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Help heal the world this Shabbat: Participate in Climate Healing Shabbat
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Tommorow is October 24, a day that Rabbi Arthur Waskow, secretary of the board and rabbinic director of the Shalom Center, calls "A Day to Begin Building Our Ark." In the world-wide Jewish community, this date now is widely acknowledged as "Climate Healing Shabbat." I'm not sure if any local South Bay synagogues or Jewish organizations are doing anything special for Climate Healing Shabbat, but I'd like to bring it to the community's attention. Maybe in this way someone will take it upon themselves to begin activities tomorrow...or in the future.
Not only do we read the biblical story of Noah, the flood, the building of the ark, and the rainbow on this Shabbat, but Shabbat Noah coincides with the International Day of Climate Action, an event organized by Bill McKibben and 350.org, as well as more than 4,000 local groups around the world.
The number "350" has been named by a number of eco-scientists as the highest acceptable limit for the proportion of CO2 in the earth's atmosphere – 350 parts per million – if global climate change is to be halted short of global disaster. (For a full explanation, go to http://www.350.org/understanding-350#2.)
The Jewish community's participation in Shabbat of Noah was initiated by The Shalom Center in a meeting of grass-roots Eco-Jewish organizations this past June 22, 2009. Rabbi Waskow reports, "Through our efforts, it was then endorsed by major leaders and organizations in the Jewish world in America, Israel, and other countries." The Shalom Center's website (http://www.theshalomcenter.org/torah/Genesis) offers a rich set of resources: lists of endorsers, midrash on the Noah story, supplemental prayers for the earth, descriptions of actions planned by dozens of groups and congregations, songs, stories, policy analysis, plans for future action. "We have added new materials there in the last several days, and urge you to consult them even if you have done so earlier," says Rabbi Waskow.
The June 22 meeting resulted in endorsement by a number of the grass-roots organizations present of a proposal put forward by Hazon for a Jewish Climate Change Campaign. It has special emphasis on affecting the Copenhagen international climate conference this December and has plans from the present for a seven-year effort by Jews around the world, Rabbi Waskow explains. "One of the new items on our Noah Websection is about this campaign. We support it and urge you to use this Shabbat to introduce it to your community and begin building support," he says. "Meanwhile, the US Congress is facing major decisions on whether and how to begin action toward healing our climate. Our Noah websection addresses the policy issues as well, and we will keep reporting and advocating on these as the issues shape up on Capitol Hill.
"In our own generation, the only Ark that can save the web of life from a world-wide Flood of heat, drought, and rising oceans is the healing we undertake for the planet as a whole," Rabbi Waskow concludes. "If we are to affirm the wisdom of our forebears and save the lives of our grandchildren, we ourselves must build that ark, undertake that healing. Let us begin!"
The Shalom Center, headquartered in in Philadelphia, PA, is dedicated to inspiring the Jewish community to greater attention and action on questions of peace and justice for the planet and all who dwell on it, and as part of this effort, to making common cause with peace and justice advocates of all faiths.
If your Jewish community or synagogue isn't doing something for Climate Healing Shabbat, why not initiate some action? Let's make the South Bay a hub of healing energy this weekend -- and all the time.
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