On Wednesday, April 8th, the 13th of Nisan, the eve of Passover, an extraordinary event will occur in Judaism: we will recite the blessing over the sun. This happens once every 28 years. We recite this blessing when the sun returns to the place where it was created.
That is why it always happens on the fourth day of the week (Wednesday, counting from Sunday), when, as the Torah relates, God placed the luminaries in the sky.
Judaism is monotheistic, obviously, and the idea here is not a blessing to the sun, but a blessing to God, for having given us the sun.
There are countless effects that sunlight has on the Earth in general, making it an indispensable tool for life. From plant photosynthesis to the Earth's pleasant temperature, the sun is the intermediary that makes this energy tangible.
In 1981 (the year before a sun blessing occurred) the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of blessed memory, mentioned the idea that we should harness the heat of the sun as a source of energy.
In more detail, the Rebbe referred to the fact that the world today depends on oil, a non-renewable resource that is in the hands of a few. And those few impose conditions on the countries that need that resource, creating a dependency, almost as if it were blackmail.
Then the Rebbe explained that sunlight is an excellent source of energy, available to everyone, and unlimited (after the Flood, God promised that the seasons would never cease, so the sun would always shine on the earth). If it weren't for the economic interests surrounding the ownership, extraction, transport, and processing of oil, we could have energy in a cleaner, less polluting, and widely available form.
A basic principle of Judaism is to set aside personal gain for the sake of the collective good. This doesn't mean harming oneself so that another person is better off (because, as the Talmud would say, who says someone else's blood is redder than yours?), but it does mean investing all of one's abilities in the collective good.
The crisis facing the entire world should lead us to reflect on the role each of us plays in life in general and how we can contribute to our own well-being, that of our families, our communities, and the world as a whole.