This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter is devoted to the upcoming Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shvat (starting at sundown on January 24 this year) and focuses largely on turning Tu B’Shvat into a Jewish Earth Day.
The newsletter has the following items:
1. ARTICLE: Turning Tu B'Shvat into a Jewish Earth Day
2. CELEBRATING TU B’SHVAT THIS YEAR [5765/ 2005]: Trees, Blessings, and Israel's Ecology
3. ARTICLE: Relating the Postville Slaughterhouse Controversy, Vegetarianism, and Tu B’Shvat
4. ARTICLE: Tu B'Shvat and Vegetarianism
5. Summary of Material for Articles and Letters on Turning Tu B’Shvat into a Jewish Earth Day
6. Resources on Tu B'Shvat and Environmental Issues
7. Sample Letter to the Editor Re Tu B’Shvat
8. Sample Letter to Rabbis Encouraging Them To Have Tu B’Shvat Events
Some material has been deferred to a later update/newsletter to keep this one from being even longer.
[Materials in brackets like this [ ] within an article or forwarded message are my editorial notes/comments.]
Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the JVNA, unless otherwise indicated, but may be presented to increase awareness and/or to encourage respectful dialogue. Also, information re conferences, retreats, forums, trips, and other events does not necessarily imply endorsements by JVNA, but may be presented for informational purposes. Please use e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and web sites to get further information about any event that you are interested in.
As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.
Thanks,
Richard
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1. TURNING TU B’SHVAT INTO A JEWISH EARTH DAY
Richard H. Schwartz
Many contemporary Jews are increasingly looking at Tu B'Shvat (starting on the evening of January 24 this year) as a Jewish “Earth Day,” and using Tu B'Shvat seders as occasions to discuss how Jewish values can be applied to reduce many of today's ecological threats. This is more important than ever today in view of the many environmental problems currently facing the U.S., Israel and our planet.
Tu B’Shvat can be a great opportunity for education about environmental crises locally, nationally, and internationally, with perhaps a special emphasis in some congregations on environmental problems in Israel. It also could help energize our congregations and bring many Jews back to Jewish involvement.
When God created the world, he was able to say, "It is very good". Everything was in harmony as God had planned, the waters were clean, the air was pure. But what must God think about the world today?
What must He think when the rain He sends to nourish our crops is often acid rain due to the many chemicals poured into the air by our industries? when the ozone layer He provided to separate the heavens from the earth is being depleted at such a rapid rate? when the abundance of species of plants and animals He created are becoming extinct in tropical rain forests and other threatened habitats, before we have even cataloged them? when the fertile soil that He provided is rapidly being depleted and eroded? when the climatic conditions that He designed to meet our needs are threatened by global climate change? When there are already many indications of global climate change, such as melting glaciers and polar ice caps, severe storms, droughts, flooding, and insect migrations, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control, a group composed of many of the world’s leading climate scientists, is predicting an increase of 2.5 to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the next hundred years, a change that would have devastating consequences for the planet; when it is projected that the majority of the world’s people will live in areas with insufficient clean water in 30 years. When, along with Israel’s remarkable progress in many areas, it faces a severe water shortage, very badly polluted rivers, air pollution that causes thousands of deaths per year and 17 percent of its children to have asthma, rapidly declining open space, congested roads, and an inadequate mass transit system.
In 1993, over 1,670 scientists, including 104 Nobel laureates signed a "World Scientists' Warning To Humanity." Their introduction stated: "Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about."
These environmental problems are largely due to the fact that the ways of the world are completely contrary to Jewish values:
1. Judaism teaches that “The Earth is the Lord’s” (Psalms 24:1), and that we are to be partners with God in protecting the environment. But today's philosophy is that the earth is to be exploited for maximum profit, regardless of the long-range ecological consequences.
2. Judaism stresses bal tashchit, that we are not to waste or unnecessarily destroy anything of value. By contrast, wastefulness in the United States is so great that, with less than 5% of the world's people we use about a third of the world's resources, and this has a major impact on pollution and resource scarcities.
It is urgent that Torah values be applied toward the solution of current environmental problems. This means, for example: an energy policy based not on dangerous energy sources, but on CARE (conservation and renewable energy), consistent with Jewish teachings on preserving the environment, conserving resources, creating jobs, protecting human lives, and considering future generations.
Tu B'Shvat is the New Year for Trees, the date on which the fate of trees is decided for the coming year. Hence, it is an ideal time to consider the rapid destruction of tropical rain forests and other valuable habitats. It is interesting that the prohibition bal tashchit ("thou shalt not destroy") is based on concern for fruit-bearing trees, since the Torah indicates that even in war time fruit trees may not be destroyed in order to build battering rams to attack an enemy fortification (deuteronomy 20:19.20). This prohibition was extended by the Jewish sages. It it forbidden to cut down even a barren tree or to waste anything if no useful purpose is accomplished (Sefer Ha-Chinuch 530). The sages of the Talmud made a general prohibition against waste: "Whoever breaks vessels or tears garments, or destroys a building, or clogs up a fountain, or destroys food violates the prohibition of bal tashchit" (Kiddushin 32a). In summary, bal tashchit prohibits the destruction, complete or incomplete, direct or indirect, of all objects of potential benefit to people. Imagine the impact if this prohibition was put into practice by society today!
It is customary to recite Psalm 104, as well as other psalms, on Tu B'Shvat. Psalm 104 indicates how God's concern and care extends to all creatures, and illustrates that God created the entire earth as a unity, in ecological balance. Since Jews are to imitate God’s positive attributes, and we are to be a “light unto the nations,” we could have a great impact by being a positive example by imitating God’s concern for all of creation.
Some possibilities for an "Environmental Earth Day" include
1. A Tu B'Shvat seder, with a discussion or guest speaker on an environmental topic;
2. A sermon on Jewish environmental teachings on the Shabbat morning before Tu B’Shvat;
3. an environmentally-conscious kiddush or lunch, with a minimum of waste and an environmental d’var Torah or guest speaker on the Shabbat before Tu B’Shvat;
It would be wonderful if Jews used Tu B’Shvat and activities related to this increasingly important holiday, as occasions to start to make tikkun olam, the repair and healing of the planet, a central focus in Jewish life today. This is essential to help move our precious, but imperiled, planet to a more sustainable path.
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There is much valuable background material on Jewish teachings on environmental issues and Tu B‘Shvat observances at the web site of COEJL (Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life) (www.coejl.org).
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2. CELEBRATING TU B’SHVAT THIS YEAR [5765/ 2005]:
TREES, BLESSINGS, AND ISRAEL’S ECOLOGY
By Jonathan Wolf
[Jonathan is one of the leading authorities on Tu B’Shvat. For many years he organized and conducted innovative Tu B’Shvat seders in his Manhattan apartment.]
The holiday of Tu B’Shvat is a minor one on the Jewish calendar. It appears nowhere in the Bible, and when it first appears in Jewish literature, in the Mishna, its very date is the subject of dispute. Yet today it is an occasion rich with symbolism and significance, because of what it represents: nature and the environment, and the bounty of the Land of Israel.
Tu B’Shvat originated as one of the four New Years prescribed in Jewish law [Mishna Rosh Hashana 1:1]. It was established as the New Year of Trees, a kind of dividing line of the fiscal year for prescribing tithes, orlah (the first 3 years of a tree’s life), and according to some authorities the shmitta (sabbatical) year. Hillel and Shammai disagreed on the date; the school of Hillel (as almost always) was victorious in setting it on the fifteenth of the month of Shvat, when the earth in the Holy Land begins to warm up, the water starts to flow through the ground and the sap to course through the trees, and early-blossoming trees like the Almond (shaked) burst into bloom.
After the destruction of the Temple, the tithe offerings ended and the Jews were dispersed: thus the agricultural laws of the Land of Israel did not apply in most Jewish communities. Tu B’Shvat became a time of celebration and commemoration, recollecting the days when the Jewish people lived on its own land, working to bring forth the fruit of that earth. Numerous customs evolved (such as the colorful “Hamishusar” in some Sephardic communities) and Jews recited blessings and ate fruits, if possible those grown in Israel.
Development of the Seder for Tu B’Shvat: In the 1500’s in the Galilee city of Safed (also called S’fat or Tzfat), identified in the Talmud as one of the Holy Cities in the Land, the circle of Kabbalists who were followers of Rabbi Isaac Luria (the “Ari”) developed a special liturgy for Tu B’Shvat [as they were also inventing the kabbalat shabat service for Friday evenings and the all-night Tikun for Shavuot and Hoshana Rabba]: the Seder Leil Tu B’Shvat. The Kabbalists would stay up all night on Tu B’Shvat reciting their Seder, based loosely on the Passover Seder, which focused on fruits, trees, brachot, and kavvanot: invocations of attention and blessing on the fate of the trees and their fruit during the coming year, similar to the prayers for human life and welfare recited on Rosh Hashana.
The text of the Kabbalists’ Seder included four cups of wine -- evolving in color from entirely white to red-with-a-drop-of-white; the tasting of 21 different fruits, beginning with the Seven Species which according to Deuteronomy 8:8 epitomize the produce of Land of Israel (wheat, barley, olives, dates, grapes, figs, and pomegranates), followed by fruits mentioned in the Bible, particularly in the Song of Songs (etrog, apple, walnut, almond), and the carob (long associated with Tu B’Shvat), pear (discussed in the Mishna), and other fruits and nuts. The order of the Seder was first published in the 1700’s in the volume Pri Etz Hadar, attributed to Rabbi Haim Vital, which details the wines, the fruits, and the passages from Bible, Midrash, Mishna, Talmud, and especially Zohar -- since the Kabbalists found mystical meaning in each reading and tasting. Their Seder also provided for eating from three types of fruits corresponding to three of the four Lurianic “worlds”: wholly edible fruits such as figs for olam habriya (the world of creation), fruits edible on the outside but with pits, such as cherries, representing the world of yetzira (formation), and fruits with outside shells but edible insides such as pistachios, symbolizing the world of asiyah (action). [The fourth kabbalistic world, atzilut (emanation) is considered to be beyond physical representation].
In the last century the Jewish pioneers coming to Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine adopted Tu B’Shvat as an occasion for planting trees as part of the mass Jewish return to the Land and its rebuilding and renewal. The Tu B’Shvat Seder, a ritual which had been little remembered or practiced in most communities, has been revived and reinvented in recent decades. Today, Tu B’Shvat has become an occasion for directing our thoughts and energies to the natural world, to God’s Creation and our assignment to “labor over and preserve” it [l’ovdah ul’shomrah – Genesis 2:15], and to the Land of Israel and its particular sanctity, importance, and fragility.
Create an Eco-Tu B’Shvat! Tu B’Shvat provides an opportunity to dedicate time to enjoying and recognizing the natural world, Israel, and our task of stewardship. Meals, lectures, nature hikes, children’s activities, services, study groups can address and direct our thinking to the Torah’s teachings about our obligations to preserve our world for future generations, the delights and varieties of healthful foods which spring from the earth, and our ties to the historic Jewish homeland in Israel and its rivers and hillsides.
Every synagogue, campus Hillel, havurah, JCC, religious school, senior center, community, and family can invent and adapt its own expression of an Environmental Tu B’Shvat—whether Seder, party, speaker, festive meal, text learning, games, songs, stories, or all-night gathering. This holliday is a propitious and auspicious time for focusing on the earth and its wonders and the ways it supports us and we protect it.
The state of Israel’s environment today: The Land of Israel, central to the genesis of Tu B’Shvat, is not just the place where Jews and Judaism originated, or our future Messianic home: it is also a real country of soil and winds and a remarkable variety of different eco-systems. And that terrain is in terrible trouble. Israel’s air, water, and land are contaminated by ever-increasing pollution. In most of its rivers, fish can only live for a few minutes. The air quality in Jerusalem is projected to become worse than that of Mexico City by 2010. The severe shortage of water supplies is rapidly worsening, as is the problem of garbage and solid waste. The number of automobiles increased one hundredfold in recent decades, while in a small country ideally suited to railways, the entire system of public transportation is inadequate and underfunded. Israel’s toxic waste dumps are overflowing and improperly contained.
As part of an environmentally-related Tu B’Shvat, materials, speakers, and discussions on the many imminent threats to Israel’s environment can be arranged and programmed into the day.
Tzedaka and the Tree of Life: Central to the purpose of celebrating Tu B’Shvat, and of conducting the Tu B’Shvat Seder, are the concepts of gratitude, b’rakhot, and tzedaka. We pray on the New Year of Trees that it should be a healthy, bountiful year for the trees which feed us (particularly those in the Land of Israel for whose produce the legal holiday was created), and the Kabbalists’ Seder multiplies the opportunities for reciting blessings recognizing and thanking our Creator for the cornucopia of flavors and aromas which we ‘taste and see’. Jewish tradition establishes as the most fitting response to our own good fortune and satisfactions the sharing of our joy with others who are in greater need. The Zohar calls the process of giving tzedaka ‘Ilana d’Hayyey’-- Tree of Life – for we magnify and certify our happiness and thankfulness by providing for fellow human beings and for needful causes. Communal festivities can and should include provisions to inform everyone of places and ways to give or send donations which mark and spread our festivity.
Tu B’Shvat provides Jewish groups and communities with a perfect time to talk, study, celebrate, sing and deliberate together about the blessings for which we are grateful, the world we need to rescue, the Holy Land and its riches and dangers, and the harmony of nature.
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3. Relating the Postville Slaughterhouse Controversy, Vegetarianism, and Tu B’Shvat
Should Jews still eat meat?
By Richard Schwartz, Ph.D.
http://www.sdjewishjournal.com/stories/jan05_wb.html
[This article appeared in the January, 2005 issue of the San Diego Jewish Journal and was also forwarded to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)]
With Tu B’Shevat on the horizon and the furor over People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ video of animal abuse at a kosher slaughterhouse in the recent past, it is worth asking the question: Should Jews still eat meat?
For those unaware, in late November, the animals’ activist group PETA came public with video showing the cruel abuse of animals at AgriProcessors’ kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa. The plant is one of the largest in the country and processes meat for the Aaron’s Best/Rabushkin label.
PETA filed a complaint with the United States Department of Agriculture against the plant as well as the Orthodox Union, the New York-based agency responsible for certifying the slaughterhouse as kosher. After initially defending the plant’s practices, the OU switched tracks and took initial steps toward ending the abuses of animals at the Postville slaughterhouse. The OU should be commended for that. But the horrors recorded in Postville are part of a much wider pattern of animal abuse in today’s meat industry.
Many Torah verses stress compassion to animals and Judaism forbids tza’ar ba’alei chayim, inflicting unnecessary pain on animals. However, most farm animals – including most animals raised for kosher consumers – are raised for slaughter on “factory farms” where they are confined in cramped spaces, often drugged and mutilated and denied fresh air, sunlight, exercise and any opportunity to satisfy their natural instincts. Can we continue to ignore the suffering and abuse that many farmed animals experience for their entire lives on factory farms?
Hence, the current controversy involving the Postville facility should be a wake-up call to end not only the mistreatment of animals at slaughterhouses, but also the widespread abuse of animals on factory farms. The Postville exposé would have an even greater value if it also resulted in a reduction or elimination of other violations of Jewish teachings associated with the production and consumption of animal products:
• While Judaism mandates that people should be very careful about preserving their health and their lives, numerous scientific studies have linked animal-based diets directly to heart disease, stroke, many forms of cancer and other chronic degenerative diseases.
• While Judaism teaches that “the earth is the Lord’s” (Psalm 24:1) and that we are God’s partners and co-workers in preserving the world, modern intensive livestock agriculture contributes substantially to soil erosion and depletion, air and water pollution, overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the destruction of tropical rain forests and other habitats, global climate change and other environmental damages.
• While Judaism mandates bal tashchit, not to waste or to unnecessarily destroy anything of value or to use more than is needed, animal agriculture requires the wasteful use of land, water, fuel, grain and other resources.
• While Judaism stresses that we are to assist the poor and share our bread with hungry people, an estimated 20 million people die each year because of hunger and its effects, while more than 70 percent of the grain grown in the U.S. is fed to animals destined for slaughter. It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just one pound of feedlot-raised beef.
• Judaism stresses that we must seek and pursue peace and that violence results from unjust conditions. But, by wasting valuable resources, animal-centered diets perpetuate the widespread hunger and poverty that often lead to instability and war.
Tu B’Shevat is an excellent time to consider shifting towards a plant-centered diet. Consider:
• For the Tu B’Shevat Seder, we eat nuts and fruits and sing songs and recite Biblical verses related to trees and fruits. It is the only sacred meal where we eat only vegetarian, actually vegan, foods. This is consistent with the diet in the Garden of Eden, as indicated by God’s first, completely vegetarian, dietary law:
“And God said: ‘Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree that has seed-yielding fruit – to you it shall be for food.’” (Gen.1:29)
• The Talmud refers to Tu B’Shevat as the New Year for Trees. It is considered to be the date on which the fate of trees is decided for the coming year. In recent years, one of the prime ways of celebrating Tu B’Shevat, especially in Israel, is the planting of trees.
One of the prime reasons for the destruction of tropical rain forests today is to create pastureland and areas to grow feed crops for cattle. To save an estimated 5 cents on each imported fast food hamburger, we are destroying forest areas in countries such as Brazil and Costa Rica – where at least half of the world’s species of plants and animals live – and threatening the stability of the world’s climate. It has been estimated that every vegetarian saves an acre of forest per year
• Both Tu B’Shevat and vegetarianism are connected to today’s environmental concerns. Many contemporary Jews look on Tu B’Shevat as a Jewish earth day and use Tu B’Shevat seders as occasions to discuss how Jewish values can be applied to reduce many of today’s ecological threats.
Clearly, Jewish values and meat consumption are in serious conflict. Considering the horrors of Postville and the ecological lessons of Tu B’Shevat, Jews should seriously consider shifting toward plant-based diets and promoting a switch toward vegetarianism as moral and ecological imperatives. Besides having great benefits for animals, such actions would greatly benefit the health of the Jewish people and others, move our precious but imperiled planet to a more sustainable path and show the relevance of Jewish teachings to the problems confronting the world today.
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D., is author of “Judaism and Vegetarianism,” “Judaism and Global Survival” and “Mathematics and Global Survival” and president of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America.
For feedback, contact editor@sdjewishjournal.com
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4. Tu B'Shvat and Vegetarianism
by Richard Schwartz
Tu B'Shvat is arguably the most vegetarian of Jewish holidays, because of its many connections to vegetarian themes and concepts:
1. The Tu B'Shvat Seder in which fruits and nuts are eaten, along with the singing of songs and the recitation of Biblical verses related to trees and fruits, is the only sacred meal where only vegetarian, actually vegan, foods, are eaten as part of the ritual. This is consistent with the diet in the Garden of Eden, as indicated by God's first, completely vegetarian, dietary law:
And God said: "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree that has seed-yielding fruit--to you it shall be for food." (Gen.1:29)2. The Talmud refers to Tu B'Shvat as the New Year for Trees. It is considered to be the date on which the fate of trees is decided for the coming year. In recent years, one of the prime ways of celebrating Tu B'Shvat, especially in Israel, is through the planting of trees. Vegetarianism also reflects a concern for trees. One of the prime reasons for the destruction of tropical rain forests today is to create pasture land and areas to grow feed crops for cattle. To save an estimated 5 cents on each imported fast food hamburger, we are destroying forest areas in countries such as Brazil and Costa Rica, where at least half of the world's species of plants and animals live, and threatening the stability of the world's climate. It has been estimated that every vegetarian saves an acre of forest per year.
3. Both Tu B'Shvat and vegetarianism are connected to today's environmental concerns. Many contemporary Jews look on Tu B'Shvat as a Jewish earth day, and use Tu B'Shvat seders as occasions to discuss how Jewish values can be applied to reduce many of today's ecological threats. When God created the world, he was able to say, "It is very good" (Genesis 1:31). Everything was in harmony as God had planned, the waters were clean, the air was pure. However, what must God think about the world today? What must God think when the rain he sends to nourish our crops is often acid rain due to the many chemicals poured into the air by our industries? when the ozone layer that He provided to separate the heavens from the earth is being depleted at such a rapid rate? when the abundance of species of plants and animals that He created are becoming extinct in tropical rain forests and other threatened habitats, before we are even been able to catalog them? when the fertile soil that He provided is rapidly being depleted and eroded? when the climatic conditions that He designed to meet our needs are threatened by global warming? An ancient midrash has become all too relevant today:
In the hour when the Holy one, blessed be He, created the first person, He showed him the trees in the Garden of Eden, and said to him: "See My works, how fine they are; Now all that I have created, I created for your benefit. Think upon this and do not corrupt and destroy My world, For if you destroy it, there is no one to restore it after you." Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28Today's environmental threats can be compared in many ways to the Biblical ten plagues, which are in the Torah portions in the weeks immediately preceding Tu B'Shvat: When we consider the threats to our land, water, and air, pesticides and other chemical pollutants, resource scarcities, threats to our climate, etc., we can easily enumerate ten modern "plagues". The Egyptians were subjected to one plague at a time, while the modern plagues are threatening us simultaneously. The Jews in Goshen were spared the Biblical plagues, while every person on earth is imperiled by the modern plagues. Instead of an ancient Pharoah's heart being hardened, our hearts today have been hardened by the greed, materialism, and waste that are at the root of current environmental threats. God provided the Biblical plagues to free the Israelites, while today we must apply God's teachings in order to save ourselves and our precious but endangered planet. The Talmudic sages assert that people's role is to enhance the world as "co-partners of God in the work of creation" (Shabbat 10a). They indicated great concern about preserving the environment and preventing pollution. They state: "It is forbidden to live in a town which has no garden or greenery" (Kiddushin 4:12; 66d). Threshing floors had to be placed far enough from a town so that it would not be dirtied by chaff carried by winds (Baba Batra 2:8). Tanneries had to be kept at least 50 cubits from a town and could be placed only on the east side of a town, so that odors would not be carried by the prevailing winds from the west (Baba Batra 2:8,9). The rabbis express a sense of sanctity toward the environment: "the atmosphere (air) of the land of Israel makes one wise" (Baba Batra 158b). Again, vegetarianism is consistent with this important Jewish environmental concern, since modern intensive livestock agriculture contributes to many current environmental problems, including soil erosion and depletion, air and water pollution, the destruction of habitats, and potential global warming.
4. Both Tu B'Shvat and vegetarianism embody the important teaching that "The earth is the Lord's" (Psalm. 24:1) and that people are to be stewards of the earth, to see that its produce is available for all God's children. Property is a sacred trust given by God; it must be used to fulfill God's purposes. No person has absolute or exclusive control over his or her possessions. The concept that people have custodial care of the earth, as opposed to ownership, is illustrated by this ancient story:
Two men were fighting over a piece of land. Each claimed ownership and bolstered his claim with apparent proof. To resolve their differences, they agreed to put the case before the rabbi. The rabbi listened but could come to no decision because both seemed to be right. Finally he said, "Since I cannot decide to whom this land belongs, let us ask the land." He put his ear to the ground and, after a moment, straightened up. "Gentlemen, the land says it belongs to neither of you but that you belong to it."
With their concern about the preservation and expansion of forests and their focus on plant-based foods, both Tu B'Shvat and vegetarianism, reflect this important Jewish teaching.
5. Tu B'Shvat and vegetarianism both reflect the Torah mandate that we are not to waste or destroy unnecessarily anything of value. It is interesting that this prohibition, called bal tashchit ("thou shalt not destroy") is based on concern for fruit-bearing trees, as indicated in the following Torah statement: When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shall not destroy (lo tashchit) the trees thereof by wielding an ax against them; for thou mayest eat of them but thou shalt not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of thee? Only the trees of which thou knoweth that they are not trees for food, them thou mayest destroy and cut down, that thou mayest build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it fall. (Deut. 20:19-20)
This prohibition against destroying fruit-bearing trees in time of warfare was extended by the Jewish sages. It it forbidden to cut down even a barren tree or to waste anything if no useful purpose is accomplished (Sefer Ha-Chinuch 530). The sages of the Talmud made a general prohibition against waste: "Whoever breaks vessels or tears garments, or destroys a building, or clogs up a fountain, or destroys food violates the prohibition of bal tashchit" (Kiddushin 32a). In summary, bal tashchit prohibits the destruction, complete or incomplete, direct or indirect, of all objects of potential benefit to people. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch states that bal tashchit is the first and most general call of God: We are to "regard things as God's property and use them with a sense of responsibility for wise human purposes. Destroy nothing! Waste nothing!" (Horeb; Chapter 56, #401) He indicates that destruction includes using more things (or things of greater value) than is necessary to obtain one's aim. (Horeb; Chapter 56, #399) The important Torah mandate of bal tashchit is consistent with vegetarianism, since, compared to plant-based diets, animal -centered diets require far more land, water, energy, and other agricultural resources.
6. Tu B'Shvat reflects a concern about future generations. In ancient times it was a custom to plant a cedar sapling on the birth of a boy and a cypress sapling on the birth of a girl. The cedar symbolized strength and stature of a man, while the cypress signified the fragrance and gentleness of a woman. When the children were old enough, it was their task to care for the trees that were planted in their honor. It was hoped that branches from both types of trees would form part of the chupah (bridal canopy) when the children married. Another example of the Jewish concern for the future that is expressed through the planting of trees is in the following story: Choni (the rainmaker) was walking along a road when he saw an old man planting a carob tree. Choni asked him: "How many years will it take for this tree to yield fruit?" The man answered that it would take seventy years. Choni then asked: "Are you so healthy a man that you expect to live that length of time and eat of its fruit?" The man answered: "I found a fruitful world because my ancestors planned for me. So I will do the same for my children." Vegetarianism also reflects concern about the future since this diet puts a minimum of strain on the earth and its ecosystems and requires far less water, land, energy, and other scarce agricultural resources than animal-centered diets.
7. It is customary to recite Psalm 104, as well as other psalms, on Tu B'Shvat. Psalm 104 indicates how God's concern and care extends to all creatures, and illustrates that God created the entire earth as a unity, in ecological balance:...Thou [God] art the One Who sends forth springs into brooks, that they may run between mountains,To give drink to every beast of the fields; the creatures of the forest quench their thirst.Beside them dwell the fowl of the heavens;...Thou art He Who waters the mountains from His upper chambers;...Thou art He Who causes the grass to spring up for the cattle and herb, for the service of man, to bring forth bread from the earth....How manifold art Thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is full of Thy property....
Vegetarianism also reflects concern for animals and all of God's creation, since for many people it is a refusal to take part in a system that involves the cruel treatment and slaughter of 9 billion farm animals in the United States alone annually, and, as indicated above, that puts so much stress on the earth and its resources.
8. Both Tu B'Shvat and vegetarianism are becoming increasingly popular today; Tu B'Shvat because of an increasing interest in and concern about nature and environmental issues, and vegetarianism because of increasing concern about health, the treatment of animals, and also the environment and the proper use of natural resources.
9. On Tu B'Shvat , the sap begins to fill the trees and their lives are renewed for another year of blossom and fruit. A shift toward vegetarianism means, in a sense, that there is an increased feeling of concern for the earth and all its inhabitants, and there is a renewal of the world's people's concerns about more life-sustaining approaches.
In 1993, over 1,670 scientists, including 104 Nobel laureates - a majority of the living recipients of the prize in the sciences - signed a "World Scientists' Warning To Humanity." Their introduction stated: "Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about." The scientists' analysis discussed threats to the atmosphere, water resources, oceans, soil, living species, and forests. Their warning: "we the undersigned, senior members of the world's scientific community, hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided.”
With the world's ecosystems threatened as never before, it is important that Jews increasingly discover the important ecological messages of Tu B'Shvat. Similarly, it is also urgent that Jews and others recognize that a shift toward vegetarianism, the diet most consistent with Tu B'Shvat, is not only an important individual choice today, but increasingly it is a Jewish imperative since the realities of modern intensive livestock agriculture and the consumption of animal products are inconsistent with many basic Jewish values, as well as a societal imperative, necessary for economic and ecological stability.
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5. Summary of Material for Articles and Letters on Turning Tu B’Shvat into a Jewish Earth Day
Richard H. Schwartz
When God created the world, He was able to say, "It is very good". Everything was in harmony as God had planned, the waters were clean, the air was pure. But what must God think about the world today?
What must He think when the rain He sends to nourish our crops is often acid rain due to the many chemicals poured into the air by our industries? when the ozone layer He provided to separate the heavens from the earth is being depleted? when the abundance of species of plants and animals He created are becoming extinct in tropical rain forests and other threatened habitats? when the fertile soil that He provided is rapidly being depleted and eroded? when the climatic conditions that He designed to meet our needs are threatened by global warming?
Today's environmental threats can be compared in many ways to the Biblical ten plagues, which appear in the Torah portions read on the Shabbats immediately preceding Tu B'Shvat. When we consider the threats to our land, water, and air, pesticides and other chemical pollutants, resource scarcities, threats to our climate, etc., we can easily enumerate ten modern "plagues." Like the ancient Pharaoh, our hearts have been hardened by the greed, materialism, and waste that are at the root of current environmental threats. While the Egyptians were subjected to one plague at a time, the modern plagues are occurring simultaneously. While the Jews in Goshen were spared most of the Biblical plagues, every person on earth is imperiled by the modern plagues.
An ancient midrash (rabbinical teaching on a Torah concept) has become all too relevant today:
In the hour when the Holy one, blessed be He, created the first person, God showed him the trees in the Garden of Eden, and said to him: "See My works, how fine they are; Now all that I have created, I created for your benefit. Think upon this and do not corrupt and destroy My world, For if you destroy it, there is no one to restore it after you."
Current Environmental Threats
Here are just a few facts to indicate the urgency of the situation:
* While there are already many indications of global climate change, such as melting glaciers and polar ice caps, severe storms, droughts, flooding, and insect migrations, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control, a group composed of many of the world’s leading climate scientists, is predicting an increase of 2.5 to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the next hundred years, a change that would have devastating consequences for the planet.
* The world’s biodiversity significantly reduced as species of plants and animals are becoming extinct at perhaps the fastest rate in history.
* It is projected that 3 billion of the world’s people will live in areas with insufficient clean water in 30 years.
* While Israel has made remarkable progress in many areas, it faces a severe water shortage, very badly polluted rivers, air pollution that causes an estimated thousand deaths per year and 17 percent of its children to have asthma, rapidly declining open space, congested roads, and an inadequate mass transit system.
In 1993, over 1,670 scientists, including 104 Nobel laureates signed a "World Scientists' Warning To Humanity." Their introduction stated: "Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about."
Jewish Environmental Teachings
Today’s environmental problems are largely due to the fact that the ways of the world are completely contrary to Jewish values:
* Judaism teaches that "The Earth is the Lord’s" (Psalms 24:1), and that we are to be partners with God in protecting the environment. But today's philosophy is that the earth is to be exploited for maximum profit, regardless of the long-range ecological consequences.
* Judaism stresses bal tashchit, that we are not to waste or unnecessarily destroy anything of value. By contrast, wastefulness in the United States is so great that, with less than 5% of the world's people we use about a third of the world's resources, and this has a major impact on pollution and resource scarcities.
* Judaism asserts that a wise person considers the long-range consequences of his/her actions and that we must plan for future generations; but the way of the world today is often to consider only immediate gains.
It is urgent that Torah values be applied toward the solution of current environmental problems. This means, for example: an energy policy based not on dangerous energy sources, but on CARE (conservation and renewable energy), consistent with Jewish teachings on preserving the environment, conserving resources, creating jobs, protecting human lives, and considering future generations.
Tu B’Shvat’s Environmental Connections
Tu B’Shvat, the fifteenth day of the month of Shvat, is known as the "New Year for Trees" (In Hebrew:Rosh Hashanah la'Ilanot ). This date determines the end of the "fiscal year" for trees for tithing purposes; in the time of the Temple, fruit that ripened before the fifteenth of Shvat was taxed for the previous year, fruit that ripened later, for the following year. The Mishnah mentions four different new years during the Jewish cylical year, the new year for the trees (for purposes of tithes and similar laws) being one.
Tu B’shvat marks the early beginnings of the spring season in Israel, at the time of the almond tree blossom. Today, it is a day when thousands of Israeli school children flock to forests to dig holes and pack dirt around tender seedlings and saplings.
Tu B'Shvat, symbolizes our appreciation not only for the utility and beauty of trees, but also, for what they symbolize - renewal and growth. It is a day dedicated to the praises of the Land of Israel, as this is the season when the land begins to overflow with a new harvest and many fruits. It is also a time when we focus on our ecological responsibilities. the very first task assigned to humans by G-d, was (and is) to care for the environment. "…G-d took man and put him into the garden [Garden of Eden] to work it and guard it." (Genesis, 1:15). Jewish texts stress the importance of planting and taking care of trees, for the benefit of both present and future generations.
In the seventeenth century the kabbalists in Safed, Israel created a Tu B’Shvat seder, patterned on elements of the Passover seder, a special festive meal of fruits and nuts, four cups of wine, accompanied by many berakhot (blessings) and scriptural readings on the fruits of Israel, which they invested with mystical and symbolic meanings. The kabbalists looked on the eating of fruits with the proper blessings and spiritual intentions as a way to have a tikkun (repair) for the sin of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
In recent years, Jewish communities around the world have begun to celebrate Tu B'Shvat as a "Jewish Earth Day"--organizing seders, tree-plantings, ecological restoration activities, and educational events, all of which provide an opportunity to express a Jewish commitment to protecting the earth. Many contemporary Jews are increasingly using the day to discuss and focus on ecological threats — destruction of tropical rain forests; global climate change; acid rain poured into the air by our industries; a rapidly depleted ozone layer; plants and animals quickly becoming extinct; depleted soil. This is more important than ever today in view of the many environmental problems currently facing Israel and our planet.
Tu B’Shvat can be a great opportunity for education about environmental crises locally, nationally, and internationally, with perhaps a special emphasis in some congregations on environmental problems in Israel. It also could help energize our congregations and bring many Jews back to Jewish involvement.
Since Tu B'Shvat is the New Year for Trees, the date on which the fate of trees is decided for the coming year, it is an ideal time to consider the rapid destruction of tropical rain forests and other valuable habitats. It is interesting that the prohibition bal tashchit ("thou shalt not destroy") is based on concern for fruit-bearing trees, since the Torah indicates that even in war time fruit trees may not be destroyed in order to build battering rams to attack an enemy fortification (Deuteronomy 20:19.20). This prohibition was extended by the Jewish sages. It is forbidden to cut down even a barren tree or to waste anything if no useful purpose is accomplished (Sefer Ha-Chinuch 530). The sages of the Talmud made a general prohibition against waste: "Whoever breaks vessels or tears garments, or destroys a building, or clogs up a fountain, or destroys food violates the prohibition of bal tashchit" (Kiddushin 32a). In summary, bal tashchit prohibits the destruction, complete or incomplete, direct or indirect, of all objects of potential benefit to people. Imagine the impact if this prohibition was put into practice by society today!
Fortunately, there has already been some movement in the Jewish community toward applying Jewish values to today’s environmental crises. Integrating environmental concern into Jewish life is the full-time mission of COEJL, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life. Founded in 1993, it embraces 29 national Jewish organizations across the religious and communal spectrum and 13 regional affliates and serves as the voice of the Jewish community on environmental issues in Washington, DC. The group also works closely with other faith communities through the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. COEJL's recent work has focused on energy conservation and global climate change. They are organizing Jewish individuals and institutions across the U.S. to advocate increases in fuel economy standards to reduce our reliance on oil.
"Protecting creation is a central part of what it must mean to be a Jew today," said Mark X. Jacobs, COEJL's executive director. "The integrity of our global environment, of God's creation, is threatened by human action. It is our responsibility as Jews to do something about it. Tu B'Shvat is a natural time to learn about environmental issues and what we can do to help."
In view of the many environmental threats today, it is essential that Jews use Tu B’Shvat and activities related to this increasingly important holiday, as occasions to make tikkun olam, the repair and healing of the planet, a central focus in Jewish life today. This is essential to help move our planet to a more sustainable path.
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Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, College of Staten Island, is author of Judaism and Vegetarianism, Judaism and Global Survival, and Mathematics and Global Survival., and over 100 articles at jewishveg.com/schwartz.
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6. RESOURCES ON TU B’SHVAT AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
[Resources compiled by Jonathan Wolf, a long-time environmental, vegetarian, and social justice activist.]
a. WEBSITES
Adam Teva V'Din: The Israel Union for Environmental Defense
http://www.iued.org/il/eng/
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL)
http://www.coejl.org/
Ministry of Environment (Israel)
http://www.environment.gov.il
http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/gov/environ.html
Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel
www.teva.org.il/e
Richard Schwartz’s articles
http://jewishveg.com/schwartz
Shalom Center
http://www.shalomctr.org/
Sierra Club
http://www.sierraclub.org/
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)
http://www.ucsusa.org/
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
http://www.epa.gov
Many Links to Tu B’Shvat (including Tu B’Shvat Haggadahs)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Tu+B%27Shvat&btnG=Google+Search
b. BOOKS
Buxbaum, Yitzhak. A Person Is Like a Tree: A Sourcebook for Tu B’Shvat. Northvale, NJ; Jerusalem: Jason Aronson, 2000.
Schwartz, Richard H. Judaism and Global Survival. New York: Lantern Books, 2002. (A free copy of this book will be sent to each person who contacts the author at rschw12345@aol.com and indicates that it will be used as background for a Tu B’Shvat environmental program.)
Waskow, Arthur, editor. Torah of the Earth: Exploring 4,000 Years of Ecology in Jewish Thought. Volumes 1 and 2. Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2000.
Waskow, Arthur, et al. Trees, Earth, and Torah: A Tu B’Shvat Anthology. Philadelphia: Jewish Publishing Society, 1999.
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7. Sample Letter to the Editor Re Tu B’Shvat
Dear Editor:
Many contemporary Jews look on Tu B'Shvat (January 24-25 this year) as a Jewish ‘Earth Day,’ and use Tu B'Shvat seders as occasions to discuss how Jewish values can be applied to reduce many of today's ecological threats. This is more important than ever in view of the many environmental threats currently facing our planet.
While Judaism teaches that “The Earth is the Lord’s” (Psalms 24:1), and that we are to be partners with God in preserving the environment, there are daily news reports about water shortages, air and water pollution, the effects of global climate change, and soil erosion and depletion. Tu B'Shvat is the New Year for Trees, the date on which the fate of trees is decided for the coming year. Hence, it is an ideal time to consider the rapid destruction of tropical rain forests and other valuable habitats. While Israel has made remarkable progress in many areas, it faces recurrent droughts, very badly polluted rivers, severe air pollution in its major cities and industrial areas, rapidly declining open space, congested roads, and an inadequate mass transit system.
In view of the above and much more, I urge Jews to use Tu B’Shvat and activities related to this increasingly important holiday, as occasions to start to make tikkun olam, the repair and healing of the planet, a central focus in Jewish life today.
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.
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8. Sample Letter to Rabbis Encouraging Them To Have Tu B’Shvat Events
Dear Rabbi,
Many contemporary Jews look on Tu B'Shvat (January 24-25 this year) as a Jewish ‘Earth Day,’ and use Tu B'Shvat seders as occasions to discuss how Jewish values can be applied to reduce many of today's ecological threats. This is more important than ever in view of the many environmental threats currently facing our planet.
While Judaism teaches that “The Earth is the Lord’s” (Psalms 24:1), and that we are to be partners with God in preserving the environment, there are daily news reports about water shortages, air and water pollution, the effects of global climate change, and soil erosion and depletion. Tu B'Shvat is the New Year for Trees, the date on which the fate of trees is decided for the coming year. Hence, it is an ideal time to consider the rapid destruction of tropical rain forests and other valuable habitats. While Israel has made remarkable progress in many areas, it faces recurrent droughts, very badly polluted rivers, severe air pollution in its major cities and industrial areas, rapidly declining open space, congested roads, and an inadequate mass transit system.
In view of the above and much more, I urge you to use Tu B’Shvat and activities related to this increasingly important holiday, to start to make tikkun olam, the repair and healing of the planet, a central focus in Jewish life today. It can also help to revitalize Judaism by showing that our eternal teachings have relevance in responding to current environmental threats.
I hope that the articles and lists of resources below will be helpful in planning Tu B’Shvat events. Please let me know if I can help in any other way.
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