Blessing for Torah Study
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu la'asok b’divrei Torah.
Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who hallows us with mitzvot, charging us to engage with words of Torah.
Beginning with Our Own Torah
1) Think of or imagine a time when people in many places across the planet do teshuvah. What do you feel when reflecting on it?
2) What might global teshuvah look like? What actions would people take? What are possible outcomes?
(1) The word of GOD came to Jonah a second time: (2) “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it what I tell you.” (3) Jonah went at once to Nineveh in accordance with GOD’s command. Nineveh was an enormously large city (lit.“a large city of God”), a three days’ walk across. (4) Jonah started out and made his way into the city the distance of one day’s walk, and proclaimed: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (5) The people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast, and great and small alike put on sackcloth. (6) When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. (7) And he had the word cried through Nineveh: “By decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal—of flock or herd—shall taste anything! They shall not graze, and they shall not drink water! (8) They shall be covered with sackcloth—human and animal—and shall cry mightily to God. Let everyone turn back (v'yashuvu) from their own evil ways and from the injustice of which they are guilty. (9) Who knows but that God may turn (yashuv) and relent? [God] may turn back (v'shav) from wrathfulness, so that we do not perish.” (10) God saw what they did, how they were turning back (shavu) from their evil ways. And God renounced the punishment that had been planned for them, and did not carry it out.
What is the customary order of fast days?....The eldest member of the community says to the congregation statements of reproof, for example: Our brothers, it is not stated with regard to the people of Nineveh: And God saw their sackcloth and their fasting. Rather, the verse says: “And God saw their deeds, that they had turned from their evil way” (Jonah 3:10). And in the Prophets it says: “And rend your hearts and not your garments, and return (v'shuvu) to the Lord your God” (Joel 2:13). This teaches that prayer and fasting are insufficient, as one must also repent and amend his ways in practice.
Consider God’s doing! Who can straighten what He has twisted?
“See the work of God, for who can mend what He has warped?” (Ecclesiastes 7:13)
“See the work of God, for who can mend what He has warped?” When the Holy One blessed be He created Adam the first man, He took him and showed him all the trees in the Garden of Eden, and He said to him: ‘See My creations, how beautiful and exemplary they are. Everything I created, I created for you. Make certain that you do not ruin and destroy My world, as if you destroy it, there will be no one to mend it after you. Moreover, you will cause death to that righteous one.’ To what is the matter of [the death of] Moses our master analogous? [It is analogous] to a pregnant woman who was incarcerated in prison. She gave birth to a son, raised him, and she died there. Sometime later the king passed the entrance of the prison. As the king was passing, that son began screaming and he said: ‘My lord the king, I was born here, I grew up here; I do not know due to what sin am I placed here.’ [The king] said to him: ‘Due to your mother’s sin'...
Jenny Wong, Rosh Hashannah Drash, Netivot Shalom, 2023
(Slightly reformatted)
In a midrash on Ecclesiastes 7:13, God showed Adam the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to him: “Make certain that you do not ruin and destroy My world, as if you destroy it, there will be no one to mend it after you.” No one to mend it after you.
I think this is stated pretty clearly. Mom and dad aren’t going to clean up after us. It may one day be too late for our children or grandchildren to clean up after us. We are responsible. I’ve been angry at political leaders and fossil fuel corporations who have dismissed climate science for decades and left us in the situation we are in. Should I be granting them forgiveness? I was also angry at myself for even little things I do that contribute to the climate crisis.
Should I be asking for forgiveness for my part in hurting our earth? What do we do before it is too late? As we’ve approached these high holidays, I’ve reflected on these feelings and the two important tasks before us: (1) Granting forgiveness, and (2) Asking forgiveness.
Granting forgiveness - I always thought that granting forgiveness was the end goal....Seeing people without -people who have lost homes from flooding and other climate disasters, brings me back to my childhood, and memories of collecting cans to help pay for dinner. And we know the climate crisis also disproportionately impacts people of color and poor people.
Looking at these impacts, must we forgive those responsible, so we can move on? Actually, in reading Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s book, On Repentance and Repair, she states that in Judaism, you are not obligated to forgive. You can make a choice to forgive, but you do not need to rush it. I also want to call out the distinction between forgiveness and healing. Sometimes, doing the deep work of healing through therapy, self care, giving and receiving love, may mean not forgiving. We may not be ready to forgive the people who don’t use their positions of power to phase out fossil fuels, and we don’t have to forgive people who have not asked for forgiveness or expressed their remorse. Instead, we can center the voices of those impacted by the harm, and focus on the healing work that we need to do for those- affected- communities.
Now, turning to asking forgiveness for ways in which we missed the mark. Going back to Rabbi Guttenberg’s book, when I read through the steps involved in teshuva, what caught my attention was the statement, “humbly accepting the fact that actions have consequences.” How do we preserve the earth with the time we have left?
So, how do we change? How do we ask for forgiveness? My friend Joel recently shared with me Rabbi Rav Kook’s teaching. He said that true teshuvah involves not just changing our actions (such as no longer causing harm). Teshuvah is when we address the root source of where we have erred. We have to not only change our immediate actions but we have to change our ways. This includes sustained work to change our mindset which involves a lot of reflection and personal work for real transformational change. In responding to the climate crisis, we can move towards a society that centers the values of Judaism: community, caring for the vulnerable, and life over profits.
Am I, are we ready to acknowledge where we may have fallen short, and commit to real change? Am I, are we, ready to look at not just our individual responsibilities but our collective ones and see how we can improve? Perhaps we did not do enough to address the climate crisis and while we mourn the deaths and destruction of for example Maui, we remain complicit, well knowing that our direct actions are increasing global warming affecting future generations. Part of repentance happens when we finally do it right when given the next opportunity. And then committing to really changing our ways going forward....
We can’t combat all of these injustices individually. We need to be allies across different communities, to have a chance of teshuva.
Ending with Our Own Torah
1) In the words of Jenny Wong, "[A]re we ready to look at not just our individual responsibilities but our collective ones and see how we can improve?" What stands in our way? How can we support each other?
2) We have considered teshuvah on multiple scales: individual, communal, structural, national, and global. How does the meaning of teshuvah change with scale? What scale of teshuvah has most challenged you?
3) What teshuvah do you need to do? Where could you start?