BP, our culture, our responsibility

We’ve heard it so many times, we tune it out.

When natural disaster strikes, clergymen of all faiths blame it on sin: Katrina, the tsunami, all these bad things because people sinned. Never mind that the clergy didn’t agree on the sins that led to these catastrophes. They blamed it on sin.
We’ve heard that so often that when bad things do happen – because of sin – we don’t want to say that out loud.

In Judaism, we don’t like to speak about sin because of the cultural implications. In many religions, sin means you’re damned to everlasting hell. Jews do not believe in everlasting hell. So we stay mum on sin.

However, we’re approaching Tisha B’Av and the anniversary of the destruction of both our First and Second Temples. Both of these tragedies were brought about by sin. Not all the Israelites sinned – but enough of them did so that the consequences destroyed the only way of life they knew.

Friends, actions do have consequences. Sin does bring negative consequences in its wake.

The sins of our entire society have threatened our way of life in a scope even more devastating to us than the destruction of the Temples.

Our culture – and its insatiable greed for oil, for plastic – for things – led directly to the BP oil spill and the potential destruction of the Gulf of Mexico and its coast.

Our Torah portion, Matot, discusses the nature of collective guilt. The Torah specifically talks about “bloodguilt” which is caused by idolatry, adultery, incest, and murder. Before we entered the Promised Land, God warned us that if we insulted the land through our transgressions, it would vomit us out.

“Vomit us out” – how’s that for an image.

Our lust for oil – and oil companies’ lust for profits – has again shown us that we do have the power to destroy the world.

We worry about terrorism and war. I worry about those things. But I worry even more about our values that drove us into the BP disaster.

We all have to take ownership. We have to pressure our government to do a better job safeguarding the oil wells and coal mines that are the source of so much of our energy.

It’s a tough balancing act. It’s hard to know when we’ve crossed the materialistic line that left God and true spiritual values far behind.

Later, in the book of Deuteronomy (8:11-14), we’ll hear God explicitly warn us:
"Take care...lest you eat and be satisfied and you build good houses and settle, and your cattle and flocks increase, and you increase silver and gold for yourselves, and everything that you have will increase--and your heart will become haughty and you will forget the Lord your God…"

A great rabbi of the 16th century, Rabbi Ephraim Luntchitz, known as the Kli Yakar, warned that "the nature of wealth is to make its owner arrogant."
This is certainly not to paint with a broad brush and say that all wealthy people are arrogant!

However, it does come to warn us that we must actively embrace a value system that values our souls more than it values materialism – even comfort.
We have to learn to prioritize our values. As a nation, we’ve drifted along comfortably, until we were rocked by a recession, catastrophic weather patterns, and now the Gulf Coast Disaster.

Environmental awareness is a large part of the correction.

Beyond that, we have a deep responsibility to care for the beautiful world that the Almighty created. Hashem does command us to care for His world.
To do less, is a sin.

I spoke earlier about collective sin. No one in this room is INDIVIDUALLY responsible for the BP disaster!

On the other hand, we must all COLLECTIVELY and as individuals carefully assess and evaluate our priorities, our lifestyles. This is a constant balancing act. After all, we have competing activities and values in our own lives.

If we are not working toward a safer environment – even if it does lessen our physical comfort, we are part of the problem. If we don’t do our part to guard the great treasure of God’s Holy Creation, we are participating in communal sin.
“Sin” is not a word I use often. But our national/communal lusts allowed deep-sea drilling that had no safeguards. If we don’t start solving these problems, we have a bleak future.

Right now, we have:
Oil gushing at rate of 4 Exxon Valdez per week

An estimated 250 million gallons of oil spilled so far

One fifth of children in Louisiana now live in poverty

One third of state is now closed to fishing – the main livelihood of many

Louisiana has 8000 miles of tidal shoreline that are in danger

The oil will destroy the nursery for 30-40% of seafood for the United States

Even after this crisis is over, it will take decades for the fishing nurseries to recover, consequently, the way of life for these fishermen is gone

If oil gets to roots of flora in wetlands, the flora will not recover; marshlands are permanently lost, diminishing protection against hurricanes

30%-40% of Coastal Wetlands in the Lower 48 States are in Louisiana

Two million people live in Coastal Louisiana

Mississippi River Basin touches 31 states

Every 30 minutes, we lose a piece of wetlands the size of a football field
This isn’t even a complete list.

The oil spill has continued for so long, it’s all too easy to forget it’s there.

On a recent tour of the devastated area, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, head of the Rabbinical Assembly, said: "We all need to turn from short-term gratification ... rather than indulge ourselves with this unlimited consumption," she said.

This is our task – our obligation!

We cannot ignore the oil spill or its causes. To do so, we risk the world and with that, our own souls.

Our ancestors, in the events leading up to the horrors of Tisha B’Av, ignored many warnings and therefore, watched their world – their entire way of life – disappear.
Communal responsibility can be used for good. We all have an opportunity to examine our own consumption-oriented value systems and turn that around – and start fixing the world.

We can only do it a little at a time. But we have to start. And we have to encourage others to start.

You and I don’t have the power to clean up the oil, but we do have the power to work on changing our culture.

May the Holy One above grant us the strength, courage, and wisdom to do so, v’nomar amein.