Changing Climate Brings a New Meaning for Jewish Liturgy

Changing Climate Brings a New Meaning for Jewish Liturgy
AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo

I usually instinctively shy away from mixing religion with politics or policy, or my personal life with my professional life. I don't like it when these worlds collide, but climate change — a central theme of my work for over two decades — and Jewish prayer are suddenly occupying the same space in my mind.

A central part of the liturgy of the Jewish High Holidays — the New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and its companion holiday, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) — contains a phrase that is a declaration and a statement of hope: "Repentance, prayer and charity will lessen the severity of the decree." It's always struck me that, in the season when Jews pray for a "clean slate," we declare that we acknowledge our actions can reduce only the severity of the decree, not eliminate it; we are essentially plea bargaining with God and pledging to do community service.

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