The universe and the place of human beings — Judaism

What the specification asks for

Paper 1, Section 1, 1.1 (Judaism). Assessed on AO1 (knowledge and understanding) and AO2 (analysis and evaluation), weighted equally. Incandio is aligned to this specification. It is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson, and it reproduces none of Pearson's indicative content — the point numbers are given so you can check every unit against your own copy.

1 · Understand it

A rabbinic story has the Almighty walk Adam round the garden and say: see how beautiful this is — I made all of it for you, so take care not to ruin it, because there is nobody to repair it after you. Notice what the warning is about. Not punishment. Irreversibility.

What it means

Judaism teaches that the Almighty created the universe deliberately and repeatedly called it good, so the material world is not a problem to escape from. Human beings are the goal of that creation, made in the divine image — tzelem Elohim — and placed in the world to work it and to guard it.

The phrase the specification names is tikkun olam: repairing the world. It is a rabbinic term, whatever one thinks of its recent expansion, and it does more than stewardship does. A steward maintains what they were given; a repairer is expected to leave it better. The stronger version of the idea is that creation was left deliberately unfinished so that human action would matter.

Bal tashchit means do not destroy. It derives from the commandment forbidding the cutting down of fruit trees in war, and rabbinic teaching extends it to needless waste of any kind — which is how a wartime rule became a general principle about food, energy and possessions.

One difference inside the tradition is worth naming precisely. Orthodox Judaism emphasises bal tashchit and the commandments as the concrete form of responsibility and is often cautious about tikkun olam used as a general social slogan; Reform Judaism places tikkun olam at the centre of Jewish identity and reads it as a mandate for environmental and social action. That is a difference of emphasis rather than a doctrinal split.

Why believers hold it

The reasoning is that a world made by a good creator and handed to human beings is held rather than owned. Judaism reads the creation account as assigning a job rather than granting a possession — dominion in the rabbinic tradition means responsible governance, and the midrash about the garden is the standard support for that reading.

Tikkun olam then adds something unusual. If the world was left incomplete on purpose, human action is not merely permitted but constitutive: the repair is part of what creation is. That makes it the strongest religious environmental idea on this specification, and it is why Jewish environmental argument tends to be about partnership rather than about caretaking.

The objection worth taking seriously is that making humans the goal of creation is exactly the attitude that produced the environmental crisis, since a hierarchy with humanity at the top licenses using everything below it. A defensible answer concedes that the licensing reading is available in the text even though the tradition rejects it — and then produces bal tashchit and the laws on animals as evidence that the hierarchy has always carried limits.

The other objection is sharper: the world does not need repairing by us, it needs us to stop. The standard Jewish reply is that repair includes restraint, and that no other creature can decide to stop — which returns to the midrash's point about the absence of a successor.

Where it comes from

• The Torah — Genesis 1:27 (translated)

  God created humankind in his own image.

  B'tzelem Elohim — every human bears the divine image, which grounds the infinite value of a human life and the equality of all people.

  What it is doing here: Establishes what kind of creature is being given the task, since only something bearing the divine image is held to be capable of taking responsibility for anything.

• Jewish thought — Tikkun olam; developed in rabbinic and later kabbalistic teaching (translated)

  Repairing the world.

  The duty to work at mending a broken world. Especially prominent in Reform Judaism's account of Jewish purpose.

  What it is doing here: Supplies the specific duty the specification names, and turns caring for the world from a permission into part of what a Jewish life is for.

• The Tanakh — Nevi'im (Prophets) — Micah 6:8 (translated)

  To do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

  The prophetic summary of what God requires: justice, mercy and humility, in place of sacrifice performed without them.

  What it is doing here: Sets the standard the repair is measured against — justice and kindness — so that repairing the world is not reduced to conservation of scenery.

Where it bites

It shows in bal tashchit applied to food waste and to energy use, in the sabbatical year's requirement to let land lie fallow, and in the blessings said before eating, which treat food as received rather than simply taken. It shows in Jewish environmental organisations that campaign explicitly on tikkun olam grounds, and it shows in the ordinary household argument about whether something is being thrown away that could still be used. Naming one of these turns a general claim into a developed point, which is what the six-mark grid rewards.

It also shapes what a Jewish answer to an environmental question sounds like. The move is not usually 'God will hold you accountable' but 'there is nobody coming after you to fix it', which is a claim about consequences rather than about judgement.

What people get wrong

People think: Judaism is the Old Testament part of Christianity.

Actually: Judaism is a living religion with its own scriptures, its own two-thousand-year tradition of rabbinic interpretation, and its own account of what God requires. The Tanakh is not the Christian Old Testament in either arrangement or authority, and reading Judaism as a religion with a chapter missing produces errors in every unit of this section.

People think: Judaism says humans have dominion, so they may do as they like with nature.

Actually: Bal tashchit forbids needless destruction and Jewish law regulates the treatment of animals directly, so the authority arrives with limits attached rather than as a licence. The rabbinic tradition reads dominion as responsible governance, and the midrash about the garden makes the point explicitly.

People think: Tikkun olam is a modern slogan invented by liberal Jews.

Actually: It is a rabbinic term with roots in classical and later kabbalistic teaching, whatever one concludes about how far its meaning has since expanded. What is fair to say is that its prominence differs by tradition — it is central to Reform Jewish identity and treated more cautiously in Orthodox settings.

What the examiner expects you to understand

• Name tikkun olam and say what it means, because naming it without unpacking it earns almost nothing.
• Use Jewish vocabulary throughout; a general environmental answer with no religious content is capped as generic.
• Give one concrete practice — the sabbatical year, food waste, a Jewish environmental organisation — rather than principles only.
• Concede that a hierarchy can be read as a licence, then produce bal tashchit against that reading.
• Never present Judaism as Christianity minus the New Testament; the examiners record that confusion by name.

2 · Grade 9 Notes

Core belief / issue

Judaism teaches that the Almighty created the universe deliberately and called it good, and that human beings are the goal of that creation — made in the divine image and given the world to work and to guard. The specification names tikkun olam, repairing the world, as the particular reference: the human role is not merely to enjoy creation or to rule it, but to finish something that was left deliberately unfinished.

Key terminology

Incandio's mark schemes credit the religion's own vocabulary; spelling variants are accepted, a vague paraphrase is not.

Tikkun olam (also tikkun ha-olam)

Repairing the world; the duty to leave creation better than you found it.

Bereshit (also Genesis)

In the beginning; the Hebrew name of the book of Genesis and its first word.

Tzelem Elohim (also b'tzelem Elohim)

The image of God, in which human beings are made.

Bal tashchit

Do not destroy; the commandment forbidding needless waste, derived from the rule against cutting down fruit trees in war.

Shomrei adamah

Guardians of the earth; the phrase used for the human task of working and keeping the garden.

What Judaism teaches

• shared — The Almighty created the universe, and it is repeatedly described as good — so the material world is not a problem to escape from.
• shared — Human beings are made in the image of God, which gives them a unique standing among creatures and a unique responsibility.
• shared — Humanity is placed in the world to work it and to guard it, so authority over creation arrives with a duty of care attached.
• shared — Needless destruction is forbidden by the principle of bal tashchit, which rabbinic teaching extends from wartime trees to waste of any kind.

Why it teaches this

The reasoning is that a world made by a good creator and given to human beings is held rather than owned. Judaism reads the creation account as assigning a job rather than granting a possession — and tikkun olam adds something stronger still, that the world was left incomplete on purpose so that human action would matter. That is why Jewish environmental argument tends to be about partnership rather than about stewardship alone.

Sources of authority

• The Torah — Genesis 1:27 (translated)

  God created humankind in his own image.

  B'tzelem Elohim — every human bears the divine image, which grounds the infinite value of a human life and the equality of all people.

  How to use it: Because the value comes from God, it belongs to a person whatever their condition — the same premise reaches life, disability, race and human rights.

  What it does not settle: It does not settle abortion. Jewish law can require abortion to save the mother's life, which follows from the same premise read alongside pikuach nefesh.

• Jewish thought — Tikkun olam; developed in rabbinic and later kabbalistic teaching (translated)

  Repairing the world.

  The duty to work at mending a broken world. Especially prominent in Reform Judaism's account of Jewish purpose.

  How to use it: It gives the meaning of life an outward direction: the purpose is not personal salvation but the world's repair, which is a distinctive answer on 2.2.

  What it does not settle: Its prominence differs by tradition. Presenting it as the whole of Jewish purpose flattens Orthodox emphasis on mitzvot.

• The Torah; said in daily prayer — Deuteronomy 6:4–9 (the Shema) (translated)

  Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

  The central declaration of Jewish faith — the absolute oneness of God — said morning and evening, written in the mezuzah and the tefillin.

  How to use it: It is belief and practice in one object: the words on the doorpost mean the household's whole life is meant to be lived inside the claim.

  What it does not settle: Uncontested across Jewish traditions, so it distinguishes none of them from another.

• The Tanakh — Nevi'im (Prophets) — Micah 6:8 (translated)

  To do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

  The prophetic summary of what God requires: justice, mercy and humility, in place of sacrifice performed without them.

  How to use it: It answers the accusation that religion is ritual: the prophet himself says ritual without justice is worthless.

  What it does not settle: It states the standard, not the policy.

Different interpretations

• Dominion read as rule and dominion read as responsible governance; rabbinic tradition consistently reads the second, and the midrash warning Adam that there is no one to repair the world after him is the standard support.
• Tikkun olam read narrowly as a legal term about repairing social arrangements, and read broadly as a mandate for social and environmental justice; the broad reading is now dominant, especially in Reform Judaism.
• The creation account read as an account of origins, and read as an account of purpose; most Jewish thought has been comfortable with the second without needing to defend the first as science.

Differences within Judaism

All agree the world is created, good and entrusted. The genuine difference is how broadly tikkun olam is read, and it maps onto the Orthodox and Reform emphasis rather than onto a doctrinal split.

• Orthodox Judaism — Emphasises bal tashchit and the commandments as the concrete form of responsibility; often cautious about tikkun olam used as a general social slogan.
• Reform (Progressive) Judaism — Places tikkun olam at the centre of Jewish identity and reads it as a mandate for environmental and social action.

Application to the issue

It shows in bal tashchit applied to food waste and energy, in the sabbatical year's requirement to let land rest, in blessings said before eating that treat food as received rather than taken, and in Jewish environmental organisations that campaign explicitly on tikkun olam grounds. Naming one of these turns a general claim into a developed point.

Arguments supporting

• Being made in the divine image gives humans a responsibility other creatures cannot have. — Only a creature capable of moral choice can be given a task. (judaism)
  Answered by: Capacity to act does not establish a right to act in one's own interest, which is the objection the deep ecologist presses.
• Tikkun olam is a stronger environmental principle than stewardship. — A steward maintains; a repairer is expected to improve on what they found. (reform-jewish)
  Answered by: It is also vaguer, and a principle that means everything can end up requiring nothing in particular.

Arguments challenging

• Making humans the goal of creation is exactly the attitude that produced the environmental crisis. — A hierarchy with humanity at the top licenses using everything below it. (non-religious)
  Answered by: Jewish law forbids needless destruction and cruelty to animals directly, so the hierarchy has always carried limits rather than licence.
• The world does not need repairing by us; it needs us to stop. — Most environmental damage is caused by human activity, not by unfinished creation. (non-religious)
  Answered by: Repair includes restraint, and no other creature can decide to stop — which is the standard Jewish reply.

Secular / non-religious perspective

Non-religious people hold that the universe requires no creator and that human beings are one species among many, distinguished by capability rather than by status. Responsibility for the planet is owed to other people, present and future, and to sentient animals — and many argue that the idea of humanity as creation's goal is precisely the belief that needs abandoning.

Examinable throughout Paper 1. Nothing here earns a mark on Paper 2.

Evaluation

The hinge: Whether human distinctiveness is a position in a hierarchy or an assignment of work. Judaism answers the second, and the whole environmental argument turns on it.

Defensible conclusions

• Tikkun olam is the strongest religious environmental idea on this specification, because it makes human action constitutive of the world's completion rather than merely permitted.
• The hierarchy is a genuine liability, and a defensible answer concedes that the reading which licenses exploitation is available in the text even if the tradition rejects it.
• Religious and secular environmentalism converge in practice, so the argument is about what motivates sustained action rather than about what should be done.

Not defensible

• Claiming Judaism teaches humans may do as they like with nature; bal tashchit and the laws on animals contradict it.
• Treating tikkun olam as a modern invention with no textual roots; it is a rabbinic term, whatever one thinks of its recent expansion.

Exam use

• Identify · 3 marks — Three ways religious people can care for the planet, or three Jewish beliefs about creation. Short phrases only.
• Outline · 4 marks — Two beliefs developed. 'Jews believe in tikkun olam (1) — repairing the world, so caring for creation is part of what a Jewish life is for (1).'
• Explain · 6 marks — Explain why Jews believe they should care for the environment: creation as good, the image of God, working and guarding, bal tashchit — each with what a Jewish person therefore does.
• Evaluate · 12 marks — 'The world would be a better place without humans.' Tikkun olam is the strongest reply available: removing humanity removes the repairer.

Common mistakes

• Treating Jewish belief as Christian belief with the New Testament removed, which the examiners record.
• Writing about the environment generally with no Jewish vocabulary, which the grid caps as generic.
• Naming tikkun olam without saying what it means or what it requires.

“Judaism is the Old Testament part of Christianity.” — Judaism is a living religion with its own scriptures, its own two-thousand-year tradition of rabbinic interpretation, and its own account of what God requires. The Tanakh is not the Christian Old Testament in either arrangement or authority.

Write instead: The Tanakh has three divisions — Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim — and is read alongside the Talmud and rabbinic tradition. Jewish teaching about the afterlife, salvation and law is developed on its own terms. The scriptures overlap substantially, and the differences in ordering, canon and interpretation are real. Naming the Tanakh's structure is directly examinable at Paper 2 1.2.

Grade 9 insight

The rabbinic midrash on this passage has the Almighty show Adam the garden and say: see how beautiful it is — everything I made, I made for you; take care not to ruin it, for there is no one to repair it after you. A Level 4 answer notices that this is not a warning about punishment but about irreversibility. It makes the Jewish environmental argument turn on the absence of a successor rather than on the presence of a judge, which is a far more unusual position than 'God will hold you accountable'.

Carry on through Judaism

• Next unit: 1.2 · Human nature and the human condition
• The universe and the place of human beings in the other religions: Buddhism · Christianity · Hinduism · Islam · Sikhism
• All of Judaism · Incandio Religious Studies · The 4RS1 specification