When the world is burning around us, it is to fire that we must turn

Speaking again in our Beit Midrash last night between minchah and maariv, Rabbi Jonathan Neril discussed the deeper meaning of the references to fire in the Torah. The tantalising topic of the Burning Bush--which was aflame but which the fire did not consume--was the point of connection between parshat Shemot, which we leyn this Shabbat, and a host of writings by our scholars and sages on different aspects of fire.

 

Rabbi Neril mentioned the horrendous fire that has gripped Los Angeles over the past week but put it firmly in its perspective. Despite the damage it has caused [recent estimates have placed the cost of this conflagration at between 250 and 275 billion US dollars], it is insignificant when compared to the scale of fires in the very recent past in the Amazon basin, in Siberia, in Canada and in Australia.  This unprecedented plague of fire must surely be telling us something.

Rabbi Neril then turned to the gemara, at Yoma 21b:

Our Rabbis taught: There are six different kinds of fire:

• fire which eats but does not drink;
• fire which drinks but does not eat;
• fire which eats and drinks;
• fire which consumes dry matter as well as moist matter;
• fire which pushes fire away;
• fire which eats fire.

The gemara explains and references each of these fires in turn, but Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan adds a seventh: the fire of the Burning Bush—the holy fire that burns inside us and motivates us to seek out the meaning of God in our lives. This is literally the aish haTorah. When the world is in flames, symbolising the crisis points in our own lives, it is to the fire of the Torah that we must turn.

Frogs here, frogs there. Frogs were jumping everywhere ...

Were you in shul for minchah-maariv yesterday? If so, you would have been in for a surprise. Instead of a devar Torah from Rabbi Wein, you would have heard an entertaining and quite off-beat presentation by Rabbi Jonathan Neril (right)-- mainly on the subject of frogs. We learned a great deal about the sensitivity of frogs to environmental change and natural disasters, about research that has revealed much about the antiviral and antibacterial qualities of their skin, and about the deeper significance of the popular midrash of the frogs that increased in number every time the Egyptians smote them: this was no mere Biblical version of Whac-a-Mole.

We should explain that Rabbi Neril is the co-author, together with Rabbi Leo Dee, of Eco Bible, the first volume of which, published in 2020, covers the books of Bereishit and Shemot. Volume two, published a year later, addresses environmental issues in the rest of the Chumash. The thoughts of Rabbis Neril and Dee are supplemented by entries furnished by other contributors.

The publishers market these books with the following explanation of their contents and objectives:

What does the Bible say about ecology? As people face huge ecological challenges--including growing hurricanes, floods, forest fires, and plastic pollution--the groundbreaking Eco Bible dives into this question. Drawing on 3,500 years of religious ethics, it shows how the Bible itself and its great scholars embrace care for God's creation as a fundamental and living message. Eco Bible has been a #1 bestseller on multiple Amazon Kindle categories. Eco Bible both informs the reader and inspires spiritual commitment and action to protect all of God's creation.

 This 'earth Bible' is a great read for those interested in Jewish and Christian social issues. It also represents an important contribution to eco theology, and to the spiritual ecology movement. Publishers Weekly called the book an "insightful analysis," which "will inspire contemplation on how to live in harmony with nature and the power of conservation. Ecologically minded readers interested in the Hebrew Bible will love this."

Between the two volumes, the authors reference 450 pasukim from the Torah. By linking faith and science, this work seeks to connect religion with contemporary scientific thought regarding human health, biodiversity, and clean air, land, and water.

Rabbi Neril has kindly donated a copy of volume 1 of Eco Bible to Beit Knesset Hanassi. You will be able to find it in the downstairs Beit Midrash library.