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Liberating our Planet: Climate Torah for the Passover Seder

Mar 31, 2023 By 91快播 Dayenu Circle | Commentary | Pesah

This year for Passover, 91快播 is proud to share Liberating our Planet: Climate Torah for the Passover Seder. Passover is an annual reminder that profound changes to our lived reality are possible, and now more than ever, we as a Jewish community need to pursue profound action to stop the climate crisis. This project is […]

91快播 Dayenu Circle: Eight Days of Climate Torah

Dec 18, 2022

This year for Hanukkah, the 91快播 Dayenu Circle 鈥� 91快播鈥檚 chapter of Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action 鈥� is sharing Eight Days of Climate Torah. The Hanukkah story is a reminder that the Jewish community can take bold collective action to change our fate. We hope these teachings from 91快播 […]

After the Flood

Oct 28, 2022 By Alisa Braun | Commentary | Noah

Today it鈥檚 common to find divrei torah that use Parashat Noah to raise awareness about our impact on the environment. Yet I recently discovered a voice from the first stirrings of modernity that seemed to already intuit, within a theological framework, the devastating impact of humans on the global environment. For Obadiah Sforno (1475鈥�1550), the 鈥渓awlessness鈥� during the days of Noah did not just cause God to flood to earth. It was a force capable of ruining the climate and planet, and thereby shaping the course of human history ever after.

The World of Creation in Each of Us

Oct 21, 2022 By Israel Gordan | Commentary | Bereishit

One of the most well-known, and controversial, passages in the Torah comes after God creates man and woman: 鈥淕od blessed them and said to them, 鈥楤e fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea the birds of the sky, and all living things that creep on earth鈥欌�� (Gen. 1:28).

Gene Editing and the Transformation of Human Life: Perspectives from Jewish Ethics

Nov 21, 2019 By 91快播 | Public Event video

Revolutionary technology known as CRISPR has enabled scientists to change human genes, holding great medical promise. But it also raises significant ethical questions. Should there be restrictions on the development of this technology? How can we avoid abuse? Should we be able to design human beings and control evolution? Join us to explore these vital issues from the perspective of Jewish ethics.

Don鈥檛 Wait Until Next Week

Oct 25, 2019 By Burton L. Visotzky | Commentary | Bereishit

Authored together with Karenna Gore, Director, Center for Earth Ethics, Union Theological Seminary

The Earth is the Lord鈥檚 and all that is in it, the world and all its inhabitants. God founded it upon the oceans and set it on the rivers. (Psalm 24:1-2)

As the Jewish community once more begins its annual reading of the Torah, and as we recount the grandeur of God鈥檚 creation, we focus on God鈥檚 charge to newly created humanity: 鈥淭he Lord God took Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden, to serve and protect it.鈥� (Gen. 2:15, authors鈥� translations).

Human Lives and the Natural World

Oct 18, 2019 By Shuly Rubin Schwartz | Commentary | Sukkot

For many of us who live in dense metropolitan areas, spending time in national parks gives us a unique opportunity to experience in more immediate fashion the majesty of our world. Vacationing in the Canadian Rockies this past summer鈥攈iking in the mountains, walking on glaciers, boating in deep blue lakes, cooling off in the spray of gorgeous waterfalls, identifying rare birds and seeing moose, elk, deer, and the occasional bear (thankfully from a distance)鈥擨 felt awed and fortunate to behold this.

Remember the Land

May 31, 2019 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Behukkotai

Spring is my favorite season because it draws me outdoors, enticing me to leave the city and enjoy the rivers, fields, and mountains of this glorious earth. Even near the city I often find myself in nature, biking along the Hudson and up the Palisades past waterfalls and nesting eagles. Returning to the land reminds me of the many blessings of our world, filling me with gratitude and awe. It also causes foreboding since the signs of stress on the natural systems that make our lives possible are everywhere evident. While this era of anthropogenic climate change may be new, the concern that human conduct could lead to ruin and exile from the earth is found already in our Torah portion.