Social Justice and Environmental Concerns

Rabbi Melanie Aron

Saturday, May 8, 2010

In America today we often think of Social Justice and Environmental Concerns as conflicting. If we talk about raising gasoline taxes so that people will drive less and conserve more, we are concerned about low wage workers who will have trouble affording the gas they need to commute to their jobs. Some people suggest that environmental restrictions discourage business and therefore lead to the loss of jobs. Our recent recession was actually helpful in reducing carbon emissions and thus postponing some of the consequences of global warming, but at the cost of many people suffering from unemployment or underemployment.

Because of that perceived conflict in our own time, I was intrigued by how this week’s Torah portion brings environmental concerns and concerns for the poor together. The Sabbatical and Jubilee laws are aimed at both renewal for the land and in promoting greater fairness for the poorest members of society. The wiping out of debt and the return of each family’s ancestral land holding promoted equality in ancient society.

The cancellation of debt and the return of forfeited land, often land lost to the payment of debts, was not unknown in the ancient middle east. Often a new king, on ascending to the throne, would do this to win the favor of the people. Often, though the debt forgiveness and the return of land was limited to the king’s allies, and was subject to his whims. It was not something that could be counted upon.

By making these something that could be counted upon through the sabbatical and jubilee laws, the Torah gave the poorest members of society some hope of starting again on a level playing field. Otherwise there was the tendency, as there is today, for the poor to get poorer, as their lack of resources would be compounded over time. The need to borrow money made them prey to high interest rates, and the accumulation of debt eventually lead to the loss of their land, their major asset, as it does today in those whose debt eventually leads to the loss of their home.

The sabbatical and Jubilee laws were, in the words of the great scholar Maimonides, “inspired by compassion”. They allowed the earth to increase its yield while also helping the most downtrodden members of society.

It is interesting that these laws were considered so important that when the rabbis were later listing the causes of the Exile, they wrote, that the atrocious sins which brought this calamity upon Israel were murder and violence, rape and other sexual offenses, idolatry and the worshipping of that which is not God, and the neglect of the sabbatical and jubilee laws. Later when the Jews returned from Babylonian Exile, these laws, actually the exact section which the girls chanted for us so beautifully this mornings, were cited to inspire richer family members to redeem the land for their poorer relatives.

Today we too might benefit from seeing environmental concerns and social justice concerns as complimentary. After all, many of the neighborhoods which are hit hardest by pollution and its ill effects are the poorest neighborhoods in our communities. Similarly it is the poorest workers who end up working with toxic pesticides and other pollutants. Global warming’s impact will be felt first most severely in the poorest nations of the world. Working towards minimizing global temperature change will help these communities the most.

Moving towards a greener economy can be done in ways which stimulate jobs and provide new opportunities. Here in Silicon Valley I have been part of discussions between the business and non-profit community to provide training programs for the chronically unemployed in areas of green tech, including the installation of solar panels and even simple home repairs to reduce energy consumption.

If we remember the underlying lesson of our portion, the Earth is the Lord’s, we will both protect our environment and share our wealth.