Environmental Beit Din - Facilitator's Instructions

Your role is to act as "mayor" of Anytown and run the program. After you give the general overview have the participants break into groups and assign roles. Each group should be given 15-20 minutes to prepare their presentations, 5 minutes to present it, and 2-3 minutes to answer questions. After all the presentations have been made everyone "takes off their hats" and comes out of their respective roles (except for the mayor) and the entire group votes on who deserves to be granted the land.

A sample map is enclosed. A large poster-size duplicate of the map should also be displayed for reference during the presentations.

Allow 1 hour, 15 minutes

Instructions to be on all sheets give out to the groups

These interest groups would all like to claim the 450 acres of available land here in "Anytown". Each group represents a seat on the town council. They are represented as follows: Recycling Plant Committee (R); Loggers (L); Incinerator Construction Committee (I); Farmers (F); House Developers (H); Landfill Construction Committee (LF); Sierra Club (S); Wetlands Preservation (W).

Your task is to develop a proposal for land use. You will present your proposal before the mayor of Anytown and the members of the other interest groups involved.

Procedure

1. Read the Jewish Texts and find two examples which support your group and that you can use in your presentation.



2. Decide on your plan for the land using the guide questions.



3. Choose from your group: 2 presenters, 1 scribe (to write presentation and draw on map), 2 lawyers ( to answer questions for your group), and any other roles you need.



4. Write your presentation using the map and the Jewish texts to support your plan.



5. Be prepared to ask questions of the other groups about their use of texts and their plans for the land.

Individual Group Information

Recycling Plant Committee

You see this land proposal as a perfect opportunity to build a recycling plant. You are currently shipping your town's recyclables out of town. Once the plant is built it would save you those costs.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

1. How would you pay for the building of the plant?



2. Once operable is it cost effective for the town?



3. What products would you recycle?



4. What effects will this plant have on the quality of the land, water and air?



5. Will you need all of the land for the plant?



6. What are the other benefits/drawbacks of this plan for the town?



7. How do the Jewish texts support your proposal?

Landfill Construction Committee

Your group sees this land proposal as the perfect opportunity to build a landfill. Your town is currently shipping its garbage out of state at enormous costs. More landfills are necessary to keep up with the demand for space for all of our garbage. New landfill regulations insure that there is little cause for concern regarding the health implications to the surrounding community.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

Housing Development Committee

Your group sees this land proposal as the perfect opportunity to build a housing development. The tax income would greatly help the town's economic standing. The land is in a prime location and the proposed houses would bring in middle to upper-middle class families.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

Farmers

As farmers you see the proposed land development as a perfect opportunity to "work the land". The valley is fertile and has two excellent water sources, and the hillsides could be used for animal grazing.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

Sierra Club

Your group sees this as a perfect opportunity to preserve a vital piece of land and demonstrate the importance of land preservation to the community. There are many rare species of plants and birds that occupy this tract of land that would be without a home should building take place. This would propel them closer to becoming endangered. There are insects and fish that are on the "Threatened Species" list that occupy the pond and stream on this land. If their habitats were threatened, it would be in violation of the laws that protect them.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

1. How could you insure that these species would thrive if the land were left alone?



2. Would building on this land really matter to their survival?



3. Where else could the proposed land development projects go if this land were to remain undeveloped?



4. Why should the needs of insects and "lesser species be considered over the needs of humans?



5. How could the land be used for progress and at the same time protect and preserve its natural bounty?



6. Whose job is it to decide what the land should be used for?



7. How do the Jewish texts support your proposal?

Loggers

As loggers you see the proposed land as a perfect opportunity to produce timber. Environmental laws are making it more and more difficult to cut down trees for commercial use but this land is available without going through any "red tape". With the current market trend you could get a very good price for this timber.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

1. How will the town benefit from your enterprise?



2. Will you preserve any of the trees?



3. What thought will you give to the displacement of the animals and their homes?



4. What will become of the land when you are through logging?



5. How do the Jewish texts support your proposal?

Incinerator Construction Committee

Your group sees this land proposal as the perfect opportunity to build an incinerator. You are currently shipping your garbage out of state at enormous costs. This plan would effectively get rid of the garbage without the unsightly presence of a landfill in your town.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

1. Who will pay for its construction?



2. How much of the land will be used - can any of it be preserved?



3. What are the implications on the health of the surrounding communities who will breathe the air?



4. How can you assure the residents that the air quality will not be compromised?



5. Will it be cost effect to operate this plant rather than ship the garbage elsewhere?



6. What are the benefits/drawbacks to this plan for the town?



7. How do the Jewish texts support your proposal?

Environmental Beit Din Study Texts

1. When in your war against a city you have to besiege it for a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its fruit trees, wielding an ax against them. You may eat of them, but you may not cut them down. Are the trees of the city human to withdraw from you into the besieged city? Only trees which you know do not yield food may be destroyed; you may cut them down for constructing siege works against the city that is waging war on you until is has been captured.
   
   
   - D'varim (Deuteronomy) 20:19-20



2. 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, as it is said: "You must not destroy its trees" (Deut. 20:19). A fruit bearing tree 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 than that of the fruit it produces. The law forbids only wanton destruction.
   
   
   -Rambam (Maimonidies), Mishnah Torah



3. You must not raise goats or sheep in the land of Israel because their grazing spoils the land.
   -Babylonian Talmud, Baba Kama 79b
   
   (Sheep and goats graze so low to the ground that the plants are unable to regenerate. The plants die and the soil that once bore vegetation becomes a desert, incapable of putting forth vegetation. This law may be extended to mean that anything that spoils the land should not be grown in Israel.


4. All cities must have a migrahs (open space) that surrounds them. The first 1000 cubits (approximately 500 meters) shall be for open space and the next 1000 cubits for grazing animals.
   Damidbar (Numbers) 35:2-5 with Rambam (Maimonidies).


5. It is forbidden to live in a city that does not have a garden or greenery.
   -Mishna, Kiddushin 4:12


6. Carcasses, cemeteries and tanneries must be kept at fifty cubits' distance from a town. A tannery can only be set on the east side of town because the east wind is gentle and will not carry the fumes to town.
   -Misha, Baba Batra 24b
   ("Carcasses" refers to decaying flesh. In this case it probably refers to a dumpsite. Tanneries were the big industry in rabbinic time; tanning is a process by which a hide is made into leather. It is soaked in tannin which was toxic; this was a very smelly process. This law may be extended to include modern industries that emit a variety of pollutants.)


7. Threshing floors must be 50 cubits outside the city-limits and away from neighbors fields.
   -Babylonian Talmud, Baba Batra 24b
   (A threshing floor was the place where the wheat was beat out of its husk, the chaff. Chaff from a threshing floor can harm people. This law shows that an individual cannot do his own work without thought of the good of the whole community.


8. The land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me. Throughout the land that you hold, you must provide for its redemption.
   -Vayikra (Leviticus) 25:23-24


9. [God]...did not creat it [the earth] a wasteland, but formed it for habitation.
   -Isaiah 45:18


10. The advantage of land is paramount; even the king is subject to the soil.
    -Ecclesiastes 5:8


11. Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field, till there is room for no one buy you to dwell in the land.
    -Isaiah 5:8


12. There will be an area beyond the military camp where you can relieve yourself. You will have a spade among your weapons; and after you have squatted, you will dig a hole and bury your excrement.
    
    -D'varim (Deutoronomy) 23:13-15


13. Two men fighting over a piece of land. Each claimed ownership and bolstred his claim with proof. To resolve their differences, they agreed to put the case before the rabbi. The rabbi listened but could not come to a decision because both seemed to be right. Finally he said, "Since I cannot decide to whom this land belongs, let us ask the land." He put his ear to the ground, and after a moment straighten up. "Gentlemen, the land says that it belongs to neither of you -- but that you belong to it."
    -Old Jewish Folktale


14. Breishit(Genesis 1:28)
    "And God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."


15. Breishit (Genesis)2:15
    "And the Lord God took Adam, and put him in the garden of Eden, to work it and to tend (guard, watch) it."


16. Midrash B'reishit (Genesis) Rabbah 10:7
    The Rabbis said: even though you may think them superfluous in this world, creatures such as flies, bugs and gnats, ahve their allotted task in the scheme of creation, as it says,"And God saw everything that God had made, and behold, it was very good." (Genesis 1:31)


17. Baba Batra 9a
    Feed the poor and hungry weighs as heavily as all the other commandments of the Torah combined.