Adam takes with him from the
picture-perfect garden into the world beyond rake, hoe, and shovel, the tools
with which he tended the garden in his role as steward. Both inside and outside
the garden, he is earth’s caretaker. So, too, are we, even in a world of seeming
abundant resources. Given the human proclivity for self-preservation, often
leading to selfishness, this is a crucial lesson. For far too long we have seen
the world as our garden of delights, created to provide us sensual
satisfactions. We cannot continue this way: we are the tenders and tillers.
In The Ecology of Eden, Evan Eisenberg posits that the Tower Culture
of Mesopotamia (reflected in parshat Noach) stands in contrast with the
Mountain Culture of Canaan and ancient Israel (reflected in the teachings throughout
Torah).
What is at stake? Our earth.
For the peoples of Mesopotamia, their
cities were the heart of their existence. In the center of their cities stood a
ziggurat, a sacred tower, that testified to human strength and generative
power. The ancient peoples of Mesopotamia scooped up earth’s resources and
invented wheeled vehicles, metalworking, yokes and harnesses. While they innovated
the arch, the dome, surveying and mapping, and mathematics, they also gave us
professional armies, siege engines, war chariots, and a rigid division of
social classes.
This is the world into which
Abraham was born, and the world he left at God’s behest. Abraham founded a
Mountain Culture, where the goal is to live in harmony with the natural
environment, worshiping not human creations, but the Creator. Israel coalesces
around their encounter with God at Mt. Sinai in the Wilderness and commits to a
Torah that forbids wasting resources and despoiling trees, and provides for the
land to renew itself every seven years.
Paul L. Wachtel penned a psychological
portrait of America’s presumptions concerning economic growth, acquisition,
status, and happiness in The Poverty of
Affluence. Wachtel wrote prophetically that our dogged pursuit of economic
growth is self-defeating. Status quo is perceived as failure; only becoming
more affluent meets the American standard for “success.” So we buy more, use
more, consume more – and it has a devastating effect on the environment.
Wachtel concludes: "The key to forging a future that we can look upon with
hopeful anticipation is not in making us more 'competitive'. It is in making us
more perceptive, more able to realize what we have, what we need, and the
longer term consequences of the short-term choices we are making.” This is true
not only for our status and happiness, but for the wellbeing of the earth.
Midrash Kohelet (on Ecclesiasties) articulates
a startling and prescient warning:
“Upon creating the
first human beings, God guided [Adam and Eve] around the Garden of Eden,
saying, ‘Look at My creations! See how beautiful and praiseworthy they are! I
created everything for you. Make sure you don’t ruin or destroy My world. If
you do, there will be no one after you to repair it.’” (Kohelet 7:13)
Many of us recycle, compost, use
compact fluorescent lights, and drive hybrid cars. But have we appreciably
reduced our consumption and waste? On the national and global level, the
pursuit of renewable sources of energy moves at a glacial pace. Closer to home,
the social change that severs the equation between “success” and acquisition,
remains firmly intact.
Physical pleasure is a blessing, a
blessing that reminds us that outside the Garden, resources are limited and we
are earth’s divinely appointed stewards.
© Rabbi Amy Scheinerman
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