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Welcome to Kolot, the podcast of The Ark Synagogue, a bold, experiential and caring Progressive Jewish community in Northwood, London.
Through sermons, reflections and conversations from across our community, Kolot explores Jewish life, learning and values in the world we live in today. Rooted in tradition and open to new perspectives, these episodes bring together voices that inspire thought, connection and belonging.
Whether you are Jewish, exploring Judaism, or simply looking for meaningful reflection, you are warmly welcome.
To learn more about The Ark Synagogue, visit arksynagogue.org.
When I delved deeper into my Torah portion, I found it contains core principles which demonstrate Jewish environmental ethics by exploring humanity’s relationship with the natural world. The image of Moses carrying the two stone tablets up mount Sinai can serve as a metaphor for how we too carry the weight of responsibility upon our shoulders. Responsibility for our families, responsibility for moral living, and responsibility to live sustainably, protecting our ecology. Furthermore, the reminder God gives that Moses had shattered the first tablets, illustrates our responsibility to repair damage to the natural world (tikkun olam).
God’s command for Moses to climb mount Sinai alone this time, conjures an image of peaceful meditation—encouraging and enabling a sense of awe and wonder regarding creation. I find a deep sense of peace and healing in the woods, which has been particularly important to me in processing our experience of war in Israel. Trees release chemicals called phytoncides, which have been shown to strengthen our immune systems when we breathe them in. Spending time in forests, has been shown to reduce stress levels, improve mood and relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression. To me, this is one of countless examples demonstrating God’s abundant kindness (rav hesed)—God provided us with everything we need to thrive, and every species has its purpose in a balanced ecosystem.
My haftarah reading highlights how reverence of the natural world is woven into the fabric of Judaism—with nature being a source of inspiration, learning and celebration. Rabbi Ellen Berstein interprets the Song of Songs as “a meditation of our relationship with nature, animated with love”. The imagery evoked by this beautiful poetry serves as a tribute to the natural world as well as an antidote to the threats of climate change. This is achieved in part by highlighting the importance of appreciating and embracing the seasonal rhythms of the earth, as well as finding inspiration of positivity and renewal as Spring arrives, the weather warms and flowers bloom. If we rejoice in our natural world, embracing natures cycles whilst also remembering the weight of responsibility on all our shoulders, perhaps we can learn to live more harmoniously within the Earth.
We can nurture our environment, but sadly we also have the power to destroy it. Ancient woodlands are irreplaceable homes to unique and complex communities of plants, fungi, insects, lichens and other microorganisms. Sadly, now just 2.4% of land in the UK is covered in ancient woodland. This is largely due to human impacts including the intensification of farming (clearing land for agriculture), inappropriate developments, historical deforestation and the replacement of ancient native trees with faster growing conifers for timber, creating monocultures and biodiversity loss.
When landing in Israel, I temporarily forgot my fear of heights as I was so awestruck with the quantity of trees on the land. Israel is one of the few nations with more trees today than 100 years ago, with over 240 million planted trees and active arid-land reforestation. Urban forests and woodland near built-up areas improve air quality, reduce city heat, and increase biodiversity.
As quoted by Rabbi John D. Rayner in his ‘Principles of Jewish ethics’, “it is not enough not to destroy. Positive steps need to be taken to save the land from erosion and exhaustion, to preserve species in danger of extinction, and to pay due regard to the principle of sustainability in economic activity and population growth”. Jewish ethics teach us that it is our responsibility and duty as human beings to live sustainably. This starts with learning to love our world and seeing its beauty—as loving implies a responsibility of protection and a ‘giving back’ to what we love.
Song of Songs highlights biophilia—the innate and necessary affinity and interconnection of humanity with the Earth—a reflection of the oneness and wholeness of God. The environmental crisis we find ourselves in reflects our disconnection and loss of interdependence with the natural world. There is no single solution to repair the world, but we can each do our bit to apply these teachings, whether this be campaigning for sustainable practises, protecting vulnerable species, respecting nature, ethical eating, helping create diverse habitats (and protecting existing ones), planting saplings, nurturing existing woodlands and reducing our waste. Jewish ethics, as highlighted in my torah portion and throughout the song of songs can help us back to a path of love and responsibility for the natural world, bringing us closer to happiness, peace and wholeness.