How to Save the Environment 

Thursday, June 2nd, saw 2,462 cases of COVID-19 in Israel. There were zero limitations on movement, work, or leisure activities.  

That was the day 7,000 people defiled our Holy City with a Sodom and Gomorrah parade. Government ministries pledged their allegiance by raising rainbow flags throughout the Holy City.   

Less than two weeks later, the number of cases tripled. Now, there is murmuring within these rainbow-covered ministries that we will have to return to wearing masks.  

For the second year in a row, a once defeated plague re-emerged right after a parade of orgy defiled our holiest of cities.   

Our actions changed the climate.  

The Real Climate Change 

Chovot Halevavot calls the man of faith a merit to his city. Sodom itself could not be destroyed as long as Lot was there. Hashem would not touch His world while the righteous Methuselah was alive. Even as the rains poured down on humanity, the deluge would not be final until Noach and his family were securely in the ark.  

According to climate change experts, rising temperatures began to be detected in earnest throughout the 1950s. From then until today, our world has suffered droughts, dwindling water supply, and polluted air endangering the fate of millions of city dwellers.  

The great Salt Lake of Utah has lost two thirds of its water. The Dead Sea in Israel is also shrinking.  

What is behind it? 

What human event happened in the 1950s that can be correlated to these ongoing catastrophes? 

In 1953, the first mass distribution of pornography was sent to the public by Hugh Hefner. By 1975, 5.6 million people would have unprecedented exposure to the worst forms of physical immorality.  

Two years later, the VHS tapes made their way to America. The VCR market boomed from sales of graphic material. Cable soon followed, and then the internet. Sexual immorality infected our world on a scale and scope unprecedented in human history.  

Climate Change Intensifies  

Mobile phones and the internet enabled anyone to go beyond looking. The floodgates for all illicit behavior were opened.  

The climate of our thinking changed. Perversions documented as mental illness for centuries were quickly forced upon the public, often at gunpoint, as the new normal.

Then, the world followed.  

The ninth principle of the Jewish faith states clearly: I believe with complete faith that this Torah will not be exchanged not will there be another Torah from the Creator, blessed be His Name.  

Tastes can change. Fads can change. What is considered socially acceptable can change, but the scope of how far these changes can go can never change.  

Hashem states in His Torah that it is forbidden to dress in the clothes of the opposite sex. Relations outside of the marriage of husband and wife are forbidden.  

I can change my Shabbat tie from navy blue to black, but I cannot switch my suit for a dress.  

God’s Torah is immutable.  

We, the Jewish People, affirm this every day. Right after we recite the Shema each morning, we affirm the statement we just made: 

From generation to generation, He endures and His Name endures and His throne is well established. . .. His words are living and enduring, faithful, and delightful forever and to all eternity.

We recite these words every day. Our fathers did. Every generation of Jews from the time of the prophets recited these exact words.  

Every generation does have its own uniqueness. What Avraham Avinu wore was different than what Rabbi Nachman of Breslev wore. The language they spoke was different. The technologies they used were different.  

Still, both lived their lives according to the same code of laws issued by our Eternal King Who created them for the generation of Avraham, Rabbi Nachman, and us.  

Saving the Environment 

The Gemara warns us about what brings plague to the earth. The Torah tells us how people get tzara’at. Sages dictate what we must do to earn merit from God so that He will change the climate from drought to rainfall. 

Hashem runs the earth and everything in it. His world is not destroyed by industrial gases or toxic waste. China has more pollution than any nation on earth, but they are also the most inhabited nation in the world.  

What we do before our Creator dictates the physical environment around us.  

This was true when Adam and Chava were thrown out of the Garden of Eden and the first generations lost the privilege of living to 1,000. It was true when the great Tzaddikim prayed to Hashem for rain and a multi-year drought suddenly became a torrential downpour.  

Hashem runs the world. He promises to sate us with the cream of wheat if we only heed His voice. 

The first principle of the Jewish faith states that God creates and manages everything.  

The key to climate change is simple: Gain favor in the eyes of He Who creates and maintains the earth’s climate.  

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David Ben Horin is the writer and trader for Endurance Investing & Trading Daily. He lives in the Jezreel Valley with his wife and children, lots of Jews, Arabs, and the occasional shepherd.