Pre-shabbat action 11/7/24

Make climate action a regular habit, and connect that action to your Jewish values and practices.

Pre-shabbat action of the week

Shabbat Shalom! This has been an intense, difficult week.  Please be kind to yourselves, and remember that taking action is the most powerful antidote to fear.

Despite the election, there are still things we can do NOW - even on the Federal level - to advocate for the climate.  Senators Joe Manchin and John Barrasso have introduced the Energy Permitting Reform Act, which sounds harmless enough, but is full of giveaways to the fossil fuel industry; advocates are calling it the Dirty Deal.  Not only would this accelerating of the permitting process lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions, it would continue to burden lower-income communities and communities of color with adverse health effects of increased pollution.  Sign here to urge your Senators to reject the Dirty Deal now!

Idea to Ponder:

In this week’s parashah, called by God, Abraham sets out on a journey whose destination he does not know.

And God said to Avram ‘Go, You,  from your land and from your birth place and from the home of your father to the land that I shall show you.’

I imagine Abraham as wary, perhaps vulnerable.  He leaves behind his birthplace and home to travel for months, possibly years, through unfamiliar territory. Seemingly always on the road, now and forever more, Abraham is a stranger in a world he does not know.

I write this note on the morning of November 5th and I too feel like I am in a land I do not know. Yet, like Avram, I am determined to see it through. God lets Avram know that he will be a blessing to others. I pray that our efforts on behalf of our planet will be that blessing for the generations that follow.   No matter what happens today, by setting forth together we can make it so.