RAC-NY undertook a comprehensive and robust effort to educate our congregations and the broader community about Proposition 1 - the Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Bond Act - and encourage a "Yes" vote on November 8. We were thrilled to join the "Vote Yes for Clean Water and Jobs Coalition," a wonderfully effective and very broad coalition of advocate agencies led by The Nature Conservancy.

I have long wondered: what must Isaac have been thinking as his father bound him and laid him across the altar? Isaac must have realized his father had lied to him - did Isaac cry out? Did Isaac see his father pick up the knife?

January marked the end of President Biden's first year in office and the halfway point for the 117th Congress. As we look ahead in this new year, we hope President Biden and Congress will work together to focus on the following priorities in 2022.

The upcoming holiday of Tu BiShvat -- the birthday of the trees - brings back a memory of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In the museum is an enormous cross-section of a giant sequoia tree. Standing before it is a sublime experience. The cross-section overwhelms you with its sheer size, inspiring questions about the size of the tree it was cut from.

Today, we stand at a critical crossroads in the climate crisis. The reconciliation bill is a historic, watershed approach, uniting the success of American families, the American economy, and environmental protection and climate crisis amelioration. We must take care not to destroy or spoil God's creation. We still have time to prevent the worst aspects of the climate crisis.

Although Judaism frames our responsibility to care for the planet in forward-looking terms, our commitment to environmental protection requires that we look backwards, too. This Earth Day, we must consider the connection between historic injustices, who bears the burdens of environmental harm, and solutions to correct these injustices.

On Tishah B’Av, as we grieve for the Earth and the countless lives lost to climate change, we must also harness our power to limit the scale of future tragedy. Even as we feel the effects of climate change in our daily lives, we still have the chance to stave off worst-case scenarios.

Today we offer a special Mi Sheberach (a prayer for healing) for ourselves and our planet together. The Jewish morning blessing for our health talks about the human body’s pathways and openings. Like us, the earth’s pathways and openings are vital to its health. Our planet is in need of healing as are we.

Isaac Hirt-Manheimer is the founder of Unity Ecovillage in Ghana, constructed according to eco-friendly principles that he learned while attending the Green Apprenticeship training program at Kibbutz Lotan in Israel.