Blogroll | Congregation Darchei Noam

Our calendar and holidays are built around the agricultural cycle and remind us of our deep connection to the land and the natural world.

This Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of a shmita year.  As we take stock of ourselves and how to live compassionately and justly, we reflect on our relationship with the global human community and natural world and remember that we don’t live apart from nature, although it seems so as we rush about in our urban environments.

We are guided by the words of Dr. James Orbinski.  A Canadian physician and veteran of humanitarian work in Rwanda and other troubled regions, Dr. Orbinski helped establish the Canadian chapter of Doctors Without Borders.  Included below are quotes from his Canada Day interview with Ken Dryden and from his July 5, 2012 lecture on inequality, climate change, drought, and political instability.

Dr. Orbinski doesn't see us as individuals or as a country removed and separate from the world.  

"The biosphere is not a problem to be solved. It’s a living being to which we belong, and we need to somehow re-imagine ourselves in relationship to it. We are part of it and it is part of us."  Thus, we can, we must, and we do shape our world and our destinies as best as we can.  With this awareness comes the responsibility of “changing and making better our world so that it’s more just, more fair, more equitable.”

“We’re the proverbial frog in the cooking pot, but we’re turning up the heat on ourselves.”  Climate change is said to be the greatest threat to global health and security in this century.  “The science is unequivocal, but we don’t even need scientists to tell us our weather is changing.”  December's ice storm taught us the hardship that a warmer Arctic with its weakening polar vortex can bring.  Higher temperatures, melting glaciers, changing wind patterns, and warming oceans mean more severe flooding and droughts, more crop failures, and more disease.  More deaths.

"West Nile Virus, never seen here before the year 2000, has infected more than 21,000 people in Canada and the US, killed more than 800 people, and left many thousands in permanent states of morbidity.  This is a direct consequence of climate change.  Lyme disease is sweeping through the continent, again driven by climate change.  In 2011, drought and famine across East Africa meant that 13 million people were in need of food assistance, and 500,000 died.  Yellow fever and malaria might one day come to Canada, all because of climate change. ”

"A mere 10 years from now, crop yields in some parts of Africa are expected to fall by 50 per cent and water stress could affect as many as 250 million Africans.  Exactly the same pattern is true for Central America and Southeast Asia.  Its health effects and implications have received little attention from governments and global health activists.

“Climate change is here and we need to face up to it, and we need to stop, not only not participating, but scuttling other countries’ efforts to deal with it.  So many of the other crises swirl around its reality.  Our international financial crisis, our food crisis, our fuel crisis, they’re all inter-related, and the common solution rests in how we concretely address the issue of climate change, and how urgently we do so.”

“The debate on climate change ought not to be whether or not it exists. It is what we should do about it."

Rabbi Goldie Milgram, in her powerful July address to the congregation, asked us how we could help those in financial straits and what we could let go of during this shmita year.  What is in excess and what is lacking in our lives.  How can we help nature?  We may already walk more and bicycle, eat almost no meat or none, use energy efficient light bulbs and appliances, enjoy condo living, and vacation closer to home.  What to do next?  Become conscious of where and how our food and goods are produced?  Spend less screen time and more moments outdoors?

Become more knowledgeable.  As a start read More Good News by David Suzuki and Holly Dressel and The Ptarmigan's Dilemma, by John and Mary Theberge.  Support environmental groups working for the health of the planet and all its creatures.  You may be aware of Evergreen, The David Suzuki Foundation, Environmental Defence Canada, and the Sierra Club.  Some other effective ones are Ontario Nature, Escarpment Biosphere Conservatory, Friends of the Rouge Watershed, and The North American Native Plant Society.  Participate in events held by Shoresh, visit Bela Farm, and add this Jewish group to your list of charities.

What can we embrace to bring balance, health, and joy into our lives and our world?  We can take pleasure in the simple delights of life, a flavourful carrot grown in soil that's alive, the exquisite sound of Isaac Stern’s music, and the smiles and laughter of we bring to others.  Above all, work for peace.

Let this be a year of healing for this beautiful planet.  Shanah Tovah and Happy Birthday to the World.

For more information see:

1. Dr. John Holdren, President Obama’s Science Advisor, January 08, 2014, Quoted in Canada Conserves's report, The Next Wave.

2. Climate change is already here reports the American's National Assessment Report , . The Pew Research Center shows a U.S. Map of average temperature changes for the 20^th century. “Precipitation patterns are changing, sea level is rising, the oceans are becoming more acidic, and the frequency and intensity of some extreme weather events are increasing. Many lines of independent evidence demonstrate that the rapid warming of the past half-century is due primarily to human activities.”