We humans have gobbled the earth. Like small children in Gan Eden, we are told we can eat from every tree except two, so we of course, have to grab the cookie from the cookie jar our Parent told us not to eat. And we have been gobbling the earth's cookies ever since.
Some Torah: Gen. 1:28:'' Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it...''. Well of all the mitzvoth God has given man, we have certainly done the 'multiply' one to its extreme. But subdue does mean 'beat over the head." God is telling Adam to use the earth but not abuse the earth.
Some Midrash : Eccl Rabbah 7:28: In the first hour that God created Adam He took him for a tour of the Garden of Eden. He said to Adam: "See My works, how beautiful and splendid they are! Now all that I have created, only for you have I created. Contemplate this and do not corrupt and desolate My World. Indeed if you corrupt it, there is no one else to repair it after you."
Some more Torah: Lev. 25:4 : ''Each seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land.'' We do no planting. The land rests. We can eat of trees of which fruit naturally grows, but we can not plant. And God promises us that the year before, we will harvest enough food for two years. This is similar to the first Shabbat we had as a freed people, when God gave us two portions of Manna in the Wilderness on Friday so we did not have to gather on Shabbat. On weekdays, left over manna would rot. But on Friday, manna would last until we received our Sunday portion.
Some more Talmud: Bavli Tractate Bava Batra 2:8-9: Tanneries, the environmental polluters of Talmudic times, had to be kept 75 to 100 feet from a town's borders, and could only be placed on the east side of town, so the foul odors would not be carried into town by the west winds.
Some more Talmud: Ibid: Threshing floors had to be placed far from town so that they would not be dirtied by chaff carried by the wind.
The rabbis use the following from the Torah as a proof text for keeping environmental polluters away from towns.
Some more Torah: Deut. 23: 12-13: ''Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement.''
Some more Talmud: Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 4:12: ''It is forbidden to live in a town which has no garden or greenery.'' The Rabbis go on to say that cities must be surrounded by an area of 1500 to 2000 feet of green space for public enjoyment, which nothing can intrude not even cultivated fields. Rows of trees had to be maintained 40 to 100 feet from the city wall for shade.
Some more Talmud Bavli Bava Kama 82b: Jerusalem had more environmental laws. All garbage had to be removed from the city and no kilns could operate in the city. This helped keep pests and odors from being in Jerusalem.
Some more Torah: Deut. 20:19-20: ''When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them? However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls.''
This leads us to the Rabbinic maxim of 'bal tashchit,' 'don't destroy', also translated as 'do not waste.'
Talmud Bavli Tractate Bava Kama 91b lets us cut down a fruit tree if it has stop producing fruit and the value of the wood is greater than the value of the fruit, or if the tree is damaging property, or rotting.
Some Sefer Ha Chinuch- Book of Wisdom : Rabbi Aharon HaLevi of Barcelona (1235-c. 1290): ''The purpose of Bal Tashchit is to teach us to love that which is good and worthwhile and cling to it, so that good becomes part of us and we will avoid all that is evil and destructive. Righteous people improve society, love peace, rejoice in the good in people and bring them closer to God and Torah. They regret any destruction and try to prevent it. Wicked people are selfish and are like demons, who rejoice in destructions, cut down trees to expand their homes, and do not understand that they are actually destroying themselves and others.''
The rabbis in Talmudic Judaism wish us to preserve environmental resources.
Some more Talmud: Yerushalmi Tractate Homyot 3:5 :"One should not discard his well water while others may need it.'' The sages say the world can live without wine, but it cannot live without water. This aspect applies to anything that we may think of wasting that we may not need that someone else may need. Hence the concept of recycling, whether it be cans, or clothes, is a rabbinic mitzvah to us.
Some Mishna Torah of the Rambam: "Whoever breaks vessels, or tears garments, or destroys buildings, or clogs a well, or wastes food, violates the mitzvah of bal tashchit."
Some more Talmud Bavli Tractate Sukkoth 51a: The worn out pants of the Priests were recycled and used as wicks for lighting the oil lamps of the menorah. "Since it was used for one mitzvah, all it to be used for another." When one is done with the luluv, (palm branch) of Sukkoth, we are to save it till Passover, (about 6 months later!), to be used as fuel to burn the chometz (leaven).
Some more Talmud: Bavli Bava Kama 91b: ''R. Eleazer said: I heard that he who rends his garments too much for a dead person transgresses the command of Bal Tashchit and it seems that this should be the more so in the case of one injuring his own body.'' So even when someone dies, and we want to rend our clothes, we can only make a small tear, but if we have to be careful not to waste nature, than how much more so must we not waste our bodies. Hence we learn:
Some more Talmud : Bavli Pesachim 113a ; "Do not take drugs as the addiction will take its toll.'' Modern Rabbanim have applied this to smoking tobacco.
But the rabbis would allow waste to save one's life. In Judaism, saving a life, trumps all other mitzvoth.
Some more Talmud: Bavli Tractate Shabbat 129a: If one lets blood and catches a chill, a fire is made for him on Shabbat, even on the summer solstice. Am expensive teak chair was broken up for Shmuel to be used as firewood. A table made of juniper-wood was broken up for Rav Yahudah. A footstool was broken up for the sage Rabbah, whereupon Abaye said to Rabbah, "But you are infringing on Bal Tashchit!" Rabbah said "Destruction in respect to my own body is more important to me!."
Some more Talmud Ibid 140b: R Hisda said : When one can eat barley bread but eats wheat bread he violates bal tashchit ( Wheat bread is more expensive and takes more effort to produce). R. Papa said ; When one can drink beer and drinks wine he violates bal tashchit (same reasoning). But then he said: But when bal tashchit is applied to one's one health, the person stands higher.
There is much much more in the Talmud, even Jewish feng shui on how one should position furniture in a room.
Some more Torah: Lev. 25:23 :" No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to Me--it isn't your land, and you only live there for a little while. " We may think we own real estate but anyone who has survived a hurricane, or a flood, or a forest fire, or an avalanche, or even a war, will tell you differently.
The concept of Adam and Adamah, man and earth is no coincidence. The first Star Trek TV series got it right when aliens called us Earthlings. We are. We are connected to this globe and to each other. When we treat the earth poorly or treat another human poorly we are only harming ourselves. We should, according to Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel [1907-1972] see the world as God-centered, not human-centered. By putting God at the center of life, we see the sacred in everything and the natural world becomes a source of wonder and not only a resource for our use and abuse.
Some TaNaK: Ps. 24:1:'' The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.'' We humans belong to the earth as well as to God.
Some more TaNaK: I Chronicles 29:15: As we are "sojourners with You, mere transients like our ancestors; our days on earth are like a shadow…"
Some Ramban: (Moses ben Nachman, Nachmanides, 1194-1270) in his commentary to the Torah wrote: "This also is an explanatory commandment of the prohibition you shall not kill it [the mother] and its young both in one day (Leviticus 22:28). The reason for both [commandments] is that we should not have a cruel heart and not be compassionate, or it may be that Scripture does not permit us to destroy a species altogether, although it permits slaughter [for food] within that group. Now the person who kills the mother and the young in one day or takes them when they are free to fly, [it is regarded] as though they have destroyed that species." How many species has man killed?
Everything was created by God for a reason. We may not know the reason, but every once in a while we hear of a scientist finding out that some odd bug or unknown plant, can cure some disease. Hence the Midrash says:
Midrash Beresheit Rabbah 10:7 "Our Rabbis said: Even those things that you may regard as completely superfluous to Creation – such as fleas, gnats and flies—even they were included in Creation; and God's purpose is carried through everything—even through a snake, a scorpion, a gnat, a frog."
And this all leads back to Sabbath. What is truly Sabbath? It is actually allowing ourselves to be God dependent and not do things which depend on us changing the earth. This is what the sages mean by the Sabbath being a foretaste of Olam ha Ba, the world to come. We remember once a week that we are of the earth, a part of earth, and not just here to continually till it and gobble it up.
Some Rabbi Samson Hirsch [1808-1888]: "Sabbath in our time! To cease for a whole day from all business, from all work, in the frenzied hurry-scurry of our time! to close the exchanges, the workshops, the factories, to stop all rail services--- great heavens! How would it be possible? The pulse of life would stop beating and the world perish! The world perish?? One contrary, the world would be saved.""
There is much more on eco-Judaism. I hope this whets your appetite.
Have a wonderful Shabbat and reflect on these words of the TaNaK:
Psalm 23:1-3 "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He make me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul."
May you souls be restored with www.JewishSpiritualRenewal.org . May we learn to treat the earth with kindness as we learn to treat each other with ahavah chesed. Amen.
As always, a d'var Torah follows.
Many Blessings,
Rabbi Arthur Segal
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Deuteronomy
Parasha Devarim: Deuteronomy 1:01-3:22
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"Jive Talkin'"
Who wrote the Book of Deuteronomy? What can we learn from its inconsistencies with the first four of the Five Books of Moses (the Chumash)? Was King Og really a giant who survived the great Flood? Did the
The Hebrew title "Devarim" means, "words." An older Hebrew name for this book was "Mishna Torah," which means, "the repetition of the Torah." The English language title of this book is Deuteronomy and means "second law" derived from Greek and Latin.
As the Jews are camped on the east bank of the
Any honest reading of Deuteronomy will lead to difficulties, as there are so many inconsistencies with wordings and historic details as told in the first four books of Moses. Not only are laws reviewed with new wordings but more than 70 new laws are introduced. Modern critical biblical theorists conclude that this text was written at a different time, perhaps even in Ezra's era, after the return from exile in
Traditionally these inconsistencies are answered by saying that Moses held back laws dealing with farming until we were ready to conquer the
Moses heard this fifth book on Sinai, and it was taught to
The sages teach that Moses taught the Book of Deuteronomy during the last five weeks of his life. They say he died on Adar 7 (Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 38A). Moses started teaching this book, the rabbis say, on the first of Shevat. This leads to a voracious debate about who wrote the last eight verses of Deuteronomy. They agree that Joshua wrote it, but that Moses, who could foresee the future, told him what to write.
In Verses 1-5, Moses mentions places but not the events that took place there. The sages teach that Moses, not wanting to embarrass the Israelites, did not mention their sins directly but only the locations where the sins occurred. This is why these first five verses are labeled the "veiled rebuke." The Talmudic rabbi Yochanan says he "has reviewed all of the scriptures but has not found any place named Tophel or Laban" (Deut 1:01). His colleagues answer that Tophel can be rendered "tephel" (complaint) and that Laban means, "white." Therefore, Moses was secretly rebuking the Israelites for complaining about the manna. Another rabbi submits that Tofel refers to the sin of the Golden Calf (ha Egel). The rabbis cannot decide where Arabah is, but believe it refers to the plain where the Midianite women seduced the Israelite men. And the unknown place called Di-zahab refers to the gold (zehav) that God allowed the Jews take with them from
The rabbis learn from this rebuke that "Any leader who does not chastise his community is held responsible for their sins." (Talmud Bavli Tractate Shabbat 54B). They go on to say that properly criticizing a person is a lost art and that, "In the days preceding the arrival of Moshiach...there will not be any criticism."(Tractate Sotah 49B). Rashi says that this means no one may now criticize another. We all sin to one degree or another, so no one has the right to point fingers. We all live in glass houses…so don't throw any stones! On the other hand, we are to "Love criticism, for as long as there is criticism in the world, pleasantness comes to the world, good and blessing come to the world, and evil is removed from the world." (Tractate Tamid 28A).
In Deut. 01:6-8 we are told about Israel's boundaries, which are in conflict with the boundaries given the Book of Numbers (see Parashot Matot And Masei: Numbers 30:02-36:13). Our land now extends to the
In Deut. 01:9-18 the laws of judges are reviewed. Compare this to Exodus 18:13-26. When the Torah repeats these laws it adds and subtracts certain details. Jethro, who was a Midianite, is not mentioned. Forty years before, the Midianites were our allies. Even Moses' wife was a Midianite. Now they are painted as idol worshippers and seductresses. In Exodus Jethro gives Moses the idea for the use of judges. The parasha in Exodus is named for him. In Deuteronomy it is God who gives this law. Did Moses forget about his father-in-law Jethro? Or was Deuteronomy composed 800 years later?
When you study Devarim, keep a lookout for inconsistencies. Note how the story of the spies in Deut. 01:19-46 is retold with subtle twists. Moses blamed the Israelites for sending the spies when it is clear in Numbers that God left the choice to Moses. And what is even more amazing is that Moses in 01:37 blames
Note also that in verse 01:44, the story of the battle with the Amorites is retold. This battle took place after the Jews' moxie returned after they first lost faith while listening to the spies. The text says that the Amorites pursued the Israelites "as the bees would do." What is the Hebrew word for these flying, stinging insects? Devarim! Is the author trying to say (as we learned about the grasshopper eyes in Num. 13:33) that our own words defeated us?
The defeated King Og, given only a few words in Numbers, is now described at a giant with an iron bed, nine cubits in length and four cubits in width measured by "the cubit of that man" (Deut. 3:11). Targum Yonatan (an Aramaic translation) says that Og was one of the race of giants who survived the Great Flood. The Rashbam (Rabbi Shlomo ben Meir, Rashi's grandson, of twelfth-century
The rabbis had a tough time with reconciling the different wording of the histories in Deuteronomy and the rest of the Chumash. The battles and the spoils of war are described differently. In Talmud Bavli Tractate Chulin 17A, when comparing Numbers 31:3-14 and 31:31-41 to Deuteronomy 3:01-11, the rabbis go so far as to say that God gave permission during the war with King Sichon and his Amorites for the Jews to eat katlei de chaziri - dried pork rinds.
They are forced to this conclusion because in Deut. 6:10-11 God says that the Jews can use the houses that they did not build, and the food and supplies found within them when they conquer the land. Since land belonging to Kings Og and Sichon is identified as part of the Jewish people's inheritance, it was permitted to eat or use "as is" everything taken from them. It was only after these wars that Elazar gave the rules about koshering pots and pans.
For millennia no rabbi was able to state publicly a critical theory of this Deuteronomy's authorship. Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 90A warns: "One who says Torah is not from heaven is a heretic and will have no share in the world to come." The fact that this was written shows that some rabbis must have thought about what we have the luxury today to call "the critical theory of biblical authorship." The Ramban (thirteen-century Spanish Nachmanides) was forced to conclude that consuming non-kosher food captured while conquering
The authors of Deuteronomy - and perhaps the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings as well - emphasized centralization of worship and governance. In 622 B.C.E. the High Priest Hilkian found the Book of Deuteronomy while the
Rabbi Jeffrey Tigay writes that some scholars thought that Deuteronomy was written during King Josiah's reign. He suggests that it was written in King Hezekiah's term a century or two before. Hezekiah also was anti-pagan. There is a vigorous monotheistic anti-pagan theme in Deuteronomy. However, much of this book dates back to the ancient times of farmers and herders. There are no city-type laws for merchants, artisans, commerce or even real estate. Tigay believes that some sections of this book go back to the united monarchy in David's time of 1000 B.C.E.
Because Deuteronomy places emphasis on rituals taking place on
Regardless of its authorship, we can agree that this book of Deuteronomy was inspired divinely and we can learn much from it. This parasha is always read in coordination with the fast day of Tisha B'Av. On the ninth day of Av, we fast in commemoration of the destruction of both
The Talmud teaches that the
Just before the
Bar Kamtza then offered to pay for half of the cost of the party, but was again rebuffed. When Bar Kamtza offered to pay for the entire feast, the host stood firm. The answer was still "No!"
Publicly humiliated, Bar Kamtza went to the Roman authorities and claimed that the Jews were rebelling. The Romans investigated and found that, indeed, Jews had not subordinated themselves to
The name Kamtza means "small thing." Bar Kamtza means "son of a small thing," which is even smaller than a small thing. We can learn that the smallest devar (word) can sting like a davar (bee) and cause someone emotional embarrassment and harm. I think we also were supposed to learn this lesson as children when we were read the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty.
The Midrash teaches, "Great is peace, such that even if
We are all Jews regardless of whether we think that the Torah was given on
God wants us "live by the law, not die from it." Let me relate the true story of the composer Charles Valentin Morhange Alkan. Alkan was a nineteenth-century contemporary and friend of Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt, Ms. George Sand and Victor Hugo. They entertained each other in and around
Anyway, the Jewish Alkan disappeared from sight for years when he went into reclusion to study Torah and Talmud. According to David Dubal's The Art of the Piano, Alkan died in 1888 when he "reached for his beloved Talmud, which was resting on top of a massive bookcase, and the structure toppled over, crushing the emaciated musician to death at the age of 75." The laws and Halacha in the Talmud and Torah are fine for some. But let's not die fighting over them.
It would be nice if we could remember that our
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