Tisha B’Av, tonight and tomorrow, marks the lowest point in our people’s long journey – and in recognizing what led us here, the 9th of Av also carries within it the seeds of hope.
Our greatest calamities befell us on this day, as recalled in the painful Scroll of Lamentations, known as Eicha. It’s read aloud each year at this time — not just to commemorate, but to again immerse ourselves in the story, feel the pain afresh, and accept in our own time the vulnerability our ancestors knew. Those before us ordained this day and its rituals, hoping their future offspring might learn from past mistakes.
The analogies to our climate-imperiled era are legion. For a fleeting moment of motion, light, or a/c — thinking little of flicking the switch, or changing the setting – the heat-trapping havoc-wreaking carbon remains aloft for a full century, dealing pain to our descendants. The byproducts of our actions endure in our one biosphere. Through business as usual, we pollute our own beds.
“I am made to dwell in darkness” (3:6), cried Eicha.
Us too, from the unhealthy wildfire haze hovering over so many of our homes and shuls and camps, driven by the “global weirding” that flows from our fossil fuel addiction. For all the strong science long outlining our current climate crisis, wildfire smoke hardly ranked among its impacts; new analyses suggest that its human and economic toll may surpass all the others, combined. What more unforeseen trials must we endure, before we heed nature’s and Eicha’s warnings, and turn away from the self-destructive path?
Blame rarely rests solely upon oneself. Eicha’s message that “the Crown has fallen from our head; woe to us that we have sinned” (5:17) can indeed be taken too far. But aware of the human tendency to downplay our own culpability, Tisha B’Av comes to hold ourselves accountable, especially for what is yet in our power to change. And that’s a lot. I think of the important book and resources, All We Can Save, outlining dozens of ways we can yet follow the chastened biblical author of Eicha, and make of ourselves good ancestors.
So, “let us search and examine our ways, and turn back to G!d” (3:40) — turn back to a sustainable and just path.
Adamah is here to help in so many ways:
- Explore our resources
- Consider attending one of our earth-based holiday retreats
- Join one of our climate action programs for youth, teens, college students, and beyond
- Invite a Jewish organization you know to join The Coalition
- Connect with like-minded business professionals dedicated to accelerating climate solutions through our Jewish Green Business Network
Make spiritual ecology central in your very identity, bringing it to workplace and to worship, to school and to the store, to politics and philanthropy, to civics and community.
Even amid wildfires and droughts, even on Tisha B’Av, we continue to inspire and to lead from a place of joy, love, and hope. “This do I call to mind, therefore I have hope: the kindnesses of G!d have not ended, and G!d’s mercies are not spent. They are renewed every morning – ample is Your grace!” (Eicha 3:22-23). Through greening our lives and changing our ways, we can become agents of that Divine kindness and mercy; grantors of grace, and better ancestors, to those who follow us.
Blessings for a meaningful Tisha B’Av,
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder-Dobb
Director of Climate Partnerships and Advocacy
