|. נביאי ישראל – Prophetic Tradition

The prophets of Israel were ancient activists, among the first to speak truth to power.

Their messages were myriad, but common threads emerge from their symphony of prophecy: messianic peace and human dignity, the evils of oppressing the poor, the danger of religious hypocrisy, warning of impending apocalypse, and uncovering hidden truths.

Nathan famously confronts David after he uses his power for murder and sexual misconduct. Elijah condemns Ahab for executing an innocent man to grow his royal estate.

“I appointed you a covenant people, a light of nations — opening eyes deprived of light, rescuing prisoners from confinement, from the dungeon those who sit in darkness” (Isaiah 42:14-15).

Isaiah’s mission, the prophet’s mission, Israel’s mission is this: to open unseeing eyes, expose hidden injustice, uncover the inconvenient truths society ignores.

When Egypt hid the bloody brutality of slavery from itself, the Nile turned to blood, exposing the evil at the heart of its society. What God and Moses did with plagues, the prophets achieved with words.

"Your rulers are rogues and cronies of thieves,” says Isaiah. “Every one avid for presents and greedy for gifts; They do not judge the case of the orphan, and the widow’s cause never reaches them” (Isaiah 1:23).

“I have noted how many are your crimes, and how countless your sins,” says the prophet Amos. “You enemies of the righteous, you takers of bribes, you who subvert in the gate the cause of the needy!” (Amos 5:12)

Climate change is the great hidden oppressor of our time. Its causes – greenhouse gases – are invisible. Its effects are deadly but difficult to discern amidst the churn of daily weather. And responsibility for its creation surprisingly falls on each of us, and particularly those in the developed nations.

Modern consumption is defined by the global supply chain, which has produced tremendous wealth and efficiency, but hides from us the effects of our consumption. An automobile is assembled by workers we never meet, using materials mined elsewhere, in sometimes dangerous conditions, and each step of its creation, use, and eventual destruction involves the use of fossil fuels.

When we drive this car, carbon dioxide invisibly scatters across the world, raising temperatures, contributing to fire, flood, resource conflict, refugee crises – all affecting the poor and the vulnerable far more than the wealthy and powerful.

Yet one of the great teachings of the prophets is this: what begins with the vulnerable ends with the powerful. “Because you impose a tax on the poor and exact from him a levy of grain – you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted delightful vineyards, but shall not drink their wine” (Amos 5:11).

Most of us try to be morally upright people, to help out others when they need a hand. Perhaps we are dedicated, generous leaders of our Jewish communities. This is all worthy and meaningful.

But the dire hidden consequences of our climate crimes go unheeded. The prophets reserve particular anger for hypocrisy. Isaiah speaks with disgust of religious gatherings and animal sacrifice performed while society tolerates injustice. Amos notes that Israel keeps the Sabbath, but is eager for it to end so they can return to corrupt business dealing (“tilting a dishonest scale, and selling grain refuse as grain!”). “We will buy the poor for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals” (Amos 8:6).

This sort of immorality leads to natural disaster – this is a repeated theme, beginning with the second paragraph of the Shema. If you serve other gods, “God’s anger will flare up and He will stop up the heavens: there won’t be rain, the earth will not give forth its crops, and you will quickly perish from the good land that God gives you” (Deuteronomy 11:16-17).

Jeremiah charts the land’s desolation because of its people’s immorality: “How long must the land languish, And the grass of all the countryside dry up? Must beasts and birds perish, Because of the evil of its inhabitants...?” (Jeremiah 12:4).

Amos himself, describing the oppression of the poor “for a pair of sandals,” says, “Shall not the earth shake for this and all that dwell on it mourn? Shall it not all rise like the Nile and surge and subside like the Nile of Egypt?” (Amos 8:4).

In the climate crisis, these prophetic themes flow tragically together: disregard for the most vulnerable, here at home and around the world; profound hidden injustice and moral hypocrisy; the emerging rebellion of the natural world.

Consider that our city, New York, is the wealthiest city in the history of the world, with more than 380,000 millionaires and $3 trillion in wealth. Countless supply chains unspool from the skyscrapers of New York into the far reaches of the world.

We ask ourselves, What would the Prophets say to our city today? If Amos and Isaiah could walk the streets of Midtown Manhattan, what would they decry? Given the scale of impending suffering, the tens of millions of lives at stake, the hidden immorality of our consumption, the responsibility each of us bears...is there any doubt that they would speak of climate justice?