjects

How to Subscribe

• Free Trials

In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Jewish Ethics

Introduction, general overviews and anthologies.

• Reference Works
• Bibliographies
• Law and Ethics
• Saadia Gaon
• Martin Buber
• Emmanuel Levinas
• J. David Bleich
• Eugene B. Borowitz
• Elliot N. Dorff
• David Novak
• Conservative
• Reconstructionist
• Political Theory
• Human Rights
• United States and Canada
• Mussar and Mystical
• Comparative Ethics
• Sex, Gender, and Marriage
• Economic and Business
• Violence and Nonviolence, War and Peace
• Social Justice
• Environmental and Animal Ethics
• Diet and Food Ethics

Related Articles Expand or collapse the "related articles" section about

About related articles close popup.

Lorem Ipsum Sit Dolor Amet

Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Aliquam ligula odio, euismod ut aliquam et, vestibulum nec risus. Nulla viverra, arcu et iaculis consequat, justo diam ornare tellus, semper ultrices tellus nunc eu tellus.

• Economic Justice in the Talmud
• Joseph Ber Soloveitchik
• Judaism and the Environment

Other Subject Areas

Forthcoming articles expand or collapse the "forthcoming articles" section.

• Chofetz Chaim (Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan)
• Jews in Medieval Sicily
• Time in Modern Jewish Thought
• Find more forthcoming articles...
• Export Citations
• Share This Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Jewish Ethics by Jonathan Crane LAST REVIEWED: 30 June 2014 LAST MODIFIED: 30 June 2014 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199840731-0087

Jewish ethics investigates both theoretical and practical questions of what Jews can and should do in the world. It involves weaving together theology, philosophy, and law—the classic triumvirate for religious ethics—as well as lore, history, science, and sociology, among other facets of human knowledge and experience. With these tools in hand, some Jewish ethicists have wrestled with such questions as the relationship between law and ethics; the role of external, non-Jewish influences and thinkers; and the relationship between science, medicine, and revelation. Others contend with theories of the good and the right, with theology and ethics. And still other Jewish ethicists hone in on the minutiae of lived life, such as the pragmatics of behavior and policy. Though both ethics and morality can certainly be extracted from biblical and early rabbinic materials, it was not until the 9th century that Saadia Gaon discussed ethics as a subject matter worthy of distinct and extended consideration. For the next thousand years, only a few handfuls of volumes were exclusively devoted to ethics and morality, usually embedded in legal, philosophical, and theological texts. Increasing intellectual exposure to Western thinkers and society, especially to Immanuel Kant’s universal rationalistic philosophy and ethics, challenged and inspired Jews to clarify and explain Jewish ethics and morality. Hermann Cohen’s fin-de-siècle neo-Kantian revisioning of Judaism as ethical monotheism catapulted 20th-century Jewish ethical and moral thought from occasional meditations to central conversations across the streams of modern Jewry. Indeed, the last century’s incomprehensible tragedies and awesome technological advancements provided much fodder for Jewish ethical and moral consideration. Jewish bioethical discourse budded and bloomed after World War II; tracts on social, environmental, warfare, and political moral issues exploded in the 1960s and 1970s; first generations of feminist and covenantal ethics emerged in the 1980s and 1990s; a return to virtue ethics took root in the 1990s and early 2000s; and a renewed concern with business morality responded to embarrassing scandals and economic turmoil in the 2000s. Historically, Jewish ethics has been dominated by male voices and by contributors from North America and Israel, but the field is becoming increasingly diverse, as evidenced by the membership and leadership in the Society of Jewish Ethics, the premier, if not only, independent academic society devoted to this field. To be sure, Jewish ethicists will continue to wrestle with the most perplexing and enduring questions of human civility and creativity.

The first wave of anthologies in this field, comprising Fox 1975 and Kellner 1978 , included both theoretical and practical issues, and each focused on the ethics of military power—an understandable theme given the recent wars in Vietnam and Israel. The second generation is perhaps best exemplified by Dorff and Newman 1995 , which broadened the voices contributing to both methodological and practical debates. The third generation divides into the more pragmatic volumes of Dorff, et al. 2008–2010 , and the more comprehensive dual focused (theoretical and pragmatic) collection Dorff and Crane 2013 . Kolatch 1985 and Sherwin and Cohen 2001 reflect the emerging self-help ethos with a collection of short answers to or instructional essays on questions of ethical and moral concern. Newman 1998 surveys the breadth of the field and offers a taxonomy of its features.

Dorff, Elliot N., and Jonathan K. Crane, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Ethics and Morality . New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

The most comprehensive anthology to date, complete with original essays from scholars throughout the Jewish world. The volume covers historical, thematic, denominational, and practical issues. Each essay includes suggested readings, and the index identifies classic texts, themes, and figures.

Dorff, Elliot N., and Louis E. Newman, eds. Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality . New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

A diverse collection of previously published—and classic—essays (many edited for length) addressing metaethical concerns, methodological issues, virtue ethics, and sexuality and gender, as well as social, economic, and ecological issues, medical ethics, and the political exercise of power.

Dorff, Elliot N., Louis E. Newman, and Danya Rutenberg, eds. Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices . 6 vols. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2008–2010.

This series of slim volumes, designed for college students, integrates case studies and questions with classic sources and contemporary essays. Each volume includes suggested readings. Volumes address Body ; Sex and Intimacy ; Power ; Social Justice ; War and National Security ; and Money .

Fox, Marvin, ed. Modern Jewish Ethics: Theory and Practice . Columbus: Ohio University Press, 1975.

Now considered a classic, the volume includes presentations and responses from a 1971 conference in Israel that wrestle with the legal and philosophical bases of Jewish ethics, in addition to essays on the political exercise of power. The index points to traditional sources as well as themes and names.

Kellner, Menachem M., ed. Contemporary Jewish Ethics . New York: Sanhedrin, 1978.

Perhaps the first collected edition in this field, its essays confront the questions of whether Kantian autonomy can countenance religious ethics, and whether Judaism and its legalism can countenance ethics beyond law. The volume includes classic pieces on political and medical ethics, capital punishment, business ethics, sexual ethics, and the Holocaust. Includes suggested readings and a brief glossary.

Kolatch, Alfred J. The Second Jewish Book of Why . Middle Village, NY: Jonathan David, 1985.

The second volume in this series is an introductory book using a Socratic method to cover social, personal, bioethical, gender, and dietary issues. The index is helpful.

Newman, Louis E. Past Imperatives: Studies in the History and Theory of Jewish Ethics . Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Perhaps the best overall descriptive survey of the field of Jewish ethics, examining the tensions between ethics and law, ethics and theology, and methodological issues. One of the chapters, “Woodchoppers and Respirators: The Problem of Interpretation in Contemporary Jewish Ethics,” is now a classic in the field, especially for bioethics and euthanasia.

Sherwin, Byron L., and Seymour J. Cohen. Creating an Ethical Jewish Life: A Practical Introduction to Classic Teaching on How to Be a Jew . Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2001.

A creative “how-to” book integrating classic sources on the three fundamental relationships of Judaism: relations with God, relations to the self, and relations with others. Helpful notes, bibliography, and index.

back to top

Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login .

Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here .

• About Jewish Studies »
• Meet the Editorial Board »
• Abraham Isaac Kook
• Agudat Yisrael
• Ahad Ha' am
• American Hebrew Literature
• American Jewish Artists
• American Jewish Literature
• American Jewish Sociology
• Ancient Anti-Semitism
• An-sky (Shloyme Zanvil Rapoport)
• Anthropology of the Jews
• Anti-Semitism, Modern
• Apocalypticism and Messianism
• Archaeology, Second Temple
• Archaeology: The Rabbinic Period
• Art, Synagogue
• Austria, The Holocaust In
• Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1867-1918
• Baron, Devorah
• Biblical Archaeology
• Biblical Literature
• Bratslav/Breslev Hasidism
• Buber, Martin
• Bukharan Jews
• Central Asia, Jews in
• Chagall, Marc
• Classical Islam, Jews Under
• Cohen, Hermann
• Culture, Israeli
• David Ben-Gurion
• David Bergelson
• Dead Sea Scrolls
• Death, Burial, and the Afterlife
• Debbie Friedman
• Deuteronomy
• Dietary Laws
• Dubnov, Simon
• Dutch Republic: 17th-18th Centuries
• Early Modern Period, Christian Yiddishism in the
• Eastern European Haskalah
• Edith Stein
• Emancipation
• Environment, Judaism and the
• Ethics, Jewish
• Ethiopian Jews
• Exiting Orthodox Judaism
• Folktales, Jewish
• Forverts/Forward
• Frank, Jacob
• Gender and Modern Jewish Thought
• Germany, Early Modern
• Ghettos in the Holocaust
• Goldman, Emma
• Graetz, Heinrich
• Hasidism, Lubavitch
• Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) Literature
• Hebrew Bible, Blood in the
• Hebrew Bible, Memory and History in the
• Hebrew Literature and Music
• Hebrew Literature Outside of Israel Since 1948
• History, Early Modern Jewish
• History of the Holocaust
• Holocaust in France, The
• Holocaust in Germany, The
• Holocaust in Poland, The
• Holocaust in the Netherlands, The
• Holocaust in the Soviet Union, The
• (Holocaust) Memorial Books
• Holocaust Museums and Memorials
• Holocaust, Philosophical and Theological Responses to the
• Holocaust Survivors, Children of
• Humor, Jewish
• Ibn Ezra, Abraham
• Indian Jews
• Isaac Bashevis Singer
• Israel Ba'al Shem Tov
• Israel, Crime and Policing in
• Israel, Religion and State in
• Israeli Economy
• Israeli Film
• Israeli Literature
• Israel's Society
• Italian Jewish Enlightenment
• Italian Jewish Literature (Ninth to Nineteenth Century)
• Jewish American Children's Literature
• Jewish American Women Writers in the 18th and 19th Centuri...
• Jewish Bible Translations
• Jewish Children During the Holocaust
• Jewish Culture, Children and Childhood in
• Jewish Diaspora
• Jewish Economic History
• Jewish Education
• Jewish Folklore, Chełm in
• Jewish Genetics
• Jewish Heritage and Cultural Revival in Poland
• Jewish Morocco
• Jewish Names
• Jewish Studies, Dance in
• Jewish Territorialism (in Relation to Jewish Studies)
• Jewish-Christian Polemics Until the 15th Century
• Jews and Animals
• Josephus, Flavius
• Judaism and Buddhism
• Kalonymus Kalman Shapira
• Khmelnytsky/Chmielnitzki
• Kibbutz, The
• Kiryas Joel and Satmar
• Languages, Jewish
• Late Antique (Roman and Byzantine) History
• Latin American Jewish Studies
• Law, Biblical
• Law in the Rabbinic Period
• Lea Goldberg
• Legal Circumventions in Rabbinic Law
• Life Cycle Rituals
• Literature Before 1800, Yiddish
• Literature, Hellenistic Jewish
• Literature, Holocaust
• Literature, Latin American Jewish
• Literature, Medieval
• Literature, Modern Hebrew
• Literature, Rabbinic
• Magic, Ancient Jewish
• Maimonides, Moses
• Maurice Schwartz
• Medieval and Renaissance Political Thought
• Medieval Anti-Judaism
• Medieval Islam, Jews under
• Meir, Golda
• Menachem Begin
• Mendelssohn, Moses
• Messianic Thought and Movements
• Middle Ages, the Hebrew Story in the
• Minority Literatures in Israel
• Modern Germany
• Modern Hebrew Poetry
• Modern Jewish History
• Modern Kabbalah
• Moses Maimonides: Mishneh Torah
• Music, East European Jewish Folk
• Music, Jews and
• Nathan Birnbaum
• Nazi Germany, Kristallnacht: The November Pogrom 1938 in
• Neo-Hasidism
• New Age Judaism
• New York City
• North Africa
• Orthodoxy, Post-World War II
• Palestine/Israel, Yiddish in
• Palestinian Talmud/Yerushalmi
• Philo of Alexandria
• Poetry in Spain, Hebrew
• Poland, 1800-1939
• Poland, Hasidism in
• Poland Until The Late 18th Century
• Politics and Political Leaders, Israeli
• Politics, Modern Jewish
• Prayer and Liturgy
• Purity and Impurity in Ancient Israel and Early Judaism
• Queer Jewish Texts in the Americas
• Rabbi Yeheil Michel Epstein and his Arukh Hashulchan
• Rabbinic Exegesis (Midrash) and Literary Theory
• Race and American Judaism
• Rashi's Commentary on the Bible
• Reform Judaism
• Ritual Objects and Folk Art
• Rosenzweig, Franz
• Russian Jewish Culture
• Sabbatianism
• Sacrifice in the Bible
• Sarah Schenirer and Bais Yaakov
• Scholem, Gershom
• Second Temple Period, The
• Sephardi Jews
• Sexuality and the Body
• Shlomo Carlebach
• Shmuel Yosef Agnon
• Shulhan Arukh and Sixteenth Century Jewish Law, The
• Sociology, European Jewish
• South African Jewry
• Soviet Union, Jews in the
• Soviet Yiddish Literature
• Space in Modern Hebrew Literature
• Spinoza, Baruch
• Sutzkever, Abraham
• Talmud and Philosophy
• Talmud, Narrative in the
• The Druze Community in Israel
• The Early Modern Yiddish Bible, 1534–1686
• The General Jewish Workers’ Bund
• The Modern Jewish Bible, Facets of
• Theater, Israeli
• Theme, Exodus as a
• Tractate Avodah Zarah (in the Talmud)
• Translation
• Translation in Hebrew Literature, Traditions of
• United States
• Walter Benjamin
• Weinreich, Max
• Wissenschaft des Judentums
• Women and Gender Relations
• World War II Literature, Jewish American
• Yankev Glatshteyn/Jacob Glatstein
• Yemen, The Jews of
• Yiddish Avant-garde Theater
• Yiddish Linguistics
• Yiddish Literature since 1800
• Yiddish Theater
• Yiddish Women's Fiction
• Ze’ev Jabotinsky
• Zionism from Its Inception to 1948
• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy
• Legal Notice
• Accessibility

Powered by:

• [81.177.182.136]
• 81.177.182.136

Jewish Views on the Environment

Jewish tradition teaches us to care for our planet in order to preserve that which God has created. Psalm 24 notes, "The earth is the Eternal's and the fullness thereof," a dramatic assertion of God's ownership of the land. It follows, then, that any act that damages our earth is an offense against the property of God. The Jewish concept of  bal tashchit , "do not destroy," forbids needless destruction.

Judaism emphasizes our need to preserve our natural resources and generate new ones for future generations. The Talmud tells the story of the sage Choni, who was walking along a road when he saw a man planting a carob tree. Choni asked, "How long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?" "Seventy years," the man replied. Choni then asked, "Are you so healthy that you expect to live that length of time and eat its fruit?" The man answered, "I found a fruitful world because my ancestors planted it for me. Likewise, I am planting for my children." In fact, tradition values this concept so much that the rabbis teach that if a man is planting a tree and the messiah appears, he should finish planting the tree before going to greet him ( Avot d'Rebbe Natan 31b).

We are encouraged l'vadah ul'shamrah , "to till and to tend," to become the Earth's stewards. In Isaiah 41:17-18, God promises, "I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water." In other words, we were given our planet as a loan from God, and we should work to preserve it.

Climate Change

Among the many issues facing our planet, climate change poses a huge challenge to resource development and even daily habits. Addressing climate changerequires us to learn how to live within the ecological limits of the earth so that we will not compromise the ecological or economic security of those who come after us.

The Torah commands, "Justice, justice shall you pursue" (Deuteronomy 16:20), and thus, our energy policy must also be equitable and just - and the countries most responsible for climate change should be those most responsible for finding a solution to the problem. Judaism also underscores the moral imperative of protecting the poor and vulnerable: "When one loves righteousness and justice, the earth is full of the loving-kindness of the Eternal" (Psalms 33:5). Indeed, poor nations are likely to bear the brunt of the negative impacts associated with climate change.

Because our sacred texts teach that humankind has an obligation to improve the world for future generations, Jewish tradition encourages families and communities to reduce their waste and make smart consumer choices, investing in companies that do not pollute and supporting behaviors and policies that encourage conservation.

Clean Water

As one of the most important natural resources to humanity's survival, water has a special place in Jewish tradition, playing a role in nearly every major story in the bible. Isaac's wife was chosen for him at a well; the baby Moses was saved after floating down a river; the Israelites were freed when the red sea parted; Miriam will forever be remembering by her gift of water to the Jewish people in the desert. Our clean, fresh water supplies and mineral resources are being exhausted by industrial and population growth, and it is vital that we lead in conservation while developing natural resources. Jewish tradition has long advocated that local and national governments take appropriate measures to remove or ameliorate the growing threats of environmental pollution and to afford protection to the environment.

Environmental Health

The principle of  pikuach nefesh , saving human lives above all else, is our greatest moral obligation. We are taught, "You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor" (Leviticus 19:16), and to "choose life, that you and your descendants may live" (Deuteronomy 30:20). It follows, then, that Jewish values command us to preserve the earth and its varied life for our sake and for generations to come. It is our obligation to preserve human life by educating ourselves about the dangers of environmental health risks and working to prevent them for the sake of all humanity.

As heirs to a tradition of stewardship that goes back to Genesis and teaches us to be partners in the ongoing work of creation, we cannot accept the escalating destruction of our environment and its effect on human health and livelihood. It is our sacred duty to alleviate environmental degradation and the human suffering it causes instead of despoiling our air, land, and water.

• Environment and Climate Change