I was driving down the back lane, kids in the car, when I saw a neighbour. I stopped and rolled down the window for a chat. The neighbour\u2019s children lived nearby and they were looking for flooring to refinish the landing on their stairs. Our family, through an ordering snafu, ended up with more flooring than needed. In fact, we\u2019d avoided using any new flooring at all. We had asked our clever contractors to help us reuse 110-year-old quarter-sawn oak flooring from elsewhere in the house and the floor refinishers hadn\u2019t needed any of the new \u201cspecial order, not returnable\u201d flooring. I asked the neighbour if her kids were still interested in it, because we had a lot. She said she\u2019d ask.<\/p>\n
The neighbour then asked me if we were doing serious \u201cpurging.\u201d I smiled and said it was more like \u201credistribution.\u201d She laughed, saying she\u2019d have to remember that. She liked this way of seeing things.<\/p>\n
We like to think of ourselves as a family that reuses, recycles and repairs things. While we\u2019re not purists, we try to limit what ends up in the trash as compared to the compost. We try to give away or repurpose the things we no longer can use for their original purpose.<\/p>\n
If one imagines three kinds of models for one\u2019s household economies, there are sometimes three terms bandied about. A linear economy involves \u201ctake, make, use and waste.\u201d A recycling economy involves something like \u201ctake, make, use, recycle, make, use \u2026 on repeat and eventually \u2026 waste.\u201d A circular economy has a much more complicated chart or trajectory, involving words like \u201ctake, make, use, repair, make, reuse, return, make, recycle\u201d but very little becomes waste. Everything is used.<\/p>\n
The talmudic-era rabbis were part of a circular and recycling economy. We know it wasn\u2019t entirely circular (most ancient civilizations weren\u2019t) because archeologists keep finding the detritus of all those communities. Ask anyone interested in history about this. They wax rhapsodic about pottery shards, bone fragments, mosaics and more \u2013 these are essentially the great finds that finally broke completely. These trash bits were thrown down a privy a hundred to couple thousand years ago. Even that ancient trash has its use now: it tells us a lot about societies long gone.<\/p>\n
I thought about all this as I began to study the talmudic tractate of Ketubot as part of Daf Yomi. In the practice of studying a page a day, it takes 7.5 years to finish reading the whole Babylonian Talmud. Nevertheless, this page-a-day approach is superficial. It\u2019s just too much text for me to study in detail, so I try to explore one thing every day that I find interesting.<\/p>\n
In Ketubot 4, there is a discussion about what to do if a death happens right when a wedding is supposed to take place. The short version is, well, it depends, according to the introduction offered by Rabbi Heather Miller for My Jewish Learning. However, in many circumstances, the wedding is supposed to happen even if someone has to leave a dead body nearby in another room. Why? There are several reasons.<\/p>\n
One important reason is that there was no refrigeration. If a wedding feast was prepared and it couldn\u2019t be sold to someone else, the food shouldn\u2019t be wasted. It can\u2019t be assumed that there was enough food to just waste a whole wedding feast. The rabbis really valued \u201cbal taschit<\/em>,\u201d or \u201cdo not waste,\u201d which comes from the Torah, from Deuteronomy 20:19.<\/p>\n Also, if the bride\u2019s mother or the groom\u2019s father died, it was essential to continue with the wedding. These parents had important roles in the planning of the wedding. Canceling the event would take away from their children\u2019s opportunity to benefit from that work. A bride depends on her mother to help her get ready and setting up a wedding later, after a mourning period, would mean a do-over. The bride\u2019s mother wouldn\u2019t be alive to help then, either.<\/p>\n In a discussion with my online Talmud study group, it was pointed out that, in many cases, rabbis throughout history will find every way possible to help people not waste. If a poor family makes a potential kashrut mistake, asks the rabbi what to do and the rabbi knows they will be hungry without the food, the rabbi finds a way to enable the family to eat the food.<\/p>\n This tradition gives me hope for Jewish sustainability in the future. Here are legitimate Torah and Talmud references that encourage us to avoid waste and to reuse and value others\u2019 work. It gives me extra motivation to recycle when it\u2019s difficult to do so, or to patch and reuse a pair of pants yet again.<\/p>\n In some Jewish situations, these notions of avoiding waste are not always followed. Think of a big holiday meal or Kiddush, where everyone used disposable paper products and plastic utensils and, afterwards, it all went in the trash. Consider some well-to-do congregations where holiday services are a fashion show, and where being seen in new clothing is more valued than just being appropriately dressed. These are instances where perhaps we\u2019ve fallen prey to a consumerist, linear economy.<\/p>\n It\u2019s still possible to dress up or wear something new or different on a special occasion. It\u2019s OK to occasionally make more trash than usual, too. However, doing it on a regular basis is not just bad for the earth now. It also affects us in terms of climate change. It\u2019s probably also a violation of the rabbinic obligation to avoid waste.<\/p>\n It\u2019s true that cleaning, decluttering and renovation trends these days are all about how much can be discarded. Maybe it\u2019s time to save the old growth lumber. Reuse something really good. It\u2019s also good to pass along that new flooring so it, too, can be used sustainably rather than discarded. Don\u2019t just throw everything out and produce more waste. Reuse, recycle, make anew \u2026 the rabbis said so.<\/p>\n Joanne Seiff <\/strong>has written regularly for CBC Manitoba and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including <\/em>From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner<\/a> or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was driving down the back lane, kids in the car, when I saw a neighbour. I stopped and rolled down the window for a chat. The neighbour\u2019s children lived nearby and they were looking for flooring to refinish the landing on their stairs. 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