Ellen Bernstein
Writer, Teacher, Consultant, Founder, Shomrei Adamah, Keepers of the Earth
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Bernstein has been called the birth mother of the Jewish environmental movement. She founded Shomrei Adamah, Keepers of the Earth, the first national Jewish environmental organization, in 1988 and has been an educator, consultant, outreach professional and writer since leaving the organization in 1996. Her new book, “The Splendor of Creation: A Biblical Ecology” (Pilgrim Press) is a gem, beautifully written and produced. While it is inherently a narrative about ecological issues as framed by the first chapter of Genesis, it is really a deeper poetic work about living fully, being alive to life’s wonders, feeling connected to creation and to the Creator. As she tells The Jewish Week in an interview, she prefers to think of herself in the categories of ecophilosopher, ecotheologian or nature writer rather than environmentalist. Although she herself is a person of action, her goal is not so much to foster activism but to help people gain awareness and appreciation of the natural world as well as an appreciation of Judaism. The book is less a call to action than a call to seeing. Readers will learn about nature and also about experiencing what Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called “radical amazement.” She writes of seeing with the soul, cultivating an intimacy with the earth. “Genesis I is particularly beautiful and poetic — and therein holds this kind of eternal power and wisdom,” she says. “I was inspired by that beauty and wisdom and wanted to open it up for people — to show what I saw — to contextualize environment in a totally different way so that it could be meaningful for more people. Many people say the failing of the environmental movement is in its inability to reach people — I try to overcome that through this approach. I believe that beauty touches people.” In seven chapters, each devoted to a day of creation, she weaves biblical text, interpretation, midrash, autobiography and the writings of naturalists. In “Water, Earth and Plants: The Third Day,” she gracefully slips from talking about the physical qualities of water to its natural flow to open-heartedness in a few paragraphs. Bernstein found inspiration in age-old wisdom of poets, philosophers and scientists as well as traditional Jewish teachings. She was particularly interested in the writings of the 13th century Spanish scholar, physician and poet Nachmanides, who brought a mystical orientation to the text, and the 19th century German Orthodox Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, “who expressed an uncanny ecological perspective,” as she writes. “It’s very comforting,” she says, “when you think you have a new idea, to find out that someone came up with the same idea hundreds or thousands of years ago. There’s nothing new under the sun.” She explains that as she was writing, she heard the words of the 11th century philosopher Rabbi Bahya ibn Pakuda, “Meditation on creation is obligatory. You should try to understand both the smallest and greatest of God’s creatures. Examine carefully those which are hidden from you.” There are few contemporary Jewish writers who write lyrically about nature. Evan Eisenberg is one. Here, Bernstein joins the ranks of naturalists like Annie Dillard. From her childhood days in New England, Bernstein was a “forever-in-the-woods tomboy who found adventure and solace in nature.” In high school, she took part in an innovative program in environmental science where she and her schoolmates visited sites along the Ashuelot River in southern New Hampshire and measured various pollution indicators. She became hooked on what was then an emerging field of study and pursued environmental studies at Berkeley. But upon graduating, she knew that she wanted to do more than environmental impact studies; she was more interested in people and values. She worked as a high school biology teacher and as a river guide, and was also on her own spiritual quest. Having left behind what she describes as the lackluster Judaism of her youth and studied eastern religious practices, she revisited the Bible, in search of wisdom she might have missed. Indeed, she came to realize that “ecology and the Bible were using different languages to describe the same thing. The Bible and ecology both teach humility, modesty, kindness to all beings, a reverence for life, and a concern for future generations. They both teach that the earth is sacred and mysterious,” she writes. Her growing passion led her to found Shomrei Adamah and to work with rabbis, scientists, environmentalists and writers around the country to create educational materials and curricula focusing on ecological dimensions of the Bible and of Judaism. Since leaving Shomrei Adamah, she has become increasingly drawn to the study of Jewish texts. She explains that in her younger days, she felt “most peaceful and most whole” in nature. Now she experiences that sense on Shabbat and enjoys being in synagogue; the idea of having an additional soul on the Sabbath resonates for her. She’s not reticent about talking about God. “When I feel quieter, more integrated with my surroundings, more generous in my heart, more expansive, less preoccupied with myself. That’s the experience of God for me. Originally the place I had that experience was in nature and now I’ve cultivated it in other places.” Bernstein, who’s about to turn 52, lived until recently in Philadelphia; she’s now in western Massachusetts where her fiancé lives. Although she’s an unbounded lover of nature, she’s also a proponent of city living, with its possibilities of cultural diversity, community, walking rather than driving, gardening too. She sees beauty even in the weeds that flourish in sidewalk cracks. Ecologically, she feels it makes more sense to develop urban centers, preserving nature in surrounding areas. But the sprawl she now sees in places like Philadelphia breaks her heart, she writes. Housing developments, strip malls and congested roads have replaced the pastoral woods she once knew just outside of the city. “The Splendor of Creation” is particularly timely for summer reading, as this is the season when more people are likely to be outdoors, perhaps with their hands in the soil, gardening, or hiking in the woods, in close proximity to trees and plants, wildlife and insects. The book took 10 years for Bernstein to complete, as her thinking about Genesis evolved and her study deepened. She’s also not one to stay indoors, or to sit around, for long. On the morning of this interview, she had to cancel a long bicycle ride, but instead went hiking. Bernstein notes that summer is like the “101,” or introductory course in the seasons. “But I think that the more people are intrigued or curious about nature,” she notes, “the more likely they will become people of all seasons.” |
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