More than Human

November 21, 2009
Rabbi Seymour Rossel

     Isaac grew older and his eyes were weak. As his vision blurred, he sensed mortality. When you feel your eyes deserting you, when arthritis creeps into your joints, when your back suffers constant pain, you think about what you must do in the end to help determine the future. So Isaac called Esau and told him bluntly, "I am old now; I do not know how soon I may die." In truth, Isaac would live on many more years, but at that moment his vision of the future was as clouded as his eyesight.

     Isaac asks Esau to prepare for a ceremony in which Esau will receive Isaac's blessing and God's blessing and become the next leader of the Hebrew people. The ceremony involves food and Isaac wants the kind of meat he loves best. He urges Esau to hunt -- to bring down game with his bow and arrows -- and to prepare it as a savory feast. So Esau goes out to hunt.

     What was Esau hunting? He had an impressive list of choices. On the easy end, he might have set out to spear the lowly hare or the ever-present coney, a small brown rabbit-like animal with short ears. A little more effort might net him a Nubian Ibex, a gazelle, or a wild boar -- all of them worthy of a savory meal; none of them kosher. If Esau was in the mood for a challenging hunt, he could beat the bushes for the famous "lion of Judah" -- lions were so plentiful that the Bible knows them by six different names, describing differing stages of their development from the whelp to the full-grown female and the majestically-maned adult male.

     Rebecca instructed her favorite son Jacob to prepare two goats for his father's meal, so it is quite likely that Esau was hunting wild goat. But his choices were much wider: bison, wild ox, bear, leopard, cheetah, and ostrich could all to be found within a short distance of his tent. All these species were once common in Canaan, though many have disappeared, most hunted to extinction.

     The last of Judah's mighty lions were slaughtered for sport in the fourteenth century. Syrian bears that once roamed the hills of the Galilee disappeared more than a hundred years ago. For thousands of years, crocodiles dominated the marshes of Mount Carmel just below present-day Haifa. The last two crocs were speared in the early years of the twentieth century, just about the same time that Israel's once plentiful ostriches were hunted to extinction. Even Israel's famous wild goats have all but vanished -- the lands and forests that once protected them are rapidly being settled and populated by the dangerous beasts called humans.

     Not just Israel, the whole world currently faces the greatest rate of species extinction since the disappearance of dinosaurs 65 million years ago. It is estimated that worldwide more than 50,000 species of insects, birds, fish, reptiles, mammals, and plants become extinct each year. (Just to give you a sense: that works out to five or six species going extinct every hour!) One of every four mammals, one of every three amphibians, one of every eight birds, and almost half of all tortoises are due for imminent extinction. We can't even estimate how many species of fish and shellfish have been harvested to extinction and how many others are on the brink of disappearing.

     Being human and being Jewish, we must care about this devastating evisceration of our world. It's disingenuous to think that you are helpless. There are easy things you can do to stave off extinction. First, you need to learn not to be as blind as Isaac, but to open your eyes to what is happening. Second, you have to learn to make responsible -- not necessarily difficult -- choices. Just planting native plants when you plan your home landscape can make a tremendous difference -- perhaps not for the whales, but certainly for smaller birds, animals, and for native flora itself. Giving up clothing and furnishings made of exotic leathers, jewelry that contains ivory, and cosmetics that are made from endangered species will make a tremendous difference. And you should go out of your way to support all responsible efforts to protect larger areas of land permanently in national parks, nature reserves, and wilderness areas. Every little thing you do as an individual adds up to a sea-change for the future of diversity on our planet. It's a mitzvah to save life -- all life, not just human life. And let us say: Amen.