Tikkun: The Bible Does Not Validate Endless Exploitation and Domination of the Environment

 

The Bible Does Not Validate Endless Exploitation and Domination of the Environment by Rabbi Ellen Bernstein  Layers of Creation © Dr. Ruth Pinkenson Feldman  {You can view the article online: Click here} Gen.I:26 And God said, “Let us make the human creature in our image, after our likeness. They shall have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.” Gen. I:27 And God created the human in God’s image, in the image of God, God created him; male and female God created them. Gen. I:28 God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth.” As a college student in the early 1970’s, in one of the first environmental studies programs (U.C. Berkeley—CNR) in the U.S., I was taught that the “Judeo-Christian” tradition was, in part, responsible for our present-day environmental crisis.   We had been required to read historian Lynn White’s influential essay, “The Historical Roots of the Ecological Crisis,” in Science magazine, in which he argued, among other things, that the Bible gave humanity a mandate to control and exploit the natural world.[1]  As a young person who had no knowledge of the Bible nor any positive experience of religion, I naively accepted this idea.    White’s interpretation of the biblical creation stories had enormous ramifications on a whole generation of environmentalists and their students, as well as on many Christian and Jewish clergy and scholars.  White’s article also had an enormous effect on me.  It caused me to ask questions about how Judaism understood our relationship with the natural world.  I began studying the biblical portion of the week and realized that those who argue that dominion means domination tend to take the verse out of context, paying scant attention to the verses that precede or follow this mandate.  Furthermore, it was—in part—in response to Lynn White’s essay that I came to found the first national Jewish environmental organization, Shomrei Adamah, Keepers of the Earth, in 1988.    A colleague asked me recently, why do we need yet another essay on dominion?  That’s simple.  Because the idea that the biblical creation story has led to the human exploitation of nature is still very much alive in certain circles today, and when this position is taken as the authoritative interpretation of Genesis I, it can be divisive.  Furthermore, if religious people took seriously and acted upon the Bible’s first command to care for—rather than exploit—the creation, I believe we would be one step closer to insuring a healthier future for the earth and all its inhabitants.  It’s impossible to grasp the meaning of dominion without understanding the vision of Genesis I. The primary trope of Genesis I, the first biblical creation story, is that everything, every aspect of the creation, is designated good.[2] Everything created, all that exists, is called tov or good.  The light is tov; the water, air, and earth are tov[3]; the trees and vegetation are tov; the stars and planets are tov; the fish and birds are tov, and the land animals are tov.  Tov-ness or goodness is proclaimed seven times in the story.   The rabbi, philosopher, and physician Maimonides, writing in the twelfth century, said that the goodness of all the creatures is a testament to their intrinsic value.  Goodness does not rely on any human measure.  Each organism is good in its essence, just as it is.  Each has a purpose and a place.  Each has integrity, each contributes to the whole and is required for the whole.  The world is built on the foundation of the goodness of the creatures, without which it could not exist.  In this story, on the sixth day of creation, after all the habitats and all the other beings are established, the human creatures are dreamed into being.  Just as all the creatures have their purpose and place, so do the human ones.  Human creatures are an integral part of the whole natural system and humanity is given the charge to preside over— have dominion over—the land and its creatures (Gen I:26, 28).[4]  The job of humanity—our job—is to help ensure the life and health of the whole biological world.[5]  This profound ecological instruction is humanity’s first and foremost assignment in the Bible.  When we understand, as Genesis I does, that the world is built on interconnections of all the creatures and suffused with tov—goodness—it becomes clear that the only response adequate to the call for dominion is love.      Dominion as Communion Above and Below are One  © Dr. Ruth Pinkenson Feldman  And God said, “Let us make the human in our image, after our likeness.” The understanding of dominion as domination (as critics suggest) assumes that we humans stand over and above the whole creation, entirely separate from her.  And yet we could not be more intimately related.  The very goodness—the ultimate goodness—proclaimed on the sixth day, after the entire creation has been completed, alludes to all the creatures together—the web of life—and not just compartmentalized humanity as many moderns surmise.[6]  Since we are all born of the One, we are kin to the earth and its creatures.  This understanding moved the Jewish philosopher and rabbi A.J. Heschel to speak of the earth as our sister.[7]   A midrash on this text imagines a sense of trust and intimacy between animals and humankind.  The midrash wonders: who is the us that God is referring to in the enigmatic verse, “Let us make a human in our image.” The midrash posits that us refers to all the creatures.  The story goes that they gathered together to ask God to design the human with dominion in order to keep the peace among them. They feared that without one being to preside over them, they might destroy each other.[8]   No creature is entirely independent; no creature is an island.  Everything exists bound up with everything else.  Being alive means being in ceaseless relationship with others: other people, creatures, the earth, the water, the air.  Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote poignantly of the intimacy between humankind and the creatures.  He understood dominion as a loving presence: “The ground and the animals over which I have dominion constitute the world in which I live—without which I cease to be.”[9] Created last, the human creature is vulnerable and depends on all the other creatures in order to survive.  Bonhoeffer continues, “In my whole being, in my creatureliness, I belong wholly to this world: it bears me, it nurtures me, it holds me.  It is my world, my earth, over which I rule.” Bonhoeffer uses the word “my”—not in terms of possession—but in terms of relationship. He is reflecting the sentiment of the Bible where there is no concept for human ownership. Rather, dominion implies a deep connection, a communion with nature.  To read the rest of Ellen Bernstein's article: Click here Click below to share this article on the platform of your choice! Tikkun needs your support to bring the kind of analyses and information Tikkun provides. Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution. Listen to Rabbi Michael Lerner and Cat Zavis on their podcast “Imagine with US”.    Listen Here Contact Us  Tikkun & the Network of Spiritual Progressives 2342 Shattuck Ave #1200  Berkeley, California 94704 (510) 644-1200 magazine@tikkun.org