And I Think to Myself, “What a Wonderful World!”
Everyday as I read my morning paper, I often regret having to choose just a few articles to explore in order to get to class on time. Many say that today, we are in the Information Age, where an excess of sources for knowledge are readily available. For those of us interested in the latest environmental news, it is exciting to have a wide-ranging stock of articles to read everyday. At the same time, it is also overwhelming to the point where I can feel detached and sometimes unmotivated to act – there’s an information overload. After how much we read and hear about the environment, do we stop really absorbing in a way that inspires and intrigues us?
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wisely said, “Mankind will not perish for want of information; but only for want of appreciation.” Heschel, in God in Search of Man, explains that this “appreciation” is wonder about the world around us in an ongoing state of mind. It is unlike that of mere curiosity, which starts a train of thought yet ends with the discovery of an answer. Humans need a continuous sense of awe, a powerful, spiritual, remedy to the problem of our age. Having a religious experience is about radical amazement, where we take a more sublime look at our environment, remember to wonder at our very selves and even be amazed by our ability to see. Radical amazement can then physically and spiritually connect us back to our surroundings and the information we absorb.
I could not have gotten a better lesson on Heschels’ philosophy than by my teacher, Rabbi Neil Gillman, at JTS. Rabbi Gillman once said that as a rabbinical student himself under the tutelage of Heschel, he was asked if he had noticed the trees along Riverside Drive that morning. Heschel enthusiastically explained that those trees were wearing tefillin. Baffled, R. Gillman and his entire class walked up to Riverside Drive to catch a glimpse of this unusual phenomenon. While the trees were not actually adorned with the phylactery, their array of seed pods blowing in the wind did seem to resemble a wearer of tefillin in the act of fervent prayer. How refreshingly poetic it was for Heschel to take the time and see such beauty in the nature of NYC!
For me, I continue to read my daily paper as always but I try to appreciate the information presented, and use that to wonder at the world, to look at the nature that is all around me (even in my urban environment), and remember to place myself in the world as a potent agent that can understand and do good for it.
If we all heed Heschel’s message, where we need to, “experience commonplace deeds as spiritual endeavors, to feel the hidden love and wisdom in all things,” then I believe we can be uplifted and motivated to protect this planet and one another.
Moments such as Heschel’s on Riverside Drive should enable us to tap into Jewish tradition and its medium of prayer to express how we feel when experiencing wonders of nature such as the seeing the ocean, smelling fragrant fruit, and even when hearing thunder.
For example, upon seeing trees and creatures of striking beauty we can say: “Baruch attah Hashem, elokeinu melekh ha-olam, she-kakcha lo b’olamo, Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the universe who has such beauty in his world.”
