Each week during the period of the Omer, the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot, we can deepen our collective actions for caring for the earth. These teachings are disciplines that speak to the head, heart, and hand, corresponding to the three pillars on which the world stands: Torah (Learning), Avodah (service), and Gemilut Hasadim (lovingkindness) (Pirkei Avot 1:2). Take these words, share them, teach them, adapt them, pursue them. Check out the full series here.
This week, we mark the halfway point of the Omer. As we settle into the practice of counting each day on our way up to 49, it is no longer a novelty as it might have been at the start.
The sefirah of Netzach (eternity) comes at a perfect time to encourage us to stay the course.
Netzach is about having the endurance to see something through, to take the long view of time, and consider the distant future. Life is a journey, Netzach reminds us—one that started well before us and will continue long after us. Our job is to do our part to keep it going.
Head
A famous story from Ta’anit 23a:
One day, Choni the Circle-Maker was walking along the road when he saw a man planting a carob tree. Choni said to him: How long will it take this tree to bear fruit? The man answered: It will not produce fruit until seventy years have passed. Choni said to the man: Do you expect to live seventy years, and enjoy the fruit from this tree? The man replied: I found a world full of carob trees when I was young. Just as my ancestors planted for me, I, too, am planting for my descendants.
We learn from this Talmudic story how we depend on generations past and how future generations depend on us. We have a responsibility to leave the world a livable place full of healthy resources just as our ancestors did for us. And so on, and so on, for eternity.
Heart
While we are a “now”-oriented society, the planters in the story remarkably had the foresight to look ahead two generations to provide for their future grandchildren.
Choni’s story gives us a concrete way to think beyond our present to envisage a more distant future. If it takes 70 years for a carob tree to produce fruit, how will the changing environment and soil affect the carob tree? Who will be around to harvest its carob pods?
Think of a child you love. Imagine how the world will look, smell, and feel when that child is in their 70s or 80s.
What vegetation will exist? Will the air be clean and safe enough to breathe? Will there be enough food to feed everyone? Will the children be able to experience the thrill of a summer day? Chase lightning bugs? See snow? Sit for a few moments with the world you have imagined.
Now picture a world you want that child to inherit in adulthood.
Is there a discrepancy between the world you predict and the world you envisage? How can you align your actions to make your imagined world possible? Each day during this week of Netzach, try holding in your heart a different young person in your life as you picture the world you want to leave for them.
Hand
Challenge yourself to adopt an action this week that contributes to the preferred vision you have for this world.
Plant or protect a tree. Use reusable water bottles or travel mugs in place of disposables. Call your representatives (local, state/province, and federal) to support climate initiatives in your area or nationwide. Start composting or find a compost site near your home. Sign up with a group or organization that advances sustainable living.
