Leap of Faith: weather extremes
The sources of food we rely on are in a delicate balance with the environment
For our biblical ancestors, the significance of weather was not that they suffered physically when it was bad, but rather that bad weather might cause famine. When it struck, they did not complain that they were uncomfortable, rather, they would leave the land they were living on in search of food. In the new land they came to, they were sometimes able to produce food for their animals and themselves, and sometimes they arrived as refugees hoping for charity.
The story of Abraham in the 12th chapter of Genesis suggests the former: when Abraham came to Egypt because of the famine, he found favour in the sight of Pharaoh (because of Sarah’s beauty) and became successful. The story of Joseph and his brothers in the 42nd chapter of Genesis suggests the latter, as Joseph’s brothers appeared as supplicants begging for food to take back home. But in either case, they expected that while there was famine at home, there would be somewhere to flee to, that the situation was temporary, and things would at some point return to normality.
For the last half century, we in the developed world have largely taken for granted that famine was something that might occur in distant lands but not in ours – that food would always be available. We might worry that our next holiday abroad will be ruined by heat, as indeed we have seen with the terrifying wildfires in Greece this week, but we don’t worry that crop failures might cause more than just discomfort. Our food comes from places that have been dependable sources of food for many decades. What will happen if our sources of food become unreliable?
The ultimate weather-related crisis in the Torah is, of course, the Flood. Our ancestors were able to imagine a world so evil that God would destroy everyone in it. But in the biblical account, God doesn’t decide simply to destroy the evil people. God says: “I will destroy them together with the Earth.” The 16th century Italian commentator Sforno interprets this as God saying: “I will destroy the climate which could support life on earth by interfering with the sun’s orbit and rearranging it from the beginning of the deluge for the entire future.” This accounts for the lifespan of man having been drastically reduced after the deluge. The climate of the Earth changed, there were greater extremes of heat and cold, and the produce of the Earth was considerably less capable of supporting a long lifespan.
When we read news reports of places where there is record-breaking heat that is only barely survivable, our first thought may be the effect it will have on our comfort, and perhaps our health and safety, but the biblical accounts remind us that the sources of food we rely on are in a delicate balance with the environment. When that balance is disturbed, we can no longer be certain that the very basis of life – our food – will be there in the future. Our biblical ancestors understood this, and so should we.
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