Parshat Va’era: The Earth is the Lord’s
Original author - Dr. David Goldblatt, edited by the GrowTorah Summer Inchworms 2021
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Over the past few years, the ten plagues have lost some of their oomph. The story of Hashem administering awesome natural disasters on a group that individually are largely innocent, but collectively guilty, has simply lost some of its novelty. The weather we have started to experience the past few years is alarmingly Biblical: hailstorms in the midst of wildfires, flooding at alarming rates, and destructive landslides are just among some events. [1]
But even so, revisiting the public demonstration of Hashem’s dominion over the natural world as expressed by the ten plagues (seven of which appear in our portion Va’era) can help reflect on modern man’s place in the world and humanity’s role in the current environmental predicament.
The last plague in our parsha, hail, was qualitatively much harsher than the ones preceding it. Hashem’s forewarning was correspondingly the longest and most severe until then. But the strength and severity of this warning is balanced by Divine compassion for the Egyptians. Hashem urges them to bring in their servants and animals from the field to spare them from destruction. The God-fearing among the Egyptians heeded and lived, while the heedless perished. [2]
According to the Chizkuni, it is this Divine compassion that moved Pharoh to repent, albeit temporarily, for the first time following a plague.[3] Pharoh summons Moshe and declares: “This time I have sinned; The Lord is the Righteous One; and I and my people are the villains.”[4] Here Moshe describes how he will leave the city and spread out his hands to heaven, upon which Hashem will stop the hail “that you may know that the earth belongs to the Lord.” The power of Moshe’s prayer, and Hashem’s ability to stop the unprecedented torrential hail and thunder when asked nicely, displays the supernatural, miraculous quality of Hashem’s control over meteorological phenomena. [5]
The Daat Mikra commentary (Israel, 20th century) explains “‘That you may know’: Your request will be granted, and the plague removed, not because you can be trusted to fulfill your promise to let the people go, but rather so that it will be proved to you and you will know that the earth is under Hashem’s control, and He can do what He wants with it—at His word it hails, and at His word it ceases.”[6]
The plagues were expressions of Hashem’s power over the earth. They were intended as a reproof to the arrogant Pharoh and a demonstration to the Egyptians of the limits to his power and the fallacy of their trust in him. Hashem’s display of power and mercy during the plague of hail was enough to bring about a temporary change of heart in Pharoh, but by that time, his sins and stubbornness had already set him and his nation on the road to ruin.
Many commentators also contrast our verse with the verse from Tehillim: “The heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth He has given to man.”[7] Psikta Zutra reconciles the two verses by specifying that humans’ dominion over the earth is conditional on their following the will of Hashem. If they do so, they are granted the earth for their use and enjoyment; if not, the land reverts to Hashem.[8]
Even when the earth is given over to human dominion, humankind does not have free reign to do whatever it wants with it. The need for careful, considerate, and compassionate stewardship of natural resources is emphasized time and again throughout the Torah. [9]
Our current climate bears frightening similarities but maintains critical differences from the ten plagues. Modern “plagues” include water stress, depletion of freshwater, decimation of ocean fish stocks, wildfires, and more. [10]
But this time, these “plagues” have not been wrought directly by Hashem but are instead anthropogenic. [11] The power structures that are on display in the plagues have certain resonances: Pharoh has the ultimate power, while his people bear the punishment equally. Although they might be taskmasters, or involved in the enslavement of Bnei Yisrael in some way, we assume most of the Egyptians were innocent or repentant on some level. So too, we are aware how the power structures of our society leave some with far more ability to effect change. Along those lines, contemporary climate change involves an additional unfairness: though we assume that every Egyptian had a shelter, what would have happened if there were God-fearing Egyptians who had nowhere to bring their cattle? In our case, there are indications that the poorer parts of the world will experience more extreme consequences of climate change while having less technological and financial wherewithal to cope with them.[12]
We lack immediate Divine warnings and mercy here. But just as the present and looming environmental catastrophes are the result of human action, scientists and others have warned, again and again, of calamity from the continued degradation of the environment. Hashem is unlikely to cease climate change with prayer as he did for the plagues. Humans caused these, humans are warning about them, and therefore it is incumbent on humans to stop it.
The land is both ours and Hashem’s—and extreme weather so awesome that it asserts Hashem’s dominance should also inspire us to examine the control we exercise over the earth. Let us be inspired at each tier of power represented in the plague narrative: in the faithful, caring, and reasonable response of individual Egyptians making sure their communities and animals heed the warnings and are safe, at those in control, with greater power to change the outcomes, and ultimately in Hashem’s mercy and dominion over Earth. Let us work towards and pray for a collective heeding of the mounting environmental warning signs. Let us change course in time to avoid consigning ourselves to the same fate as the Egyptians. Let us pave the way to redemption.
Suggested Action Items:
The actions of individuals and communities of individuals must go hand in hand with the decisions of those in positions of power.
Measure your household’s ecological footprint and work on reducing it.
You can use your resources to invest in funds that screen for corporate environmental performance or sensitivity; invest in and encourage government investments in developing renewable energy technologies.
Encourage your government representatives to support stronger state and national environmental legislation and international treaties, including trade agreements that prioritize environmental considerations.
Click here to sponsor a parsha.
Notes:
[1]Fire and Ice: California Wildfire Makes Its Own Hail | The Weather Channel
[2] Shemot 9:19-21
[3] Hezkuni on Shemot 9:27
[4] Shemot 9:27
[5] Sforno on Shemot 9:29
[6] Shemot, Mossad Harav Kook Publishers (Commentary by Amos Chacham), Jerusalem 1991, p. 246 (translation by the author).
[7] Tehillim 115:16
[8] Psikta Zutra on Shemot, 9:29, s.v. vayomer eilav
[9] See, for example, Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 115:16.
[10] For a recent overview assessment, see Global Environmental Outlook 7, 2022, UNEP http://www.unep.org/geo/
[11] However, even the plagues are Hashem’s reaction to human actions and therefore could be considered anthropogenic. The potential this shows for human behavior to affect the course of human history should reinforce our sense of the importance of the influence of current human activities on the planet’s ecological destiny.
[12] See the IPCC Report on Climate Change and Land.
