Having recently moved from Cleveland, Ohio, to South Florida, I am adjusting to a very different climate. The timing of my move was such that I missed experiencing the infamous "Heat Dome" that plagued a large swath of the country this summer. Ironically, while temperatures in Florida were seasonably muggy and hot -- in the 90s -- temperatures in the Upper Midwest and Northeast soured over 100 for days.
For years, we have heard about climate change occurring as a result of human-produced pollution. Many scientists and commentators have moved away from the term "global warming," in favor of "climate change," to account for all kinds of increasingly odd weather patterns throughout the year, such as flooding, tornadoes, blizzards. I happen to like Thomas L. Friedman's term "Global Weirding."
Nevertheless, the intense heat of this summer raised concern. Even in Florida, which has been spared (as of this writing) the extreme conditions from up north, things seem different. Long-time Florida residents tell me that it used to rain every afternoon at a predictable time. This summer, rain has not been as predictable. Rain can come at any time or not at all on a given day. Again, it's weird.
The Torah paints a picture of a world with more predictability. As synagogues around the world recently started reading Deuteronomy as part of the annual liturgical cycle of scriptural reading, we can't avoid Deuteronomy 11:13-21 (the end of Parashat Ekev)n This passage is well known. Jews who pray regularly recognize it as the second paragraph of the Sh'ma, the centerpiece of the daily morning and evening liturgy. This passage bears strong parallels to the first paragraph with its commands to bind these words as a sign on our hands and as frontlets on our foreheads and to inscribe them on the doorposts of our houses and gates. But the passage is also known for its vintage-Deuteronomy reward-and-punishment theology. For the ancient Israelites and their agrarian economy, reward and punishment was best expressed in terms of weather: Follow God's ways and receive abundant rain in its season to yield plentiful harvests; stray from God's ways and risk drought and starvation.
According to this passage, abundant rain is clearly a blessing. In Israel, where the rainy season is of limited duration, the need for adequate rain in its season is rather acute. The ancients understood this as well as anyone. Residents of and travelers to Israel and the Middle East know how crucial rain is for the region, particularly in the winter.
What is difficult for many of us to grasp is the theology behind the second paragraph of the Sh'ma. It is prominent in the daily liturgy and is found in the mezuzah on the doorpost of every Jewish home. For the modern reader, though, Deuteronomy's strict doctrine of reward and punishment can be troubling: Obey God and prosper; disobey God and suffer.
Is that the way the world works? Time and again we witness the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. How can the prominence of the second paragraph of the Sh'ma in Jewish liturgy be reconciled with human experience? I am sure we all can think of examples when we have asked this question whether it be sparked by the serious illness of a loved one or any number of atrocities done by one group of people toward another. So, given the world we live in, why is Deuteronomy 11:13-21 so central to Jewish liturgy?
I might mention that the early American Reform Movement did omit that passage entirely from their prayer books. Decades later, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, founder of Jewish Reconstructionism, dropped the paragraph from his prayer book published in 1945. He said that he cannot believe that "the process of meteorology is dependent on man's moral behavior." All along, Orthodoxy and the Conservative Movement, which Kaplan served for most of his career, has kept this paragraph in the liturgy, though it is often read silently while the first and third paragraphs are often sung aloud in a congregation.
Despite the efforts of reformers to omit the Deuteronomy 11 passage from the liturgy, a funny thing has happened in recent years. The second paragraph of the Sh'ma has made a comeback of sorts, as members of all of the religious movements have attempted to appropriate new meaning to the passage. It even was included in the 1989 edition of the new Reconstructionist prayer book. One explanation is evoked by modern ecological consciousness. It is no longer primitive to believe that human behavior affects the natural order. On the contrary, we are now aware that we have the power to destroy or to preserve our environment. We know that our behavior as a human race correlates with rainfall, whether it is severe flooding, severe draught or acid rain that destroys ecological systems that it's intended to nourish. As noted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, the passage in Sh'ma has acquired a new relevance for evoking ecological consciousness.
As someone who says this paragraph every day yet struggles with it nonetheless, I derive great comfort from Rabbi Waskow's ecological interpretation. Rabbi Elliot Dorff, a leading philosopher in the Conservative Movement also provides a compelling explanation on this passage's lessons to us on justice in general. He writes:
"I recite the Shema each day because it proclaims God's justice, and justice must be a critical element in the God I affirm. The calculus of reward and punishment articulated in [Deut. 11:13-21] may be too simple and ultimately inaccurate. ... Nevertheless, I find this paragraph, with all its problems, central to my beliefs, for it insists starkly (even if too starkly) that God is ultimately just. Somehow, justice is an inherent part of the world and of God; and since God is the model for human beings, the possibility of justice must be inherent in us as well."
He further writes: "The Rabbis too had problems with the doctrine of justice announced in this paragraph, but they included it anyway, because they too had a deep faith in the ultimate justice of God as the metaphysical backdrop and support for human acts of justice."
I believe that the paragraph still rings true, even if not literally. When a whole society does the right thing, behaves in the right way, learns to love God and love their neighbors, the overall quality of life for everybody gets better. If everybody lived such a life, we would all feel the reward. In our day, environmental stewardship and society's virtuous behavior are intertwined with each other. My hope is that humanity will heed the call of this ancient Scripture to clean up our planet and restore justice to the world.
Follow Rabbi Edward Bernstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rabbiecb
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The essay then returns to the traditional condemnation/persecution (which is the profile of every religion) that humans and not God is at fault. What I read, all too often, is that religious scripture is just ongoing excuses for a God who failed to create a perfect world. Oh yes, and religion also puts the blame for the broken world at the feet of people. Such ancient paradoxes fail to deliver the truth that humans experience.
Wherefore decry our mythic mother,
The one denominated Eve?
She gave us reason, one another;
And from her act of make believe,
She was responsible for science;
And justified our noncompliance
With what the faithful trust in myth
By making words as does a smith:
Hard hammered on life’s anvil forging
What’s hidden in the life of things;
And ridding us of earthly kings;
And, finally, our own disgorging
Of everything that keeps us awed,
Especially the Bible’s god.
Please see more at http://poemsonaffairsofstate.blogspot.com/
Many traditions teach us to recognize that there is undeviating justice in the world -- that we reap what we sow. It is the natural karmic law of reciprocity.
But our lives can be negatively affected by no fault of our own, but due to the greed, selfishness, unfairness and abuse of power of those who cause trouble and suffering.
They are not criminals. They operate within the law, or claim to. But because of their greed and corruption they have damaged the economy, environment, our financial status, and our peace of mind,
Since 1981, regardless of which partisan political party was in power, the greedy and corrupt have been enabled to rule with the power of their money. And all three branches of the U.S. Government have enabled them to do so.
Now we must do something about it. But this time we don't need a violent revolution, nor do we need the kind of protests we resorted to in the 1960s, which brought brutal reaction.
We can do it peacefully, realizing that it will be the humble, gentle, peaceful and meek folks who inherit the earth.
We can establish government that is truly of, by, and for the people. And in Article 5 of the U.S. Constitution the Founding Fathers provided us the way to do so -- peacefully.
See The 21st Century Declaration of Independence, at http://messenger.cjcmp.org/newdeclaration.html.
Deut. 11:16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
17 And then the LORD'S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.
The cause being when we "serve other gods", and the effect being "the LORD'S wrath be kindled against you". I guess the question we have to ask ourselves is; What other gods are we serving to bring about the problems we face on this planet such as global warming. The only god that I can think of that we place higher than the one G-d and creator of all is ourselves.
Yes, it's a phenomenon of "crowds", and it's very interesting and enlightening to read the scriptures with an eye towards the earliest expressions of those.
Concerning "warming" or "climate change", I think it was an important step to move to"warming" and away from "pollution" not just for PR reasons, but because warming arises whether from pollutants or otherwise. In other words, you can have "clean" warming as well, which is nonetheless disruptive - as the example of droughts makes obvious.
God 's Laws Ten Commandments were not given to punish us, but to save us, tell us what is not good to do. Ten Commandments were given for good, to teach us understanding of God, to know not what to do to harm ourselves, gives peace on earth to all if all obey them. God forces no one to love or accept his word as truth. That is not Love, God leaves us to our own making, God said repent return to me and I will return to you.
Greed for with greed lust of money is will never be enough, greed creates poverty and greed maintains that poverty. Leaders of all Nation will have much to answer for, they have been placed there by God to serve God no themselves, Leaders are there to create Righteous laws that do not just benefit the few, and steal from the larger in numbers. Feed MY Sheep. God said like Moses those who have been blessed with much, are to give more, their blessings are given from God to be a blessing to others. And many are wealthy not because they have been blessed by God, but because like Caesar have stolen their ill gotten wealth from others hard labored $$.
God said "I am coming in a wrath on the terrible day of the Lord, to gather ALL Leaders ( elected officials) of All Nations on the day of My wrath. Let your gold and silver save you now.? All will know when the "True God is Talking", Thee God, God said no one will have no doubt, it is I who speaks" Those who say God is talking to them, I run from...
1) Not to harm living beings. (Thou shalt not kill)
2) Not to take that which is not freely given. (Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife)
3) Not to engage in sexual misconduct. (Thou shalt not commit adultery)
4) Not to lie, gossip, engage in senseless speech and chatter, speech which causes division. (Thou shalt not tell a lie, Thou shalt not bear false witness)
5) Not to take intoxicating substances which dull mindfulness.
Morality doesn't come from God, it comes from a good human heart. No matter which God you pray to, or if you don't pray at all, it is your heart which knows right from wrong. It is our heart which lead us to help others. In the end, it has to be our heart which saves us.
I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. New Living Translation (©2007)
There ya go!
If you're going to reference Satan, you should ask yourself why God allows Satan to exist and why God created Satan in the first place.
I recognize the Ideal. I want God to be Just. I want the righteous to be rewarded and the wicked to be punished. It was the anguish of David that he couldn't see it happening, it was the tears on the faces of the prophets that the wicked flourished and the righteous were trampled despite God's promises.
Christians extended these promises to the afterlife. Instead of blessings to be gained in the here and now, it was in the hereafter. That poses serious questions. If God is unable or unwilling to punish the wicked, to provide for the poor and needy and to bless the righteous with good things here and now -- then what guarantee is there that the hereafter blessings are real?
But perhaps God just won't magically produce blessings for good behavior and curses for bad behavior. Maybe we have to work to produce a just society so these things can come about. God is concerned with justice. The Scriptures speak about justice. But God causes no one to be just or do justly. The ones who need justice most often never get it. The only way for justice is to fight for it ourselves. Perhaps -- with all due respect -- we need to stop relying on God to do it and recognize that it always has been our job.
This Nation has been greatly Blessed, more then any Nation on earth. All have been given to freely, God said, so no one can boast. Blessings given to those are to be given as a blessing to others. Every hear the good suffer much and evil prospers? In this world, it is not God's World, God world will come in God's Time, not mans time. Those who God punishes he loves dearly, those God does not love he leaves them to their own making, but in the end greed will taste the bitterness they have sown, no one escapes God's Righteous Justice. It comes to all. God giveth and God will take it away.
Jesus carried no weapon no sword, but said Lord forgive them for what they do, High Priest apostles, Lord forgive them for they know not what they do.
Abraham and all who serve God did not fight but what they did, was live a life of Righteousness, and did always in their own life what was just in the eyes of God. Abraham did not ask God to destroy Babylon, but Abraham was obedient to God first his laws, Abraham loved thy neighbor, prayed to God to change their harden heart in Babylon, forgive them Lord, pleaded with God not to destroy Babylon. But God of Righteousness judged them, justly for their deeds, and God destroyed Babylon not Abraham. Thus after God judged Abraham and found Abraham a just man of deeds, thus Abraham like Moses, Noah, Moses were called Righteous men of God.
Why no peace in this world, for Peace will only be found where Righteousness lives. There is no men of Righteousness to day, they all offer a false peace, wars do not bring peace never have since the beginning of time. When will all men learn to change their harden heart. God forces no one to love him, or accept him. God said that is not love.
Nations Ministers also will be punished and have to answer to why God's children are suffering? Greed? God said: " I am coming in a wrath on the terrible day of the Lord, to gather All Leaders( ministers in government service, elected officials, all) from All Nations" All means all Nations, All Leaders, God does not mention citizens, middle class or the poor, outcasts, or aliens, or the ill sick, does he? All Leaders All Nations, I will gather on my wrath. God Will , not man on earth, when punishment comes, God will have enough?
God said "Let your gold and silver save you now"