The following was originally published in a column in The SHPiEL, a bi-weekly student-run Jewish student newspaper at the University of Florida.
Thinking Outside the Lox
With Rabbi Yonah Schiller
Green Is So Yesterday
Everyone has gotten on the ?Green Wagon:? politicians, celebrities, movies, corporations. Even my youngest daughter?s tushy is swathed in reusable cloth diapers. Yes, the green monster is not to be avoided. In all likelihood, it is going to get much worse?or better.
So perhaps the Jewish people should get with the program? After all, it would be good PR on behalf of the Jewish faith to formulate a solid green-policy position using traditional sources to answer all those who view Judaism as archaic and irrelevant.
It?s too late. The Jews have been bed buddies with the trees since the beginning. We?re invested in preserving the environment like Romney is in his hair. You don?t have to look far into the Jewish tradition to see that there is an inherent relationship to the environmental movement, regardless of your politics?or Romney?s hair.
Most basic, is the classic creation story in the Torah which places the first person in the Garden of Eden as a culmination of the world?s genesis. Clearly the message is that the human beings? relationship to the land is essential. More powerfully, the first person is not just placed in the Garden, but has a specific mandate to ?work and guard? the land. Hence the Green movement is born?and subsequently forgotten.
It is hard to go through the Jewish calendar and not unearth a Jewish holiday that doesn?t have the land?s produce or seasonal cycle at the heart of its celebration and meaning. The major theme of Passover is the ushering in of the spring, and its seasonal metaphor of the Jews blossoming from slavery to freedom. Shevuot and Sukkot both serve as harvest festivals, with the latter marking the time of the first rains. We also erect a sukkah (a temporary outdoorsy booth) harkening to the time when the harvesters would dwell in the field booths.
It is also a pretty good guess that Jewish law (halacha) will have something to say on the matter. It usually does. There is a concept called Bal Tashchit (find a local hebreasist to help you pronounce this one), which means ?do not destroy,? and has origins in the Torah (Deut. 20:19). This concept has been applied to prohibit many instances of needless destruction. In addition to it serving as firm Jewish legal ground for recycling, the prohibition of Bal Tashchit can quite readily be applied to the larger overarching need for the preservation of our environment.
Destroying things sometimes cannot be avoided, such as when saving or significantly benefiting human life. We must apply all of our competing values and ultimately determine our priorities. Yet, there are instances when it is clear to everyone, irrespective of your special interests when destruction is the only option. Again see: Romney?s hair.
Once again the Torah outdoes itself, ahead of its time. As a people and as active citizens, we have to figure out how to apply these ancient precepts to an increasingly conscious world. The Jewish belief is that with the passage of time, we are unfolding the perfection of the world. The pace at which that happens will be determined by the rate at which we participate in the process of its perfection. And if you don?t believe in perfection, just look at?