Pre-shabbat action

Make climate action a regular habit, and connect that action to your Jewish values and practices.

Pre-shabbat action of the week

Shabbat Shalom!  The team behind Pre-Shabbat Action will be taking a break for the month of August; just as Shabbat gives us an opportunity to recharge for the week ahead, we activists can benefit from taking a breather, too.  Let’s finish strong with one last action for July, and we’ll be back and ready to go in September!

One of our legislative wins in Albany this year was the passage of the SUNNY Act, which would make affordable plug-in solar more accessible to residences, businesses, schools, and other buildings.  Great, right?  The catch is that Governor Hochul hasn’t signed it yet.  Click here for the phone number and quick, easy script to call the Governor and urge her to sign the SUNNY Act now!

Idea to Ponder:

Hakarat HaTov. This is the Hebrew term for gratitude, but it literally means “recognizing the good”. 

There is a continuous debate about what really motivates large numbers of people to take action in response to our climate crisis. Is it fear? Hope? Anger?

I want to cast my vote with Hakarat HaTov. We protect what we love and what we see as good in the world and we offer ourselves most generously in pursuit of that protection. 

The challenge is that it’s so easy these days to be blinded by the Yetsar hara; the evil inclination that seems to hold sway in our news cycles and social media posts. 

So in these “dog days” of summer when our steps might be a little slower and our time a little more expansive, let’s steal back a little of our distracted attention and engage in this spiritual practice of recognizing the good. Instead of focusing on how people, institutions, and systems are failing us, let’s see the solid foundations of love, care, and kindness that still arise every day in many, many people, and upon which we can rebuild a world where the thriving of all of us is at the center. 

You readers of these missives and takers of the recommended actions are perfect examples of that goodness and we all at JCAN offer you our thanks and wish you many blessings.