I say the Jews get a pass.
Posted on 12/04/2007 9:11:23 AM PST by wardaddy
In a campaign that has spread like wildfire across the Internet, a group of Israeli environmentalists is encouraging Jews around the world to light at least one less candle this Hanukka to help the environment.
The founders of the Green Hanukkia campaign found that every candle that burns completely produces 15 grams of carbon dioxide. If an estimated one million Israeli households light for eight days, they said, it would do significant damage to the atmosphere.
"The campaign calls for Jews around the world to save the last candle and save the planet, so we won't need another miracle," said Liad Ortar, the campaign's cofounder, who runs the Arkada environmental consulting firm and the Ynet Web site's environmental forum. "Global warming is a milestone in human evolution that requires us to rethink how we live our lives, and one of the main paradigms of that is religion and how it fits into the current situation."
Cofounder Tom Wegner, who heads the public relations firm Update Marketing Media, spread the campaign via mass e-mails and through social interaction Web sites like Facebook and Hook.co.il. He said no money had been invested in the campaign, but it had already raised awareness around the world and made people realize that they have to consider the environment this Hanukka.
Wegner said he did not consider the campaign anti-religious. The unlit candle could be the shamash, which is not required for the mitzva, he said. But he said he would encourage people who do not keep mitzvot not to light a hanukkia at all for environmental and educational reasons.
"We have many environmental traditions in Judaism like Tu Bishvat and Succot, but there are also traditions like Lag Ba'omer and Hanukka that made sense when they were instituted but are more problematic now in the days of global warming," Wegner said.
"There are many people who just light candles for the tradition and for their children," he said. "To tell a child on the eighth day that we are not lighting the last candle as a sacrifice for the environment is an act that is not only educational but also will prevent the release of a huge amount of carbon dioxide that would hurt the environment."
Shas MK Nissim Ze'ev said he was not convinced by the environmentalists' argument. He warned that the campaign would take away from the light of Torah that each and every candle symbolizes.
"The environmentalists should think about how much pollution is caused by one solitary diesel truck on the road," Ze'ev said. "They should be fighting the trucks instead of Judaism. This is so trivial, so anti-Jewish and so anti-religious that even the worst anti-Semites couldn't think of it. Just like the Helenists, they are trying to extinguish the flames of the Jewish soul."
United Torah Judaism MK Avraham Ravitz called the environmentalists "crazy people who are playing with the minds of innocent Jewish people." He said the campaign would only convince people who do not light candles anyway.
"They should encourage people to light one less cigarette instead," Ravitz said.
Rabbi Benny Lau of Jerusalem's Ramban Congregation, who is himself an environmental activist, praised the good intentions of the people behind the campaign. But he said the environmentalists should be trying to reach out to observant Jews instead of running campaigns that turn them away.
"People in the green movement who have an agenda have unfortunately made it anti-religious," Lau said. "This makes religious people think incorrectly that anything environmentalist is against them. The damage ends up being a thousand times the benefit. Tikkun olam [fixing the world] must be done by adding more light and not by adding more darkness."
I say the Jews get a pass.
Oy Ping!
By the way, I collect menorahs and have many; but, traditionally I only light candles in the one I bought in Israel as a teenager. Now I am thinking about lighting several....just because I can.
Happy Chanukkah to all. Does frying latkes cause global warming too? Oh well, dinner is at 6:00 pm tonight.
Who cares!? It's latkes for supper boys! Pass the sour cream and make room for Daddy!
Suicide bombers and IED manufacturers will also limit their production to do their part to reduce their (literal) carbon emissions from bombs...
Yeah...right...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Alouette you going laugh at this
Hopefully, they will use that last candle to light a stick of dyno-mighty and chuck it across the border.
F--- him!
Just because this idiot is unaware of why there is a "shamash," which is the candle used to light all the others doesn't mean that it can or should be eliminated any more than the entire custom of lighting candles (or oil). Hey that's an idea, lets ban lighting Hanukkah candles. In fact, lets ban electricity everywhere except on Bali.
ML/NJ
Baruch ata andonoi. But you didn’t give directions. I’ll ring the doorbell with my elbow.
Forget the tradition, I’m lighting all eight candles EVERY NIGHT this week! In fact, if I can find enough Chanukah candles in the house, I’m lighting all eight on BOTH menorahs we have (one is more decorative than anything).
Up yours, enviro-nuts!
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When will the enviromental wackos leave people of faith alone for a change?
Rush Limbaugh touched upon this. Good for him.
Mark, could you please mention this tonight. :)
Happy Hanukkah to all the Jewish posters here at FR!
It will not suprise me if Mark Levin says something about it tonight.
Since when do haircuts threaten the environment? (Um, that's a joke. I'm assuming he's referring to the bonfires.)
"There are many people who just light candles for the tradition and for their children," he said. "To tell a child on the eighth day that we are not lighting the last candle as a sacrifice for the environment is an act that is not only educational but also will prevent the release of a huge amount of carbon dioxide that would hurt the environment."
Great googly-moogly, carbon dioxide is hurting the environment! Quick--everybody stop breathing!!! (But then what will happen to plant life?)
I suppose they're also calling for a ban on candy money this year because it promotes rapacious capitalism?
Do you go to the Mark Levin thread? I go just about every weekday. :)
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