The question it answers: how can our understanding of human rights and the "rights" of the earth fit together? Since human rights is generally thought to trump moral obligations to other species and to the land, this is no simple question. Generally speaking, the proposition that "All men are created equal," or "All people are created in the image of God," has implied that all other creatures, species and realms are unequal and insignificant by comparison.

"Human Rights and Ecology" shows that all the human rights described in the Torah are grounded in the one right that belongs not to human beings but to the land: the right to rest every seventh year. The sabbath that honors human labor and human freedom, the Jubilee that honors the human right to be connected to the earth and to sustain oneself on the land, all flow from the land's inalienable right to be free from human machines and human fences. So we cannot disconnect human rights from the greater good of the earth.

"Human Rights and Ecology" is also one of the earlier statements of the thesis I developed in my 2015 book Kabbalah and Ecology: God's Image in the More-Than-Human-World, showing how one can justify the value and divine image of humanity alongside the value of the other beings who share this planet without devaluing the latter. I believe the ideas discussed in "Human Rights and Ecology" can open our discourse, and our vision of Torah, to a greater appreciation for the earth and for the presence of the more-than-human world in our lives and spirits.