Up Front

Eco Logic

A New Jersey rabbi uses the Torah as a basis for environmental activism.

ADAM MARCUS
Special to The Jewish News

E

arlier this month, world
leaders and their representa-
tives convened in Kyoto,
Japan, for a summit on the
future of greenhouse gas emissions. At
about the same time, a small group of
Jews halfway around the globe gath-
ered at Beth Israel Congregation in
Ann Arbor for a similar conversation.
The keynote speaker for the week-
end was Rabbi Lawrence Troster, who
is at the forefront of a growing move-
ment of Jews who use their religion to
fortify, and even explain their environ-
mental activism.
So consuming has the issue become
for him that Troster has taken a year-
long sabbatical from his shul in South
Orange, New Jersey, to think and
write about environmental Judaism as
a Steinhardt Fellow at the National
Jewish Center for Learning and
Leadership in Manhattan. He has
been instrumental in shaping the
Rabbinical Assembly's "green" state-
ment, and he has been invited to serve
as a panelist next February at an ongo-
ing Harvard University examination of
religion and the eco-system.
Rabbi Troster's visit to Michigan
included a broad-brush sermon on
environmental issues and a short
study session on the topic of sustain-
able development in Jewish texts.
That subject provided a segue into a
more sweeping condemnation of
what Troster considers to be rampant
and excessive consumerism. As he is
fond of pointing out, the average
American, "and thus, the average
Jew," uses about 80 times the
resources as his or her counterpart in
India or Mexico.
To Troster's most quoted source,
the great codifier Moses Maimonides,
excess of any kind is emphatically
antithetical to true Judaism. "Indeed,"
wrote the 12th century rabbi, the goal
of the Torah "is for man to be natural
by following the middle way. He shall
adhere to the mean when he eats
whatever is his to eat, when he drinks
whatever is his to drink" and enjoys
just the right amount of, well, more

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1997

12

earthly pleasures.
Maimonides — and
the Torah — also had
a few things to say
about agriculture and
forestry. When besieg-
ing a city, invaders
"must not destroy its
trees," warns the rabbi,
citing Deuteronomy
20:19. "And not only
during a siege: when-
ever a food tree is cut
down with destructive
intent, flogging is
incurred.
"We see our ethics
as derived from our
covenant with God,
and also from an ear-
lier covenant between
God and all life,
which forces us to
consider that the
whole biosphere" is
divinely protected,
Troster said. "We
shouldn't consider the
Earth as being a piece
of inert matter or
resources solely for
our use. On some
level We are equal
parts in the order of
creation."
Yet Troster — in
Maimonidian modera-
tion — is not extreme
Rabbi Lawrence Troster: Gone green.
about using nature for
human gain.
"It hasn't been a high priority
"It's not that we have to feel we
because
of 'Jewish' concerns, like
can't cut down a tree, but we have to
Israel,
continuity,
et cetera," he specu-
put some ethical weight into what are
lated.
But
Troster
argues
that ranking
now called natural resources," he
community
battles
misses
the point.
said. He points to Psalms 8 and 148
"You
want
Jewish
continuity?
to support the biblical notion that
You've got to be able to have a society
while humanity is clearly special in
that is inhabitable," he said.
God's order of things, it is neverthe-
To be sure, Troster and
less part of that order, and responsi-
Maimonides aren't the only Jewish
ble for its upkeep.
environmentalists. Jews, Troster
So if Judaism demands ecological
pointed out, have a strong history of
awareness, why hasn't it been a more
activism in the field, although not
prominent issue in the past? The
many have used Jewish teachings and
answer, according to Troster, is that
texts to support their beliefs. But
environmental Judaism simply could-
there are a few Internet sites devoted
n't compete with other, more visible
to Judaism and the environment,
crises.
including that of COEJL, the

Coalition on the
g Environment and Jewish
Life. The group, of
which Troster is an -
adviser, sponsors dozens
of grants to Jewish orga-
nizations for environ-
mental education and
activism, and is heavily
involved in campus
awareness efforts.
While much pollu-
tion is the result of care-
lessness or venality,
according to Troster,
most of the world's
environmental problems
are fallout from the
insatiable Western
appetite for more. The
paradox is that despite •
the oceans of things
available to Westerners,
Troster sees a spiritual
malaise caused by the
overwhelming barrage
of advertisements for
those things.
"I really believe that
the consumer society is
based on the idea of disii
satisfaction, and it's part
of the reason many peo-
ple feel empty all the
time," he said.
Indeed, Beth
Dwoskin, a Beth Israel
member who said she
considers herself an "envi-
ronmentalist" in princi-
ple, found herself most impressed by c
Troster's admonitions to achieve mod-
eration. "It's good to be reminded"
about the importance of being modest
in need and waste, she said.
Michael Morris, a chemistry pro-
fessor at the University of Michigan
who attended the study session, said
that while he appreciated the Jewish
context for environmentalism, it
could not avoid the fate of all matte!
of policy.
"The obvious part of all of this is
that when you go from generalities to
specifics, it's a political problem
rather than an outlook on life," he
said.

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