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After
attending the Rise for Climate, Jobs, and Justice March in San Francisco
yesterday, I feel ready to enter my Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) space. Our
High Holidays, which begin this evening (erev) at sunset, revolve around three
central activities: tefilah (prayer),
tzedakah (charity), and teshuvah (turning). Prayer and charity seem well-defined
to me, but the third, the turning, takes me through a labyrinth of complexity. Traditionally,
teshuvah translates as repentance. But it means more than merely repenting of
one’s sins. It refers to a whole repentance process in which we recognize
culpability, repent for wrongdoing, seek forgiveness, and turn things around. Authentic
repentance involves personal growth to prevent us from repeating the same
errors. So through teshuvah (turning), we attempt to transform ourselves. Through
teshuvah, I work to remake myself so that I don’t repeat my previous transgressions.
I must turn myself around, change myself. I must become someone better, someone
new. What a lot of work.
Yesterday at
Rise for Climate, I marched for my grandson and for a couple other babies close
to my heart who arrived in 2017 and for all the little ones coming up in the
world during this precarious time. I think it fortuitous that the Rise for
Climate event occurred just before Erev Rosh Hashanah. Marching yesterday had
significance for me on many levels. To begin with, I marched with two of my
cousins, and one of them brought her one-year-old daughter along. Once upon a
time, few family members from my paternal grandfather’s family remained. We did
not fare well as Polish Jews during the Holocaust. But those few who made it
out alive have multiplied over the decades. The fact that I have two women
cousins (and baby makes three) nearby to march with me is one small miracle all
by itself, and a testament to the fact that sometimes something you think has
disappeared forever turns out to have survived. So hope matters. We do well to
keep this in mind when we feel inclined to despair about the future of Earth.
Rise for
Climate in San Francisco was our local contribution to a global action that
included more than 800 demonstrations in nearly 100 countries around the world.
Even as the U.S. government attempts to set us apart and act solely for the
benefit of U.S. and corporate economic interests, the people of this country
continue to join with our human family around the world in global efforts to
make change that will help preserve the planet so that it remains habitable for
human life. It gives me hope that so many people recognize what is at stake and
continue to stand up, act, and speak out. Rise for Climate ushers in the Global
Climate Action Summit, occurring this coming week in San Francisco. The Summit will
bring together world leaders committed to working for environmental
preservation through the reduction of carbon emissions and rapid advance to
clean energy sources. These leaders will move forward despite the failure of
their governments to curb the environmental destruction promoted by
corporations driven by profit. It makes me proud to say that California’s Governor
Brown initiated the Summit.
The presence
of so many indigenous people yesterday in San Francisco reminds us of how far
back in history this desecration of the land extends. The climate crisis we
face has mobilized Native communities like never before. They have been
prophets on this subject for centuries. But I very much doubt that saying “I
told you so” would give satisfaction to any of the Native people who risked
their lives to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, which was constructed despite
massive, heart-wrenching protests, and has leaked gallons of oil in the short
time since it was built, contaminating soil and water, just as the protestors
predicted and feared. Yesterday’s march began beautifully with thousands kneeling
in the street while Native people led a prayer, a chant, and a brief ceremony to
create a sacred space for our act of protest. (Indigenous people flew in from
the Amazon to participate in the demonstration.) The drumming, fragrance of
sage in the air, Aztec dancers, and messages on the signs asserted that Native
presence continuously. We marched for two miles, ending up at the Civic Center,
where organizers had set up an art activity. Thousands of people painted murals
that had been outlined on the ground in advance. The murals depicted the many
things we can do to reverse climate change, such as wean from fossil fuels and
develop clean energy sources, reduce meat consumption, restore soil to health, rethink
transportation systems, and transform our relationship to Earth. One of many
murals created by Native communities said No
Pipelines, No Dams, No Diversions. That message speaks volumes.
How
auspicious that the upcoming Summit will take place between Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur. It will contribute to a high-level teshuvah, a massive, planetary
turn-around; a teshuvah that is necessary to save our lives. Those attending
the Summit who have more power and more impact than I do will be working to initiate
ways to turn things around through policy, systems, and economics. My fellow
Jews, at this year’s High Holidays, please join with me in taking the
opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to environmental protection on a
personal level, and to ponder what more we can each do in our own small way to
support a healthy Earth and a future on the planet for our children,
grandchildren, and those to come unto the seventh generation and beyond. I hope
for the High Holidays to bring a supersized teshuvah that will turn things
around for the planet. We need teshuvah to be a verb rather than a noun.
I love that
the High Holidays take place in my part of the world as we approach autumn,
the
season of turning, the changing of colors, the time of transformation.
So I
share an image of California grape vines in the midst of their autumn teshuvah.
