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Orchard of Delights

transforming a potentially negative reality into a positive one. The
Sages also taught that “a dream follows its interpretation” (Berachot shOftim םי ִט ְפֹ ׁש
55b), thus stressing that how human beings interpret their dreams
determines the dreams’ effect on reality. The same can be said for life
itself: it unfolds based on our interpretations of it.

The annual ceremony of bringing the first fruits can indeed be
described as the reason God created the world. Performing this ££Protecting the Environment: ££Protecting the Environment: Protecting the Environment:
££
ceremony every year increases our awareness of our purpose in the A Torah Imperative
A Torah Imperative
A Torah Imperative
world – to consciously dedicate our energies to acknowledging and
praising our Creator and to actively elevate our souls, which have
descended to our physical world, by focusing on the good and the
holy. Remarkably, the Festival of Shavuot, which introduces the There are many mitzvot in the Torah that seem to apply to specific
period in which this ceremony is performed, is also the day on which circumstances or a particular situation, but from which the Sages
Israel received the Torah. Indeed, the Festival of Shavuot is known draw far-reaching implications. One of these, the prohibition against
as both the Festival of the First Fruits and the Festival of the Giving cutting down fruit trees when besieging an enemy city, appears in
of the Torah. Shoftim in the context of laws pertaining to warfare. The Rabbis
deduce from what appears to be a law specifically legislated to govern
a very rare case the overarching prohibition against destroying
anything useful without good reason – bal tashchit.

A few practical examples of this prohibition include not throwing
££The Little that Contains Much
£The Little that Contains MuchThe Little that Contains Much 19 away useable clothing, furniture, or books; not wasting food or water;
not hunting for sport; and so on. The Rabbis urge us to make every
effort to pass useful items we longer need on to others rather than
In Ki Tavo, the children of Israel are commanded to perform an throwing them in the garbage. In our day, this also means that we
inauguration ritual after they enter the Promised Land. In this should collect paper, plastics, and glass, so that they can be reused
ritual, the nation publicly commits itself to fulfilling the Torah’s or recycled.
commandments by reciting a list of curses and blessings on Mount Aside from its practical applications, this principle is vitally
Ebal and Mount Gerizim. This ritual, mentioned in Re’eh, is more important in correcting a basic misconception regarding Judaism’s
fully described in Ki Tavo. As part of the ritual, the people are approach to the environment and ecology. Unfortunately, many
commanded to set up twelve giant stones upon which the Torah people mistakenly fault the Torah as the source of an attitude that
would be written in seventy languages. Traditional commentators leads to the careless destruction of our world and its resources. They
considered the fact that there would be space enough to record the quote the following verse in Genesis without understanding its real
entire Torah seventy times a miracle.
meaning: “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; and
One of the themes that has been repeatedly stressed throughout rule over the fish of the sea, the bird of the sky and every living
this book is the enduring relevance of the Torah. In this vein, it is thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28). They understand the
important to note that many commentators expressed the belief that command to “fill the earth and subdue it” in a way Judaism never did.

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