Beyond Tu
B'Shvat: An Open Letter to Jewish Environmental Activists
Tu B'Shvat, the New Year of the Trees, has become the favorite Jewish
holiday for many Jewish environmentalists. They are excited by a holiday which makes us conscious of the spiritual significance of trees, and
they view the celebration of this holiday as an opportunity to explore Torah teachings concerning ecology and the need to preserve the
environment. In fact, Torah and the environment will be the theme of many Tu B'Shvat celebrations this year.
In this spirit, I would
like to share with you an excerpt from an article titled "Celebrating Tu B'Shvat This Year (5763/2003): Trees, Shabbat, and Israel's
Ecology." The article was written by Jonathan Wolf, an old friend who has been a leading figure in the revival of the Tu B'Shvat Seder, as
well as a leading environmental activist within the Jewish community. In the following excerpt, Jonathan discusses the special significance of
this year's Tu B'Shvat which falls on Shabbat - the sacred seventh day:
"When Tu B'Shvat occurs on Shabbat, it is an especially
appropriate day to commemorate the magnificence of God's handiwork and our responsibilities to care for it. The Sabbath is central to
virtually all of the Torah's insights and instructions concerning the Earth and its protection. The prohibitions and obligations which are
part of Shabbat observance, according to many rabbinic sources, aim to take us away from our weekday preoccupation with changing and leaving
our mark on the world: to make us withdraw from acquiring and restructuring, in order that we may reflect on and recognize the beauty and
integrity of Creation. Shabbat is a foretaste of the World to Come, a day on which we accept and respect the world as it is, rather than trying
to build or destroy elements within it."
Jonathan's thoughtful comments offer a challenge to all Jewish environmental activists, for he
writes, "The Sabbath is central to virtually all of the Torah's insights and instructions concerning the Earth and its protection." If so,
then we need to go beyond Tu B'Shvat, and give greater emphasis to the importance of Shabbat. After all, Tu B'Shvat is celebrated once a
year, but Shabbat is celebrated every week!
The observance of Shabbat is a valuable discipline for all Jews, for this discipline helps us
to develop a more humble and spiritual view of the human being's role on this earth. As Jonathan wrote: "The prohibitions and obligations
which are part of Shabbat observance, according to many rabbinic sources, aim to take us away from our weekday preoccupation with changing and
leaving our mark on the world: to make us withdraw from acquiring and restructuring, in order that we may reflect on and recognize the beauty
and integrity of Creation." Let us therefore examine some of the teachings, laws, and customs of Shabbat and their relevance to the
environmental crisis facing us today:
"Kabbalah" refers to the hidden wisdom of Torah, and there is a kabbalistic teaching that Shabbat
represents the "Shechinah" - the Divine Presence that seeks to dwell with us on this earth. There is an ancient custom to go out into the
fields as the sun sets on Friday and to greet the Shechinah with the following words: "Enter O Bride, the Shabbat Queen." With the arrival of
Shabbat, we acknowledge that the Shechinah is the Sovereign of the earth! In addition, we are to demonstrate on Shabbat that human beings are
not the sovereigns of the earth; thus, the way we relate to the earth and its creatures undergoes a change on Shabbat, and the following verse
can serve as an example:
"Six days shall you do your tasks, and on the seventh day you shall cease, so that your ox and your donkey
yanuach (may be content), and your maidservant's son and the stranger may refresh their spirits." (Exodus 23:12)
The above verse
includes a mandate to allow our animals to experience rest and contentment on Shabbat. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, in his commentary on this
verse, writes: "The Sabbath is a school for teaching the recognition of every other creature beside oneself as being equally a child and object
of the same Creator; and this freeing all creatures from the mastery of the human being is one of the objectives of the Sabbath."
In the
above verse, we find the Hebrew word "yanuach" - to be content, to rest. According to our sages, the term "yanuach" is teaching us that, in
addition to resting on Shabbat, our animals must be free to go into the fields and graze undisturbed. In this way, they will be "content"
(Mechilta).
Even our relationship to plant life and inanimate objects undergoes a change on Shabbat, as it is written:
"And the
seventh day is a Shabbat to the Compassionate One, your God; you shall not perform any kind of melacha..." (Exodus 20:10)
In biblical
Hebrew, the term "melacha" refers to skilled or creative work. Rabbi Hirsch, in his commentary on this verse, explains that physical exertion
is not one of the basic criteria of "melacha." He writes:
"The term occurs almost 200 times in Scripture, and among these there is not
one single instance of the word being used to denote strenuous activity. Likewise, the slave labor performed by the Children of Israel in Egypt
is never described as "melacha."
According to the Torah, if I lift a heavy piece of furniture on Shabbat, I am not guilty of violating
the prohibition against melacha, even though such an activity, say the sages, is not in keeping with the Shabbat spirit. But if I pluck a leaf
off a tree or plant a seed in the earth, then I have violated the commandment not to perform melacha on Shabbat. For a study of halacha - Torah
law - reveals that the definition of work on Shabbat is not physical exertion, but an activity whereby the human being transforms anything in
the environment for his or her own use such as for food, clothing, and shelter. There are 39 categories of creative work which we are forbidden
to do on Shabbat. Some examples are plowing, sowing, harvesting, baking and other constructive uses of fire, dying, sewing, building, and
catching or slaughtering an animal for food. Through keeping the halacha of Shabbat, we give up our technological control over nature.
The word "halacha" is derived from the Hebrew word "holech" - walking. Halacha is therefore the way we are to walk on this earth. On
Shabbat, we are to walk on the earth without asserting our mastery over the earth, in order to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Shechinah.
"Enter O Bride, the Shabbat Queen."
Have a Shabbat Shalom,
Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen
For Further Study and Reflection:
1. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, a noted 19th century sage and biblical commentator, discusses the principles underlying the laws of
Shabbat in his biblical commentary and in his classical work on the mitzvos known as "Horeb." There is an excellent book published by Feldheim
which discusses the laws of Shabbat according to the insights of Rabbi Hirsch. It is called "The Sabbath," and the author is the late Dayan Dr.
I Grunfeld, a prominent Torah judge, British lawyer, educator, and community leader. The following is an excerpt from an essay in this book
which discusses "menuchah" - contentment, rest, and tranquility:
"This menuchah is something much more than physical rest. It is an
attitude to the pressing demands of everyday life. Quite apart from the bondage of work, there are the insistent demands of our mechanical
civilization - the bus, the car, the telephone; the demands, too, of our mechanical entertainment industry - radio, television, the cinema...
Until we reflect, most of us are unaware of the toll which these things take of our vital energy; we do not realize the extent of our
enslavement. To take only one example: how many of us can sit alone in a room together with a ringing telephone without answering it? The
summons is irresistible: we know that sooner or later we must answer it. On Sabbath this 'must' does not exist. The realization, the relief
of spirit, which a real Jewish Sabbath brings must be experienced to be believed."
2. On Shabbat, when we fully acknowledge the
sovereignty of the Shechinah, She gives us in return a precious gift: Shabbat Menuchah. This is why a growing number of Jewish men and women
are undertaking to observe the "halacha" of Shabbat. Most of them proceed on a "step-by-step" basis. For example, there are some individuals
who begin this spiritual journey by observing the halacha on Shabbat evening, with the hope of later extending this observance to Shabbat Day.
On Friday night, they will not use the telephone, television, or computer; instead, friends and family members sit together to enjoy a
traditional Shabbat meal with good food, Torah discussion, storytelling, and singing. Others may begin their observance in a different way. For
example, someone may decide that on Shabbat he will not do anything related to his livelihood. Another person may decide that he will not drive
his car, or that he will not work in his garden.
The more we honor the Shabbat Queen, the more we receive in return. In this spirit,
when we welcome the arrival of Shabbat, we chant: "To welcome the Shabbat, come let us go, for She is the source of all blessing" (Lecho Dodi).
And during the Shabbat morning meal, it is customary to sing the following words: "She is holy to you, the Shabbat Queen, within your homes to
bestow blessing. In all your dwellings do no melachah" (Baruch Kel Elyon).
3. It is written, "I should be sanctified among the Children
of Israel" (Leviticus 22:32). According to Jewish tradition, this verse contains the mitzva to sanctify the Divine Name in the world through
living according to the compassionate and just principles which are associated with the Divine Name. This mitzva is known as "kiddush Hashem."
Our tradition also teaches that when we proclaim the Divine sovereignty over the earth through our Shabbat rest, we are sanctifying the Divine
Name in the world. This idea is expressed in the following prayer that we chant on Shabbat Afternoon:
"May Your children recognize and
know that from You comes their rest, and through their rest, they will sanctify Your Name." (Shabbat Afternoon Shemoneh Esrei)
