🎤Kol-🐥Hayyah🐘 - קוֹל־חַיָּ֖ה
Beshalah 5779: Excerpts from Dr. Richard Schwartz , with additions from Eliran Sobel
This week's Torah portion, Parashat Beshalah, tells arguably the most famous story in the Bible. The Israelites are freed from slavery in Egypt, narrowly escaping the Egyptians pursuing them by miraculously crossing the split Red Sea, and once they are safe, they sing out in praise: "The Eternal is my strength and might; and Who will become my deliverance" (Exod. 15:2, adapted from NJPS translation). This story is the basis for the holiday of Passover celebrated in the spring. "Today's environmental threats can be compared in many ways to the Biblical ten plagues" which have just completed in the previous Torah portion. "When we consider the threats to our land, water, and air, pesticides and other chemical pollutants, resource scarcities, threats to our climate, etc., we can easily enumerate ten modern 'plagues.' The Egyptians were subjected to one plague at a time, while the modern plagues are threatening us simultaneously. The [Israelites] in Goshen were spared the Biblical plagues, while every person on earth is imperiled by the modern plagues..." While Passover is still months away, this coming week celebrates another Jewish holiday, T'u BiShevat.
"The Talmud refers to [T'u BiShevat] as the New Year for Trees. It is considered to be the date on which the fate of trees is decided for the coming year. In recent years, one of the prime ways of celebrating [T'u BiShevat], especially in Israel, is through the planting of trees. [A plant-based diet] also reflects a concern for trees. One of the prime reasons for the destruction of tropical rain forests today is to create pasture land and areas to grow feed crops for cattle. To save an estimated 5 cents on each imported fast food hamburger, we are destroying forest areas in countries such as Brazil and Costa Rica, where at least half of the world's species of plants and animals live, and threatening the stability of the world's climate. It has been estimated that every vegetarian saves an acre of forest per year. An ancient midrash has become all too relevant today:
"'In the hour when the [Holy Blessed One], created the first person, and showed him the trees in the Garden of Eden, and said to him: "See My works, how fine they are; Now all that I have created, I created for your benefit. Think upon this and do not corrupt and destroy My world, For if you destroy it, there is no one to restore it after you.' (Qohelet Rabbah 7:28)"
"The Talmudic sages assert that people's role is to enhance the world as 'co-partners of God in the work of creation.' (Shabbat 10a). [Being intentional about our consumption of animals] is consistent with this important Jewish environmental concern, since modern intensive livestock agriculture contributes to many current environmental problems, including soil erosion and depletion, air and water pollution, the destruction of habitats, and potential global warming."
"[T'u BiShevat] and [animal advocacy] both reflect the Torah mandate that we are not to waste or destroy unnecessarily anything of value. It is interesting that this prohibition, called bal tashhit ("do not destroy") is based on concern for fruit-bearing trees, as indicated in the following Torah statement:" "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 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; you may cut them down for constructing siegeworks against the city that is waging war on you, until it has been reduced" (Deut. 20:19-20, NJPS translation).
"This prohibition against destroying fruit-bearing trees in time of warfare was extended by the Jewish sages... The sages of the Talmud made a general prohibition against waste: 'Whoever breaks vessels or tears garments, or destroys a building, or clogs up a fountain, or destroys food violates the prohibition of [bal tashhit]' (Kiddushin 32a)... The important Torah mandate of [bal tashhit] is consistent with vegetarianism, since, compared to plant-based diets, animal-centered diets require far more land, water, energy, and other agricultural resources."
"It is customary to recite Psalm 104, as well as other psalms, on [T'u BiShevat]. Psalm 104 indicates how God's concern and care extends to all creatures, and illustrates that God created the entire earth as a unity, in ecological balance:" "You make springs gush forth in torrents; they make their way between the hills... giving drink to all the wild beasts; the wild asses slake their thirst. The birds of the sky dwell beside them and sing among the foliage... You water the mountains from Your lofts... You make the grass grow for the cattle, and herbage for man’s labor that he may get food out of the earth... How many are the things You have made, O Eternal; You have made them all with wisdom; the earth is full of Your creations" (Ps. 104, adapted from NJPS translation).
Concern for God's creations is also relevant for those caring about animal ethics, "since for many people it is a refusal to take part in a system that involves the cruel treatment and slaughter of farm animals, and, as indicated above, that puts so much stress on the earth and its resources."
May we take the coming week to think about the freedom the Israelites must have experienced leaving Egypt, and work to bring that level of freedom to our nonhuman siblings; relish in awe at the natural world, and work to stop furthering its destruction. Wishing you a Shabbat of nature and song, like the Israelites had when they left Egypt.
Beshalah 5779: Excerpts from Dr. Richard Schwartz , with additions from Eliran Sobel
This week's Torah portion, Parashat Beshalah, tells arguably the most famous story in the Bible. The Israelites are freed from slavery in Egypt, narrowly escaping the Egyptians pursuing them by miraculously crossing the split Red Sea, and once they are safe, they sing out in praise: "The Eternal is my strength and might; and Who will become my deliverance" (Exod. 15:2, adapted from NJPS translation). This story is the basis for the holiday of Passover celebrated in the spring. "Today's environmental threats can be compared in many ways to the Biblical ten plagues" which have just completed in the previous Torah portion. "When we consider the threats to our land, water, and air, pesticides and other chemical pollutants, resource scarcities, threats to our climate, etc., we can easily enumerate ten modern 'plagues.' The Egyptians were subjected to one plague at a time, while the modern plagues are threatening us simultaneously. The [Israelites] in Goshen were spared the Biblical plagues, while every person on earth is imperiled by the modern plagues..." While Passover is still months away, this coming week celebrates another Jewish holiday, T'u BiShevat.
"The Talmud refers to [T'u BiShevat] as the New Year for Trees. It is considered to be the date on which the fate of trees is decided for the coming year. In recent years, one of the prime ways of celebrating [T'u BiShevat], especially in Israel, is through the planting of trees. [A plant-based diet] also reflects a concern for trees. One of the prime reasons for the destruction of tropical rain forests today is to create pasture land and areas to grow feed crops for cattle. To save an estimated 5 cents on each imported fast food hamburger, we are destroying forest areas in countries such as Brazil and Costa Rica, where at least half of the world's species of plants and animals live, and threatening the stability of the world's climate. It has been estimated that every vegetarian saves an acre of forest per year. An ancient midrash has become all too relevant today:
"'In the hour when the [Holy Blessed One], created the first person, and showed him the trees in the Garden of Eden, and said to him: "See My works, how fine they are; Now all that I have created, I created for your benefit. Think upon this and do not corrupt and destroy My world, For if you destroy it, there is no one to restore it after you.' (Qohelet Rabbah 7:28)"
"The Talmudic sages assert that people's role is to enhance the world as 'co-partners of God in the work of creation.' (Shabbat 10a). [Being intentional about our consumption of animals] is consistent with this important Jewish environmental concern, since modern intensive livestock agriculture contributes to many current environmental problems, including soil erosion and depletion, air and water pollution, the destruction of habitats, and potential global warming."
"[T'u BiShevat] and [animal advocacy] both reflect the Torah mandate that we are not to waste or destroy unnecessarily anything of value. It is interesting that this prohibition, called bal tashhit ("do not destroy") is based on concern for fruit-bearing trees, as indicated in the following Torah statement:" "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 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; you may cut them down for constructing siegeworks against the city that is waging war on you, until it has been reduced" (Deut. 20:19-20, NJPS translation).
"This prohibition against destroying fruit-bearing trees in time of warfare was extended by the Jewish sages... The sages of the Talmud made a general prohibition against waste: 'Whoever breaks vessels or tears garments, or destroys a building, or clogs up a fountain, or destroys food violates the prohibition of [bal tashhit]' (Kiddushin 32a)... The important Torah mandate of [bal tashhit] is consistent with vegetarianism, since, compared to plant-based diets, animal-centered diets require far more land, water, energy, and other agricultural resources."
"It is customary to recite Psalm 104, as well as other psalms, on [T'u BiShevat]. Psalm 104 indicates how God's concern and care extends to all creatures, and illustrates that God created the entire earth as a unity, in ecological balance:" "You make springs gush forth in torrents; they make their way between the hills... giving drink to all the wild beasts; the wild asses slake their thirst. The birds of the sky dwell beside them and sing among the foliage... You water the mountains from Your lofts... You make the grass grow for the cattle, and herbage for man’s labor that he may get food out of the earth... How many are the things You have made, O Eternal; You have made them all with wisdom; the earth is full of Your creations" (Ps. 104, adapted from NJPS translation).
Concern for God's creations is also relevant for those caring about animal ethics, "since for many people it is a refusal to take part in a system that involves the cruel treatment and slaughter of farm animals, and, as indicated above, that puts so much stress on the earth and its resources."
May we take the coming week to think about the freedom the Israelites must have experienced leaving Egypt, and work to bring that level of freedom to our nonhuman siblings; relish in awe at the natural world, and work to stop furthering its destruction. Wishing you a Shabbat of nature and song, like the Israelites had when they left Egypt.