Home>>Leading with Torah Values>>Climate

God has given us one earth, one place that can sustain all life. It is our religious and moral responsibility to do everything we can to protect it. Our lives and the lives of our children depend on it.

The global climate crisis should be a matter of grave concern to all of us. Our divine mandate is to both “work the land”—to benefit from the gift of this Earth that God has given us—and “protect it”—treasure it, take care of it, and make sure that it can be passed down to the next generation and beyond.

The Midrash (Kohelet Rabbah 7:13) says it best:

“ראה את מעשה הא-להים כי מי יוכל לתקן את אשר עותו” (קהלת ז’:י”ג). בשעה שברא הקדוש ברוך הוא את אדם הראשון נטלו והחזירו על כל אילני גן עדן ואמר לו ראה מעשי כמה נאים ומשובחין הן וכל מה שבראתי בשבילך בראתי, תן דעתך שלא תקלקל ותחריב את עולמי, שאם קלקלת אין מי שיתקן אחריך

When the God created the first human, God took him and surveyed with him all the trees of the Garden of Eden. God said to him: “See my works, how beautiful and praiseworthy they are! All that I have created – for you have I created them. Take pains that you should not ruin and destroy My world, for if you ruin it, there is no one who can fix it after you.”

We at YCT are dedicated to helping raise the consciousness of this issue and inspiring people to embrace this responsibility on the personal and communal level. Please explore our resources, Torah, and teshuvot on this topic, together with practical suggestions to help us move from learning to doing.

Take the Pledge

I commit to doing one of the following initiatives this year:
Name
Location
Email Consent

Bring a Speaker to Your Community

The following experts are available to speak in your communities. Please email office@yctorah.org for more information.

Photograph of Rabbi Hody Nemes. Image of a man, from the shoulder up, with body angled to the right and head facing the camera, he appears to be in his 30s to 40s. He has a tanned skin tone, a wide toothy smile and brown eyes. His hair is straight, black, and neat and he has gristle where facial hair could be. He is wearing a black knit keepah and a white button down shirt. The background of the image is slate grey.

Rabbi Hody Nemes

Photograph of Rabbi Haggai Resnikoff Image of a man from the upper chest and upwards, his body is angled to the right away from the camera but with his head facing the viewer. The background of the image is dark grew. He has a tan skin-tone, a wide toothy smile and dark eyes. His hair is brown, straight and close cropped at the sides and the top of his head appears mostly bare, he has stubble in the facial hair regions. He is wearing rectangular, wire-frame glasses, a brown fleece suit and a royal blue button-down shirt with vertical stripe patterns. He is also wearing a brownish-red knitted keepah with off-white triangular patterns and an off-white tie with red and black markings to make it look like a map/ atlas.

Rabbi Haggai Resnikoff

Photograph of Eli Weinbach. Image of a man, from the chest up, who is facing the camera and appears to be in his 30s to 40s. He has a broad toothy smile, and a tanned skin tone. His hair is dark brown and is pulled back, likely ending in a pony-tail which is out of view, he also has a fully beard and a connected mustache. He is wearing large circular glasses with black frames, and dark purple sweater with a light pink button down shirt underneath. The background of the image is dark grey.

Eli Weinbach

Past Events

  • Descent into Danger: Jewish Law & Climate

  • Climate Conference Schedule

    The 2nd Annual YCT Climate Conference

Watch the Recordings of Our 2021 Climate Conference Here:

Video, Climate

Where Are the Orthodox Climate Activists?

Video, Climate

How to Green Your Community

Video, Climate

Climate Economics 101

Video, Climate

Climate Advocacy: Getting Started

Video, Climate

Equity, Not Charity: Shemitah and Climate Justice

Video, Climate

Jewish Law Q&A

Video, Climate

Rabbinic Responses and Critiques

Video, Climate

Toward a Halakhic Approach to Climate

Climate News

  • YCT Torah Climate flyer - details in post

    Torah Essay Contest: What does the Torah have to say about the climate crisis?

  • Photograph of Rabbi Haggai Resnikoff. Image of a man from the upper chest and upwards, his body is angled to the right away from the camera but with his head facing the viewer. He has a tan skin-tone, a wide toothy smile and dark eyes. His hair is brown, straight and close cropped at the sides and the top of his head appears mostly bare, he has stubble in the facial hair regions. He is wearing rectangular, wire-frame glasses, a dark brown suit and a white button-down shirt. He is also wearing a dark grey-blue knitted keepah with black rectangular patterns and a caramel brown tie with intricate circular patterns. The background is blurry and is of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale's aron cover. It is a navy blue fabric with various designs on different colored cloth squares. The designs are hard to make out but from left to right the top row is yellow, orange, lime green, dusty brown, the second row is, sandy, purple, red, orange, the third row is, pink, orange, lime green, purple and the last visible square on the bottom right it pink.

    Danger! Climate Crisis Ahead: An Executive Summary

  • Photograph of a climate march. Image of a crowd of people, predominantly light skin toned and middle aged or younger with a few older individuals. They are carrying posters, three are lime green triangles that say "THE GREENS", another is a large off-white rectangular banner that says "No surrender on climate change". Other posters are hard to make out but one is yellow, another is red, 2 are white with blue borders, another is white with large black letters and there is a very large banner in the back which is blue and has the image of a globe. To the right and left of the protesters is a line of leafy green trees and there are large building that can be seen in the distance. There are street poles that have connected wires and hanging from a grey bar below the wires and repeating in rows down the line of protesters is a pattern of large colored stars in an arrangement of red, white, red, white under, large white star, another large white star, small white star and a small red star radiating from the line of protesters outwards on both sides.

    A Human Issue

  • Photo-realistic image of a birch forest. Picture of an expanse of green and golden grasses with rows upon rows of tall, slender trees with white bark and strips of black. The trees have green and yellow-green leaves forming a thin canopy. The sky is white and the two trees, one on the left and one on the right are darker as they are not in the light and they are crooked and bowed.

    Tu B’Shvat Teaches Us We Each Must Take on the Obligation of Addressing Climate Change

  • A photograph of a small ice-flow with what looks like bright blue water all around it. On the ice-flow is a polar bear on all fours and with its eyes and mouth closed and head slightly tilted in the direction of the camera. Between the adult polar bear's rear and fore-paws is a polar bear cub sitting down with front paws fully extended beneath it. The texture of the water and the ice make it seem like this photograph is likely a taxidermy replication.

    Why Isn’t Climate Change a Bigger Issue for the Orthodox?