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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg.

Good Morning,

A place I love is the New Forest, a world apart, where ponies dictate the pace and deer graze in the fields among the forests of oak and beech trees.

I’d no idea that nearby was the site of a major celebration seventy years ago, when Prime Minister Clement Attlee opened Europe’s largest oil refinery at Fawley on Southampton Water.

Footage from the New Forest Film Archive depicts this achievement, with ‘rippers loosening soil untouched for centuries’ across almost a thousand acres, so that oil could ‘yield its abundance’ to fuel Britain’s post-war affluence.

Refined oil was badly needed.

Yet it’s striking how differently we think seventy years later. The need for energy is no less. But we know now that we must source it in greener ways, with a minimum of carbon emissions. Net zero is among humanity’s most urgent goals.

It’s the Jewish season of Teshuvah, rethinking priorities and habits. There’s personal Teshuvah, inner renewal; and collective Teshuvah, rededicating ourselves to establishing a just and compassionate society. But most important today is environmental Teshuvah, re-working our relationship with nature with greater humility.

The Hebrew Bible often gets the blame for our mistreatment of the earth, because God gives humans dominion over all creatures. But dominion really means responsibility. This is made clear in the covenant God makes after Noah’s flood with all living creatures. It’s emphasised in Isaiah’s vision of a world in which ‘They neither hurt nor destroy in all [God’s] holy mountain.’

It's a mountain we urgently need to climb. God, give us the strength and determination to do so together.

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