Helping the Rains to Flow: “V'HAYAH IM SHAMOA” and Ecological Responsibility in Reform Judaism

• In Event: Ethics and Rejuvenation in Modern Jewish Thought

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, climate change is increasingly central in human life. This centrality expresses itself in religious thought and behaviour. Recent scholarship has shown that, in certain progressive Jewish streams – notably Reconstructionism and Jewish Renewal – ecological responsibility has begun to be understood in religious terms. (This may best be seen in the writings of Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and in certain liturgical works.) It is less clear to what extent this is also true in Reform Judaism, the world’s largest liberal Jewish movement, where the emphasis tends to be on social justice.

This paper explores the current understanding of ecological responsibility in Reform Judaism by analyzing recent treatments of the middle paragraph of the Shema (Deuteronomy 11:13-21, known as “V’hayah Im Shamoa” for its opening words). This passage, long part of daily Jewish prayer, constitutes a powerful statement of divine reward and punishment that emphasizes God’s granting/withholding of rain in response to human actions. The classical rabbis understood its daily recitation as an act of “accepting the yoke of the commandments.” The paragraph was excluded from Reform prayerbooks, for brevity and because its theology was considered repugnant, but has cropped back up in the two most recent Reform liturgies (2007 and 2015), sometimes with an ecological interpretation. In this paper, I analyze the treatment of the paragraph in these prayerbooks, arguing that its evolving understanding reflects an increasing awareness of the climate crisis as a critical issue, and a growing tendency to frame ecological responsibility as a religious imperative.

Author

• Micah Streiffer