Page 27 - HaMizrachi #26 Tu Bishvat USA 2021

GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS

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

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