Stone on a Roll

I'm a rabbi in the Washington, D.C., area; I've been privileged to serve as the rabbi of Temple Emanuel for the past 18 years.

I've come to see my environmental work as a core expression of my religious faith and central to my goals as a spiritual and community leader. Many -- from a variety of faith traditions -- share this view. We work together on climate-change, forest, and wilderness issues. Being in Washington, D.C., we have an unparalleled opportunity to partner our religious perspectives with other environmental activists and scientists and to work for political change. After years of feeling like voices in the wilderness, we are now finding that our views are actively solicited in the halls of power. I've had the privilege of leading interfaith delegations to the House and Senate, White House, and World Bank. Right now, I'm particularly interested in the greening of institutions. I'd love to see our federal government adopt a greening policy for all government offices. How wonderful to hear Speaker Nancy Pelosi call for the greening of the U.S. Capitol!

Aren't the most interesting roads long and winding? I grew up along the south shore of Boston. My home backed a forested landscape, and I would spend hours with my brother finding creatures, discovering plants, caves, and natural wonders. We had cherry, pear, and apple trees in my backyard, which I helped pick every year. Come to think of it, I also loved "cherry fighting" with my brother from one tree to another. You know, I haven't thought of that in decades.

Well, focusing on the environmental piece, that would be the profound letdown that I experienced after returning from Kyoto as a delegate in 1997. I had been profoundly moved, feeling a depth of connection with Jesuit priests, Buddhist monks, Muslim imams, and Hindi and Sikh spiritual leaders. Each speaking from the voice of his or her authentic spiritual tradition, we affirmed our religious responsibility to act. Amidst Buddhist chanting, I blew the Shofar, a ram's horn, the blast of sound that has been Judaism's ancient call to action since the days we wandered, searching for our way, in the desert. We set up a daily prayer vigil of chants and prayers for all delegates to hear. And I felt great optimism, seeing Japanese auto factories that had already retrofitted vehicles with hybrid engines at low cost. I expected that our own country would see both the urgency and the opportunity for action and vision.

Working with my synagogue leadership, religious school, and Green Shalom Committee to green our congregation over the past 18 years.

The failure of Congress to pass CAFE [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] standards 10 years ago! Japan was retrofitting vehicles while our leadership was consigning the issue to further "scientific" review. The idiocy can be hard to endure.

I start with Amos, Isaiah, Zechariah, and Micah, who spoke boldly, warning that injustice would wreak its own havoc upon the earth. My modern spiritual mentor is Abraham Joshua Heschel, who with eloquent words and deeds brought spirituality and social justice together in activism. When Heschel walked arm in arm with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., he said: "I felt that my feet were praying!" Whether on issues of the environment -- in my view, the great social-justice issue of the day -- or on other pressing matters of social concern, I often recall his words: "In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible." And I deeply respect the activism of the Rev. William Sloane Coffin.

I am not completely vegetarian. I try, but not hard enough.

I really enjoyed George Leonard's Walking on the Edge of the World: A Memoir of the Sixties and Beyond. Leonard is a visionary who wrote of the need to transform education and consciousness to help us develop new ways of seeing ourselves and the world. His ideas focus on how to tap our deepest selves, our deepest human potential through a unity of the physical and the spiritual. And a perennial favorite is Hal Borland's Twelve Moons of the Year. Borland, an extraordinary writer, captured the subtleties of daily organic change. I'm currently reading Bill McKibben's Deep Economy, a wonderful blueprint for activism.

Sharing a three-hour traditional Moroccan meal with my family and friends -- including vegetables, chickpeas, and raisins atop a mountain of couscous, and ending with hot mint tea, Moroccan pastries, and an inability to rise from the cushions.

I have always been somewhat out of the mainstream, I suppose. I've always gone off the beaten path. But I'm thrilled that there's so much more company on that path these days!

That one's easy for me. I am enticed every year to Big Sur, Calif., and the miles that stretch below Point Lobos. It's my place of retreat. The spiritual power of the place -- the wildness of the land, sky, cliff, and bird -- it just speaks to me. Twice now, I've seen a magnificent 12-foot condor sweeping down from the cliffs into the sea.

Two things: A 5-cent-per-gallon gas tax or tithe, which would go for reforestation and alternative-energy development. And, on a more spiritual note, a bold new 11th commandment: "Be mindful of your footprint on this earth: Thou shalt not destroy this sacred and fragile earth!"

The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart; it's the only way I've been able to stand the news in the last five years or so. For movie, My Cousin Vinny; no obvious environmental connection, but I love the movie's warm heart, each perfectly drawn character, and how my wife and I laugh in all the same places each and every time we watch it.

Ben Stiller, who knows how to play a young rabbi with edgy and passionate interests and a flair for pushing the threshold of a religious community. And hey, you've got to have a sense of humor for this line of work.

Take a daily walk through the woods or in any natural setting near you. Notice the miraculous and subtle daily changes all around. Walk in silence and soak it into your being! You will be awed and amazed at what you see in a year's time!