Page 19 - HaMizrachi_Tu BiShvat_AUS_5781

GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Torah forbids crossbreeding livestock, all creatures as servants in the house- Eden – makes just this point. We are
planting a field with mixed seeds, and hold of Creation.” 4 not permitted to do everything we
wearing a garment of mixed wool and can do. Transgress the limits, and
linen. These rules are called chukim Hirsch also gave a novel interpreta- disaster follows. All of this is summed
or statutes. The Ramban understood tion to the phrase in Bereishit 1, “Let up by a simple Midrash: “When G-d
this term to mean laws that respect us make man in our image after our made man, He showed him the pan-
the integrity of nature. To mix dif- own likeness.” The passage is puz- oply of Creation and said to him: ‘See
ferent species, he argued, was to zling, for at that stage, prior to the all My works, how beautiful they are.
presume to be able to improve on creation of man, G-d was alone. The All I have made, I have made for you.
Creation, and is thus an affront to “us,” says Hirsch, refers to the rest of Take care, therefore, that you do not
the Creator. Each species has its own Creation. Because man alone would destroy My world, for if you do, there
develop the capacity to change and
internal laws of development and possibly endanger the natural world, will be no one left to mend what you
reproduction, and these must not be nature itself was consulted as to have destroyed.’” 5
tampered with: “One who combines whether it approved of such a being. We know much more than we once
two different species thereby changes The implied condition is that man did about the dangers of the ceaseless
and defies the work of Creation, as if may use nature only in such a way pursuit of economic gain to the earth’s
he believes that the Holy One, Blessed as to enhance it, not put it at risk. ecology. The guidance of the Oral tra-
be He, has not completely perfected Anything else is ultra vires, outside dition in interpreting “do not destroy”
the world and he now wishes to the remit of our stewardship of the expansively, not restrictively, should
improve it by adding new kinds of planet. inspire us now. We should expand our
3
creatures.” Devarim also contains a horizons of environmental respon-
law forbidding taking a young bird In this context, a phrase in Bere- sibility for the sake of generations
together with its mother. The Ramban ishit 2 is decisive. Man was set in the not yet born, and for the sake of G-d
sees this as having the same under- Garden of Eden “to work it and take whose guests on earth we are.
lying concern, namely of protecting care of it” (Bereishit 2:15). The two
species. Though the Bible permits us Hebrew verbs are significant. The
to use some animals for food, we must first – leOvda – literally means “to 1 Hilchot Melachim 6:10.
serve it.” Man is not just a master but
not cull them to extinction. 2 The Guide for the Perplexed, III:39.
also a servant of nature. The second –
Samson Raphael Hirsch in the 19th leShomra – means “to guard it.” This 3 Ramban, Commentary to Vayikra. 19:19.
S. R. Hirsch, The Nineteen Letters, Letter 11.
4
century gave the most forcible inter- is the verb used in later Torah legisla- 5 Kohelet Rabbah 7:13.
pretation of Biblical law. The statutes tion to describe the responsibilities of
relating to environmental protection a guardian of property that does not
represent the principle that “the same belong to him. He must exercise vigi-
regard which you show to man you lance in its protection and is liable for
must also demonstrate to every lower loss through negligence. This is per-
creature, to the earth which bears and haps the best short definition of man’s
sustains all, and to the world of plants responsibility for nature as the Tanach
and animals.” They are a kind of social conceives it.
justice applied to the natural world: Man’s dominion over nature is thus Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks ל“צז was an
“They ask you to regard all living limited by the requirement to serve international religious leader, philosopher,
things as G-d’s property. Destroy and conserve. The famous story of and award-winning author who served as
Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congre-
none; abuse none; waste nothing; Bereishit 2-3 – eating the forbidden gations of the Commonwealth from 1991
employ all things wisely… Look upon fruit and the subsequent exile from to 2013.

| 19