Dear Friends,
Day Six was a big day!
Day One, God created light.
Day Two, God made the sky and the heavens.
Day Three, God made oceans, earth and plants.
Day Four, God made the lights of the sky.
Day Five, God made the lower animals for the seas and the air.
But, Day Six – God made living creatures—birds and beasts, cattle and oxen, and finally, human beings. It was the big day!
(Even though it is mythological, it nevertheless raises a rich and powerful discussion of the nature of life, responsibility and relationship.)
However, what made it truly the big day was not that God created all these complex forms, but that God offered an ethic to govern the interactions of these animate and inanimate creations.
“Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness; and let them hold sway over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over the beasts, over all the earth, over all that creeps upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)
This verse has been the source of study and controversy for millennia. Not only does it suggest that God has images and likeness, and may not be a singular force, but it raises vital questions about the role assigned to humanity vis-à-vis the rest of creation.
Are we to be masters, or stewards?
Are we to tend the garden, or abuse the garden?
Is it all for us, or are we intrinsic parts of this fabulous, Divine world?
How one responds to these questions often dictates one’s relationship with the land and other creatures. At one pole might be the ethos of the American Indian, which asserted that the land does not belong to us, but that we belong to the land. Hence, we are to respect it and do little harm. On the other hand, is the posture of much of Western and European society, which held that we have license to parcel out the land, to mine it for ore, minerals, timber, oil and gemstones, and to make waste along the way.
Clearly, ever since April 22, 1970 and the first Earth Day, western society has been rethinking our responsibilities to the land and its inhabitants. Not only was the issue of pollution so powerful in the 70’s, but since then we have witnessed damage to the ozone layer, to virgin forests, endangered species, and coral reefs, and the warming of the earth and melting of ancient glaciers.
Essentially, we are rereading Day Six, and asking what it means to, “hold sway over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over the beasts, over all the earth, over all that creeps upon the earth.”
Now is the time. There is no Day Seven, nor a Plan B or Planet B!
Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach!
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
Day Six was a big day!
Day One, God created light.
Day Two, God made the sky and the heavens.
Day Three, God made oceans, earth and plants.
Day Four, God made the lights of the sky.
Day Five, God made the lower animals for the seas and the air.
But, Day Six – God made living creatures—birds and beasts, cattle and oxen, and finally, human beings. It was the big day!
(Even though it is mythological, it nevertheless raises a rich and powerful discussion of the nature of life, responsibility and relationship.)
However, what made it truly the big day was not that God created all these complex forms, but that God offered an ethic to govern the interactions of these animate and inanimate creations.
“Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness; and let them hold sway over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over the beasts, over all the earth, over all that creeps upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)
This verse has been the source of study and controversy for millennia. Not only does it suggest that God has images and likeness, and may not be a singular force, but it raises vital questions about the role assigned to humanity vis-à-vis the rest of creation.
Are we to be masters, or stewards?
Are we to tend the garden, or abuse the garden?
Is it all for us, or are we intrinsic parts of this fabulous, Divine world?
How one responds to these questions often dictates one’s relationship with the land and other creatures. At one pole might be the ethos of the American Indian, which asserted that the land does not belong to us, but that we belong to the land. Hence, we are to respect it and do little harm. On the other hand, is the posture of much of Western and European society, which held that we have license to parcel out the land, to mine it for ore, minerals, timber, oil and gemstones, and to make waste along the way.
Clearly, ever since April 22, 1970 and the first Earth Day, western society has been rethinking our responsibilities to the land and its inhabitants. Not only was the issue of pollution so powerful in the 70’s, but since then we have witnessed damage to the ozone layer, to virgin forests, endangered species, and coral reefs, and the warming of the earth and melting of ancient glaciers.
Essentially, we are rereading Day Six, and asking what it means to, “hold sway over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over the beasts, over all the earth, over all that creeps upon the earth.”
Now is the time. There is no Day Seven, nor a Plan B or Planet B!
Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach!
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
