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Nature Torah
Job 12:7-9 (c. 6th Century BCE) Ask the animals and they will teach you, the birds of the sky and they will tell you; speak to the earth and it will teach you, the fish of the sea they will inform you. For who among all these does not know the Oneness that has done this?
Midrash Genesis Rabbah 13:3 (c. 300-500 CE) Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai said: Three things are of equal importance — earth, humanity, and rain. Rabbi Levi ben Hiyyata said: Teach that without earth there is no rain, and without rain the earth cannot endure, and without them both humanity cannot exist.
Avot de Rabbi Nathan, 31b (c. 700-900 CE) Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai used to say: If you have a sapling in your hand when someone says that the Messiah has come, stay and complete the planting. Only then go greet the Messiah.
Abraham Ibn Ezra, God Everywhere (12th Century Spain) Wherever I turn my eyes Around on Earth or to the heavens I see You in the field of the stars I see You in the yield of the land In every breath and sound A blade of grass, a simple flower An echo of Your holy Name.
Baal Shem Tov, Shivkhe ha’Besht 329 (18th Century founder of Hasidism) Nature is the very essence of the divine.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Maggid Sichot 48 (1772-1810 founder of Breslov Hasidism) Oneness of the Universe, grant me the ability to be alone. May it be my custom to go outdoors each days among the trees and grass and all growing things. There may I be alone and enter into prayer.
Leah Goldberg, Song of the River (20th Century Russia-Israel) My brother the river, eternally wandering Renewed day by day, and changing and one My brother the flow, between your banks Which flows like myself between spring and fall.
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