For those who celebrate, today is Tu B’Shevat (your spelling of that may vary), or the Jewish New Year for Trees.
This is an excuse for me to not wait until Earth Day or Arbor Day to talk about the measurable, visible, and visceral ways that we have damaged and are continuing to wreck the planet.
Or rather, it’s an opportunity to float out a strategy that has a great name: Green Sabbath.
(Go ahead and take a War Pigs break, then come back)
There’s this interesting thing that keeps turning up in my social media feeds this year, and it’s been this spiritual attention to the Earth. In a nutshell, people don’t need to have any religious affiliation to care about the environment, but for those who do, there are strong traditions that actually compel us to act responsibly.
The Green Sabbath Project is but one example.
Splashed across their website:
“Is there nothing you can do about the environment?
That’s right. Nothing may be one of the best things you can do.”
What they’re talking about is observing Shabbat, or the day of rest.
On Tablet, Jonathan Schorsch writes, “Sabbath properly practiced offers a weekly interruption of the suicidal econometric fantasy of infinite growth, a weekly divestment from fossil fuels, a weekly investment in local community.”
Careful to explain there’s no attempt to convert anyone, the author suggests that this message is for those who already adhere to belief systems in which a rest day (whether that’s Friday, Saturday, or Sunday) exists.
He writes, “In a more maximal form, along the lines envisioned by the ancient rabbis, Sabbath observers on their Sabbath day commit not to build, operate or work in factories, do business, farm, produce clothes at home, drive cars, fly, use engines of any kind, spend money, hunt, etc. People might avoid using electricity. Cooking could be done in advance—or one could suffice with room-temperature food. Unplugged, with our distractions eliminated, Shabbat can serve us as a day for taking a walk, playing with our kids, reading on our own or reading out loud, conversing with friends or singing, and regenerating energy for fighting for justice. Green Sabbaths can become a day to celebrate through local community activities without producing carbon emissions.”
And for those who aren’t believers? Well, it’s not that hard to imagine a secular version of this.
What this project entails is chilling out.
It tells us to be mindful. For those who still use cars, it means reflecting on the necessity of firing up the engine every single day. For those who do not identify with any religious system, there is still value in disconnecting from the noise machines and routinely reconnecting with humans, face-to-face.
It’s about giving the planet a friggin break already.
“Blaming corporations alone for the collapsing planetary ecosystem absolves the rest of us of our part in benefiting from and maintaining a system based on depredation of the environment,” writes Schorsch, and we should not skip over that detail. Just as the concept of a rest day is a matter of balance, so is requiring personal responsibility alongside corporate responsibility. The situation we have going on is one that requires us to examine all the causes and consider using as many tools as possible.
Dedicating one day every week to make less selfish choices? That’s legit.
