What is Jewish Ecology?
Jewish Ecology is part of a broader movement within the field of ecology towards integration. Integration in the sense that will one day make the disciplinary lines that divide academia into a collection of disparate fields begin to blur, ultimately collapsing into a new unified understanding of what Science, Philosophy, and Religion really are. This is a project built upon a new movement within the natural and social sciences that are beginning to recognize the reality that science, as a whole, is a living social process — a process that is constructed through people, communities, traditions, and cultures — and that Truth is not something that can be approached solely through “objective” detachment. Jewish Ecology builds on the ecological turn in social, cognitive, and literary research, and seeks to bring these disparate threads together into a holistic approach coming to know the living world.
Within Jewish Ecology, we will seek a deeper knowledge, appreciation, and care for the wholeness of Life. Weaving together diverse strands of ecology into a mosaic of ideas regarding our place in the world, from embodiment and consciousness, to spirit and history, through the lens of an integrative ecology, we will chart a path that brings us face-to-face with the ethical imperative of Judaism. We will seek out the deepest meaning of what it means to truly love our neighbors, to really listen to one another, and to hold fast to the Oneness of Life.
Here, we seek to integrate the Jewish ethical demands within all our relationships. Through p’kuach nefesh, the call to save others, and through tikkun olam, the transpersonal effort we all partake in towards repairing the World, realizing that these commandments bind us to our community, building a responsibility founded in love for our shared home in Nature. Ecology offers a holistic and integrative scientific discipline to begin exploring the relationship between the Human Spirit and the continued unfolding of evolutionary history here on Earth. As we work towards greater knowing and understanding, may we work to ever integrate our Love for our Neighbors, our pursuit for Goodness, and our struggle towards Truth.
Sources
While part of the reason I started this blog was to get away from the citation-driven culture of academia, I think it is very important to be transparent regarding the books, youtube channels, and teachers which have inspired many of the ideas found in these articles. Many of these creators are no longer living with us, I hope I can do their memory justice, and carry forward their blessings into the present day. This is an ever evolving list of the primary sources which have inspired Jewish Ecology, as well as the key works that have shaped my thinking.
Authors
This is a list of authors who have transformed my thinking. They are listed in the order I encountered them. Other transformative works not by different authors are listed below in no particular order.
Martin Buber: Philosopher, Mystic, Theologian, and Historian, Martin Buber was a prophetic voice of modern Judaism. Born in 1878 and writing prolifically until his death in 1965, I see Martin Buber as a foundation stone for contemporary Jewish renewal, reconstruction, and existential thought. He was primary inspiration for the Rabbi of my childhood synagogue, Martin Buber’s ideas regarding the presence of G-d within genuine relationships has shaped many of my own ideas.
Informing Works:
I and Thou
Writings of Martin Buber: Collected, Edited and Introduced by Will Herberg
Murray Bookchin: Radical Philosopher, Naturalist, and the formative theorist of Social Ecology, Murray Bookchin’s collective works form a primary touchstone through which I bring together ecology, ethics, and social critique. Born in New York to a Jewish family in 1921, Murray Bookchin grew up in revolutionary Marxist circles, but after witnessing the rising totalitarianism of “socialism” under Stalin, he turned his focus elsewhere. First publishing about the conseqences of the booming of chemical-driven agribusiness in 1962, he transitioned into formulating a radicaly ecological critique of capitalism, nationalism, and all relations of domination. Although he died in 2006, his legacy remains strong throughout the burgeoning field of integrative ecology, political theory and elsewhere. I aim to carry this legacy forward, through this blog, and beyond into all my endeavors.
Informing Works:
Remaking Society: Pathways to a Green Future
The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy
Defending the Earth : a dialogue between Murray Bookchin and Dave Foreman
William Cronon: Environmental Historian, Professor and Naturalist, William Cronon stood as my entry point into the interconnection between environmental history, cultural ecology, and natural philosophy. Born in 1954 and continuing today as a Professor Emeritus in Environmental History at University of Wisconsin Madison, he remains an influential scholar of American environmental change, ideas of nature, and the use of natural history observation for scholarly research. Since reading William Cronon, I have gone on to encounter many other historians of environmental change, as well as the various ways distinct cultural values shape broader trends in land use, ecological relationships, and relations to place.
Informing Works:
Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England
Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West
Baruch Spinoza: Mystical rationalist and transgressive Jewish philosopher, Baruch Spinoza was a 17th century thinker who broke down the walls between rational philosophy, metaphysics, psychology, and ethics. His radical theory of G-d, or Nature transformed the landscape of European philosophy and Judaism, while his slow reemergence as a Jewish thinker in the centuries following his death has led to a resurgence of secular Jewish philosophy, ecology, and ethics. Through his Ethics, I have come to see the struggle to comprehend G-d through many lenses as essential to my own practice of Judaism.
Informing Work:
Ethics: Demonstrated in Geometrical Order
Emmanuel Levinas: Born in 1906 to a Lithuanian Jewish family, Emmanuel Levinas is most well known for his post war philosophical works that tie together phenomenology, existentialism, and Jewish ethics. Through encountering Levinas, I have come to see Judaism as a traditional fundamentally concerned with ethical relationships between people. It is through struggling to understand the thought of Levinas that I affirmatively returned to my own Jewish roots in philosophy, community, and ecology.
Informing Works:
Ethics and Infinity
Difficult Freedom: Essays on Judaism
Hava Tirosh-Samuelson: A contemporary academic, Hava is a scholar trained as a historian of ideas, with a particular focus on the history of Jewish mysticism, religion, and ideas about the environment. As an early scholar to the field of Religion and Ecology, Hava has placed the the corpus of Jewish texts into dialogue with modern environmental ethics, while also engaging the philosophies of Buber and Levinas. Her works provide an academic touchstone for the ideas grounding Jewish Ecology.
Informing Works:
Religion and Environment: The Case of Judaism
and some of her many academic publications.
Other important books:
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmer
The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
The Sabbath by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence by Gregory Cajete
Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic by Matthew Stewart
The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion by Ken Wilber
Judaism without Tribalism by Rabbi Rami Shapiro
Youtube Educators:
Youtube has created an internet space where people have made diverse, intersecting and diverging, ideas have been made accessible to a broad audience. These Youtube projects have played a big role in making many of the foundational ideas of Jewish Ecology more accessible.
Seekers of Unity: This brilliant channel, hosted by the pious Zevi Slavin, brings together deep dives into the history of philosophy and mysticism, with an integrative exploration of many ritual traditions, from the ancient world to today.
ESOTERICA: Run by the insightful Rabbi Jonathan Sledge, this channel explores the esoteric history of religion, mysticism, and the occult. Through a scholarly approach to the history, philosophy, and mysteries of many traditions, this channel makes these difficult topics accessible.
Crecganford: Created by a wonderful storyteller and a scholar in comparative mythology and linguistics, this channel brings an intellectual approach to myth, history, and cross-cultural exchange into view for a contemporary general audience.
Musicians:
Judaism and music have always come hand in hand for me. Through music, I have come to see the transformative power of ideas — especially when mixed with rhythm, melody, harmony, and metaphor. While I owe an immense debt of gratitude to innumerable musicians, there are a few who have inspired me to explore Jewish Ecology.
Debbie Friedman: Giving a beautiful energy and melody, and a depth of meaning, Debbie Friedman defined the role of music within the Reform Jewish movement. Born in 1951 and writing music until her death in 2011, I would not have the same relationship with music and Judaism if it were not for her.
Dan Nichols: Another musician of the Reform Jewish summer camp scene, Dan Nichols carries spiritual depth, love, care, and holiness in his music. Dan Nichols has shown me what it means to be a musical creator in a Jewish space, and continues to inspire me with the genuine love and care he brings into all the communities he touches.
Aly Halpert: Aly Halpert is a queer Jewish musician, educator and activist whose beautiful first album brought me towards the realizing the tremendous potency of music in carrying ideas, prayer, and love, into shared community spaces. I am excited to see where her music goes as she continues to live a life of active care and music.
Inspiring Songs:
Beautiful People
She is On Her Way
Loosen
Daniel Kahn: Pioneer of the genre of “Verfremdungsklezmer” or “Alienation Klezmer,” Daniel Kahn’s music takes immense care in breaking down the meaning of modern Judaism and elevating the value Judaism has for the modern world.
Inspiring Songs:
Freedom is a Verb
The Jew in You
Arbeter Froyen
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