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EBULLETIN ARCHIVE
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February 7, 2006
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COEJL Community E-bulletin #30 |
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Coalition on the Environment and
Jewish Life
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IN THIS ISSUE:
TAKE ACTION: A Seder Sampling; Protect National Forest Roadless Areas
CELEBRATE: A Taste of Tu B'Shvat from Around the World
LEARN: If a Tree Falls in the Forest on Tu B'Shvat...
IN THE FIELD: Canfei Nesharim's Tu B'Shvat Learning Campaign
GO GREEN: Seeing the Forest for the Trees
Tu B’Shvat, the “New Year of the Trees” or the “Birthday of Trees” (February 13), has become one of the central Jewish environmental observances. It is a time for renewal of our commitment to serve and protect not only the trees, but all of God’s creation from generation to generation.
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| TAKE ACTION |
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A Seder Sampling
Many Jews celebrate Tu B’Shvat with a seder based on a kabbalistic tradition that has been reinterpreted in a modern environmental context. Following is a seder sampling from The Trees Are Davening: A Tu B’Shvat Haggadah Celebrating Our Kinship with the Trees and the Earth. It reminds us that in keeping with our religious values, we need to take action to protect our threatened environment.
The Jewish tradition teaches us that our relations with all things in the world of action can lead us to higher spiritual levels. We realize wasting, pollution, and not actively caring for the environment leads to very ill consequences. By internalizing and acting on the Jewish values of chesed (caring), tzedakah (righteousness), rachamim (compassion), and kavanah (proper intention) we can create and sustain a world in harmony of Being.
National Rule to Protect National Forest Roadless Areas
On May 5, 2005, the Bush administration repealed the widely supported Roadless Area Conservation Rule, opening nearly sixty million acres of America's last wild National Forests to logging, road construction, mining, oil exploration, and other forms of development.
Under the new policy, if governors wish to have roadless areas within their state protected, they must complete a burdensome petition process and file their recommendations with political appointees at the Department of Agriculture. The federal government is free to accept, modify or reject these petitions, while elected officials and citizens outside those states will have no say at all about the fate of these shared national treasures. Conservationists throughout the country are joining together to file an official petition with the Bush administration to demand the reinstatement of the 2001 rule.
Click here to join the petition for a National Rule ensuring that our pristine National Forests remain wild for future generations.
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| CELEBRATE |
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A Taste of Tu B’Shvat from Around the World
After the exile of the Jews to various Diaspora communities, the celebration of Tu B’Shvat was almost forgotten. The Jewish people, who had been so closely tied to the soil and nature of their native homeland, were cut off. Tu B’Shvat lost its source and its inspiration. Nevertheless remnants of this holiday were kept alive in various countries. Click here for Virtual Jerusalem’s collection of some of the more unusual Tu B’Shvat customs.
Click here for COEJL’s Tu B’Shvat: The New Year of the Trees which includes reflections, hagaddot, resources, text study, activities, craft projects, and everyday conservation actions to enhance your celebration.
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| LEARN |
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If a Tree Falls in the Forest on Tu B’Shvat...
by Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb
It’s treated as a riddle, a Western koan, a cliché by now: “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?” It is an important question to ask ourselves this Tu B’Shvat season.
Physics suggests the answer is yes; mass and velocity, angle and density and the like will all affect the volume of the sound made by the falling tree, yet the proximity of human eardrums is utterly irrelevant. Modern ecology critiques the very anthropocentrism (human-centered-ness) inherent in the question. We share 99% of our DNA with fellow creatures like chimpanzees, but what if the forest in question is equatorial West Africa, with no humans but plenty of other intelligent bipedal primates there to hear the sound?
Judaism too offers its own spin on the question, one whose roots go back nearly two millennia. In Pirkei D’Rebbe Eliezer (Chapter 34—it’s a classical rabbinic text from about 300 CE TKTK), we are told in similar koan-fashion of “six things whose voices resound from one end of the universe to the other, yet are not heard.” The first of which is: “In the hour when they/you cut down a tree which bears fruit, its voice goes out from one end of the universe to the other, yet the voice is not heard.”
Click here to read more of “If a Tree Falls in the Forest on Tu B’Shvat...”
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| IN THE FIELD |
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Canfei Nesharim’s Tu B’Shvat Learning Campaign
Canfei Nesharim is proud to present their fourth annual Tu B’Shvat Learning Campaign! Articles connecting nature and Judaism are available for communities and publications to share with their readership during the week or month of Tu B’Shvat. Following is an excerpt of an article from the campaign.
The ‘Green Belt’ of the Torah: For Us and Our Animals
by Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen
"Command the Children of Israel that they shall give to the Levites, from the heritage of their possession, cities for dwelling; and open space all around the cities shall you give to the Levites." (Numbers 35:2,3). The mitzvah of migrash helps us understand the ideal balance between space for humanity, space for other creatures, and open space for nature.
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| GO GREEN |
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Seeing the Forest for the Trees
On Tu B’Shvat, our thoughts turn to the trees and forests which are an intrinsic part of the biosphere. More than half of the forests that originally covered 46 percent of our planet’s land surface are gone and only one-fifth of the Earth’s original forests remain pristine and undisturbed. In the US alone, less than 5 percent of the lower 48 states’ old-growth forests remain intact. Forests help curb climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide. They provide critical habitat for songbirds and other animal species, as well as breeding areas for medicinal plants. Below is a list of organizations actively working to preserve forests, not only for their beauty and diversity, but for the well being of all who live on this planet.
The Rainforest Site - Save America’s Forests - Greenpeace’s “Save or Delete” campaign - Defenders of Wildlife campaign - Forest Stewardship Council - Sustainable Harvest International campaign - World Wildlife Fund campaign - Rainforest Action Network
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