A Few Minutes with Ellen Bernstein, Author of Toward a Holy Ecology: Reading the Song of Songs in the Age of Climate Crisis
Gods—what we are if you define “god” as a supernatural being able to perform magical feats. Watch as we dam raging rivers and redirect the water into fields of green. Admire as whole species of birds and animals disappear to our whims of diet and distaste. Praise as our industry burns fuel to fire machines which heat the whole planet.
Impressive, yes, but all those miracles and magic come with consequences as we know all too well. For more than fifty years now, climate scientists have been raising the alarm about greenhouse gasses. It might be time to consider another approach.
Of course, many people have been listening to the experts and making changes to their lives, but humanity as a whole is still sitting on the fence: unconvinced, inconvenienced, thinking there’s a quick fix out there if only one of the gods among us invents a cure.
In the meantime, prophets among us have been wandering the deserts of our climate conversations, trying to create a sense of urgency, searching for the right words and ideas to bring about a shift in global consciousness.
Ellen Bernstein, kick the sand off your sandals and join us to talk about the biblical Song of Songs and how it offers a path to discovering God in nature. Because once our species learns to see God in a white pine, bubbling brook, and school of migrating tuna, nothing else matters.
Ellen’s Toward a Holy Ecology received the blessing of Kristen Rabe in her recent Foreword review. Kristen had follow up questions, Ellen had answers.
When you were in your twenties, you worked as a river guide and taught high school biology. How did your unique career path influence your reading of The Song of Songs?
As a child, I spent as much time as I could outdoors. I was distressed by the ruination of nature and wanted to do what I could to preserve what was left. In the mid-1970s, I attended one of the first environmental studies programs in the country at UC Berkeley. After college, I ran wilderness river trips in summer and taught biology during the school year. I hoped to share my appreciation of the natural world with my students, but the scientific textbooks did little to inspire them. So, I developed a curriculum of great nature writers whose work addressed biological and ecological ideas. My students were hooked, and their appreciation for nature flowered.
At the same time, I was on my own spiritual quest. I believed that the environmental crisis was, at heart, a spiritual crisis, a crisis in peoples’ values. I had grown up Jewish but had minimal Jewish education. I knew that Jews had a strong commitment to tikkun olam—repair of the world—and I searched for a Jewish environmental organization to support my spiritual quest. When I couldn’t find one, I decided to create it myself. So, in 1988, I founded Shomrei Adamah, Keepers of the Earth, the first national Jewish environmental organization.
As I delved deeply into Jewish texts, I was intrigued by the centrality of the land in the Israelite imagination. I wondered if the Hebrew Bible—the most widely read book in the world–could help nurture an ecological culture. I wondered if great Jewish literature could inspire people to care for the earth, in the same way that my high school biology students were inspired by nature writing. It seemed that the Bible, if read from an ecological perspective, could engage masses of people to care for the earth.
Over the last twenty years, my work has focused on bringing to life the ecological dimensions of the Bible. The Song of Songs is a profoundly ecological and erotic text, yet I had never encountered a book-length environmental interpretation of it. So, I decided to write one.
Most scholars assert that the lovers in the Song are a metaphor for the relationship between God and his people Israel—or between Christ and his Church. However, in Toward A Holy Ecology, your ecological reading is grounded in the Song’s beauty. What do we miss if we focus only on allegorical interpretations? Why should an ecological reading of the Song matter to religious leaders?
The Hebrew Bible is a porous and flexible text that allows—even invites—many different readings. The Hebrew words in the Bible are composed of three-letter roots; no vowels are used. This leads to multiple understandings of words. The text itself is generative, and every generation emerges with new interpretations. In the Song, the pronouns are also ambiguous. For example, in several instances, the word “this” could refer to the male character in the Song or a gazelle. Similarly, it is never entirely clear if the poet is speaking about actual gardens and vineyards or the female character as a vineyard.
If we focus on abstract theological and allegorical readings, we miss the deeply embodied and enlanded dimensions of the text that are so needed today. We overlook the creatures, places, and fragrances that make this text so evocative. We miss the possibility of finding God in nature—which is where the Song finds the divine, and where most people do too.
The Song—read ecologically—offers an inviting and meaningful way into the Bible. At a time when many people are abandoning church and synagogue life, religious leaders would do well to raise up the Song and take advantage of its ability to welcome people with wide open arms.
How well does this biblical book capture the landscapes of Israel? What’s the significance of the deep connection between the lovers and the land?
The Song, more than any other book of the Hebrew Bible, captures the varied landscape and habitats of the land of Israel. Thirty-four distinct landscapes are mentioned, including a grassy bower, the spice mountains, the nut-grove, Tirzah, Jerusalem Arman, Seir, Hermon, and Hebron. Six of Israel’s seven signature species of flora are also named. Indeed, you sense that when the lovers are admiring each other—attending to each feature, from head to toe—they are traversing the entire land of Israel.
The Song conveys just how important the land and its creatures were in ancient Israelite consciousness. Here, the land is not simply a backdrop for the narrative as it is in much literature; rather, the land and her creatures hold a central place in the foreground. The Song models a life of reciprocity with nature and a sense of wholeness—qualities that are vitally needed today.
The central character in the Song is a young woman with a strong voice and determined will. She and her lover appear to be on equal footing. Explain the significance of her strength as a character for the time the Song was written and for our time.
The Song was read allegorically for much of history. Readers/listeners may not have paid much attention to the significance of the woman-as-woman in the text, given the focus on her as a metaphor for the people of Israel. Of course, this was a patriarchal culture where women’s voices were subdued, so it is not so surprising that people did not celebrate the woman’s vitality and wisdom.
Today, the Song provides women and girls a heroine, a role model. This alone makes the Song an important book for our times. Moreover, empowering women—recalibrating the male/female balance toward greater equality—is the beginning of restoration of justice in our world.
Traditionally, readers have assumed that King Solomon wrote The Song of Songs, but you raise provocative questions about the way he’s portrayed here. What are your thoughts on Solomon and the authorship of this book?
In antiquity, works of literature were often ascribed to celebrated figures from the past. So, for example, the Torah was attributed to Moses and many of the psalms to David. Similarly, the Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs were all ascribed to Solomon, who was a poet, according to the book of Kings.
If Solomon had written the Song, however, the language used would have been the classical biblical Hebrew that was spoken in the 10th century. In actuality, the Song is peppered with Aramaic words and grammatical forms that indicate it was more likely written closer to the 2nd century BCE, after the Babylonian exile in the 6th century and several centuries after Solomon reigned.
Furthermore, the Song portrays Solomon in a relatively unfavorable light. He is associated with a place call Ba’al hamon–which can be translated as “master of money”—and he has a lavish carriage, large harem, and very profitable vineyards. This view of Solomon conforms to his portrayal elsewhere in the Bible, where he is praised for his peaceful reign and the construction of the Temple yet criticized for his voracious wealth. Solomon’s extravagant behavior is even more pronounced when contrasted with the woman of the Song who delights in a life of simplicity.
Toward A Holy Ecology features your own translation of the Song from the Hebrew. What were your goals in this translation? What’s the best way for a reader to engage with The Song of Songs?
My intention was to offer a relatively literal translation that would illuminate the Song’s natural history, ecology, and poetry. I am happy that the publisher chose to include the Hebrew text side-by-side with English, so readers familiar with this beautiful language can compare line-by-line.
One way to approach the Song is to read it straight through first: What feelings does it evoke? What thoughts? What surprises you? Then, read the essays at the beginning of the book to provide more context and ecological meaning. Then read the poem again more slowly; if questions arise as you read, the commentary may provide answers or raise even more questions. Consider what the Song arouses in you.
We see so much broken-ness in our world today, including environmental devastation, the impact of climate change, and the tragedy of global conflict. How can the message of The Song of Songs foster healing and wholeness?
If you recognize that our broken-ness arises out of our alienation from the land—from the source of life that nourishes us—then the Song acts as a balm. It celebrates the fundamental connection between people and land.
On a soul level, we know that a good life means living in harmony with the natural world—our life support system. But, unfortunately, we live in a state of forgetfulness. The Song can awaken us from our slumber and help us remember and re-ignite our connectedness to the natural world.
In my tradition, the ancient rabbis called the Song of Songs the holy of holies—that is, the holiest book of the Bible. They said that it provided a handle on reading the Torah. I understand this to mean that we are to read the Hebrew Bible through the eyes of the Song. Just imagine the ramifications if we brought the Song’s perspective on wholeness and intimacy with a life-giving land to our reading of the Bible!
Kristen Rabe
