|
Judaism And Environmentalism
Judaism and environmentalism intersect on many levels. The natural world plays a central role in Jewish law, Jewish literature, literature, liturgy, and other practices. Within the arena of Jewish thought, beliefs vary widely about the human relationship to the environment. Movements such as Eco-Kashrut and celebrations like Tu BiShvat reflect environmental values, and modern Jewish environmentalism has grown, especially in North America. Jewish law and the environment In Jewish law (''halakhah''), ecological concerns are reflected in several instances. These include, the Hebrew Bible, Biblical protection for fruit trees, rules in the Mishnah against harming the public domain, Talmudic debate over noise and smoke Nezikin, damages, and contemporary responsa on agricultural pollution. The rule of Tza'ar ba'alei chayim is a restriction on cruelty to animals. Since the 1970s, Conservative Judaism, has adopted Eco-Kashrut ideas. Jewish activists have also recruited principles of ''hala ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jewish Law
''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mitzvot''), subsequent Talmudic and rabbinic laws, and the customs and traditions which were compiled in the many books such as the ''Shulchan Aruch'' or ''Mishneh Torah''. ''Halakha'' is often translated as "Jewish law", although a more literal translation might be "the way to behave" or "the way of walking". The word is derived from the root, which means "to behave" (also "to go" or "to walk"). ''Halakha'' not only guides religious practices and beliefs; it also guides numerous aspects of day-to-day life. Historically, widespread observance of the laws of the Torah is first in evidence beginning in the second century BCE, and some say that the first evidence was even earlier. In the Jewish diaspora, ''halakha'' served many Jewish communit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bal Tashkhit
''Bal tashchit'' () ("do not destroy") is a basic ethical principle in Jewish law. The principle is rooted in the Biblical law of Deuteronomy 20:19–20. "When you lead a siege against a city many days ... you may not destroy any tree of hers, to hew an ax against it, for from it you will eat, and you may not cut it off! Is the tree of the field a person, to come before you in the siege? Only a tree that you know is not a tree for food, that one you may destroy and cut off, and build siegeworks..." In the Bible, the command is said in the context of wartime and forbids the cutting down of fruit trees in order to assist in a siege. In early rabbinic law however, the ''bal tashchit'' principle is understood to include other forms of senseless damage or waste. For instance, the Babylonian Talmud applies the principle to prevent the wasting of lamp oil, the tearing of clothing, the chopping up of furniture for firewood, or the killing of animals. In his explanation of this law, the Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biocentrism (ethics)
Biocentrism (from Greek βίος ''bios'', "life" and κέντρον ''kentron'', "center"), in a political and ecological sense, as well as literally, is an ethical point of view that extends equal inherent value to all living things. It is an understanding of how the earth works, particularly as it relates to its biosphere or biodiversity. It stands in contrast to anthropocentrism, which centers on the value of humans. The related ecocentrism extends inherent value to the whole of nature. Advocates of biocentrism often promote the preservation of biodiversity, animal rights, and environmental protection. The term has also been employed by advocates of " left biocentrism", which combines deep ecology with an " anti-industrial and anti-capitalist" position (according to David Orton ''et al.''). Definition In the simplest of terms as well as form, biocentrism is the belief that all living organisms, without exception, individually possess equal value and the same exact rig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecocentrism
Ecocentrism (; from Greek: οἶκος /ˈoi.kos/ ''oikos'', 'house' and κέντρον /ˈken.tron/ ''kentron'', 'center') is a term used by environmental philosophers and ecologists to denote a nature-centered, as opposed to human-centered (i.e., anthropocentric), system of values. The justification for ecocentrism usually consists in an ontological belief and subsequent ethical claim. The ontological belief denies that there are any existential divisions between human and non-human nature sufficient to claim that humans are either (a) the sole bearers of intrinsic value or (b) possess greater intrinsic value than non-human nature. Thus the subsequent ethical claim is for an equality of intrinsic value across human and non-human nature, or biospherical egalitarianism. Origin of term The ecocentric ethic was conceived by Aldo Leopold and recognizes that all species, including humans, are the product of a long evolutionary process and are inter-related in their life process ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Vogel (professor)
David Vogel (born 1947) is the Soloman P. Lee Distinguished Professor in Business Ethics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of both the Political Science Department and the Haas School of Business, and is Editor of the ''California Management Review''. He was the Jean Monnet Chair, European University Institute, in 1994 and the BP Chair in Transatlantic Relations, there in 2000. At INSEAD he was the Novartis Professor of Management and the Environment in 2000-2001 and the Shell Fellowship in Business and the Environment in 2002. His books include '' Trading Up'' (1995) about globalization, ''The Dynamics of Regulatory Change: How Globalization Affects National Regulatory Policies'', (ed. with Robert Kagan 2002), and ''The Market for Virtue'' (2005) about corporate social responsibility. He has written over 50 scholarly articles. Vogel has a BA in political science from Queens College City University of New York and a PhD in politics from Princeton Univers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ellen Bernstein
Ellen Sue Bernstein (July 22, 1953 – February 27, 2024) was an American rabbi, author, and educator. She has been called the "birthmother of Jewish environmentalism" and a prominent figure in the world of religion and ecology. Bernstein's work focused on how the Bible and Judaism provide a guide for connecting with and healing the Earth. Early life and education Bernstein was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, to Etta (Feigenbaum) Bernstein and Fred Bernstein, and was raised in Haverhill alongside her sister and brother. She became interested in environmental science in high school. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied at one of the first environmental science programs in the country. Later in life, she also attended San Francisco State University and earned two master's degrees: one in biology, from Southern Oregon State University, and one in Jewish education, from Hebrew College. Adult life and impact Bernstein eschewed terms like "J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lynn Gottlieb
Lynn Gottlieb (born April 12, 1949), in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) is an American rabbi in the Jewish Renewal movement. Early life and education Gottlieb is the daughter of Abraham and Harriet Gottlieb and grew up in the Reform community of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Her father was a businessman; her mother was a puppeteer and founder of the Little Civic Theater. The Reform movement was not yet offering Bat Mitzvahs to girls, but she participated in a Reform confirmation ceremony as a tenth grade student, where, she said, her rabbi told her that she could be a rabbi someday. In 1946, Gottlieb, then a high school student, went to Israel as an exchange student and studied at the Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa. This experience cemented her desire to be a rabbi, which was not yet a path available to women. She studied at SUNY Albany and received a B.S. from Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1972, after which she studied at Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Theological Seminary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yale Forum On Religion And Ecology
The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology is a multireligious and interdisciplinary project founded in 1998 and based at Yale University since 2006. Since 2023, it has operated under the auspices of the Yale Center for Environmental Justice (YCEJ). In collaboration with other academics and environmentalists, it promotes the teaching and study of religion and ecology and highlights the activity of religious environmentalism around the globe. The Forum publishes books and articles, provides a monthly email newsletter, offers online Coursera courses, organizes conferences, and maintains a website emphasizing engaged scholarship and action for ecojustice. Origins From 1996 to 1998, Forum founders and directors Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim organized the Harvard Religions of the World and Ecology conference series of 10 conferences at the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions. The culminating conferences were convened in October 1998 at the American Academy of Arts and S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Waskow
Arthur Ocean Waskow (born Arthur Irwin Waskow, October 12, 1933) is an American author, political activist, and rabbi associated with the Jewish Renewal movement. Education and early career Waskow was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He received a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1954 and a Ph.D. in American history from University of Wisconsin–Madison. He worked from 1959 to 1961 as legislative assistant to Congressman Robert Kastenmeier of Wisconsin. He was a senior fellow at the Peace Research Institute from 1961 through 1963. He joined Richard Barnet and Marcus Raskin and helped to found the Institute for Policy Studies in 1963, and he served as resident fellow until 1977. In 1968 Waskow was elected an alternate delegate from the District of Columbia to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. His delegation was pledged to support Robert F. Kennedy, and after Kennedy's assassination, Waskow proposed and the delegation agreed to nominate Reverend C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Green
Arthur Green (, born March 21, 1941) is an American scholar of Jewish mysticism and Neo-Hasidic theologian. He was a founding dean of the non-denominational rabbinical program at Hebrew College in Boston. He describes himself as an American Jew who was educated entirely by the generation of immigrant Jewish intellectuals cast up on American shores by World War II. Biography Arthur (Art) Green grew up in Newark, New Jersey in a nonobservant Jewish home and attended Camp Ramah. He describes his father as a "militant atheist," but his mother, from a traditional family, felt obligated to give her son a Jewish education. He was sent to a liberal Hebrew School in the congregation of Rabbi Joachim Prinz. Later he attended the synagogue of Max Gruenewald in Millburn, New Jersey. At Camp Ramah, his introductory Talmud teacher was Professor David Weiss-Halivni. Academic and rabbinic career In 1957, he began his studies at Brandeis University, where he went through a crisis of faith a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torah
The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () or the Five Books of Moses. In Rabbinical Jewish tradition it is also known as the Written Torah (, ). If meant for liturgic purposes, it takes the form of a Torah scroll ( '' Sefer Torah''). If in bound book form, it is called '' Chumash'', and is usually printed with the rabbinic commentaries (). In rabbinic literature, the word ''Torah'' denotes both the five books ( "Torah that is written") and the Oral Torah (, "Torah that is spoken"). It has also been used, however, to designate the entire Hebrew Bible. The Oral Torah consists of interpretations and amplifications which according to rabbinic tradition have been handed down from generation to generation and are now embodied in the Talmud and Midrash. Rabbinic tradition's underst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthropocentrism
Anthropocentrism ( ) is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity on the planet. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the concept as human supremacy or human exceptionalism. From an anthropocentric perspective, humankind is seen as separate from nature and superior to it, and other entities (animals, plants, minerals, etc.) are viewed as resources for humans to use. It is possible to distinguish between at least three types of anthropocentrism: perceptual anthropocentrism (which "characterizes paradigms informed by sense-data from human sensory organs"); descriptive anthropocentrism (which "characterizes paradigms that begin from, center upon, or are ordered around ''Homo sapiens'' / ‘the human'"); and normative anthropocentrism (which "characterizes paradigms that make assumptions or assertions about the superiority of ''Homo sapiens'', its capacities, the primacy of its values, rits position in the universe" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
