NEW WAYS TO A MORE HUMANE FUTURE

HORIZONS FOR A SOCIAL CONTRACT AND A ECOLOGICAL PACT

R. W. Bro. Daniel Morgenstern

In the Initiation ritual, after the candidate has pronounced his oath, the Chaplain reads the
first verses of the Book of Genesis: In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth, and the earth was in chaos, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the
Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said: Let there be light, and there
was light. Undoubtedly, this was a new ecological order with regard to the earlier
chaotic condition of the universe.

There is much symbolism of light in the development of Freemasonry. In the Initiation

ceremony, the candidate advances as a poor blindfolded petitioner, and his most earnest
wish is to see the physical light, a light that will accompany him throughout his
advancement in Freemasonry. The lodge stands on three luminaries: the sun, which
governs the day; the moon, which governs the night, and the Master who governs the
Lodge. This distribution reflects the model of the universe, where there is an absolute
separation between night and day. We humans deviate from the world order prescribed
by the Great Architect of the Universe, by making endless attempts to turn also the night
into day using artificial lighting. As Freemasons who wish to make the world a better
place, its enough to see the satellite pictures of the northern hemisphere at night, to
understand the significance of the scintillation from urban conglomerates. Their light
comes from excessive illumination of buildings, streets and intersections, advertising
signs and monuments, to which is added the reflected light from objects, gas molecules
and particles of pollution.

Modern ecological science designates this phenomenon as light pollution, which has a
negative effect on animals, plants and, of course, us humans. The light pollution violates
the biological balance and impacts the hormonal life cycle of living organisms, including
man. It interferes with many processes, the orientation sense of birds, disorients small
turtles and night birds. The pollution damages the photosynthesis processes of trees and
green-leafed vegetation which at night turn carbon dioxide into oxygen and guarantee the
purity of the air. We, the Freemasons, should at least show respect to the health of the
world, and make an effort to prevent further destruction caused by others.

The fundamental principles of the ecology created by the Grand Architect are ethical and
just. Adam and Eve were created vegetarians. Then God said: I give you every seed-
bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.
They will be yours for food. According to Rabbi Kook, God ordered them to live in
harmony with the creation and not to rule over it. However, the Great Architect of the
Universe set man as a superior being, and finally authorized him to put the elements at
his service. Even more, the Creator authorized man to take the life of animals and to eat
their meat in order to survive.

On the other hand, in the same scale of values of basis justice, we are forbidden to cut
down fruit trees surrounding a city under siege, even in the cruelest situation of war,
when cutting them down may contribute to the siege effort, and to save the life of the
besiegers. Decorative or fruitless trees can be cut down in such situation. When you lay
siege to a city for a long time fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy the trees by
putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the
trees of the field people, that you should besiege them?. (Deuteronomy 20:19).

From ancient times, the process of forestation represented a problem in urban areas since
the time of Jericho, the first city in the world. Israel was the fifth in the number of people
living in cities with respect to the total population (93.6%). This is the source of many
problems: congestion, transportation difficulties, lack of open spaces and most
environmental problems, leading them the danger of air pollution of 80%, whose source
are motor vehicles. The ecological imperative teaches us to use the different means of
transportation according to their relative advantages: for short distances of up to 1.5 km.
you should walk; for longer distances between cities, we should use railway means of
transport, and only in their absence, conventional public transportation. In a society
having ecologic ethical and just values there is no need for private vehicles as the main
means of daily transportation (commuting) to work, study, medical procedures, etc.

As Freemasons, we are led by ethical principles. One of the main ones is protracted
existence, also for future generations. They have a right to be born in the same world in
which we were born, and not in a world where part of natural resources bestowed by
the Creator was destroyed by us and exploited to extinction. This is in fact the
philosophical foundation for the teachings of Ecology, which started with intelligent
consumerism and it concluded with the combined treatment of solid waste, also known as
the Four Rs, according to a descending scale of values from the preferable to the less
preferable:

Reduce reduction of waste, not producing waste at all. If unsuccessful, move to

Reuse make use again or find a new use for the waste, if not move to

Recycle recycling only in industrial processes, if not move to

Recover transformation (to energy) using burning in closed installations, the remains to

Land-filling burial in sanitary conditions.

In order to move forward with the first R, some 22 years ago I advanced the Law on
deposit for drink containers - 1999, when I gave Knesset Member Abraham Poraz its
first draft. Seven and a half years passed until it was approved by the Knesset on
19.4.1999. Since then, the law went through many changes, including the establishment
of a monopolistic company called Ela, controlled by the owners of the leading
company for soft drinks (Coca Cola) which operate through Capital-Government links in
order to rake enormous profits, in the order of hundreds of millions a year. For example:
they take care not to extend the law to cover family-size containers holding 1.5 liters, in
order to maximize their profits.

In the struggle against the concern, I was sued three times for slander, for sums reaching
a million shekels, which lasted over seven years, when all that time I fought alone in the
Ecological front. Only in the instance of appeal in the Jerusalem District Court, in a
sentence of February 2003, my right was confirmed and it was found that all the claims
were muzzling suits according to American law, and it was ordered to return to me all
funds demanded from me plus expenses in the amount of 53,000 shekels. Following the
judgment I was awarded the Green Globe Prize, which is the ecological Oscar of Israel,
for that year. Later I received a distinction from the Ometz movement for my struggle.

Despite the plotting of the Ela concern against the spirit of the law, the deposit law
succeeded in giving economic value to waste, cleaning public spaces, at least from small
drink bottles. It provides a living to thousands of families which collect them, most of
them poor, and in these days of social and economic hardship, also this is an act of
Masonic charity. The raw materials used to manufacture the containers are returned to the
factories, even when most of them served to market mineral water. A Mason will drink
as much water from the tap as he wishes, because our drinking water is of high quality
and there is no need to put in bottles inimical to the environment, water from the Galilee
or the Golan, and then transport the bottles needlessly to long distances, wasting energy
and environmental resources. This is the ecological imperative banish bottled water.

R. W. Bro. Daniel Morgenstern

-0-0-0-0-

Illustrious Brethren, Israeli Freemasonry does not intervene as an institution in the social
sphere, but operates through its members, individually, who put into action the Masonic
values and ethos, as in the case presented above by R. W. Bro. Morgenstern. This
example may be applied in other countries as well.

Valentin I. Heines, 33