Teaching #8: The Spiritual Roots of the Environmental Crisis

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Beyond the physical causes, the widespread degradation of the natural world indicates that our way of life is out of balance. Thus the environmental crisis also reflects a spiritual crisis. Human-caused disruptions to the natural world emerge from the inner imbalance within billions of human beings. The change required of us to correct this is, to a significant degree, of a spiritual nature.

In our times we are beginning to witness the planet’s ecological balance weakening due to human influence: rainforests shrinking, deserts expanding, hurricanes intensifying, the planet heating. What is driving the deterioration of the natural world? To be sure, there are physical reasons, yet to answer ‘fossil fuels’ or ‘wood use’ or even ‘consumerism’ would provide only partial answers. In order to truly understand a problem, we need to look under its surface to understand the root causes. In regard to the great loss of the First and Second Temples, the Jewish sages focus not on the destroying armies but on the spiritual deterioration which made way for the destruction of the physical structure. For many ecological issues, the root issues beyond the physical symptoms lie in the spiritual health of human beings.

If one only sees physical causes, one may incorrectly view them as the only reason for an effect occurring. The response to the problem, then, will also be limited to the physical level alone. Yet if we neglect the underlying spiritual source, the problem will keep reemerging in different physical forms, growing out of the underlying root. On the other hand, as Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet (the Rashba, Spain, 13th century) taught, when you address the roots of a problem, the outer problems will naturally fall away.

Because of their relationship to spiritual roots of destruction, these materials are perfect for learning during the Three Weeks.

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This resource is part of Canfei Nesharim’s Year of Jewish Learning on the Environment, in partnership with Jewcology.com, with support from the ROI Community, a community of young Jewish innovators founded by Lynn Schusterman, and the Shedlin Outreach Foundation.

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