Our thanks to Ellen Bernstein, birth-mother of the Jewish environmental movement, for this very personal book. Bernstein seamlessly weaves together Genesis and contemporary environmental awareness, forming a union in which each of these turns out to be the deeper meaning of the other. A very honest, down-to-earth, and sometimes profound reflection.
—Rabbi Arthur Green, Rector, The Rabbinical School at Hebrew College, Seek My Face
A book of remarkable insight based on Ellen Bernstein's life-long commitment to the environment. She ignites what is sorely needed today: a creative reciprocity with the Earth and its gifts. We are all in her debt.
—Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology
In a time when drawn and disputed borders -- political, religious, racial, and social -- are wreaking havoc across the planet we all must return to our shared reality: the essential wisdom of creation. Ellen Bernstein gives voice to that wisdom through her elegant reading of Genesis. This book can speak to all people of the one tale that we all share. It can take environmentalism out of the cloister of the environmentalists and into the hearts of ordinary people.
—Rabbi Rami Shapiro Author, The Wisdom of the Jewish Sages, Minyan
A remarkable achievement. Through a close reading of the most influential words ever written, Ellen Bernstein offers a spiritual language that can help us find a way back to a rich and meaningful relationship with the earth.
—Adam Werbach, Former President, Sierra Club Author, Act Now, Apologize Later
Part midrash, part ecological science, part spirituality and part memoir, this is a book that redraws the map of Jewish environmental thinking.
—Natan Margalit, Tikkun Magazine
As a secular person, I found Ellen Bernstein's brilliant and inspired interpretation of Genesis riveting. I never realized that the Bible could offer insight to me as an environmentalist, but The Splendor of Creation convinces me that a reverence for nature is rooted in the Bible.
—Peter Barnes, Co-founder, Working Assets Author, Who Owns the Sky?
This book bears the mark of a life work; it is a genre of writing difficult to do well, combining scholarship with poetry and autobiography. . .Readers will want to share this book with others because Ellen has dared to trust them with the intimacy of her heart.
—Eli N. Evans Author, The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South.