Jewish Environmental Stewardship

Why environmental threats are moral issues

Environmental damage affects both the natural world and the people who depend on it. Clean water, fertile soil and a stable climate support human life. For many Jews, protecting these is also a religious responsibility: the world is God’s creation, not simply a store of materials for humans to consume.

Pollution is the contamination of air, land or water by harmful substances or waste. Vehicle and factory fumes can damage human health. Industrial waste and chemicals washed from farmland can pollute rivers and harm fish and other wildlife. Reducing pollution therefore protects people as well as the wider creation.

Global warming is the long-term rise in Earth’s average temperature. Burning coal, oil and gas releases carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect: more heat is retained in the atmosphere. Warming contributes to melting ice, rising sea levels and changes in weather patterns, including increased risks of drought and flooding. These changes can damage homes, food supplies and habitats.

Natural resources include water, timber, minerals and fossil fuels. Coal, oil and gas are non-renewable: they take millions of years to form and cannot be replaced on a human timescale. Trees can regrow, but forests can still be destroyed if they are cleared faster than they recover. The issue is therefore not only whether humans use resources, but whether their use is wasteful or sustainable.

These threats overlap. Clearing forests destroys habitats and leaves fewer trees to absorb carbon dioxide. Burning fossil fuels uses finite resources while contributing to global warming. A Jewish response to one threat can therefore help address others.

Stewardship: caring for what belongs to God

Stewardship means caring responsibly for something entrusted to you. In Jewish environmental teaching, humans are stewards of God’s creation. They can use the world’s resources, but must not treat them as possessions they are free to destroy.

Genesis 2:15 describes God placing Adam in the Garden of Eden “to tend it and guard it”. Tending suggests active care and productive work; guarding suggests protection against damage. Together, these ideas explain why stewardship is more than leaving nature untouched: it involves managing it responsibly.

Humanity’s dominion, or authority over nature, must be understood alongside this duty. Authority brings responsibility, not unrestricted permission to exploit. A steward should consider how an action affects other people, living creatures and the continuing wellbeing of the environment.

Psalm 24:1–3: ownership and responsibility

Psalm 24 begins:

“The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” — Psalm 24:1

The verse places the earth, its resources and its inhabitants under God’s ownership. Its environmental significance is that humans are not the ultimate owners of nature. Deliberately damaging it can be understood as abusing something that belongs to God.

Verse 2 explains that God founded and established the world. This connects God’s ownership with God’s role as creator: creation deserves respect because it is God’s work.

Verse 3 asks:

“Who shall ascend into the mountain of the LORD? and who shall stand in His holy place?”

This turns attention towards who is fit to approach God. It is not a direct instruction about recycling or pollution, but it places God’s ownership of creation within a wider concern for religious and moral conduct. Jews can apply the passage by arguing that respect for God should influence how people treat God’s world.

The Jewish Declaration on Nature, Assisi 1986

The Jewish Declaration on Nature was presented by Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, at Assisi in 1986. It brought Jewish teachings about creation and moral responsibility into discussion of environmental care.

The declaration emphasises compassion towards creation. It also argues that Jews should act morally “not for the sake of receiving a reward”. Environmental protection should therefore not depend only on whether it brings an immediate personal benefit. Caring for a river or habitat can be a duty even when doing so requires effort or expense.

It describes each part of creation as having a “rightful and necessary place in the universe” and recalls Adam’s duty to tend and guard the Garden of Eden. This challenges the idea that human interests justify destroying everything else. Humanity is presented as the custodian of the natural world: a guardian responsible for its care.

The declaration also stresses life in this world. Righteousness involves conduct within ordinary life, without encroaching on the rights of other people or God’s creatures. Environmental responsibility is consequently part of everyday religious living, not something separate from it.

Turning Jewish beliefs into practical responses

Tikkun olam, meaning repairing or mending the world, can include environmental action as well as care for people. It connects a broad religious ideal with practical choices.

To reduce pollution, Jews may recycle, avoid unnecessary waste and choose less-polluting transport. These actions express stewardship by limiting damage to creation and protecting people’s health.

To address global warming, they may reduce fossil-fuel use, conserve energy or support renewable energy. Protecting and planting trees can also help care for habitats and absorb carbon dioxide.

To conserve natural resources, they may reuse goods, reduce unnecessary consumption and choose timber from sustainably managed forests. Such choices recognise that resources should remain available to others rather than being exhausted for short-term convenience.

These actions are not uniquely Jewish. What makes them Jewish responses is their connection to beliefs about God’s ownership, stewardship, compassion and repairing the world.

Weighing the strengths and limits of responses

Individual action has value because it puts responsibility into practice. Recycling and saving energy are achievable ways of reducing harm, and widespread participation can make a substantial difference. The declaration’s emphasis on moral duty also challenges the excuse that a person should act only when they personally benefit.

However, individual choices alone cannot control every source of pollution or greenhouse-gas emissions. Factories, transport systems and energy production also require collective changes. Supporting cleaner energy and wider environmental protection can therefore extend stewardship beyond the home.

Environmental care does not require rejecting every use of nature. People need food, water, energy and materials. The stronger distinction is between responsible use and destructive exploitation. A justified Jewish conclusion is that human needs matter, but should be met in ways that respect God’s creation and limit avoidable harm. Everyday care and wider action can reinforce one another.

Core belief

• God owns creation; humans are its stewards, not unrestricted owners.
• Dominion means authority with responsibility, not permission to destroy.
• Tikkun olam connects environmental care with repairing the world.

Teachings to recall

• Psalm 24:1: “The earth is the LORD’S” — creation belongs to God.
• Psalm 24:2: God founded the world — respect it as God’s creation.
• Psalm 24:3: asks who may approach God — places ownership within a concern for moral and religious conduct.
• Genesis 2:15: “tend it and guard it” — use and protect creation responsibly.
• Jewish Declaration on Nature, Assisi 1986: Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg; compassion, moral duty without personal reward, and humanity as custodian of nature.

Threat → response

• Pollution: harms health and habitats → reduce waste, recycle, use less-polluting transport.
• Global warming: increased greenhouse gases retain more heat → conserve energy, reduce fossil-fuel use, support renewables and protect trees.
• Resource depletion: finite supplies or excessive use → reuse goods, consume less and use sustainable materials.

Evaluation

Individual action fulfils stewardship and reduces harm, but wider changes are also needed. Human use of resources is not automatically wrong: distinguish sustainable use from destructive exploitation.