{"id":31682,"date":"2019-01-18T03:45:13","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T11:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=31682"},"modified":"2019-01-16T10:45:26","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T18:45:26","slug":"preserving-the-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/01\/18\/preserving-the-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Preserving the environment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-very-dark-gray-color wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>According to talmudic sages, \u201cIt is\nforbidden to live in a town which has no garden or greenery.\u201d (Kiddushin 4:12;\n66d) <em>(photo by A. Christen)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many contemporary Jews look upon Tu b\u2019Shevat as\na Jewish Earth Day, a day for contemplating our ecological heritage \u2013 and the\nmultitude of threats our planet currently faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An ancient midrash has become all too relevant.\n\u201cIn the hour when the Holy One, blessed be He, created the first person, He\nshowed him the trees in the Garden of Eden, and said to him: \u2018See My works, how\nfine they are. Now all that I have created, I created for your benefit. Think\nupon this and do not corrupt and destroy My world, for if you destroy it, there\nis no one to restore it after you.\u2019\u201d (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today\u2019s environmental threats can be compared\nin many ways to the biblical 10 plagues, which appear in the Torah portions\nread on the Shabbats immediately preceding Tu b\u2019Shevat. When we consider the\nthreats to our land, water and air \u2013 pesticides and other chemical pollutants,\nresource scarcities, threats to our climate, etc. \u2013 we can easily enumerate 10\nmodern \u201cplagues.\u201d Unfortunately, like the ancient Pharaoh, our hearts have been\nhardened by the greed, materialism and wastefulness that are at the root of\nthese threats. And, in contrast to the biblical plagues, modern plagues are all\noccurring simultaneously, and there is no modern Goshen as a refuge, where most\nof these plagues do not occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The talmudic sages express a sense of sanctity\ntoward the environment: \u201cThe atmosphere [air] of the land of Israel makes one\nwise.\u201d (Baba Batra 158b) They assert that people\u2019s role is to enhance the world\nas \u201cpartners of God in the work of creation.\u201d (Shabbat 10a)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The rabbis indicate great concern for\npreserving the environment and preventing pollution: \u201cIt is forbidden to live\nin a town which has no garden or greenery.\u201d (Kiddushin 4:12; 66d) Threshing\nfloors are to be placed far enough from a town so that the town is not dirtied\nby chaff carried by winds. (Baba Batra 2:8) Tanneries are to be kept at least\n50 cubits from a town and placed only on its eastern side, so that odours are\nnot carried by the prevailing winds from the west. (Baba Batra 2:8,9)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe earth is the Lord\u2019s.\u201d (Psalms 24:1) And we\nare the stewards of God\u2019s earth, responsible to see that its produce is\navailable for all God\u2019s children. Property is a sacred trust given by God; it\nmust be used to fulfil God\u2019s purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story is told of two men who were fighting\nover a piece of land. Each claimed ownership and bolstered his claim with\napparent proof. To resolve their differences, they agreed to put the case\nbefore the rabbi. The rabbi listened but could come to no decision because both\nseemed to be right. Finally, he said, \u201cSince I cannot decide to whom this land\nbelongs, let us ask the land.\u201d He put his ear to the ground and, after a moment,\nstraightened up. \u201cGentlemen, the land says it belongs to neither of you but\nthat you belong to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The prohibition not to waste or destroy\nunnecessarily anything of value (<em>bal tashchit<\/em>, \u201cthou shalt not destroy\u201d)\nis based on concern for fruit-bearing trees, as indicated in the following\nTorah statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen in your war against a city you have to\nbesiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees,\nwielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them\ndown. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you under siege? Only\ntrees that you know to not yield food may be destroyed; you may cut them down\nfor constructing siege works against the city that is waging war on you, until\nit has been destroyed.\u201d (Deuteronomy 20:19-20)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This prohibition against destroying\nfruit-bearing trees in time of warfare was extended by the Jewish sages. It is\nforbidden to cut down even a barren tree or to waste anything if no useful\npurpose is accomplished. (Sefer HaChinuch 530)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sages of the Talmud made a general\nprohibition against waste: \u201cWhoever breaks vessels or tears garments, or\ndestroys a building, or clogs up a fountain, or destroys food violates the\nprohibition of bal tashchit.\u201d&nbsp;\n(Kiddushin 32a)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, a 19th-century\nphilosopher and author, states that bal tashchit is the first and most general\ncall of God. We are to \u201cregard things as God\u2019s property and use them with a\nsense of responsibility for wise human purposes. Destroy nothing! Waste\nnothing!\u201d He indicates further that destruction includes using more things (or\nthings of greater value) than are necessary to obtain one\u2019s aim. (Horeb,\nChapter 56)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It has become customary to recite psalms on Tu\nb\u2019Shevat, among them Psalm 104. This psalm speaks of God\u2019s concern and care\nextended to all creatures, and illustrates that God created the entire earth as\na unity, in ecological balance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou make springs gush forth in torrents; they\nmake their way between the hills, giving drink to all the wild beasts; the wild\nasses slake their thirst. The birds of the sky dwell beside them and sing among\nthe foliage. You water the mountains from Your lofts; the earth is sated from\nthe fruit of Your work. You make the grass grow for the cattle and herbage for\nman\u2019s labour, that he may get food out of the earth, wine that cheers the\nhearts of men, oil that makes the face shine and bread that sustains man\u2019s\nlife.\u201d (Psalm 104:10-15)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tu b\u2019Shevat is indeed an appropriate time to\napply Judaism\u2019s powerful ethic of reverence for God\u2019s creation, conservation\nand sustainability, to help move our precious, but imperiled, planet onto a\nsustainable path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Richard H. Schwartz<\/strong><em>, PhD, is\nprofessor emeritus, College of Staten Island, president emeritus of Jewish Veg\nand president of Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians. He is the author\nof several books, including <\/em>Judaism and Vegetarianism<em> and <\/em>Who Stole\nMy Religion? Revitalizing Judaism and Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal Our\nImperiled Planet<em>, and more than 250 articles at jewishveg.org\/schwartz. He\nwas associate producer of the documentary <\/em>A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish\nValues to Help Heal the World<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to talmudic sages, \u201cIt is forbidden to live in a town which has no garden or greenery.\u201d (Kiddushin 4:12; 66d) (photo by A. Christen) Many contemporary Jews look upon Tu b\u2019Shevat as a Jewish Earth Day, a day for contemplating our ecological heritage \u2013 and the multitude of threats our planet currently faces. An [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[781],"tags":[2845,218,2172,6706,3006],"class_list":["post-31682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holidays","tag-environment","tag-judaism","tag-torah","tag-trees","tag-tu-bshevat"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}