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Ask the Rabbi: March 2004

About Ecology and Judaism

By Rabbi Melanie Arron

Question: I attended a Tu B’Shevat Seder this year, which included many readings about ecology. To me this felt very forced. Isn’t this just bringing political correctness into our ritual? What does ecology have to do with Judaism?

Answer: While the modern ecology movement is often dated to the publication of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, attempts to understand the place of humans in the cosmos go back to the first chapters of Genesis. There we find Adam placed in the Garden of Eden, le’avdo uleshomro (Genesis 2:15), “to till it and tend it,” or more literally translated “to work it and guard it.” Adam is given every seed-bearing plant and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit for food (Genesis 1:29). This is the basis of the belief of some, including Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook, the first chief rabbi of pre-state Israel and a highly respected and beloved Jewish spiritual leader in the early 20th century, that God originally intended us to be vegetarians. While Adam is told: “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it” (Genesis 1:28), the Hebrew word for master, chivshuha is often translated as, “to conquer,” as in wartime. The word has also been translated by our Jewish commentators to mean to transform, with reference to human abilities to transform wheat into bread, flax into clothing, etc.

In general, the Jewish understanding has been that we do not own this earth, but rather it belongs ultimately to God, and our status is that of tenant farmers, allowed to enjoy the fruits, but under obligation to preserve what is lent to us. We see this especially in the theology of Shabbat, the day on which we are neither to create nor destroy, to be at peace with the natural world, and of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years where we are reminded, “The land shall not be sold forever: for the land is Mine: you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Leviticus 25:23).

The rabbis further developed this philosophy teaching that we may not waste resources (bal taschit - thou shalt not wantonly destroy), and that we should be sensitive to the pain of non-human living creatures (tzar baalei chayim). Bal taschit originated with a biblical prohibition on cutting down fruit trees in war time (Deuteronomy 20) but was extended to include even covering an oil lamp so that it burns in a wasteful manner (Talmud Bavli Shabbat 67b) or wasting anything, including clothing or even a mustard seed (Sefer HaChinuch 13th century C.E.). The rabbis further understood the biblical command that one not take the mother bird with its young (shiluach haken) to relate to the preservation of species, and went to great lengths to prove that everything God created has a unique purpose. They directly refer to our responsibility to preserve the earth as in this well-known midrash on the creation story:

God led Adam around all the trees of the Garden of Eden. And God said to Adam: See My works, how good and praiseworthy they are? And all that I have created I made for you. But be mindful then that you do not spoil and destroy My world, for if you spoil it, there is no one after you to repair it (Midrash Kohelet Rabbah 7:13 8th century C.E.)

For me, all of these texts give legitimacy to the position that ecological concern is indigenous to Judaism. I find further support in the wide variety of Jewish organizations that have joined together to create COEJL, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (www.coejl.org). These include such diverse organizations as the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith International, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Hadassah, Hillel, Jewish Community Centers Association, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Jewish War Veterans, Na’amat USA: The Women’s Labor Zionist Organization of America, and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (UOJCA).

Rabbi Arthur Waskow of the Reconstructionist Movement has argued for a new kashrut, one that would expand the criteria for food or other items being kasher (literally “fit”) for our use. He has sought to apply this eco-kashrut to meatless days, fuel efficient cars, energy efficient light bulbs and restrictions on pesticides.

Finally, as Jews who are concerned about the future of the Jewish homeland, conservation and the reduction of our dependence on oil should be particularly important. For all these reasons I would respond to our questioner, ecology is a Jewish issue, and conservation a mitzvah in the truest sense of the word.

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