Created to Continue 

Creation is indeed very good. It is a miracle of becoming, a miracle of continuing. We read in Genesis One that all the vegetation on Earth was created not just that one time, or for that generation alone, but for all time to come. “And God said, ‘Let the Earth sprout vegetation: seed-bearing plants, fruit trees of every kind on Earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so.” 

The plants carried within them, from the moment of their creation, seeds, that is, the capacity to bring forth more plants; and from those plants ever more plants, and from those ever more plants, until the end of time. 

So too with the animals: “And God created … all the living creatures of every kind that creep, which the waters brought forth in swarms, and all the winged birds of every kind… God blessed them, saying, “Be fertile and increase, fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds increase on the Earth.” 

Plants, animals, life—all created with the capacity to regenerate, procreate, renew, so that existence would flow endlessly from generation to generation. 

And so it has, for billions of years. Life came perilously close to extinction several times due to natural causes—but over eons of time unfathomable to the human mind, it once again managed to flourish.  

The World We Have Inherited 

Now, we are on the verge of another great extinction. Only this time, it is one of our own doing. Humanity is so great, and our footprint so vast, that we are threatening the very world that sustains us. We have become a geophysical force, capable of upsetting the seasons, the oceans, the atmosphere, even the tilt of the Earth. 

So the question we need to ask ourselves this Rosh Hashanah, and those yet to come, is: “How well are we treating the world?” 

Are our consumption patterns, our appetites, our behaviors compatible with a healthy world? And if they aren’t, what changes are we prepared to make? What can we do in our private lives, our communities, our businesses, our policies to make this world a healthier place so that life can keep on living? 

Hans Jonas, a 20^th-century Jewish philosopher, spoke of the imperative to guard against destroying creation. Act, he wrote, “so that the effects of your actions are compatible with the permanence of life on Earth.” 

The Question We Must Ask 

This year, let us begin to add this question to our heshbon hanefesh: “How well are we treating the world?” 

For in the end, how we treat the world is how we treat each other. 

The Baltimore Environmental Sustainability Network is an initiative of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, in partnership with Adamah.