Faces on Faith: Restoring Southwest Florida will require those of any religion and no religion
On Sunday, Sept. 23, as the Jewish Festival of Sukkot was about to begin, our congregation Bat Yam Temple of the Islands joined our host congregation, Sanibel Congregational UCC, so ably pastored by Dr. John Danner, for an extraordinary morning of sharing and solidarity.
Sukkot is the Jewish Harvest festival. In its celebration lie the roots of our American Thanksgiving.
On Sukkot we celebrate that the earth has yielded food for us to eat in the Jewish year just begun. But this year we descry how we have abused the earth God has entrusted to our care.
When Vickie and I came to Sanibel for the first time in the spring of 2017, the waters were beautiful. Fish jumped, dolphins swam, and the docile manatees plodded along beneath the surface. Birds of every size and color decorated the air.
When we arrived this year in late August, there were no dolphins, fish or manatees to be seen. No pelicans dive-bombed into the Gulf for their daily sustenance.
We are shocked by the devastation pollution, red tide and green algae have wrought on Sanibel and the surrounding area. We want the earth to continue to yield food. We want our Southwest Florida home to be a place of beauty and abundant land and sea creatures once again. We want those who depend on tourism to earn their livelihoods.
A famous Midrash teaches when God finished creating the world, the Almighty addressed humanity, saying, “You are in charge of and responsible for this earth. But it is the only one you will get. So preserve and enhance it. Do not pollute or destroy it” (Kohelet Rabbah, 7:13).
Do we hope to pass on a beautiful and healthful environment to our children and grandchildren? Then we must do a much better job than we are now of taking care of our planet.
I am not a scientist, so I don’t have the formula to clean up the mess we have made. But I know restoring the beauty of our Southwest Florida home requires the effort of all people of whatever faith and of no religious faith. We must join forces to demand that our government pass the laws and spend the money to do what must be done to save this island we have made our home. We must do it now, before it is too late.
Rabbi Stephen Lewis Fuchs is with the Bat Yam Temple of the Islands.