How to Face a Challenging Start to 2022:
Celebrate Tu B’Shevat!
By Rabbi August
January 15, 2022
After Christmas, people lined up to return their unwanted gifts. The news channels reported on the cost and waste of these returns: almost $30 for each returned item, factoring in workers' time, shipping, storage and repackaging. What a waste!
We have a Jewish holiday that criticizes this type of waste - yes, we do!
Most liberal Jews have never heard of or celebrated this holiday, known as Tu B’shevat. Historically a minor holy day, it is known as the Jewish Earth Day and we celebrate it on January 16, 2022.
Two thousand years ago it was called “Rosh Hashanah La’Ilanot,” the New Year for the Trees. Over time, the 16th century Kabbalists infused this day with mystical meanings. Next, the early Zionists made it their mission to plant trees. Israelis ate specific fruits, sang songs, created folk dances and had picnics to celebrate.
Today, this holiday is about our relationship with the natural world, and with climate change, celebrating Tu B’shevat is more important than ever.
The theme emphasized in Religious Schools this year is Bal Tashchit – "do not destroy."
One foundational value of Judaism is the concern for how we treat our environment. The rabbis explain that God expects us to contribute to the natural harmony of the world and partake of its bounty. But, “wanton destruction is absolutely unacceptable.” We are stewards of the earth and there are rules to follow regarding maintaining our beautiful planet.
First appearing in the Torah, Bal Tashchit (תיחשת לב) ("do not destroy") is one of the basic ethical principles in Jewish law that we must follow. The Torah teaches:
(19) When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them; for you will eat from them, but you shall not cut them down - for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged by you?
(20) Only the trees of which you know that are not trees for food, then you may destroy and cut down, so that you build bulwarks against the city that makes war with thee, until it falls.
In ancient times during war, destroying the groves and trees of an enemy’s city was common practice. It was a way to threaten the country’s long-term economy. The Torah understands this tactic to be immoral and unfair; it therefore sets up limits on an army’s activities during a siege. It forbids the cutting down of fruit trees in order to assist in a siege.
Hundreds of years later, rabbinic law expanded the Bal Tashchit principle and included other forms of senseless damage or waste, saying: do not waste lamp oil, tear your clothes or chop up your furniture for firewood. The logic behind this principle is that if even in a time of war one could not destroy fruit trees, all the more so should one not destroy or waste anything under normal circumstances.
In a 13th century text, we are told: The root reason for the precept of Bal Tashchit is known - for it is in order to train our spirits to love what is good and beneficial and to cling to it; and as a result, good fortune will cling to us. We will move well away from every evil thing and from every matter of destructiveness….
In a classical, beautiful Midrash we learn that God tells Adam and Eve about the world and emphasizes this most essential point of Bal Tashchit:
“Behold My works and how beautiful and splendid they are. Everything I have created; I did for your benefit. Be careful not to become corrupt and destroy My world. For if you become corrupt and destroy it, there will be no one to restore it after you." (Ecclesiastes Rabbah, 7:13)
Tu B’shevat is an optimistic and hopeful holiday. If we practiced the rules of taking care of our planet and Bal Tashchit, we would live safely in harmony and peace. Unfortunately, for too many reasons, we are on a path of no return. The scientists are alarmed. World leaders do not seem to have the will to reduce the carbon and methane emissions or avert disaster. We have yet to change the course of our own destruction.
A 5th century BCE prophet named Malachi made this prediction: If we do not care there will be dire consequences:
… (23) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. (24) And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, And the heart of the children to their fathers; Lest I come and smite the land with utter destruction. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. (Malachi 3:20-24)
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, in his 2014 Tu B’shevat Haggadah wrote, ‘A Midrashic reading of Malachi for our generation’:
“Your planet is heating like a furnace. Already droughts scorch your continents, already your waters boil into typhoons and hurricanes, already the ice melts and your sea-coasts flood. Yet even now - you can turn away from the fires of coal and oil – and turn to solar energy and the winged wind that rise from a sun of justice and tranquility to heal your planet. For God’s sake, you must all take on the mantle of Elijah!
Turn your own hearts to the lives of your children and the children of your children, turn their hearts to learning from the deepest teachings of the wisdom you inherited – that together you can yet avert the utter destruction of My earth.”
My friends, the reason we are teaching Bal Tashchit and the optimism of Tu B’shevat in religious schools is an attempt to win the hearts and minds of our children so that they become the ones, in the future, to change hearts and minds.
May our children be the better stewards of our planet, succeeding where we have failed. May they find the will and the way towards cutting back on fossil fuels, carbon emissions, and other destructive practices, and begin to implement the path towards healing our abused and dying planet. AMEN
