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Ideas embedded in the rich theological and legal literature of Judaism have informed and influenced modern
Jewish environmental ideas of sustainability: the belief
that humans are temporary inhabitants of what God
has created, and the inherent values of humility, moderation, and responsibility. Many old and new traditions—Tu
b’Shvat, the Sabbath, and Sabbatical Year—celebrate care
and concern for the environment.
J
udaism has, throughout its history, developed a theocentric theology while focusing much of its ethical
and legal literature on the good governance of human society, which was seen at the same time as the fulfillment of
God’s will. In the earliest stages of Jewish history, found in
the Hebrew Bible, the relationship between the people, the
land, and God was conceptualized as a covenant. This was
a conditional contract in which the people had obligations
to be loyal to God alone and to follow God’s commandments in return for peace and fertility on the land. Failure
to follow the contract meant exile from the land. Thus the
land-based covenant contained several important laws that
emphasized proper stewardship of the land and gratitude
to God for the bounty that the land produced under His
blessings. In later Jewish history, when many Jews lived
outside of the land of Israel, these concepts were incorporated into practices and rituals meant to remind Jews
of their ancestral connection to the land, but they could
also be applied in some part to the lands they now lived
in. It was this rich theological and legal literature that has
informed and influenced modern Jewish environmental
ideas of sustainability.
While the language of sustainability was not used
directly in Jewish environmental writing until the early
1990s, several concepts emerged in the first responses and
have continued to be the major values with which Jewish
environmentalists have found connections with the classic
elements of sustainability: God’s ownership of Creation,
human stewardship of Creation, intergenerational responsibility, modesty in consumption, the common good, and
gratitude. These theological ethical concepts became part
of the organizing discourse of the Jewish environmental
movement as it began to mobilize.
Early Environmental Writings
and Organizations
Jewish environmental writing began in the early 1970s as
responses to three events: the famous article in the journal
Science by Lynn White Jr., the creation of Earth Day, and
the advent of major environmental legislation. These all
occurred in North America, as Israeli environmentalism
began in the 1950s, not as a religious movement, but as
part of a secular response to development (Tal 2002). This
article will therefore focus on the Jewish religious concepts
of sustainability that were primarily developed in North
America.
The first major Jewish environmental organization was
Shomrei Adamah (Hebrew for “Guardians of the Earth,”
a reference to Genesis 2:15 in the New Jewish Publication Society’s Hebrew Bible), which was founded in 1988.
Shomrei Adamah published a number of books and educational materials devoted to increasing environmental
awareness among Jews. One of its most successful activities was the popularization of the Tu B’Shvat seder. Tu
B’Shvat is the New Year for the trees, a minor event in
the Jewish calendar originally used to designate the date
when a tree’s fruit became subject to tithing. In the sixteenth century, Jewish mystics created a seder or ritual
meal to mark this event, which was reinterpreted with their
elaborate cosmological system. In the twentieth century,
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Tu B’Shvat was reintroduced as a kind of Jewish Arbor Day
by Zionist settlers in the land of Israel. The seder was then
rewritten to promote this event for Jews in the Diaspora.
It was Ellen Bernstein, the founder of Shomrei Adamah,
who reintroduced the mystical version of the seder within
an environmental context. This ritual has spread to many
Jewish communities, and Tu B’Shvat has become the de
facto Jewish Earth Day. While the term sustainability was
not originally used in the seder, the themes and practices
of sustainability are now central to the seder’s rituals and
liturgy.
In 1992, as part of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) was founded in the United
States. COEJL became a nationwide organization with
many local affiliates usually connected to the organized
Jewish community structures. In its founding statement,
COEJL (2007) called for “mobilizing our community
towards energy efficiency, the reduction and recycling of
wastes, and other practices which promote environmental
sustainability.”
COEJL’s mission statement also connected sustainability
with environmental justice and the “Jewish values of environmental stewardship.” The major Jewish religious denominations and rabbinical organizations in the United States
have all passed numerous environmental resolutions since
the early 1990s in which the language of sustainability is
utilized. It is always assumed in these statements that sustainability is in consort with Jewish theology and ethics.
Ethical Obligations
It can be said that sustainability has two ethical obligations
in time and space—one horizontal and one vertical. The
horizontal obligation is to all humans and to all life living
in the present: we must live equitably within the boundaries of what the Earth can sustain. The vertical obligation
is to extend that process into the future, in other words, a
commitment to generations of humans and nonhumans
still unborn.
These ethical obligations can be found in the following
Jewish theological assumptions upon which a Jewish concept of sustainability is based. First of all, Judaism holds
that the Earth and all it contains is a creation of God. This
world was not brought into being by human endeavor, nor
does it exist only for human beings. For whatever reason,
God created Earth and the life upon it; it all belongs to
God, and human beings are temporary dwellers or tenants
upon the earth (compare I Chronicles 29:11–15). This temporary tenant status also implies that humanity must leave
the Earth in the same state as they entered it.
These ideas are best seen in the laws of the Sabbatical
Year and the Jubilee. In Leviticus 25 (compare also Exodus
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23:10), the Israelites were commanded to let the land lie
fallow every seventh year. During that year—the Sabbatical Year—whatever grew on the land without human cultivation was allowed to be eaten but with the stipulation
that the poor should have access to this produce as well. In
a law called the Jubilee, Leviticus 25 also mandated that
every fifty years, all land sold during that time was to be
returned to its original owners. At the end of the stipulations of these laws it says: “But the land must not be sold
beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine; you are but resident
aliens with Me” (Leviticus 25:23 HB). In Deuteronomy
15:1–15, further stipulations are added to the Sabbatical
Year: All debts must be cancelled and all indentured servants released. The rationale given in this source is that
since the Israelites were redeemed by God from slavery in
Egypt, they should imitate God and not enslave their fellow Israelites through debt. In the Torah there is also the
idea of cross-generational responsibility in which the sins
of one generation can end up hurting future generations
(compare Exodus 20:5).
Creation is also deemed by God to be “good,” which
suggests a positive view of the material world. If all things
created are good, then God has equal concern and delight
in both human life and nonhuman life. This dual concern
is found in texts such as Psalms 104 and 148. Human life,
nonhuman life, and even the landscape itself form a single community in Creation. The speeches of God to Job
out of the whirlwind (Job 38–41) suggest the more radical idea that humans are not the primary objects of God’s
concern.
Secondly, Creation has an order, (in Hebrew: seder
b’reshit.) This order is, according to classical texts such as
Psalm 148, hierarchically structured with its focus toward
God. But it is also horizontally structured to remind us
of the interdependence of all life. Embedded in both ethical and ritual laws in the Torah is the warning against
the disruption of this order (compare Genesis 4, Leviticus
18:27–30).
Thirdly, human beings have a special place and role in
the order of Creation. Of all Creation, only human beings
have the power to disrupt Creation. This power, which
gives them a kind of control over Creation, comes from
special characteristics that no other creature possesses
(compare Psalm 8). This idea is expressed in the concept
that humans were created in the image of God (in Hebrew:
tzelem Elohim). In its original sense, tzelem Elohim means
that humans were put on the Earth to act as God’s agents
and to actualize God’s presence in Creation. But the concept also has ethical implications, which means that human
beings have certain intrinsic dignities such as infinite value,
equality and uniqueness, and that human beings possess
God-like capacities such as power, consciousness, relationship, will, freedom, and life. Human beings are supposed
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to exercise their power, consciousness, and free will to be
wise stewards of Creation. They should be maintaining the
order of Creation even while they are allowed to use it for
their own benefit within certain limits established by God
(Genesis 2:14). This ethical imperative of responsibility
applies to human society as well to the natural world.
These theological concepts give rise to two ethical values in Judaism: humility and moderation. Humility calls
upon human beings to recognize their place in the order
of Creation. “Why were human beings created last in the
order of Creation? . . . So they should not grow proud,
for one can say to them, ‘the gnat came before you in the
Creation!’” (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 38a). While
human beings do have the power to manipulate Creation,
that power must be exercised carefully since humanity is
dependant upon and interconnected to the rest of Creation.
The second century  Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai said: “Three
things are equal in importance: earth, humans and rain.”
The early fourth century  Rabbi Levi ben Hiyyata said:
“And these three each consist of three letters [in Hebrew]
to teach that without Earth, there is no rain and without
rain earth cannot endure; while without either, humans
cannot exist” (Midrash Genesis Rabbah 13:3). Humility
calls humanity to understand that all actions have longterm consequences upon the Earth, that it is necessary to
“tread lightly upon the Earth,” and not to act out of the
arrogance of power.
Moderation is a self-imposed limitation to unnecessary consumption. Moderation is a positive value that can
enhance the appreciation of life. “Who is rich? One who
is happy with his portion” (Mishnah Avot 4:1). One of the
great Jewish texts on moderation is the Eight Chapters of
Moses Maimonides (1135–1204), an introduction to his
commentary to Mishnah Avot. Chapter Four describes the
path of moderation between two extremes as the definition
of virtue. And while Maimonides was especially concerned
with showing how extreme asceticism is not a virtue in
itself but only as a means to an end, his basic principle of
understanding how destructive extreme behavior can be
to the human psyche is quite relevant today in discussions
about sustainability and countering the modern culture of
consumerism. The Jewish tradition has never exalted poverty and has always seen material welfare as a blessing and
a reward from God, but it also saw the unlimited acquisition of wealth as a danger to true spiritual and ethical values. For example, the medieval French rabbinical authority
Rashi (1040–1105), in his commentary to Numbers 32:16,
speaks disapprovingly of how the tribes of Gad and Reuben
had more concern for their cattle and wealth than for their
children. During the Middle Ages, many Jewish communities had sumptuary laws that included limitations upon
extravagance in dress and as well as limitations on the
amount of spending at life-cycle celebrations. One is also
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not supposed to be excessive in eating and drinking or in
the kind of clothes that one wears (Maimonides Mishneh
Torah, Laws of Discernment, chapter 5).
It is thus easy to understand how modern Jewish
environmentalism embraced the concept of sustainability within traditional theology. But Judaism has always
sought to concretize its theology and ethical values within
a discrete system of legal actions (in Hebrew: halakhah).
One particular law has been part of Jewish environmentalism since its start: the mitzvah (meaning “commandment”) of Bal Tashchit (“Do not destroy”). This law, one
of the 613 commandments that Rabbinic Judaism has traditionally found in the Torah, is based on Deuteronomy
20:19–20:
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 no yield food may
be destroyed; you may cut them down for constructing
siege works against the city that is waging war on you,
until it has been reduced.
This law was expanded in later Jewish legal sources to
include the prohibition of the wanton destruction of household goods, clothes, buildings, springs, food, or the wasteful consumption of anything (see Maimonides, Mishneh
Torah, Laws of Kings, and Wars 6:8, 10; Hirsch 2002,
279–280). In modern Jewish environmentalism, Bal Tashchit is considered the primary call to sustainable living.
Thus Jews are obligated to consider carefully their real
needs whenever purchasing anything. There is an obligation when having a celebration to consider whether it
is necessary to elaborate meals and wasteful decorations.
There is also an obligation to consider energy use and the
sources from which it comes.
In classic rabbinic sources there is also a strong commitment to the common good. For example:
Rabbi Shimon Ben Yochai taught: It can be compared to
people who were in a boat and one of them took a drill
and began to drill under his seat. His fellow passengers
said to him: “Why are you doing this?!” He said to them:
“What do you care? Am I not drilling under me?!” They
replied: “Because you are sinking the boat with us in it!”
(Midrash Leviticus Rabbah 4:6)
There is also the Talmudic legal principle of geirey diley
(Aramaic for “his arrows”). In this principle, it is forbidden for a person to stand in his own property and to
shoot arrows randomly while claiming that there was no
intent to cause damage (Talmud Bava Batra 22b). Thus
people are forbidden to establish polluting workshops in a
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courtyard where other people are living. This principle can
also be applied to sustainability in that we cannot claim
that our unsustainable consumption is morally neutral. We
know that it is causing harm to other human beings in the
resources extracted to create the things we consume and in
the waste it produces when we throw it away. “His arrows”
creates a principle of responsibility even when there is no
intention of harm and even at great distances from the
original act of consumption.
Lastly, Jewish environmentalism has tried to create better awareness of sustainability in Jewish liturgy and ritual
practice. For example, Jewish liturgy has a large number
of blessings for many different occasions: eating, celebrating, and experiencing the wonder of Creation, to name
a few. Blessings and other prayers also help to create an
understanding of God’s ownership of Creation. When a
blessing is said, a moment of holiness is created, a sacred
pause. Prayer also creates an awareness of the sacred by
taking people out of themselves and their artificial environments to truly encounter natural phenomenon. Prayer
creates a loss of control, allowing people to “see the world
in the mirror of the holy,” according to the twentiethcentury theologian and philosopher Abraham Joshua
Heschel (Tirosh-Samuelson 2002, 409). It is then possible to see the world as an object of divine concern, placing people beyond self and more deeply within Creation.
Prayer also engenders a sense of gratitude for what we have
and allows people to better value the things of this world.
Another important ritual aspect of Judaism that has
been utilized by modern Jewish environmentalism is the
Sabbath. By its restrictions of everyday work and activity
and by its positive elements of prayer, rest, and celebration, the Sabbath can engender a sense of love and humility
before Creation and help to foster a way to live a sustainable
life. For one day out of seven, people must limit their use of
resources. Traditionally people walk to attend synagogue
and drive only when walking is not possible. One does not
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cook or shop; the day is used for relaxation and spiritual
contemplation. As Rabbi Ismar Schorsch (b. 1935) once
wrote, “To rest is to acknowledge our limitations. Willful
inactivity is a statement of subservience to a power greater
than our own” (COEJL 1994, 20).
Thus Judaism holds many traditional theological concepts, values, and actions that the modern Jewish environmental movement has connected with the value of
sustainability. More and more Jewish communities and
congregations are integrating these ideas into every day
life and into the ritual rhythm cycle of the Jewish year and
the imperatives of Jewish ethics.
Lawrence TROSTER
GreenFaith
FURTHER READING
Bernstein, Ellen. (Ed.). (1998). Ecology & the Jewish spirit: Where nature
and the sacred meet. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing.
Bernstein, Ellen. (2005). Shomrei Adamah. Retrieved June 30,
2009, from http://ellenbernstein.org/about_ellen.htm#shomrei_
adamah
Benstein, Jeremy. (2006). The way into Judaism and the environment.
Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing.
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL). (1994). To
till and to tend: A guide to Jewish environmental study and action. New
York: Author.
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL). (2007).
Retrieved June 30, 2009, from http://www.coejl.org/~coejlor/about/
history.php
Hirsch, Samson Raphael. (2002). Horeb: A philosophy of Jewish laws and
observances (Isidore Grunfeld, Trans.) (7th ed.). London: Soncino
Press.
Tal, Alon. (2002). Pollution in a promised land: An environmental history
of Israel. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava. (Ed.). (2002). Judaism and ecology: Created
world and revealed word. Cambridge, MA: Center for the Study of
World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University
Press.
Yaffe, Martin D. (Ed.). (2001). Judaism and environmental ethics: A reader.
Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
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