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According to Jewish tradition this command in no way means that Certain scientists, including the famous physicist John Wheeler,
humanity should subdue the earth by destroying the very ecosystem have gone even farther and claimed that all of creation, going back
that sustains it, nor does it mean that humanity should carelessly to the very beginning was predicated on the eventual evolution of
rule over God’s other creatures without giving a thought to the pain human consciousness. Not only is contemporary reality established
caused them, or, in an extreme case, to their possible extinction. It by the human observer’s conscious awareness, but according to this
simply means that humanity should strive to rise above being at theory the very primordial act of creation is only possible because
the mercy of the elements of nature and should subdue and rule the human consciousness developed in the future.
earth in a way that benefits humankind and the earth upon which This seemingly radical notion is reflected in many different ways in
it lives. Jewish thought, including the Midrash cited above about God creating
God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden “to work it and to guard the world for the sake of Israel and for the sake of bringing the first
it” (Genesis 2:15). A well-known Midrash recounts that God warned fruits. This notion also gains credence from two other Midrashim.
Adam that if he were to act rashly and abuse the beautiful world Firstly, the Midrash stating that “the sixth day” of creation alludes
God has given him, there would be no one to repair it for him. This to all creation being contingent – as it were, in “stand-by mode”
Midrash stresses humanity’s ultimate responsibility for the survival – until another sixth day, the sixth of Sivan, when Israel received
of the world and the irrevocable danger posed by our wantonly and the Torah on Sinai, and, secondly, an enigmatic Midrash stating
unthinkingly destroying it (Kohelet Rabbah 7:13). that when God wanted to create the world “the thought of Israel
arose first” (Bereishit Rabbah 1:4). All of these teachings allude to
Preserving our environment is a Torah imperative that applies
to individuals as well as to cities, countries, and the international the recent discoveries quantum physicists have made regarding the
community. This commandment highlights how much Judaism has to importance of human consciousness in defining reality.
teach us about addressing and solving fundamental global problems. Although science has yet to acknowledge a Divine Creator, taking
We just need to delve into the Torah and figure out how to apply this discovery a step further, we should note that all created reality
it. As in all areas of rectification the work begins on the individual is totally dependent on God’s consciousness and in fact only exists
level, as each and every person decides to put the holy concepts of because of it. The universe is both poetically and in actuality a
the Torah into practice. God has truly given us a beautiful world and manifestation of God’s “mind,” or in Kabbalistic terms, God’s wisdom.
it is up to us to “work it and to guard it.” In fact, Targum Yonaton translates the Torah’s first word (bereishit;
“in the beginning”) into Aramaic as “in wisdom,” thus implying
that God created the world through His wisdom. As physicists
delve deeper and deeper into the essence of physical reality, they
find that on the molecular level matter’s smallest building blocks are
best described as pure information or “wisdom” (see the prologue in
Gerald Schroeder’s The Mind of God).
Judaism consistently teaches us that the way we perceive a
situation determines its reality and outcome. The Ba’al Shem Tov
taught, “Think good and it will be good!” A famous Torah scholar
known as Nachum Ish Gam Zu was wont to say “This [event, which
appears to be negative] is also for the good” (Ta’anit 21a), thus
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