Pre-shabbat action

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

Pre-shabbat action of the week

Shabbat Shalom! As you prepare for Shabbat this week, take a few minutes for meaningful climate action knowing that your efforts will be amplified by doing so as part of a community!

This week, we’ll be calling Governor Hochul to urge her to release the proposed regulations for the Cap-Trade-and-Invest program she promised over two years ago.  The program would set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions, charge a fee for emissions over that limit, and invest the proceeds in things like building renewable energy infrastructure (which would create jobs), lowering energy bills, and funding community-generated climate solutions.  Thousands of stakeholders have invested time and energy into drafting the regulations, which are now ready; by walking back her commitment to CT&I, Hochul is depriving New Yorkers of much needed funds to power the transition to a renewable economy and is making it even harder for us to meet our legally mandated emissions targets.  Click here for a script to call the Governor and demand that she follow through on her commitment to a sustainable future for New York.

Idea to Ponder:

In this week’s parsha, Mishpatim, God gives the commandment of Shmita: “Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; but in the seventh you shall let it rest and lie fallow. Let the needy among your people eat of it... (Exodus 23:10-11)

Prof. Yedidia Z. Stern of The Israel Democracy Institute wrote: “Shmita is a balancing factor. For six years, you shall labor, gather and use.  In the seventh year, you shall rest, share and release. You are not required to relinquish your property, but you must learn to separate yourself from it and, in so doing, to restrain capitalistic forces that otherwise have no limits. People are asked to work against their nature and to create a space for the human presence of the other, weak or weakened.”

Let us hold dear the principles of Shmita as an equalizing force and as a reminder of the importance of centering the other, the most vulnerable in our midst, as we continue to envision and work to build a sustainable world.