Here Comes the Sun
August 11th 2009 11:43
At a conference on the negative and positive impact religions had on beliefs about the environment a few years back, I sat through several lecturers who emphasized that Judaism and Christianity had contributed a negative environmental ethos by emphasizing the idea that God handed the world over to humanity to do with it what they wanted. While there might be historical truth to that idea, the same biblical teaching was also understod to mean that humanity has an obligation to care for the land and steward its resources. I was thrilled therefore to come across the article mentioned below...
First some background: Every 28 years, the Jews have a custom of reciting a blessing over the Sun, as it completes its cycle of astrological rotation and returns to the location calculated as its "original one at the time of creation." In truth, the sun completes its cycle every four years, the 28 year cycle incorporating both the four-year transit and the day of the week of the sun's creation in Genesis.
As it approached last year, I began to reflect on the previous one, which I celebrated at age 8, on Portal Drive, just off Fondron SW, Houston, Texas. (I also reflected on Houston generally, MY original location at the time of my creation).
The article below illuminates as aspect of that day of which I was not aware, despite having grown up in the Chabad religious community in Houston. Thanks to Nigel and Hazon for sending it out.
"Here's a short quiz. Read the following quote and then answer the simple question below.
"This country, with God’s help, can be self-sufficient in energy. The problem lies in the failure to utilize God’s gifts to their fullest... There is one energy source which can be made available in a very short time. Solar energy is non-polluting, cheap, and inexhaustible…it can power individual homes as well as giant factories. The United States has been blessed with plentiful sunshine, especially in the south… God has blessed this country richly, and it is our duty to use those riches to their fullest."
Who said this, and when? Was it:
1. Al Gore in 2006.
2. Barack Obama in 2008.
3. Nigel Savage in 2009.
4. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the 8th Lubavitcher Rebbe, in 1981?
The answer is d). Rabbi Schneerson spoke at length about the imperative for the United States to move over to solar energy at a gathering of Chabad Hassidim in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on April 11th 1981.
Incredible, no? Seven years before Professor Jim Hansen first alerted the world to the threat of global climate change in his testimony to the US Senate, a Hassidic Rebbe (albeit one with a degree in engineering) was informing his followers that America needed to go solar."
from Birkat HaChamah, The Blessing of the Sun, 2009
by Rabbi Dr. Julian (Yedidya) Sinclair
First some background: Every 28 years, the Jews have a custom of reciting a blessing over the Sun, as it completes its cycle of astrological rotation and returns to the location calculated as its "original one at the time of creation." In truth, the sun completes its cycle every four years, the 28 year cycle incorporating both the four-year transit and the day of the week of the sun's creation in Genesis.
As it approached last year, I began to reflect on the previous one, which I celebrated at age 8, on Portal Drive, just off Fondron SW, Houston, Texas. (I also reflected on Houston generally, MY original location at the time of my creation).
The article below illuminates as aspect of that day of which I was not aware, despite having grown up in the Chabad religious community in Houston. Thanks to Nigel and Hazon for sending it out.
"Here's a short quiz. Read the following quote and then answer the simple question below.
"This country, with God’s help, can be self-sufficient in energy. The problem lies in the failure to utilize God’s gifts to their fullest... There is one energy source which can be made available in a very short time. Solar energy is non-polluting, cheap, and inexhaustible…it can power individual homes as well as giant factories. The United States has been blessed with plentiful sunshine, especially in the south… God has blessed this country richly, and it is our duty to use those riches to their fullest."
Who said this, and when? Was it:
1. Al Gore in 2006.
2. Barack Obama in 2008.
3. Nigel Savage in 2009.
4. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the 8th Lubavitcher Rebbe, in 1981?
The answer is d). Rabbi Schneerson spoke at length about the imperative for the United States to move over to solar energy at a gathering of Chabad Hassidim in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on April 11th 1981.
Incredible, no? Seven years before Professor Jim Hansen first alerted the world to the threat of global climate change in his testimony to the US Senate, a Hassidic Rebbe (albeit one with a degree in engineering) was informing his followers that America needed to go solar."
from Birkat HaChamah, The Blessing of the Sun, 2009
by Rabbi Dr. Julian (Yedidya) Sinclair
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Comment by Rabbi Chaim
Teiku
here is the talk in its original:
here www.chabadtexas.org/408957
and here: www.chabadtexas.org/96304
Rabbi Chaim
better yet: Really Long Link
Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
Deep Pencil
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Movie Train
Artist Quirk
great to see you around the network, i havent noticed anyone else on Orble writing on Jewish culture and history etc, you might teach a few people a few things
Comment by Schmoozer
Schmoozer
Keep up the blogging, and I will continue reading.