Chanukah and the Environment

The Roman historian Josephus dubbed Chanukah, the “Festival of Lights.” Light is at the very core of our festival celebration. We sing, play dreidle and enjoy gelt in the company of the Chanukah lights. Moreover, light is at the heart of the history behind Chanukah.

In the Talmud, the rabbis ask why we celebrate Chanukah and answer with a story about light:

On the 25th day of Kislev the days of Chanukah commence… for when the Syrian-Greeks entered the sanctuary, they contaminated all the flasks of oil that were in the sanctuary, and when the royal Hasmonean house gained the upper hand and vanquished them, the Hasmoneans searched and found only one flask of oil… with the kohen gadol’s (high priest’s) seal still intact. And it contained only enough oil to kindle the lamp for one day. However, a miracle was performed with [this oil] and they kindled the lights of the lamp with it for eight days. In the following year [these days] were established and rendered a festival (BT Shabbat 21b).

This Talmudic passage is the origin of the familiar Chanukah story, in which a single cruse of oil lasted eight days, longer than was thought possible.

According to Rabbi Arthur Waskow, the rabbis taught that this “‘conservation of oil’ was a Divine miracle. We might translate this to mean that it is a sacred act, carrying out God’s will and following God’s lead, for US to conserve oil, trees, water, air – all the strands of the earth.”

In particular, because of its theme of light in the midst of winter, Chanukah lends itself to thoughts of energy conservation. Energy conservation not only helps to ensure the wise use of our natural resources, it also helps to reduce pollution and slow global climate change.

Carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when we burn gasoline, coal and oil. These ‘greenhouse’ gases trap heat from the sun’s radiation, like glass traps heat in a greenhouse. If no action is taken to reduce these greenhouse gas emissions, it is predicted that by 2100 the earth’s average temperature may rise as much at 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit, and the global sea may rise by as much as 34 inches. Melting glaciers, severe weather patterns (such as hurricanes, tropical storms, heat waves and drought), an increase in the spread of disease and disruption of habitats and extinction of species will become a worsening problem.

In Deuteronomy 30:19 we read “Therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live.” When we learn to live in harmony with the earth, by making environmentally sustainable choices, we not only preserve life for ourselves, but we choose life for our children and our children’s children.

Moreover, by pursuing environmental sustainability, we promote justice, as those who are already poor are most likely to suffer the consequences of global climate change, pollution and environmental degradation. For instance, subsistence farmers are most vulnerable to changing rain patterns, which may make their land infertile; slum-dwellers in coastal areas are most vulnerable to chronic flooding. Because those of us in the world’s wealthiest nations are most responsible for global climate change, it is in our hands to act, to preserve life for all the earth’s children.

Chanukah thus calls us to consider, how can we conserve our natural resources, so that they, like the oil in the Chanukah story, will last a long time? How can we, as individuals and as participants in the resource-hungry western world, ensure that we are sound stewards of the earth? And how can we use “our God-given gifts to develop innovative strategies to meet the needs of all who dwell on this planet without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”?

Program Ideas on the Environment

Green Your Chanukah
Give Green Gifts
Help cut down on waste and try some of these environmentally friendly gift ideas for Chanukah.

• Save paper and send an e-card.
• Make your own gifts! Especially from children, homemade gifts are often more special than anything you can buy. Take a photo and design a frame for it, knit a scarf for the winter or make a set of beeswax candles for someone to burn in their chanukiyah… There are lots of great books about homemade gifts in your library; check one out today!
• Give Chanukah gelt in the form of tzedakah to a Jewish or environmental organization of your choice in honor of a friend or relative. ‘Adopt’ an animal, plant a tree or buy an acre of rain forest in someone’s honor.
• Food! Edible gifts are always great for holidays. Bake someone a batch of cookies in Chanukah shapes, cook sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts, a traditional Chanukah treat) or be more creative.
• Get something that’s both useful and reusable: a travel mug, cloth bag, linen napkins, reusable lunchbox, etc.
• Make your own gift certificate or coupon. You could give someone ‘a night at the movies,’ ‘one week of walking the dog,’ etc. This is a great way to give someone exactly what he or she wants!
• Buy someone an environmental book, subscription to an environmental magazine or a membership to a museum or zoo – a gift they can enjoy all year.
• Instead of regular gift wrap, use recycled or reusable packaging or a piece of cloth tied with ribbon.

Let There Be (Renewable) Light
The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL), has an excellent web resource on energy conservation and Chanukah. Programs for the home, congregation and religious school include readings around the Chanukah candle lighting; “8 Days and 8 Actions,” a checklist of ways to conserve energy; suggestions for “Green Gifts”; Jewish text resources on global climate change; a “Chanukah Energy Scavenger Hunt,” in which school age children learn about energy efficiency; and many other resources. Visit this useful resource for all ages!

Green Your Lifestyle
Promote Energy Conservation at Home

• When purchasing a new appliance, look for the Energy Star label, indicating certification as a highly energy efficient product. More information.
• Use compact florescent bulbs, which are more energy efficient.
• Make your home energy-efficient. Insulate your home, make sure that windows are well sealed and regulate the thermostat.
• Do the simple stuff: turn off the lights when you leave a room and don’t leave the water running when you brush your teeth.
• Purchase efficient, renewable energy alternatives for your home, which vary from state to state. More information.
• Buy recycled products and items in reusable or recyclable packaging. Bring a canvas bag for shopping to avoid unnecessary plastic or paper bags.
• Invest in companies that provide clean energy and engage in shareholder advocacy to affect the environmental policy of companies in which you own stock.

Participate in the “Clean Car Campaign”
As we seek to conserve energy in our homes, we can also ensure good stewardship of the earth by the vehicles we drive. According to COEJL, “America burns 8 million barrels of oil every day just to fuel our cars, SUVs, and trucks… Much of our oil comes from the Middle East… and our dependence on this oil helps to fuel the causes of war and terrorism. Our dependence on imported oil also results in pressure to drill for oil in environmentally threatened places.” Moreover, the oil we burn contributes to air pollution and to global climate change. This problem is particularly acute because the average fuel economy of American vehicles is at the lowest level since 1980. During the cold winter months, our oil usage increases even more.

Ways to contribute to the “Clean Car Campaign”:

• When it comes time to buy another car, commit to purchasing either a hybrid or a fuel-efficient vehicle, or, switch to public transportation.
• Commit to carpooling. Create a congregational carpool list to promote ridesharing to and from services and religious school.
• Conduct a letter writing campaign during Chanukah, urging automobile executives to increase their vehicles’ fuel economy.

Information and resources (including a link to automatically fax a letter to auto executives) for the Clean Car Campaign are available here.

Green your Congregation
“Rededicate” Your Temple by Installing a Solar Powered Ner Tamid
The name Chanukah means dedication, coming from the Maccabees’ rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, symbolized by the ner tamid (eternal flame). Follow in this tradition of rededicating the sanctuary by installing a solar powered ner tamid that can demonstrate your synagogue’s commitment to energy conservation.

Temple Emanuel of the Greater Washington Area designed and installed a solar ner tamid. Rabbi Warren Stone explains that the solar ner tamid serves “to teach Jewish concern for the earth and our responsibility for using resources wisely.”

This program can be a spark for your congregation to adopt a congregational energy plan. For more resources, head to COEJL's site, to the CCAR resolutions page (search for the 2000 energy resolution), or to “Greening of the Small Congregation.”

Green Your Community – Take Action

• Sign up To Receive RAC News and Legislative Action Alerts
  These alerts will help you keep up on current environmental news and policy. Go to www.rac.org to start!
• Green your Investments
  Invest in companies that have sound environmental practices or that provide renewable sources of energy.
• Join your state’s chapter of the Interfaith Climate Change Network, www.protectingcreation.org.

Green Resources

• View the Reform Movement’s Resolutions. The Union for Reform Judaism has passed many environmental resolutions. Type “environment.” The CCAR passed a resolution on a national energy policy in 2000 and a resolution on climate change in 2005. Search for these and other CCAR resolutions at www.ccarnet.org.
• Visit the RAC’s climate change page.
• COEJL, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, is the premier Jewish environmental organization, with great resources on global climate change (many of which are particularly geared for Chanukah), www.coejl.org
• Sierra Club’s Global Warming Campaign.
• Interfaith Climate Change Network, a joint project of COEJL and the National Council of Churches, mobilizes the religious community to curb global warming.
• CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life, Level 6 Curriculum Core includes a lesson on global climate change. In the G’milut Chasadim section look for lesson three: “Bal Tashchit: Recycling and Conserving Energy.” For more information about the CHAI Curriculum, including how to order it, visit urj.org/chai.