As discussed above, Tu B’Shvat is a perfect frame to focus our awareness on the importance of the environment, and to deepen our appreciation of the Torah’s charge for us to guard the earth for future generations. In this section, we will focus on the second of these aspects.
There are many mitzvot in the Torah that seem to apply to specific circumstances or a particular situation, but from which the Sages draw far-reaching implications. One of these, the prohibition against cutting down fruit trees when besieging an enemy city, appears in the Torah portion of Shoftim in the context of laws pertaining to warfare (Deuteronomy 20:19-20). From what appears to be a law specifically legislated to govern a very rare case of military activity, the Rabbis deduce a more general and overarching prohibition against destroying anything useful without good reason – a concept referred to in Hebrew as bal tashchit.
A few practical examples of this prohibition include not throwing away useable clothing, furniture, or books; not wasting food or water; not hunting for sport; and so on. The Rabbis urge us to make every effort to pass useful items we longer need on to others rather than throwing them in the garbage. In our day, this also means that we should collect paper, metal, plastics and glass, so that they can be reused or recycled.
Aside from its practical applications, this principle is vitally important in correcting a basic misconception regarding Judaism’s approach to the environment and ecology. Unfortunately, many people mistakenly fault the Torah as the source of an attitude that leads to the careless destruction of our beautiful world and its resources. They quote the following verse in Genesis without understanding its real meaning: “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea, the bird of the sky and every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28). They understand the command to “fill the earth and subdue it” in a way that Judaism never did. According to Jewish tradition this command in no way means that humanity should subdue the earth by destroying the very ecosystem that sustains it, nor does it mean that humanity should carelessly rule over God’s other creatures without giving a second thought to their pain, or, in an extreme case, to their possible extinction. It simply means that humanity should strive to rise above being at the mercy of the elements of nature and should in turn care for the earth in such a way that benefits both humankind and the earth upon which it lives and depends.
God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden “to work it and to guard it” (Genesis 2:15). A well-known Midrash recounts that God warned Adam that if he were to act rashly and abuse the bountiful world that God had entrusted to him, there would be no one to repair it for him. This Midrash stresses humanity’s ultimate responsibility for the survival of the world and the irrevocable danger posed by our wanton and unthinking habits of destructive consumption (Kohelet Rabbah 7:13).
Preserving and protecting the environment is a Torah imperative that applies to all individuals as well as to cities, countries and even the international community. This commandment highlights how much Judaism has to teach us about addressing and solving fundamental global issues. We just need to delve into the Torah and figure out how to apply it for the ultimate good. As in all areas of rectification, the work begins on an individual level, as each and every person decides when and how to put the holy concepts of the Torah into practice. God has truly given us a miraculous world and it is up to us to “work it and to guard it.” Tu B’Shvat is an auspicious time to learn, teach and practice the Torah’s dictates regarding the deeper appreciation and preservation of our world.
