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May 22, 1970

Ecology, the Work of Creation (1970)

Bereishit Shoftim General Jewish Thought
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The advance of science and technology has resulted in extensive harm to the environment. While there is considerable controversy as to the extent of this injury, and as to whether this artificial imbalance is significantly more than nature's own traumatic eruptions, it is widely accepted – ever since Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring – that there is indeed a very real problem that must be attended to. To take but one example – the elimination of species from the earth: In the next half century – less than one human lifetime – the Earth could lose blue whales, giant pandas, tigers, black rhinoceroses, and millions of lesser-known species. Entire ecosystem types could be damaged beyond repair. Humans are only one of the Earth's 10, 30, or even 100 million species. The world is always changing. We are now in a period of extraordinary biodiversity loss. In The Diversity of Life, Harvard University's Edward O. Wilson estimates that 5–20% of tropical forest species will be extinct in the next 30 years, or somewhere between a half million and 20 million species. A paper in the July 21, 1995 edition of Science estimated that current extinction rates are 100–1,000 times their pre-human levels. – from “Threats to Biological Diversity: A Scientific and Political Overview,” COK/L/Summer 1996As Jews we should be particularly sensitive to the disappearance of whole species, because one imperiled species of the family of Homo sapiens is – the Jewish people...The environmentalist movement, like all other high-minded and serious efforts to improve the lot of mankind or the world as such, tends to become overly fashionable, and falls into the hands of moralizers and cause-seekers who do not fear exaggeration or one-sidedness. As a result, there is developing a reaction against the alleged excesses of the movement – as, for instance, the advocacy of recycling garbage. In an article in the New York Times Magazine of June 30, 1996, John Tierney writes:Believing that there was no more r…
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Why did God create the world? I do not ask this question in an ultimate metaphysical sense. For despite the various agadic, philosophic, and Kabbalistic answers proposed in our tradition – for the sake of man, or Israel, or Torah, or "to create a dwelling place for Him in the lower worlds" the most convincing of all remains that of Maimonides in his Guide, namely, that the purpose of the creation and existence of the Universe is to fulfill the Will of the Creator. This, of course, is another way of saying that we have no access to an intelligible answer, that it is both vain and arrogant to attempt to capture the great Creator in the limited vessels of a teleology conceived by the creatures. My question, rather, relates to the character of God: which of His middot did He exercise in order to bring the cosmos into existence? The problem is not an innocuous and fruit- less theological speculation for, as Maimonides taught (Hil Deot 1:6, based on the Mekhilta), the purpose of describing God by attributes is to inform man how he must live. Imititio dei (or, in the language of the Torah, ve'halakhta bi'derakhav) cannot be achieved unless we know something about Him. When we ask, therefore, what is the source of the divine creation, we are in effect inquiring as to the sourceand hence meaning of human creativity.In the Yiddish manner, let us answer this question with yet another question. Throughout the account of the creation, after each major step such as the creation of light and waters and grass, the Torah tells us that va־yar Elohim hi toy, "and God saw that it was good." Now, taken literally, these passages strike one as grossly anthropomorphic: as if the Creator of the universe is a kind of cosmic artist who, after every significant addition to his composition, steps back to admire his painting or sculpture and cannot refrain from an expression of self-gratulation. But from the days of Onkelos and on, the Jewish tradition has assiduously attempted to reinterpret e…
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Note

אמת, בריאת האדם (1995)

עי׳ במדרש הידוע לענין בריאת אדם, שהמלאכים נחלקו – אלה ייברא, ואלה אל ייברא. צדק אומר ייברא, אמת – אל ייברא. חסד – ייברא, שלום – אל ייברא. מה עשה הקב״ה, השליך אמת ארצה, כדכתיב "וישלך אמת ארצה", וברא את האדם. והשאלה נשאלת – מדוע השליך אמת ארצה ולא שלום, שגם שלום הצביע נגד בריאת האדם? האדמו״ר מקוצק באר, כדרכו, שה׳ השליך אמת ארצה ולא שלום, שאם אמת נשאר, אין "רוב" שיכול להכריע את האמת. ונראה גם פירוש אחר – לו היתה האמת קיימת במלואה, היה המצב כך שהיה קשה לבן אדם להתקיים. רס״ג כבר כתב בספר "האמונות והדעות" שלו (בהקדמה) על "האמת המרה" שבני אדם בורחים ומשתמטים ממנה. אמת הבאה מן השמים פירושה אמת מוחלטת, בלי פשרות וללא תנאים, ואמת כזאת מטילה אימה באדם שהוא יציר חלש ופגום, ממש כשם שאי אפשר לאדם להתקיים תחת השמש במלואה שקרניה מאירים את כל פינות הווייתו ללא צל. על כן, הביאור הוא לא רק שהאמת הציעה שהאדם אל ייברא שכולו שקרים (כדברי המדרש), אלא שאי אפשר לו להיברא ולהתקיים בנוכחותה של האמת הטהורה הערטילאית. ולכן "השליך את האמת ארצה" לא רק להיפטר ממנה כדי שיוכל לברוא את האדם על פי הרוב של יועצי עליון, אלא שהאמת, שהיא הכרחית לחיים תקינים ומוסריים לאדם, תצמח מן הארץ – דהיינו, שתופיע לאט לאט ותיכנס לחיי אנוש באופן אורגני וטבעי, וכך סוף סוף יוכל האדם להיאחז באמת במידה המספקת ומתאימה לו, מה שלא היה יכול לעשות אם האמת באה מן השמים, כלומר, ללא התחשבות ביכולתו של האדם לקלוט ולספוג את האמת.
Bereishit General Jewish Thought