What a Wonderful World
Question
My son’s school is celebrating Tu B’shvat this year by handing out dried fruit and planting trees, teaching the kids about caring for the environment. Is caring about the environment a “contemporary” Jewish value? Or is there a traditional basis for it too?
Answer
Standing around a tree singing happy birthday to it has some great kumbaya vibes. That might work for a charming children’s Tu B’Shvat celebration. But an intelligent, thinking adult such as yourself might want to find out more about why we’d celebrate trees, why we'd do it in the dead of winter, and how all the trees of the earth could possibly share a birthday. Tu B’Shvat can give you a lot to think about!
Now, on to the environment!
During the weekly Torah portions this time of year, we read about how Moses couldn’t bring himself to hit the ground or the Nile with his staff in order to bring on the plagues. Why? Out of gratitude. Because these natural elements were critical in shaping the events of his life. The sandy earth “hid” the Egyptian slave master that he killed defending a Jewish slave, and the Nile was his “home” when his mother set him afloat in his basket to protect him from the Egyptian infanticide. I would surmise that Moses, smart Jewish boy that he was, knew good and well that neither the Earth nor the water had done those acts of kindness consciously, nor would they feel any pain from his staff. But there was a deep respect and appreciation for the role that these arguably inanimate objects played in his life. Thus, there is certainly a precedent in the “Jewish greatness profile” for recognition of, and gratitude for, nature.
The big mistake would be to look at Moses and think “Nah, that kind of behavior is only for the greats.” We should all aspire to be the greats. Moses, apparently, embodied that kind of greatness without a script. We, on the other hand, in the absence of such developed intuition, try to emulate those behaviors by using Jewish law as our guide -- it shows us how to reach those levels of personal refinement, of sensitivity, of wisdom. So what does the law tell us about respecting our environment? Welcome to Jewish Environmentalism 101!
The Torah teaches us to make blessings over every single bit (literally) of physical material we consume from the earth before we use it. To experience and express gratitude for how it benefits us.
The Torah teaches us to make blessings when we encounter beautiful natural sights -- rainbows and oceans, for example -- to help us step back and realize how intricate and wondrous the world around us actually is.
The Torah warns us to be careful not to waste food or other resources, because we value what we have.
The Torah prohibits killing or causing pain to any living creature unnecessarily. Because we show compassion to all of God’s creations. Not just the ones that help us, but even the ones that just annoy us (we’re looking at you, mosquito).
The Torah prohibits cutting down fruit trees, unless someone’s life is at stake. To remind us that just as a tree needs and deserves time, space and patience to be fruitful, people need time and space and patience in order to express their potential.
We don’t just talk the talk of environmental awareness. We walk the walk, too. The above are concrete actions that are intended to infuse us with respect for the wonderful home we’ve been given. That awareness should yield thoughtful and deliberate practical steps to protect our planet, whether that’s surrounding carbon emissions or paper waste or water pollution.
The hallmark of a Jew, according to the Torah, is gratitude. Caring about the environment shouldn’t just be a political stance. It’s a value because it makes sense. Just think about how amazing it is for a minute, and it’ll blow your mind! We were given a wonderfully perfect home on Earth with the perfect balance of conditions to allow for a rich and productive human life. We have a colorful, diverse planet, with a magnetic field that shields us from solar winds and a carbon cycle that protects it from overheating, and a planet that recycles water naturally and animals that decompose into fertilizer and fruit that change colors when they turn ripe and animals and plants that help each other survive. And that’s just the first few I thought of! (How many can you think of over the next minute?)
We show appreciation not because the trees need to hear us say thank you (and no, they don’t hear you singing them happy birthday!) but because appreciation builds better people. And better people build a better world.