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January 21, 2000/7 Shevat 5760, Vol. 52, No.20
Thinking greenTu b'Shevat's themes reflect increasing spiritual awareness of environmental issues
CHRIS GARIFO
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While Jewish law and tradition have recognized that human beings are caretakers of the earth, rabbis and Jewish environmentalists say it is only fairly recently that Judaism has become environmentally conscious. "We are partners with God in the creation process," says Rabbi David Rebibo of Beth Joseph Congregation in Phoenix. "God created the world, and when he put men on Earth, it was to work and maintain it. God created something, and now it's up to us to properly continue it.... Part of our responsibility in this creative process is to reaffirm God's role as creator by maintaining (the earth) properly." Temple Beth Israel's Rabbi Kenneth I. Segel says humans have failed in their duties. "In our society today, especially in America, we are terribly profligate in God's bounty and we've abused our natural resources," Segel says. "We've polluted the environment, and we've been very selfish in our gluttony and our self-absorption. It has left us in a very sad state of affairs where we've corrupted the ecological balance. We have endangered many species, we've caused tremendous shortages by fouling the air and the water we drink, we've brought on disease, and we're flirting with the potential destruction of the human species. It's a crisis." The Jewish renewal movement that began in the 1970s has sparked a greater interest in the environment. That movement has embraced the festival of Tu b'Shevat, which falls this year on Jan. 22, as a day for Jews to become more involved with the environment. Tu b'Shevat is often referred to as Jewish Arbor Day, a day for planting trees, both here in the United States and in Israel, but its roots go back to the days of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (circa 500 B.C.E. to 70 C.E.), when the festival served as the start of a cycle for assessing the tithe on fruit trees that would be paid to the temple priests. Following the destruction of the Temple, Tu b'Shevat became a festival to recognize Jewish ties to the land of Israel. During the 16th and 17th centuries, kabbalists created the Tu b'Shevat seder, which includes drinking four kinds of wine and eating foods directly connected with Israel. In modern times, Zionists embraced Tu b'Shevat as a day too. In the United States, the focus of Tu b'Shevat has been moving toward a greater interest in the environment. "Tu B'Shevat is always the time of year when people think about (the environment)," says Rabbi Jonathan Seidel, a professor of Judaic studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "The point is, we need to think about it all the time." Seidel is a co-founder of the Southern Arizona affiliate of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL), a national organization started six years ago and headquartered in New York City. Mark X. Jacobs, COEJL's executive director, says, "COEJL's purpose is to work with Jewish institutions and individuals, both at the national and the grassroots level, to develop a distinctively Jewish response to the environmental crisis, mobilizing our tradition, our institutions and our population to address environmental issues in our homes, our local communities and the national and international arenas." Jacobs points to two recent events to illustrate the continuing environmental crisis facing Earth: a report from the National Research Council affirming that the earth's climate is warming as scientists have been predicting; and predictions that the U.S. population will double during the next century, to more than 500 million people. "We are consuming our natural resources at a rate that is not sustainable," Jacobs says. "We're drawing down our natural capital, so to speak. ... We have to create new ways of organizing our consumption and production based on our Jewish values from our perspective." In the year since the its inception, COEJL's Southern Arizona affiliate members have put together a variety of outdoor programs, lectures and seminars on environmental issues from a Jewish perspective.
Seidel says he's surprised at the lack of an organized environmental effort within the Phoenix metropolitan area's Jewish community. "There are more Jews (in the Phoenix area), more synagogues, there should be more attention to the fate of the desert and to water resources in the Valley," Seidel says, adding that eventually he hopes to establish a Phoenix affiliate of COEJL. "It would be a little ironic if it took Southern Arizona to get the Valley going." Seidel has talked with the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix's Jewish Community Relations Council, about a Phoenix COEJL affiliate. Tami Schultz, JCRC director, says the JCRC board plans to consider whether to develop an environmental organization. "I don't see why the Jewish community (in Phoenix) wouldn't be interested in the environment," Schultz says, adding that the biggest need for such an effort would be manpower.
"I would say that Judaism is a newcomer to ecological reflections," Samuelson says, pointing out that COEJL only came into existence in 1993. Samuelson acknowledges that although individual Jews have taken an interest in environmental issues, until the advent of the Jewish renewal movement, most Jews did not recognize the concept of being "eco-kosher." Samuelson explains that Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of the Shalom Center - associated with Aleph: Alliance for Jewish Renewal - in Philadelphia, coined the term "eco-kosher" to mean "a way to live a proper life in regard to the environment." "All of this is based on Jewish sources and showing how the proper relationship to the environment is a social issue, a religious issue and a scientific issue," Samuelson says. "If you live right as a human being - and to live right as a human being involves a social-justice dimension - then you can do justice to the environment." However, Judaism didn't "produce a concern for environmental issues for a very, very long time," Samuelson notes. "The environmental movement, especially in America beginning in the late 19th century and the 20th century, has not been a Jewish movement." Samuelson blames that lack of interest on a variety of problems, including a Bible that spoke with "two voices" on the attitude Jews should have toward the land. Samuelson says that, while biblical tradition established human beings as caretakers of Earth, some biblical passages state that the task of the human is to command the earth. "So, the question is, what does it mean to govern?" Samuelson says. "The other side of the problem is that Jews developed a religious system in which the focus is on the study of sacred text," Samuelson says. "If you believe that that's the ideal life, if that's where the energy should go, then you are separating yourself from the environment." However, that separation appears to be coming to an end. Rabbi Bonnie Koppel of Temple Beth Sholom in Mesa says that for American Jews, conservation goes beyond Tu b'Shevat. "There's a strong bond in Jewish tradition between Jewish people and the cycles of nature," says Koppel. "A connection to the natural rhythms of the planet is built into our observances and our consciousness. We need to make (environmental) consciousness not just theoretical ... but reflecting our commitment as caretakers." Koppel says the synagogues must take a lead in this effort by, among other things, becoming more involved in recycling. Beth Israel's Segel says that, despite the absence of a local Jewish environmental organization, "We do subscribe to a positive (environmental) program and are committed to action. I think it's a human cause, it's universal." Rebibo of Beth Joseph says Tu b'Shevat can be a valuable tool in increasing environmental consciousness. "Certainly, this is an opportunity to reaffirm God's role in the creative process and, at the same time, it's a spiritual time to reawaken man to his (ecological) responsibility," Rebibo says. "There's no doubt that the Torah demands of us that we be conscious of anything that sprouts from the earth. God didn't say, 'Go out and make a fax machine.'" |
