I Arts & Entertainment
Nature's Sacred Text
With the approach of Rosh Hashanah, it is
time to ponder "the splendor of creation."
Sandee Brawarsky
Special to the Jewish News
F
or Ellen Bernstein, conversations
about weather are never small talk.
She loves to listen intently as winds
grow in strength during a storm and
thrash through the trees. Even better, she
likes to be in the woods, feeling the energy
rising around her and her own spirit soar-
ing. She sees paradise where others might
see nondescript woods, bugs and mud.
Bernstein, 52, has been called the birth
mother of the Jewish environmental
movement. She founded Shomrei
Adamah, Keepers of the Earth, the first
national Jewish environmental organiza-
tion, in 1988 and has been an educator,
consultant, outreach professional and
writer since leaving the organization in
1996.
Her new book, The Splendor of Creation:
A Biblical Ecology (Pilgrim Press; $16)), is
a gem, beautifully written and produced.
While it is inherently a narrative about
ecological issues as framed by the first
chapter of Genesis, it is really a deeper
poetic work about living fully, being alive
to life's wonders, feeling connected to cre-
ation and to the Creator.
As she says in an interview, Bernstein
prefers to think of herself in the categories
of ecophilosopher, ecotheologian or nature
writer rather than environmentalist.
Although she is a person of action, her
goal is not so much to foster activism but
to help people gain awareness and appre-
ciation of the natural world as well as an
appreciation of Judaism.
The book is less a call to action than a
call to seeing. Readers will learn about
nature and also about experiencing what
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called
"radical amazement." She writes of seeing
with the soul, cultivating an intimacy with
the earth.
Birth Of The Earth
"Genesis is particularly beautiful and
poetic — and therein holds this kind of
eternal power and wisdom;' she says.
I was inspired by that beauty and wis-
dom and wanted to open it up for people
— to show what I saw — to contextualize
September 29 2005
environment in a totally different
way so that it could be meaningful
for more people. Many people say
the failing of the environmental
movement is in its inability to reach
people — I try to overcome that
through this approach. I believe
that beauty touches people?'
In seven chapters, each devoted
to a day of creation, she weaves bib-
lical text, interpretation, midrash,
autobiography and the writings of
Bernstein's book
is based on the
naturalists. In "Water, Earth and
story of creation
Plants: The Third Day," she grace-
in Genesis.
fully slips from talking about the
physical qualities of water to its
natural flow to open-heartedness in
a few paragraphs.
Bernstein found inspiration in
age-old wisdom of poets, philoso-
phers and scientists as well as tra-
ditional Jewish teachings. She was
woods tomboy who found adventure and
particularly interested in the writings of
solace in nature."
the 13th century Spanish scholar, physi-
In high school, she took part in an
cian and poet Nachmanides, who brought
innovative program in environmental sci-
a mystical orientation to the text, and the
ence where she and her schoolmates visit-
19th century German Orthodox Rabbi
ed sites along the Ashuelot River in south-
Samson Raphael Hirsch, "who expressed
ern New Hampshire and measured vari-
an uncanny ecological perspective?'
ous pollution indicators. She became
"It's very comforting:' she says, "when
hooked
on what was then an emerging
you think you have a new idea to find out
field of study and pursued environmental
that someone came up with the same idea
studies at Berkeley.
hundreds or thousands of years ago.
But upon graduating, she knew that she
There's nothing new under the sun."
wanted
to do more than environmental
The book took 10 years for Bernstein to
impact
studies;
she was more interested in
complete, as her thinking about Genesis
people
and
values.
She worked as a high
evolved and her study deepened. She
school
biology
teacher
and as a river
explains that as she was writing, she heard
guide, and was also on her own spiritual
the words of the llthcentury philosopher
quest.
Rabbi Bahya ibn Pakuda:
Having left behind what she describes
"Meditation on creation is obligatory.
as
the lackluster Judaism of her youth and
You should try to understand both the
studied Eastern religious practices, she
smallest and greatest of God's creatures.
revisited the Bible, in search of wisdom
Examine carefully those which are hidden
she might have missed. Indeed, she came
from you."
to realize that "ecology and the Bible were
using different languages to describe the
same thing.
In Love With Nature
"The Bible and ecology both teach
There are few contemporary Jewish writ-
humility, modesty, kindness to all beings,
ers who write lyrically about nature. Evan
a reverence for life, and a concern for
Eisenberg is one. Here, Bernstein joins the
future generations. They both teach that
ranks of naturalists like Annie Dillard.
the earth is sacred and mysterious:' she
From her childhood days in New
writes.
England, Bernstein was a "forever-in-the-
Her growing passion led her to found
Shomrei Adamah and to work with rabbis,
scientists, environmentalists and writers
around the country to create educational
materials and curricula focusing on eco-
logical dimensions of the Bible and of
Judaism.
Bernstein lived until recently in
Philadelphia; she's now in western
Massachusetts where her fiancé lives.
Although she's an unbounded lover of
nature, she's also a proponent of city liv-
ing, with its possibilities of cultural diver-
sity, community, walking rather than driv-
ing, gardening too. She sees beauty even in
the weeds that flourish in sidewalk cracks.
Since leaving Shomrei Adamah, she has
become increasingly drawn to the study of
Jewish texts. She explains that in her
younger days, she felt "most peaceful and
most whole" in nature. Now she experi-
ences that sense on Shabbat and enjoys
being in synagogue; the idea of having an
additional soul on the Sabbath resonates
for her.
She's not reticent about talking about
God. "When I feel quieter, more integrated
with my surroundings, more generous in
my heart, more expansive, less preoccu-
pied with myself — that's the experience
of God for me. Originally, the place I had
that experience was in nature and now
I've cultivated it in other places?'
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