Dvar Torah Parsha Shoftim 5783

Devarim 16:18 – 21:9

An Environmental Cry for Help

Our parsha Shoftim continues Moshe’s speech to the people, delineating legal teachings for the future land in Israel. The laws tend to be practical. Justice is the operative principle and everyone including the king come under its rules. The laws include removing the gods and worship places of the people they are conquering. The people, not Adonai, will appoint judges and judicial administrators for each tribe. Rules. Including the requirement of two or more witnesses, what to do if a decision is too difficult to decide. There are sacrificial requirements, what and who any king should be. Refuge cities and how that works, treatment of conquered peoples, much of which is discussed in the last Dvar on this parsha discussed in an earlier blog post.

One passage in this parsha struck home to me that seems pertinent to the times in which we live.

“When you lay siege to a town and wage war against it for a long time to capture it, do not destroy its trees; do not wield an axe against them. You may eat from them; you must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human beings, that you should besiege them too? Only trees that you know do not produce food may you cut down for use building siege works until the town that has made war against you falls.” (Deut. 20:19-20)

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory observes some commands in Torah are understood so narrowly that they are in fact inapplicable. Such would be the command to put all inhabitants to the sword. Such laws were interpreted the law to be so restrictive that it was never carried out per Sanhedrin 71A. Other laws however are far more extensive than they first appear. Here the command against destroying fruit trees known as the rule of bal taschit or “do not destroy.” Maimonides said that “not only did it apply to trees, but whoever breaks vessels or tears garments, destroys a building, blocks a wellspring of water, or destructively wastes food transgresses the command of bal taschit.” Hilchot Melachim 6:10.

When we take a wider view, Jewish tradition is filled with traditions that can fall under the auspices of what we call environmentalism or sustainability. For instance, we have the three commands for periodic rest, for us and farm animals as well. We have Shabbat, the Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year. Land over-exploited erodes and loses its fertility. We do not take a young bird from its mother.

Samson Raphael Hirsch in the 19t century said the statutes regarding environmental protection suggest that the same regard we show humanity must be shown to every lower creature, to the earth which sustains us all, and to the world of plants and animals. He goes on to give an interesting interpretation of Genesis 1:26 which says, “Let Us make man in Our image after Our likeness.” The “Us” he says refers to the rest of creation. Implied is the condition that humans must use nature in such a way as to enhance it, not put it at risk. This is followed by Genesis 2:15 saying man was set in the garden of Eden to work and safeguard it. Man is both master and servant to nature.

This summer has been horrible with record breaking temperatures around the globe. We know our excessive pumping of CO2 into the atmosphere has compromised our planet and yet we keep on. Ocean temperatures are at record heights. The hotter waters mean they can hold less CO2, releasing more into the air. Our polar ice caps are melting, and coastal cities are in jeopardy. Scientists tell us we are amidst a mass extinction on planet earth.

Parsha Shoftim is customarily read during the month of Elul, a time of soul searching, making amends, and working to improve ourselves and the world around us. The cautionary signs of living cooperatively on this planet go back thousands of years. Will we listen to what our planet is telling us? Now more than ever, we need as people around the world to avert a disaster that could spell the end of humanity. Crops that will not grow because of the heat and periodic droughts. Cities requiring evacuation because of rising sea levels. Hurricanes like we have never seen before. The last couple of years, tornadoes in the winter should be a wakeup call for us all. Or will greed reign to the harm of us all. It is time for introspection and action, for us, and for all the life upon this planet May it be so. Baruch Hashem!