Contact Information

JEWISH ECOLOGY

Professor Rabbi Daniel Sperber

We live in two interrelated different dimensions. We live in the dimension of space, and we live in the dimension of time. We live in the dimension of space, and we must know that we cannot waste and over exploit the space in which we live, i.e. our physical resources. We live in a dimension of time and we must know how to utilise time and optimise our use thereof. Our lifetime is limited and we must put it to its best use. And though we live in the present, we must constantly be sensitive to the results of our actions in the future.

Now space, the universe in which we live, has a degree of sanctity, an intrinsic sanctity in that all creation comes from God and is therefore imbued with an element of innate sanctity. For since everything in the universe, in nature, certainly everything physical and in a sense spiritual, is the result of the divine will, it has an element of divinity or of sanctity. Ultimate dominion over all things with which we can have any contact, is only that of God; as is stated in Deuteronomy 10:14, Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord Thy God's, the earth also, with all that is therein". And in the language of the liturgy (Amidah), “who possesses all" (Koneh ha-kol). Mankind has been given a mandate, which is also a privilege, to tend the Garden of Eden, the world - a metaphor - and to guard over it, (Genesis 2:15). To guard over it for future generations, that is our mandate and that actually presents us with an awesome responsibility.

There is a very well known legend in the Talmud Taanit 23a, which I guess is also a parable, about a 2^nd century scholar who met an old man who was planting a carob tree. He said to the old man:" how long does it take before the carob tree will bear fruit?" The old man replied:" 70 years." The young man said:" So you will not ever see its fruit!" The old man said:" I came to a world where my ancestors had planted carob trees for me; I am planting carob seeds for my children." This, then, is the sense of responsibility that every human being has when he tends his garden and when he seeks to look after it. This is underscored in any number of places in biblical and rabbinic texts. So much so that even in times of war when armies are waging battle against one another and one army is laying siege to a town of its enemies, we are told that they may not destroy or cut down fruit trees (Deuteronomy 20:19 – 20). They know that even after the battle has ended and even though they may remain in enmity with one and other, future generations will still have to have fruit, will still have to have food to eat. This is the principle of bal tashhit.

Furthermore, there is a basic notion which expresses itself in many texts from Jewish rabbinic literature, that the responsibility to care for the earth is not the responsibility of one particular elitist nation; it is not a mitzvah, commandment, for Jews alone; it is for every human being. Again there is a well known parable, the like of which you will find throughout folklore of the world, which tells of people who are in a boat crossing the water and suddenly the boat begins to take on water and the captain seeks to find the source of the leak. He goes and examines each of the passengers and sees that one of them is boring a hole in the hull of the boat. He says:" What are you doing?" and the man replies, "Well, I’m only boring a hole under my own seat"! Obviously the meaning and the message in the parable is that each individual is responsible for everyone else. This expresses itself even in legalistic terms. In Jewish law a person can make a conveyance in one area which will have effect in a completely different area. The Rabbis said, "Sadna de-Ara had hu" - there is a complete contiguity of all areas in the world, everything is interconnected; nowadays we call it globalism. When we cut down the rainforests in Africa and South America, we affect the polar regions of the arctic and the calving of the great ice flows; when we throw away billions of plastic bags which are not biodegradable, this has an effect on the atmosphere and global warming. So it’s not just that the cost of oil goes up in the Middle East, but this affects the price of oil in England and Canada - which have their own sources of oil and gas; or when there’s less rice in China this affects the cost of food throughout the world. And the immediate and urgent necessity to deal with vast amounts of waste products-nuclear or less volatile-and distance them from population-centers by dumping them in the sea, or burying them in unpopulated areas, may indeed offer attractive, utilitarian, short-term solutions-and usually politically satisfactory ones! However, the long-term effect of pollution, both of seawater and of fresh-water aquifers, has disastrous effects. Rapidly diminishing fresh-water sources constitute a threat to all future life the world over, and the momentary benefits of our generation-must in no way jeopardize our progeny's ability to eat "the fruit of the trees".

Thus globalism is not merely an economic phenomenon; there is also a theological level to globalism, namely the responsibility of each individual towards the land in which he lives and a realization that it is going to affect the whole of humanity and the whole of nature and the whole of God's creation in future generations.

Indeed, this is the deeper meanings of bal tashhit, which is the most basic mandate of the conservationists: the absolute prohibition against wasting our natural resources. One does not have the right to destroy things that are in one's possession, especially since ultimately they are not really in our possession, but merely in our custodianship, as the law of shemittah, the Sabbatical Year has so elegantly taught us.

So as we approach Rosh ha-Shanah, remembering that Ha-Yom Harat Olam, memorializes the date of the birth of the world-universe, let us make an attempt to return to the metaphorical Garden of Eden, doing all within our abilities to restore an ecological balance to the sole planet on which we live.

For more articles written by Bar-Ilan University Professors, please click here.