18

Walter Jacob

a few environmental areas. Nor could it have been otherwise as conditions were so alien to the concept of environmental concern until modern times. The longer response would suggest that it is possible to modify our Jewish approach so that it can provide a religious grounding for Jewish environmental policies that will preserve the natural world around us.

Any new halakhic concern must be broad-based. The theol­ogy of wonder originated in the Bible , especially in the words of God and in the Book of Job :(37B39) as well as psalms such as 19, 24, and many others, with their emphasis on the grandeur of nature, which lies beyond man’s grasp. These statements and those of the prophetic books provide a good beginning. The tra­dition, however, did not carry these concepts into daily life except in the liturgy. The theology of wonder has always been emphasized there and has been put into more practical environ­mental terms in the Reform liturgy. This has, undoubtedly been helpful and has raised the consciousness of environmental issues. However, translating those noble ideals into the every-day world has remained difficult. They are not yet seen as mitzvot, demand­ing religious obligations, by most Jews .

Wonder is grand, but this emotion has relatively little stay­ing power in the face of hunger in the Third World and greed in the First World. A more practical basis for our concerns is found in Genesis:“And God placed man in the garden of Eden to till and preserve it.”(Gen. 2:15). This idea needs to be emphasized rather than“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and sub­due it”(Gen. 1:28) The latter stressed the need to control the world. We have done that, at least with much of the visible nat­ural world, and are proceeding with the macro(astronomy) and micro(genetic) forces of nature. These biblical statements pro­vide a practical beginning for the preservation of nature.

The command“till and preserve”(Gen 2.15) places an equal emphasis on development and preservation, but this verse, when taken together with others(Gen. 9:3, etc.) gives free reign to human beings with an emphasis on the utilization of nature. We should develop the halakhah along these lines of self-interest rather than on the idealistic statements of the environmental movement. Acts done lishmo, for their own sake, should appeal to everyone, but, unfortunately, this has never been the case.

We should emphasize the latest scientific efforts that have demonstrated the inter-relationship of everything on our planet,