Saperstein sermon winner: Let's get back to nature

Jeremy Rosenberg
Ope Oladipo/University Photography
Jeremy Rosenberg speaks at the fifth annual 2015 Harold I. Saperstein ’31 Student Topical Sermon Contest. Rosenberg was judged the winner of the contest.

Nine of the 10 warmest years occurred since 2000. Climate change has been shown to cause heat waves, downpours, sea acidification, drought, insect outbreaks, wildfires and more. And 97 percent of climate scientists believe humans are responsible for this shift.

“Does the environment really belong to man, and is man given complete control to do with it what he wants? Or, alternatively, was the environment given to man specifically for him to safeguard and nurture?” asked Jeremy Rosenberg ’16, first-place winner of the fifth annual Harold I. Saperstein ’31 Topical Sermon Contest in honor of Meyer Bender ’29.

Of 27 sermons and 20 presenters, Rosenberg was chosen the first-place winner after a two-and-a-half hour deliberation by the judges, March 22 on campus. Coming in second place was Richard Chen ’18 and in third was Gray Ryan ’18.

The sermons were based on Scriptures and addressed whether we are currently in an environmental crisis and, if so, how we should escape it. Students focused on a variety of issues, including extinction, pollution of the near-Earth orbit, pollution of our oceans and nighttime light pollution.

Rosenberg took inspiration from several religious works to formulate his ideas, including the Old Testament. He said, “In Genesis Chapter 2, Verse 15 it says, ‘The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to guard it.’”

According to Rosenberg, a guard must stand at honor and act as a sentry, even when no threats are imminent. In examining the concept of cultivation, Rosenberg quoted Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, a French-born and American-raised leader of Modern Orthodox Jewry: “Maintaining the world entails two things: number one, passively guarding against damage. And number two, actively working to replenish the earth.”

Building on this idea, Rosenberg highlighted the fact that according to Genesis Chapter 2, Verse 7, man comes from the ground; this may be why the Hebrew word for man, “Adam,” is so close to the Hebrew word for ground, “Adamah.” He cited evidence of the extensive benefits that “green places” have on humans due to this inextricable link. For example, Rosenberg said that community gardening has been shown to foster positive emotions, cognitive capacity and community engagement.

Additionally, Rosenberg said that humans shouldn’t spend tons of money on risky technologies and structures as a barrier to nature, but that they should practice the concept of “greening,” which actively brings one closer to nature. A good example of this is honoree Meyer Bender, who donated rock gardens to Cornell for staff and students.

In honor of Bender, Dirk Kempthorne, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior, gave a keynote address about his work protecting wildlife. During his talk, Kempthorne held up a jar full of plastic debris he had picked up on the shores of Midway Island, an area known for its large albatross population. He discussed how adult albatrosses unknowingly pick up these pieces of plastic and feed them to their babies, who frequently die.

“That’s why we have to have the young people, all of us, realizing that the environment that we have is our life support system,” Kempthorne said. “It’s exactly what it is.”

Natalie O’Toole ’16 is a student writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.

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