This year marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. In commemoration of the event, Charles Forbes – host of the weekly podcast series Torah for the Earth – sat down to have a discussion with Rabbi Ellen Bernstein, founder of Shomrei Adamah: the first national Jewish environmental organization. She has since been writing and teaching on the intersection of Judaism and ecology, as well as the ecological potential of Jewish ritual. She has published three books – The Splendor of Creation, Ecology and the Jewish Spirit, and Let the Earth Teach You Torah – and two two haggadot for Passover (The Promise of the Land) and Tu B’Shvat (A New Year for the Trees).
For more information of Rabbi Ellen Bernstein’s work, please visit: www.ellenbernstein.org www.thepromiseoftheland.com
Themes discussed in the podcast:
Shomrei Adamah – “Keepers of the Earth”
Creation myths in Genesis
The space and atmosphere created by ritual
The academic field of Religion and Ecology
