III-G Historic Jewish Writings on Wilderness and Nature

Judaism has a long tradition of valuing trees and other aspects of God’s creation for spiritual reasons.

Introduction

The premise that “you and what you possess are God’s” (Avot 3:7) underlies most of Talmudic thinking, both about the environment and about the nature of mitzvot in general. The doing of mitzvot acknowledges that we live in a God-centered and not a human-centered universe, that because of God’s ownership, we have a variety of obligations to the Divine Will. The rabbis further believed that many mitzvot, such as the Sabbatical year, had as their central purpose the reaffirmation of God’s ownership of the land (Sanhedrin 39a).

The particular and compelling gift of these sages is that they made their concerns concrete, translated into codes of action.

Rabbi Daniel Swartz

Rabbi ibn Ezra

Great Torah commentator

Wherever I turn my eyes, around on Earth, or to the heavens

I see You in the field of stars; I see You in the yield of the land

in every breath and sound,

a blade of grass, a simple flower, an echo of Your holy Name.

Nachman of Bratzlav

Master of the Universe, grant me the ability to be alone. May it be my custom to go outdoors each day among the trees and grass and all growing things, and there may I be alone, and enter into prayer.

Maggid Sichot, 48

Moses Maimonides (1135 - 1204)

In order to serve God, one needs access to the enjoyment of the beauties of nature, such as the contemplation of flower-decorated meadows, majestic mountains, flowing rivers. For all these are essential to the spiritual development of even the holiest people.

It should not be believed that all the beings exist for the sake of the existence of humanity. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes, and not for the sake of something else.

Note: Both Maimonides and his son, Abraham, wrote that one could come to love God by contemplating God’s great works in nature, and that such contemplation was in fact essential to spiritual development (Sefer HaMada 2:2).

The Jewish philosopher, Bakhya ibn Pekuda, wrote that Jews should engage in “meditation upon creation” to sense God’s majesty (“Duties of the heart,” 137).

Abraham Abulafia began a tradition of Jewish mysticism that included outdoor meditation. And the mystics of Safed developed intricate Tu B’shvat seders to celebrate the presence of God in nature.

Mystics though they were, they did not restrict their relationship with nature to contemplation. They treated nature with great respect in deed as well as thought. “The principles of wisdom must extend to animals, trees and plants” (Tomer Devorah, 3).

Nachmanides

13th century Spain

If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life. (Deut. 22:6)

Torah does not permit a killing that would uproot a species, even if it permitted the killing of individuals of that species. And here, the one who kills the mother and the child on the same day... it is as if that person has made that species extinct.

Commentary to Deuteronomy 22:6

Rabbi Nahum

13th century Sephardic paytan

Winter is gone, gone is my sorrow. The fruit tree is in flower, and my heart flowers with joy. O hunted gazelle (reference to Shekhina, the presence of God), who escaped far from my hut, come back. Trees of delight sway among the shadows.

Israel Baal Shem Tov, 18th century Poland (?)

Nature is the very essence of Diety. Shivkhe Ha-Besht, 329

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch

19th century Germany

Not thine is the earth, but thou belongeth to the earth, to respect it as Divine soil and to deem every one of its creatures a creature of God, thy fellow-being.... Consider the things around you. I lent them to you for wise use only; never forget that I lent them to you. As soon as you use them unwisely, be it the greatest or the smallest, you commit treachery against My world, you commit murder and robbery against My property, you sin against Me! This is what God calls unto you.

Rabbi Stephen Pearce

Rabbi Stephen Pearce, Senior Rabbi of San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El and founder of the Interfaith Task Force to Save the Headwaters Forest, reflects on the Jewish Talmudic tradition (from Eruvin 13b, which was written more than 1500 years ago) and its relevance for forest protection.

“Jewish Biblical tradition demands stewardship of the Earth. The story of Adam and Eve is one which the rabbis chose to comment on. They depicted God admonishing Adam and Eve with these words: ‘See how magnificent and beautiful my world is. Do not corrupt or destroy it, for if you do, there will be no one to set it right after you.’”

About this passage, Rabbi Pearce says that the implication for forests today is that we cannot replace what is irreplaceable. He compares the harvesting of old growth redwood trees to tearing down the Washington Monument and using its stones to build a shopping mall. “We need to treat old-growth forests with the same sanctity that we afford landmark buildings,” he concludes.

Old Jewish folk story

One day a child named Honi saw an old man digging a hole in the earth. Honi asked the man, “Must you do such heavy work at your age? Have you no sons to help you?”

The old man kept digging. “This work I must do myself,” he answered.

Honi asked, “How old are you?”

“I am seventy years and seven,” answered the man.

“And what are you planting?”

“I am planting a bread fruit tree,” was the answer, “and the fruit of this tree can be made into bread.”

“And when will your tree bear fruit?” asked Honi.

“In seventeen years and seven.”

“But you will surely not live that long,” said Honi.

“Yes,” said the old man, “I will probably not live that long, but I still must plant this tree. When I came into this world there were trees here for me. It is my duty to make sure that when I leave, there will still be trees here for others.”

Hasidic Saying

When you walk across the fields with your mind pure and holy,

then from all the stones, and all growing things, and all animals,

the sparks of their soul come out and cling to you, and then they

are purified and become holy fire in you.

Rabbi Schlomo Carlbach

You see, the whole world is praying all the time. The animals and even the leaves on the trees are praying. The way to receive light from God is through praying.

Bal Tashchit:

The development of a Jewish environmental principle

One can see the development not only of Jewish law but of a Jewish environmental ethic by tracing the principle of Bal Tashchit, do not destroy or waste, from its biblical origin through later rabbinic interpretation. The six texts below, arranged in chronological order, show the expansion through time not only of the legal prohibition itself, but also the growing depth of understanding about the ethical dimensions of this prohibition.

Texts

1) When, in your war against a city, you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city? Only trees that you know do not yield food may be destroyed. (Deuteronomy 20:19-20)

2) Whoever breaks vessels, or tears garments, or destroys a building, or clogs a well, or does away with food in a destructive manner violates the negative mitzvah of bal tashchit (Kiddushin 32a) [Talmudic rulings on bal tashchit also prohibit the killing of animals for convenience (Hullin 7b), wasting fuel (Shabbat 67b), and a minority opinion classifies the eating of extravagant foods when one can eat simpler ones as a violation of this precept (Shabbat 140b).]

3) It is forbidden to cut down fruit-bearing trees outside a besieged city, nor may a water channel be deflected from them so that they wither. Whoever cuts down a fruit-bearing tree is flogged. This penalty is imposed not only for cutting it down during a siege; whenever a fruit-yielding tree is cut down with destructive intent, flogging is incurred. It may be cut down, however, if it causes damage to other trees or to a field belonging to another man or if its value for other purposes is greater. The Law forbids only wanton destruction.... Not only one who cuts down trees, but also one who smashes household goods, tears clothes, demolishes a building, stops up a spring, or destroys articles of food with destructive intent transgresses the command "you must not destroy." Such a person is not flogged, but is administered a disciplinary beating imposed by the Rabbis. (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings and Wars 6:8,10)

4) One should be trained not to be destructive. When you bury a person, do not waste garments by burying them in the grave. It is better to give them to the poor than to cast them to worms and moths. Anyone who buries the dead in an expensive garment violates the negative mitzvah of bal tashchit. (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Mourning 14:24)

5) The purpose of this mitzvah [bal tashchit] is to teach us to love that which is good and worthwhile and to cling to it, so that good becomes a part of us and we will avoid all that is evil and destructive. This is the way of the righteous and those who improve society, who love peace and rejoice in the good in people and bring them close to Torah: that nothing, not even a grain of mustard, should be lost to the world, that they should regret any loss or destruction that they see, and if possible they will prevent any destruction that they can. Not so are the wicked, who are like demons, who rejoice in destruction of the world, and they are destroying themselves. (Sefer Ha-Hinukh, #529)

6) Yea, "Do not destroy anything" is the first and most general call of God... If you should now raise your hand to play a childish game, to indulge in senseless rage, wishing to destroy that which you should only use, wishing to exterminate that which you should only exploit, if you should regard the beings beneath you as objects without rights, not perceiving God Who created them, and therefore desire that they feel the might of your presumptuous mood, instead of using them only as the means of wise human activity -- then God's call proclaims to you, "Do not destroy anything! Be a mentsh! Only if you use the things around you for wise human purposes, sanctified by the word of My teaching, only then are you a mentsh and have the right over them which I have given you as a human. However, if you destroy, if you ruin, at that moment you are not a human but an animal and have no right to the things around you. I lent them to you for wise use only; never forget that I lent them to you. As soon as you use them unwisely, be it the greatest or the smallest, you commit treachery against My world, you commit murder and robbery against My property, you sin against Me!" This is what God calls unto you, and with this call does God represent the greatest and the smallest against you and grants the smallest as also the greatest a right against your presumptuousness.... In truth, there is no one nearer to idolatry than one who can disregard the fact that things are the creatures and property of God, and who presumes also to have the right, having the might, to destroy them according to a presumptuous act of will. Yes, that one is already serving the most powerful idols -- anger, pride, and above all ego, which in its passion regards itself as the master of things. (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Horeb, #56)

Discussion

The original biblical prohibition that came to be called bal tashchit (text #1) was very specific. Taken in its most literal sense, it prohibits only the destruction of fruit trees, only when they are destroyed by cutting with an ax, and only during wartime. During Talmudic times, (text #2) the objects, methods of destruction, and situations which fall under bal tashchit were greatly expanded. Early sages reasoned that if the principle applied even under the duress of a war-time situation, how much the more so must it apply at other times (See, e.g. Sifrei on Parashat Shofetim). Similarly, these sages deduced that other means of destruction besides direct destruction with an ax (such as destroying trees by diverting a source of water) were also forbidden. Finally, they ruled by analogy that not only trees, or even natural objects as a whole, were regulated by bal tashchit, but rather anything of potential use, whether created by God or altered by humanity.

Maimonides (text #3) makes explicit this talmudic expansion. He also sets clear limits on bal tashchit. First, it only applies to wanton destruction -- there are exceptions when it is permissible to cut down trees. Second, he distinguishes between the protection of trees, which he considers to be from Torah, and prohibition against destruction in general, which he considers to be rabbinic only, and thus carrying a lighter penalty. He also (text #4) starts moving toward a more general ethical principle underlying bal tashchit -- that it trains a person not to be destructive.

The Sefer Ha-Hinukh (text #5), a thirteenth century text which explicates in detail the 613 mitzvot, elaborates greatly upon this notion of ethical training. It states that the underlying purpose of bal tashchit is to help one to learn to act like the righteous, who oppose all destruction and waste. Doing so helps "good become a part of us." Finally, Rabbi Hirsch (text #6), the leading Orthodox rabbi of nineteenth century Germany, sees in bal tashchit the most basic Jewish principle of all -- acknowledging the sovereignty of God and the limitation of our own will and ego. When we preserve the world around us, we act with the realization that God owns all and is above all. When we destroy, however, we are, in essence, worshipping the idols of our own desires, living only for ego gratification, without a thought for the Divine. (Indeed, in an earlier passage (#62), Sefer Ha-Hinukh goes so far as to state that idolatry concerns God precisely because it is destructive of the natural order.) By observing the mitzvah of bal tashchit, we restore our harmony not only with the world around us, but with the Divine Will, which we place ahead of our own.

Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life