{"id":13235,"date":"2018-10-01T06:10:10","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T13:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/?p=13235"},"modified":"2018-09-22T13:19:59","modified_gmt":"2018-09-22T20:19:59","slug":"green-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoshanarabbah.org\/blog\/2018\/10\/01\/green-living\/","title":{"rendered":"The Torah\u2014The Original Handbook on Green Living"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genesis 2:15,<\/b> Tend\/dress and keep it<\/i>.<\/b> Tend <\/i>is the Hebrew word avad<\/i> meaning \u201cto work or serve.\u201d Being a gardener was Adam\u2019s occupation. Yeshua was the second Adam. After Yeshua\u2019s resurrection, interestingly, he was mistaken as the gardener (John 20:15).\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Torah teaches sustainable living and stewardship of the earth. <\/b>The terms sustainability<\/i> or sustainable<\/i> living along with green<\/i>, eco-friendly<\/i>, etc. are currently fad concepts that are bandied about by those seeking to be politically correct\u2014whatever that is supposed to mean. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, defines sustainability<\/i> as follows:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of responsibility, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of stewardship, the responsible management of resource use. In ecology, sustainability describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time, a necessary precondition for the well-being of humans and other
\norganisms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes said, there is nothing new under the sun. In the beginning, Elohim placed man in the idyllic paradise called the Garden of Eden instructing him \u201cto tend\u201d (serve, work, till, dress) and \u201cto keep\u201d (guard, observe, protect) the garden (Gen 2:15). Man was commanded to become the steward of what Elohim had created\u2014to preserve, maintain and to care for it.<\/p>\n

To this day, YHVH has never rescinded these instructions to man even though modern environmentalists and conservationists may think they originated the idea of responsible stewardship of the environment. Long before Rosseau, Thoreau, the Sierra Club, Earth First, Nature Conservancy, Germany\u2019s Green Party, and the Environmental Protection Agency (the EPA) in America the Torah was preaching sustainable living and responsibly caring for the environment\u2014YHVH\u2019s creation. Let\u2019s note how:<\/p>\n