[yshavurah] tu bi-sh'vat higgi'a chag ha-ilanot
- From: Eric Friedland <efriedland@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rita <ritadushmanrich@xxxxxxxxxxx>,charles m <charles@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,yitzchak zuriel <yzuriel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, shmuel <chsid@xxxxxxx>,"ya'aqov" <abramsym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,ys havurah <yshavurah@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,bernard b <bernardbarsky@xxxxxxx>, d sofian <dsofian@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,heyn <BTHeyn@xxxxxxx>, harlan <wechslerh@xxxxxxx>,ted cooper <tedmcooper@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, marcus <djmarcu@xxxxxxx>,michael remson <Ravremson@xxxxxxx>, nochum m <chabadcogd@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 14:22:58 -0500
Some very usable material for our next holiday. Enjoy!
<<From the depths of the Forests
By Peter Geffen
We have begun preparations for the observance of Tu B'shvat in
early February. For many adults, this holiday, the so-called
"Birthday of the Trees" is a cute but insignificant day that
passes virtually unnoticed in our lives. But the existence of
a day of commemoration and recognition of nature in the ritual
cycle of the Jewish year is actually something quite profound.
Tu B'Shvat is the Jewish Science Day. It is the Jewish Earth
Day. It is our Environmental Awareness Day. In looking into
the world of trees, we are given direction into scientific
research and an approach and philosophy of educating our
children to the role of nature in our lives and the
responsibilities that we hold in our hands for its protection
and preservation. It is one of the most powerful examples of
the human being a partner with God in the ongoing work of
creation.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said: " Scientific research is
an entry into the endless, not a blind alley; solving one
problem, a greater one enters our sight. One answer breeds a
multitude of new questions; explanations are merely
indications of greater puzzles. Everything hints at something
that transcends it; the detail indicates the whole, the whole,
its idea, the idea, its mysterious root. What appears to be a
center is but a point on the periphery of another center. The
totality of a thing is actual infinity."
These are words that direct our CJDS [Columbus Jewish Day
School] program of critical thinking in the sciences. When
studying the trees of our homes and neighborhoods, we seek to
allow the children to uncover an ongoing and seemingly endless
series of questions about what trees do, how much and in what
variety of ways we need them, and what we must do to protect
their place in the world.
When a Kindergarten child realizes that every piece of paper
begins with the chopping down of a tree; when they ask how
long it takes a tree to grow to the size it must be before it
is cut down to be turned into that piece of paper, about how
many trees their annual use of paper represents -- a
consciousness is being built about addressing the needs of the
world in a cooperative spirit. About not acting precipitously
and selfishly for immediate satisfaction of our needs without
at least consideration about where our decisions of today will
take us tomorrow.
Ted Koppel began a very important series of discussions on
ABC- Nightline in which he gathered experts on disease,
education, employment, and population growth to report on the
implications of their arena of expertise on the future
instability of the international community. It became very
clear, very fast, that the world that our children will grow
into will have far more complex issues influencing stability
than the world in which we and generations past grew.
Being able to think critically, to search for the existence of
and meaning in interrelationships, and to appreciate and be
driven by the inherent beauty in the unfolding quality of
scientific research are the ingredients of becoming a truly
successful and contributing member of the society of the
coming decades.
Tu B'Shvat opens a door which we shall enter together and
hopefully emerge from as richer more sensitive and more
knowledgeable individuals, both students, teachers, and
parents alike.
Some of you will remember our deeply profound theme for this
holiday: "What the trees breathe out, we breathe in; what we
breathe out, the trees breathe in." [From "Nishmat," by
Arthur Waskow] In many ways, that says it all.
Shabbat Shalom,
Peter A. Geffen, Senior Educational Consultant>>
*******************************************************************
A report from the Sierra Club:
Bush Administration Undoing Decades of Forest Management
Progress
On Christmas Eve, the Bush administration revoked protection
for over 9 million acres in Alaskaís Tongass National Forest.
The decision paves the way for fifty logging projects and road
building in remaining pristine rainforest areas. This is yet
another proposal by the Administration to bring a series of
drastic administrative changes to the way our National Forests
are managed, giving free reign to the timber industry across
National Forests.
Wild forests have some of the highest quality fish and
wildlife habitat, backcountry recreation, and clean water
supplies in the country. The Forest Service estimates that
goods and services from National Forests contribute $145
billion to the gross domestic product of the United States
every year-- less than three percent of which results from
timber.
Adopted in January 2001, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule
was the result of the most extensive public comment process in
history, spanning three years and 600 public meetings. During
the rulemaking, the administration received a record-breaking
one million public comments in support of protecting wild
forests. To date, the Forest Service has received more than 2
million comments from the American people, overwhelmingly in
favor of the strongest protections for these wild forests.
On the day before Christmas Eve, the Bush administration
formally exempted Alaska's National Forests from the Roadless
Area Conservation Rule, despite receiving nearly 250,000
public comments opposing the plan.
The December 23, 2003 decision puts the Tongass National
Forest under an indefinite "temporary" exemption from the
Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The Forest Service has also
begun the process of making the exemption permanent and
extending it to include the Chugach National Forest, the
second largest National Forest, where over 5 million acres are
currently protected.
*******************************************************************
TAKE ACTION:
Send two letters: one to the editor of your own city's general
newspaper and one to your local Jewish paper. Use your own
language to say something like this:
As I celebrate Tu BíShvat, the Jewish festival that honors
trees and forests and the Divine abundance out of which they
grow, I am deeply distressed by the Bush Administrationís
ruthless willingness to destroy our great national forests for
the sake of short-sighted greed and profit. Roadbuilding in
the forests should be stopped and the Tongass National Forest
in Alaska should be protected. Those actions are economically
sensible and environmentally crucial. They are also religious
obligations. ñ Shalom, xxxx xxxx.
*******************************************************************
From Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel:
The commitment to protecting the olive trees of Palestinians
is a moral obligation, one that is also in Israelís long-term
interests. The lives of Israelis and Palestinians are
intertwined on their common land. The ultimate survival and
flourishing of each are mutually dependent. We must
acknowledge the right of each people to live in peace and with
justice, to share and cultivate the land together.
Since the days of Noah, the olive tree has symbolized peace
and prosperity. Our tradition teaches us that when the great
flood began to subside, Noah sent out a dove. When it returned
it carried a leaf it had picked from an olive tree. Our
midrash teaches us that this represented great hope: "The dove
which brought an olive branch in its beak to Noah brought
light to the world." It is this light that must sustain us
through the ever-spiraling violence in a land that is so dear
to both peoples.
*******************************************************************
Texts for Tu BíShvat
These texts can be used in a Tu BíShvat seder, a discussion or
adult education program, or as a basis for a dvar Torah. These
texts either directly or indirectly speak to bal tashchit, the
commandment of not wasting or unnecessarily destroying
anything of value, which is based on a passage from Torah,
Deuteronomy 20:19-20. In subsequent generations the rabbis
elaborated on this principle as is seen below.
Study Questions:
<sum> What can we learn from these texts? What do they teach
us about our relationship to the earth and to trees?
<sum> How do these texts apply to the current situation?
<sum> Did you find anything particularly challenging in these
texts?
1. When a tree that bears fruit is cut down, its moan goes
from one end of the world to the other, yet no sound is heard.
(Pirke de-R. Eliezer 34)
2. Rav said: A palm tree producing even one kab of fruit may
not be cut down. An objection was raised [from the following]:
What quantity should be on an olive tree so that it should not
be permitted to cut it down? A quarter of a kab. --Olives are
different, as they are more important. R. Hanina said:
Shibchath my son did not pass away except for having cut down
a fig tree before its time. (Baba Kamma 91b)
(One kab equals approximately 3.5 pints. When some destruction
of natural resources is required, we must make decisions that
amount to the least amount of destruction as possible. Thus we
would destroy the tree that does not produce fruit before the
one that does.)
3. It is forbidden to cut down fruit-bearing trees outside a
besieged city, nor may a water channel be deflected from them
so that they wither. Whoever cuts down a fruit-bearing tree is
flogged. This penalty is imposed not only for cutting it down
during a siege; whenever a fruit-yielding tree is cut down
with destructive intent, flogging is incurred. It may be cut
down, however, if it causes damage to other trees or to a
field belonging to another man or if its value for other
purposes is greater. The Law forbids only wanton
destruction...Not only one who cuts down trees, but also one
who smashes household goods, tears clothes, demolishes a
building, stops up a spring, or destroys articles of food with
destructive intent transgresses the command "you must not
destroy." Such a person is not flogged, but is administered a
disciplinary beating imposed by the Rabbis. (Maimonides,
Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings and Wars 6:8,10)
4. The purpose of this mitzvah [do not destroy] is to teach us
to love that which is good and worthwhile and to cling to it,
so that good becomes a part of us and we will avoid all that
is evil and destructive. This is the way of the righteous and
those who improve society, who love peace and rejoice in the
good in people and bring them close to Torah: that nothing,
not even a grain of mustard, should be lost to the world, that
they should regret any loss or destruction that they see, and
if possible they will prevent any destruction that they can.
Not so are the wicked, who are like demons, who rejoice in
destruction of the world, and they are destroying themselves.
(Sefer Ha-Chinuch, No. 529)
(This prohibition against destroying fruit-bearing trees in
time of warfare was extended by the Jewish sages. It is
forbidden to cut down even a barren tree or to waste anything
if no useful purpose is accomplished.)
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