Overview

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 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."" Volume 1 explores Genesis and Exodus; Volume 2 (2021) explores Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Together they cover 450 verses in the Five Books of Moses / Pentateuch / Old Testament. By linking faith and science, the book connects religion with contemporary scientific thought regarding human health, biodiversity, and clean air, land, and water. Professor Bill Brown, Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, calls Eco Bible ""a rich repository of insights...for people of faith to move forward with wisdom, inspiration, and hope, all for the sake of God's good creation."" Eco Bible reveals what Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet calls ""the ever-increasing number of fresh understandings of the Bible's verses,"" while quoting over 100 rabbis from Biblical times to the present. Until now, their ecological insights on the Bible could only be found scattered across hundreds of books. Applying Biblical ethics to stewardship, conservation, and creation care is not just an idea for today, but is essential for a future where we live in balance and thrive on a planet that remains viable for all life. At a time of both ecological and spiritual crisis, an ecological reading of the Bible can have profound impact on human behavior, since billions of people worldwide consider it a holy book. This green Bible commentary affirms a spiritually grounded vision for long-term sustainability and immediate environmental mindfulness and action, including many suggested action items. Eco Bible uniquely explores the Bible's deep inspiration for fulfilling the blessing of all life, changing course to preserve God's creation, and sustaining human life in harmony with nature and all God's creatures. Rabbis Yonatan Neril and Leo Dee are co-editors and lead contributors.

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9781735338804

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Reviews

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. -Publishers Weekly What faith communities need from the Bible in such a time as this are dialogue and direction. Eco Bible offers a rich repository of insights, drawing from both ancient rabbinic commentary and current ecological insights, for people of faith to move forward with wisdom, inspiration, and hope, all for the sake of God's good creation. - Professor Bill Brown, Professor of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary Every generation reads the Hebrew Bible with its own eyes and its own concerns. Rabbi Neril and Rabbi Dee's special lens allows us to discover in the Hebrew Bible continuing inspiration in our battle to expand our consciousness and to include all of creation in the vision and message of the Hebrew Bible. This is a wonderful tool for garnering new insights into the Hebrew Bible and to increasingly sensitize us to a broader message that the Hebrew Bible can deliver, concerning human responsibility, stewardship, and unity with all of creation. Well done! - Rabbi Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Director, The Elijah Interfaith Institute Imagine a gathering of some of Judaism's sages reading the Bible through their love for the earth. Imagine listening in during a period of great urgency, a time when the very sustainability of life was on the line. Imagine finding the timeless/timely wisdom to address that crisis, allowing the teachings of the Hebrew Bible to mobilize us as allies of our embattled planet and all living things. Well, imagine no longer. This book is that gathering, that call to action! - Rabbi Dr. Bradley Artson, Dean, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies of AJU Rabbi Judah Lowe of Prague taught that to truly love the Creator as we are commanded means to love His works as well. Taking care of the creation is a manifestation of our love of the Creator. Moreover, only when we take care of creation does it take care of us. The importance of this truth is more evident today than ever before when we face existential environmental crises. We accordingly owe a deep debt of gratitude to Rabbis Neril and Dee who, in publishing this ecological commentary on the Hebrew Bible, have provided us with an invaluable resource and inspiration drawn from a vast cross-section of Jewish sources and commentaries, to enable us to live up to the Biblical mandate to love the Creator and His creation. - Rabbi David Rosen KSG CBE, International Director of Interreligious Affairs, AJC Grounded equally in religious thought and environmental science, Eco Bible provides inspiration and guidance on how we can and must repair our world in these urgent times. It offers powerful fodder for personal reflection and group discussion. It serves as an unparalleled resource guide for all who feel a spiritual responsibility for our irreplaceable planet and its life-sustaining biodiversity. - Jessica Sachs, author of Good Germs, Bad Germs

Author Information

Rabbi Yonatan Neril founded and directs the international Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD), including its Jewish Eco Seminars branch. Yonatan is coauthor of the groundbreaking book Eco Bible, published by ICSD, which shines new light on how the Hebrew Bible and great religious thinkers have urged human care and stewardship of nature for thousands of years as a central message of spiritual wisdom. He has spoken internationally on religion and the environment, including at the UN Environment Assembly, the Fez Climate Conscience Summit, the Parliament of World Religions, and the Pontifical Urban University. He co-organized twelve interfaith environmental conferences in Jerusalem, New York City, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. ICSD reveals the connection between religion and ecology and mobilizes faith communities to act. Yonatan is a member of the United Nations Environment Program's Faith-based Advisory Council, and of the Pontifical Universities' Alliance for Laudato Si' Advisory Council. As part of ICSD's Faith Inspired Renewable Energy Project in Africa, he has been involved in facilitating the development of commercial scale solar fields on church lands in Africa. Raised in California, Yonatan completed an M.A. and B.A. from Stanford University with a focus on global environmental issues, and received rabbinical ordination in Israel. He was a Dorot Fellow, PresenTense Fellow, and Haas Koshland Award recipient. He lives with his wife, Shana, and their two children in Jerusalem. He enjoys hiking and being in nature. Leo Dee received a Master's in Engineering from Cambridge University in Engineering, a Master's in Public Health from Hebrew University, and rabbinical ordination in Israel. However, it was a trip around the least affluent countries in Asia and South America that woke him up to the tremendous poverty that exists in the world. Encountering people who owned not much more than the clothes on their back, he began to understand the huge impact of lack of food, water and power suffered by half of humanity. So, following six years as a community Rabbi in the United Kingdom, he moved to Israel where he has developed a passion for changing hearts and minds in order to encourage sustainable development - initially among the Israeli financial community, and then within the field of Responsible Investment. He served as director of programs at The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development. He lives near Jerusalem with his wife, Lucy, and their five children.

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