Faith Matters: Rebalancing our culture of consumption – The Recorder

(Each Saturday, a faith leader offers a personal perspective in this space. To become part of this series, email religion@recorder.com)

As a child, I was alarmed about waste and over-consumption. In my home, we received two newspapers that went unread many days. Appliances were left on day and night. Packaging materials abounded, and so on. As an adult, aversion to waste continues as a guiding light. Waste feels like a sin. My arising on this planet has a cost. I feel an obligation to consume the materials I need to sustain myself and to repay those resources through good works and generosity. Reverence and mutual care are in the divine image.

Stewardship of creation is a foundational norm for Christians and Jews and Muslims. There is a deep mitzvah, or sacred deed, in the Bible enjoining us not to waste. This simple phrase is the basis for Jewish laws that touch upon everything from waste management to basing our diet around foods that take up fewer nutrients from the soil.

In Genesis, God articulates Let us make man in our image. Who is God speaking with? Man is created in the image of God and the image of creation. In a sense, we have two natures our human natures and our Godly, or spiritual nature. The genius of a healthy religious life is to balance between our two natures. We preserve ourselves and enjoy the pleasures of life AND we consider others, consider the impact of our consumption on other life forms and on the planetary future.

A Jewish foundational text, the Talmud, asks the question: Who is rich? The best-known answer is One who has joy from their portion. Other answers include: One who has a compatible life partner; One who provides work for others; and one who has a conveniently located outhouse(!). The biblical system of taxes, donations and tithes worked to prevent vast inequality of wealth. The Bible requires a sabbath (fallow year) for the landowners and the canceling of debts every seven years. The obscene and imbalanced intergenerational hoarding of wealth could never arise in a biblical culture. Could these values and practices infuse our economies now?

Greed is the precise opposite of balanced, modest consumption. Greed is inherently imbalanced. It is fear-based. Hoarding is the attempt to fill a spiritual void with bank accounts and TVs. Greed has a social implication as well. We can only put personal accumulation of wealth above shared human needs if we feel detached from others and from nature. This disconnection opens the door to fear, hiding and lying. Too few are the corporations that put human and environmental health and transparent fairness in their business culture.

I love western Massachusetts because so many of us earn part of our sustenance through the work of our hands, whether through gardening or handicraft. We share, reuse and recycle. We enjoy the beauty of our region as a simple pleasure of life. We make it a priority to support local farmers and producers. We rely on each other. In a modest land-based economy, many of us have the blessing of joy from our portion.

Balance between our more personal needs and the needs of others has always been a hallmark of intentional and religious. Today, rebalancing our culture of consumption is literally a matter of life and death. From Deuteronomy 30:19: I call heaven and earth to record this that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.

Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener serves as rabbi at Temple Israel Greenfield.

Temple Israel Greenfield has a 100-year history of living Jewish values and transmitting Jewish culture in Franklin County.

Services are held Tuesday mornings and Friday or Saturday on each sabbath. A full calendar is here: https://templeisraelgreenfield.org. Diverse service styles are offered from traditional Ashkenazi and Sepharadi to chanting, contemplative and new music.

Hebrew and Torah (Hebrew scriptures) classes are offered on Thursday afternoons. Adult, family and child educational classes and offered on Sunday mornings and other times.

Temple Israel Greenfield has sustained social justice programs in gleaning, food justice, immigrant support and racial justice. TIG works with allies as a member of the Interfaith Council of Franklin County.

The Temple Israel Greenfield facility is currently closed and all meetings and classes are held online. Contact Temple Israel for links to zoom gatherings.

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Faith Matters: Rebalancing our culture of consumption - The Recorder