THE ECOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE

THE ECOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE

Both wars and terrorism are factors in the most life-threatening problem facing the world today - the environment.

The record of human intervention in the natural order of things is marked by devastation on a massive scale.  Almost everywhere human beings have set foot they have crushed the natives of the land and wiped out  many species of living creatures. Today, flooding the land and seas with plastic and other pollutants is one of the most destructive factors in maintaining ecological balance. Not to speak of destroying forests for the sake of cultivating live-stock.

It is a biological fact that the various elements of nature have to be anchored in a permanent ecological balance. Human beings are the only organisms  who are able to understand and confront this. Implicit in this view is the understanding that, as long as the culture man develops is consistent with nature, the biological world will remain in harmony.

In Biblical times, when agriculture in Israel reached its peak, farmers knew from their own struggles that ecology is the interrelationship between organisms and their environment. For example, shepherding continued to flourish only in areas unsuitable for cultivation. A new balance between farming and shepherding was created and maintained – lasting for generations. They saw that radical changes to the land, such as after wars, alter the environment and in this way destroy the existing interrelationship between its “organisms” - including man.

One of the basic rules in Judaism is the prohibition against needless destruction of any kind (“bal tashchit”). This is the basis of an ethic of ecological responsibility. Destroy none; abuse none; waste nothing – for the sake of future generations.

With the modern resettlement of the Land of Israel, the interrelationship of the Jewish people with their environment once again becomes a living reality. The early pioneers found a land of destruction and neglect. People who had governed the land temporarily never identified with this land as their home, and abused it - until the once fertile Land of Israel was a defoliated, eroded wilderness.

Reforestation, carried out by the Jewish National Fund, became an immediate national priority. Apart from a vital way of re-establishing ecological balance in the Land of Israel, this work was also a symbol of remembrance. The six million Jews turned to ashes in the ovens of Nazi Europe are memorialized by the number of pine saplings planted on the hills of Judea.

Most Jewish holidays, commanded  over 2,000 years ago, express the close interweaving of the agricultural realities of the Land of Israel with the historical events relating to the settlement of the Land. Almost all are characterized by both agricultural and historical symbols.

Tu BiShvat is a less known Jewish holiday occurring today,  the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat. It is also called "New Year of the Trees." In contemporary Israel, the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day, and trees, etc. are planted in celebration.