Last chance to help us make Israel a greener, environmentally healthier land: Until the end of April you can vote online for the upcoming World Zionist Congress. The results determine, among other things, the division of power at the Jewish National Fund’s international board.

For the past decade I have sat on the JNF board, largely because of the support and intervention of the Green Zionist Alliance – a wonderful group of young environmentalists who decided to get involved and improve Israel’s environmental performance. This support has allowed me to represent them and pursue any number of important green initiatives which include:

· creating new sustainable forestry policies for the JNF,

· putting bike lanes on the organization’s agenda,

· creating a brand new “affirmative action” program to systematically reach out to Israel’s Arab minorities to finance environmental projects,

· increasing the organizational commitment to green building and solar energy,

· leading the fight to prevent JNF funding over the green line,

· expanding funding for forestry and agricultural research as well as river restoration projects, and

· fighting for good government and transparency.

There is a lot more that needs to be done. Whether or not I can continue depends on whether the “GZA” – or Aytzim as they call themselves these days gets enough votes. It only takes ten dollars to register and 3 minutes online to vote. (The polls close this Thursday April 30th). Here’s a link to Vote Green Israel: www.worldzionistcongress.org

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. And thanks to all of you who have already voted green for the support. – Alon Tal

(Considered by many to be the leading environmentalist in Israeli history, Alon Tal is a co-founder of the Green Zionist Alliance)

You can support the Israel you want to see. All American Jews can vote in the World Zionist Congress election going on right now. One of the most common questions, we get is why it costs $10 to vote. As Mirele Goldsmith, a Green Israel slate member answers: “The American Zionist Movement has contracted with an independent company to run the online election.  This is to insure that the election is fair.  The registration fee is being used exclusively to pay for the election.  It is not a donation to the WZO.  I wish there was no fee, but it is a small price to pay to make a real difference in the future of Israel.”

Green Israel Platform: Peace for All • Green Energy • Sustainable Development • Diaspora Relations • Air Quality • Ecological Ecology • Animal Rights • Food Justice • Water Conservation • Schmita • Recycling • Encourage Environmental Start-Ups

Green Israel Slate: Eli Bass, Ellen Bernstein, Fred Scherlinder Dobb, Karin Fleisch, David Fox, Matthew Frankel, Ilana Gauss, Brett Goldman, Mirele Goldsmith, Wendy Kenin, David Krantz, Frances Lasday, Evonne Marzouk, Hody Nemes, Morgan Prestage, Shira Rosen, Richard Schwartz, Jacob Schonzeit, David Sher, Garth Silberstein, Marc Soloway, Lawrence Troster, David Weisberg, Eric Weltman, Laurie Zoloth

Please vote Green Israel. Go to http://jewcology.org/2015/03/votegreenisrael/ or worldzionistcongress.org for more info.

About Eden Village Camp: Eden Village Camp aims to be a living model of a thriving, sustainable Jewish community, grounded in social responsibility and inspired Jewish spiritual life. By bringing the wisdom of our tradition to the environmental, social, and personal issues important to today’s young people, we practice a Judaism that is substantive and relevant. Through our Jewish environmental and service-learning curricula, joyful Shabbat observance, pluralistic Jewish expression, and inspiring, diverse staff role models, we foster our campers’ positive Jewish identity and genuine commitment to tikkun olam (healing the world). Our 3 acre educational farm and orchard are based on principles of permaculture, sustainable and organic farming. We produce annual vegetables, perennials, and tend educational gardens as well as animals.

About the Farm Educator Apprenticeship: This is a paid six-month apprenticeship for young adults seeking hands-on experience. In the Spring build your knowledge based on agriculture, farm-based education and Jewish community. In the Summer, work at our 8-week intensive summer camp as Jewish Farm Educators. In the fall, take ownership and integrate your new skills by diving deeper into independent projects.  Live on-site at our beautiful camp, one hour north of New York City. By joining the farm staff at Eden Village, apprentices will hold two main responsibilities – tending our growing spaces and educating in our all of our programming through the spring, summer and fall. Apprentices will also have an opportunity to dive deeper into one of four focus areas: perennials, annuals, animals, and educational gardens. In these specialties apprentices will gain a deeper understanding of certain aspects of farming and will take on leadership and special projects to booster their learning and the learning of campers and program participants.

Details: April 14th, 2015 – October 22nd 2015, Apprentices receive full room and board at Eden Village, as well as a modest stipend. Extensive experience is not necessary but experiential curiosity is required. We recommend you explore our website thoroughly to get more information about our apprenticeship, farm, camp, and more at Eden Village Camp.

More questions? Explore the FAQ page. For all other questions, contact farm@edenvillagecamp.org

Join the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC) in commemorating Earth Day with an online information session on how to successfully create a green “culture” in your congregation. How do we make our environmental efforts an integral part of the culture of our congregational communities? How do we align our actions with our Jewish beliefs of environmental stewardship? Our synagogues have the potential to model environmental behavior and inspire individual action and advocacy. Join expert rabbis and staff from the RAC and GreenFaith in discussing how our congregations can foster a “culture” of environmentalism that goes beyond independent greening initiatives.

Join: “Earth Day Every Day: Creating a Green Culture in your Congregation” – Thursday April 24, 3:00pm ET

How does a community come together to look at new ideas and decide which ones to make a small investment in and see if they will succeed?

The GTA Jewish community brought forward 78 proposals to the UJA Federation’s SixPoints Jewish Venture Philanthropy Fund. Sixty individuals pooled their financial resources and business planning skills to fund and support new and innovative programs, consistent with Jewish values.

Each proposal team was asked to record a short video and write up their project describing the hypothetical community benefit.

Shoresh was the only group to propose a sustainable solution for the Jewish community. (http://bit.ly/6points-shoresh). Their proposal looks for a permanent home for Shoresh’s Kavanah Garden, temporarily located on the Lebovic Campus. Jewish community members from across the spectrum use the garden and its programs to strengthen their Jewish identity, and inspire Jewish social and environmental responsibility.

Shoresh and 35 other entries, agreed to publically show their proposal. The SixPoints funders will be using their expertise to help improve proposals. They will select 3-5 projects to share $300,000 of assembled funding.

Concurrently, the ClimateSpark Social Venture Challenge (http://bit.ly/ClimateSpark) is about to begin under the leadership of Julia Langer, based on a previous challenge mounted by the Toronto Atmospheric Fund. A City of Toronto agency, TAF has helpedcommunity leaders and green entrepreneurs identify and advance emission reduction and clean air ventures for over 20 years.

ClimateSpark SVC is looking for 10 high-impact, self-sustaining initiatives that can lead to significant local reductions in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. As with SixPoints, you need to record a short video to overview your idea. Additionally you need to succinctly describe in words how the idea would work, be able to provide some way to quantify the positive impact it can have on the environment and explain how the project would become self supporting over 5 years.

ClimateSpark SVC offers adiverse group of experts, from professional consultants and community leaders to entrepreneurs and greenhouse gas emissions analysts. Through the power of social networking these experts along with other members of the public will offer their comments and intellectual capital to mentor contestants and strengthen plans being submitted. The 10 selected projects will receive additional private coaching. The final three will be eligible for a pool of financing from grant-makers and private financiers.

Some of the community teams who may have hesitated in bringing an environmentally related project to SixPoints may want to consider proposing their idea to the ClimateSpark community.

“Both ClimateSpark and SixPoints have a similar objective of bringing value to their community” said Adam Minsky, Chief of Community Capacity Building, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. “I recognize that solicitation of community input through social network crowdsourcing and having different funding sources are two critical differences. There will be lessons to be learned from both models.”

“It is exciting to see open-source contests emerging in different sectors in Toronto,” says Langer. “It shows awareness that complex problem solving relies on accessing knowledge and ideas from many sources, and on mutual refinement that makes good ideas great.”

winegust@gmail.com

What role should a synagogue play in helping its members live a more sustainable existence? Should a synagogue lead by example or just respond to the requirements of their boards and their members. Are we dealing with a business decision or a spiritual imperative?

Rabbi Voss-Altman of Temple B’nai Tikvah in Calgary was one of the first in the Canadian Reform movement to dedicate one of his Shabbat talks to putting a green spin on Parshat Noach. His talk focused on the responsibility mankind was given to have stewardship over the earth and to take care of the planet. The Reform movement has even dedicated time and resources to helping its congregations become more sustainable. [http://bit.ly/tsj1102-01]

The rabbi brought an interesting proposition to his congregation in 2007 after visiting the local Ikea, and finding out that it was powered by renewable energy from southern Alberta wind farms. The synagogue board agreed to the spiritual value of renewable energy and agreed to pay the premium for this power once the Rabbi secured a synagogue member willing to sponsor the effort. The Rabbi succeeded in finding a member connected with the oil industry, willing to be that sponsor. Today, the Temple is “Bullfrog Powered” and draws renewable energy from the Alberta power grid. [http://bit.ly/tsj1102-02]

Alan Levine and Michael Charendoff of the Reconstructionist Egalitarian Congregation Darchei Noam, recently took me on a tour of their building on Sheppard west of Wilmington. The former Adath Shalom Congregation building was bought by Darchei Noam in 2004 and was re-skinned with a new exterior and a third floor addition and reopened in January 2008.

Various congregational committees were involved in the selection of heating, cooling, and water systems, ensuring the building could operate in an environmentally respectful way. Sustainable materials were chosen to create a comfortable and inviting interior, minimizing environment impact.

Today, the congregation reduces its overall energy costs by selling electricity from 22 roof mounted solar panels back to the Ontario power grid. The energy consumption of the building, when normalized by square footage is significantly less than other institutional buildings. [http://bit.ly/tsj1102-03]

In Ontario, electricity rates are expected to increase by 46% in the next 5 years, independent of pre-election 10% rebates. Very shortly, time of use charging will extend from residential homes to institutional buildings such as synagogues and communal organizations funded by the UJA Federation.

Are lower 5 year fixed electricity rates being offered to these institutions really as attractive once you map energy consumption to the time it is consumed? Once you add the Global Adjustment cost into proposals currently in front of these institutions, do the expected savings still remain? [http://bit.ly/tsj1102-04]

“We believe that communal organizations should focus their budgets on providing services to their constituents. More funds are available for the Jewish mission when operational cost savings around energy consumption are put in place. ”, says Gary Siepser , Senior Vice President, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. “Organizations need to benchmark building energy consumption and make it visible to drive improvements. We are aware of energy efficiency efforts currently underway and will be calling together representatives of our stakeholder community to share best practices, identify programs and methodologies they can leverage and help them avoid known pitfalls”.

In 1983 the Bruntland Commission formally defined sustainable development as, "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Many hard-core environmentalists and deep ecologists reject this definition because it presupposes development as the foundation for sustainability. However, many free-market capitalists think this definition goes too far and encourages unnecessary government oversight of global markets. Given the opposing viewpoints sustainable development can be considered a compromise between environmentalism and capitalism.

Many readers might balk at the notion that sustainable development is a compromise position. I know I certainly did when it was presented to me that way. However, I have come to realize that between heaven and earth few things are what they seem. The world is full of contradictions and surprises, and I like it that way. Sustainable development is an idea that balances human needs within the context of limited material resources. It rejects the atavism of hard-core environmentalism and the pantheism of deep ecology, while subduing the avarice of free-market capitalism.

Judaism's approach to sustainability is strikingly similar. We are told to take what we need from the world, but not to waste it (Ba'al Tashchit). As Jews we are entitled to use the earth's resources to meet our needs until the byproducts of that work begins to harm our neighbors. Plants and animals are given respect and protection under Jewish law, but are not elevated to the status of gods or human beings (Sa'ar Balechaim +).

For me, these definitions of sustainability work. They acknowledge contradiction while simultaneously setting guidelines for sensible action. More importantly, both positions remain open for debate and discussion. Neither one claims to have all the answers, but nonetheless engage in asking difficult questions about humanity's relationship with the world. It has and continues to be a pleasure to be a part of a Jewish community and an environmental community that has the courage to ask hard questions and the honesty to search for meaningful answers.

• To learn to need for compromise
• To learn Jewish values related urban planning

Duration: 25 minutes

Materials: Build your city worksheets, pencils.

Program:

1) Divide students into groups of 2-4 students

2) Read the rules for play

The Teva Educators need a new place to live. Your help is required to build us a new city in accordance with Jewish law and environmental sustainability,

i. Sit down with your group and examine the Jewish texts provided below. Use them and your groups knowledge to choose a development strategy for your new city

ii. Study the city components available for purchase.

iii. Your group has $5,000 to purchase city components for your new city. You must purchase at least one item from each category.

iv. Compromises will be required as it may be impossible to purchase your ideal item in each category.

v. If time permits, create a drawing or model of your new city.

vi. We will reconvene to share our city plans.

3) Give the students 15 minutes to accomplish their task

4) Return together, have each group share their city (and drawing if time permits)

Discussion:

What compromises where you forced to make?

What items did you want no matter what the cost and why?

Were you able to balance personal, communal and environmental needs?

Materials developed by Noam Dolgin and the Teva Learning Center.

All content is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. (Ie. Tell other where you got it from and don't sell it)

• Insulating the walls and attics will save about 25% on your home heating bills (ensure that your insulation does not have formaldehyde and uses recycled materials).
  
• Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket–only if it is more than 5 years old and has no internal insulation of its own.
  
• Clean or replace the air filters in your furnace. This can save 5% or more in energy costs.
  
• Caulk and weather strip around doors and windows to plug air leaks.
  
• If you are replacing windows, invest in energy-saving models. Otherwise, if your windows leak, use specially designed plastic sheets to block off cold air from entering house (these can be purchased in any hardware store).
  
• Get an energy audit from your local utility company to find out how to improve your home's energy efficiency

Originally posted in "On Eagles' Wings" November 28th 2004

This content originated at Canfei Nesharim.org.

WALK. By reducing the amount of time spent in your car by using your feet, bike, or mass transit you reduce CO2 emissions, as well as ozone-producing nitrous oxides and cancer-causing polyaromatic hydrocarbons. How many of us have seen members of our community drive two blocks to get to the Sunday morning minyan? If you can walk on Shabbat, you can walk on Sunday! If you need to purchase a new car, get the most gas-efficient model available. Consider hybrid cars, too.


IMPROVE YOUR HOME. This fall, leave the windows open. As the cooler days approach, prepare your windows by installing weather stripping and plastic sheets to cut cold air drafts and keeping the blinds/shades closed in the daytime will keep the house cool. Use fans. (Ceiling fans can even be used in the winter, if you change the direction of the blades to bring the cold air up to the warmer ceiling areas, and that will decrease your heating needs.) Plant trees around the house to prepare for next summer. If you live in a cold climate, use dark paints or siding to keep the heat in this winter.


USE YOUR APPLIANCES EFFICIENTLY. If you have a dishwasher, run it only when you have a full load and use any energy-saving settings when drying. A temperature of 120o F for your water heater is just fine; turn it to vacation mode when gone for a few days or more. Set your thermostats mildly, as hundreds of pounds of CO2 are used/saved each year for every 2-degree adjustment. Clean your furnace filters; the harder your furnace needs to work to circulate the air, the more energy is used. Unplug your TV, and other appliances, when not in use. Many modern appliances are really using energy even when "off" – you can tell because they are still warm even when they aren't in use.


SAVE ENERGY ON SHABBOS. On Shabbos, use warming trays and crock pots with a timer, if possible, rather than having your oven on for 25 hours. Use timers on lamps that plug into the wall. There are also now moderately-priced timers that connect into your ceiling lights and fans through your wall switch. By programming what hours you need the lights on or off, you don't need your lights on all Shabbos.

- Daniel Weber, Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Originally posted in "On Eagles' Wings" September 12th 2003.

This content originated at Canfei Nesharim.org.

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The Mishkan (Sanctuary), the traveling “House of G-d” built by the Israelites in the desert, is an elaborate structure built of royal and expensive materials. Reading the passages that describe its construction, one could easily be led to ask, “What does such a grandiose and this-worldly building have to do with G-d?” Yet the Mishkan is the epitome of Divine presence. The word Mishkan means “dwelling place” and is also inherently connected to the word Shechina, “presence.” The Mishkan is the essential place of the Shechina, G-d’s presence in this world. About the Mishkan G-d says, “They shall make a Sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them.”[1]

Parshat Terumah opens with an elaborate list of the materials that will be used in the building of the Mishkan and instruments within: “…gold, silver, and copper; and turquoise, purple, and scarlet wool; linen and goat hair; red-dyed ram skins, tachash skins, acacia wood; oil for illumination, spices for the anointment oil and the aromatic incense; shoham stones and stones for the settings, for the Ephod and the Breastplate.”[2]

About the forementioned wood, specifically, the Midrash Tanhuma[3] on Parshat Terumah tells us that Jacob (Yaakov) received a prophecy that his descendents, while in the desert, would be instructed to build a Mishkan, a dwelling place for G-d. He subsequently planted saplings in the land of Israel and instructed his children to diligently transplant them to Egypt. By making this wise decision, Yaakov prepared a whole forest that would later supply the Mishkan with at least 800 cubic feet, or twenty tons, of usable wood.

Yaakov longed to participate in the building of the house of G-d, and took the necessary action to ensure his own involvement. Perhaps more significantly, Yaakov’s actions express the teaching of our sages “Who is wise? Those who foresee the consequences of their actions.”[4] Yaakov had the wisdom to project the need for large amounts of wood in the Sinai desert, an environment that could not sustain wood. He therefore looked ahead and created a sustainable solution for the sacred needs of the Israelites.

We too, must look ahead and ask ourselves if we are creating sustainable environments for the needs of our children, our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren. Since the industrial revolution, our predecessors have not taken forest management seriously enough to warrant the respect that Yaakov earned for his foresight. In fact they, and we, have acted all too foolishly with the resources of G-d’s creation. Humankind, and in particular the industrialized West, has imprudently plundered one of earth’s most precious and critical resources.

Scientists give us some idea of what has been happening to the world’s forests: Half of the Earth’s land surface was once covered by forest, yet now half of those forests are gone; of all of the original forests that once covered the Earth, only 20 percent remain untouched; in North America alone, half of the coastal temperate rainforests that once stretched from Alaska to California have been destroyed[5]; and turning to the world’s rain forests, somewhere between 750 to 800 million hectares of the planet’s original 1.5-1.6 billion hectares of mature tropical rain forests have been destroyed.[6] Repercussions of such overuse and misuse include, in brief, an increase in the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, a major contributor to the greenhouse effect; disruption of the water cycle resulting in drier climates; soil erosion leading to the silting of water courses, lakes and dams; and the extinction of species that depend on the forest for survival.

The Midrash[7] also analyzes the choice of acacia wood in the construction of the Mishkan, and explains that the Hebrew root of the word shitim, meaning acacia, shares the same root as the word shtoot, meaning folly. A connection is made: by building the Sanctuary out of this particular wood, we are reminded to rectify the folly that the Children of Israel pursued with the sin of the Golden Calf.

The Midrash’s link between acacia and the Golden Calf presents an almost funny, yet poignant connection to the current real-world correlation between deforestation and beef production. According to the Center for International Forestry Research, cattle ranching for beef has caused the majority of felled forests in Latin America, tens of thousands of square kilometers each year! In the Brazilian Amazon alone, the total area of deforestation rose from 41.5 million hectares in 1990 to 58.7 million hectares in 2000, that is forest area the twice the size of Portugal lost in ten years alone.[8] The overwhelming majority of that lost forest becomes pasture, and most of that pasture is used for grazing cattle, intended for eventual export on the international market. Modern-day beef consumption may thus represent the pursuit of our own material comfort at the expense of our forests.

Careless and selfish deforestation is also caused by urban sprawl: to build new highways, to build larger homes than we truly need; and for endless amounts of packaging materials and paper goods. Natural resources such as forests are meant for us to use, but we must learn from Yaakov how to wisely use, reuse and replenish our natural resources. We must learn to avoid the “shtoot” and use the “shitim.”

The Sanctuary served as a microcosm for greater world harmony and was a Divine gesture to the children of Israel in response to the Golden Calf. We are given G-d’s world and the material within in order to construct a house for G-d, one of peace, harmony and sustainability. The world’s resources are not here so that we may construct false gods which cater to our wants and desires. The moment that we misuse the physical and degrade the planet, we go against the spirit of the wooden Sanctuary G-d commanded.

We must ask ourselves: “Is G-d present in our consumption?” If so, then even the most ostentatious and elaborate materials that were used in the construction of the Mishkan are warranted. But if we have no awareness of our actions, and our consumption is a product of the pursuit of golden and flashy gods of consumer society, then we have not created a dwelling place for G-d in our actions or in the world.

Let us be blessed with the wisdom and foresight of our forefather Yaakov to provide sustainable and justified coexistence with the small remainder of G-d’s forests, and let us establish an awareness of the preciousness that pervades our natural world. By doing so, we will herald in a new era of human consciousness, and G-d will build the Third Temple as a testament to our efforts. As the prophet Isaiah said, “I will give in the desert cedars, acacia trees, all kinds of civilization. Even in them will I give all kinds of wisdom, goodness, and peace… In order that they see and know, and pay attention and understand together that the hand of the Lord did this and the Holy One of Israel created it.”[9]

_________________________________

Suggested Action Items:

• Seriously limit your intake of meat as part of your commitment to avoid deforestation and other environmental “folly.” If and when you do buy meat, choose locally produced, organic meat from a source you trust.

• Before buying something new, stop and consider why you are buying it. If it is for a holy purpose, go ahead. If it is to fill a void that might not be G-d-focused, think about choosing not to buy it.

Ariel Shalem is currently learning for Rabbinical ordination at the Bat Ayin Yeshiva in Israel’s Judean Hills. His family lives in a humble home overlooking a newly planted JNF forest. As an educator he often encourages his students to see the tshuva (repentence) process as one that must rectify mistakes between people and their environment. Ariel made aliyah 12 years ago and is committed to seeking a spiritually and environmentally conscious Israeli society that can serve as a role model for the world.

_________________________________

[1] Shemot 25:8 (translation by Artscroll Mesorah)

[2] Shemot 25:3-7 (translation by Artscroll Mesorah)

[3] Midrash Tanhuma on Parshat Terumah, chapter 9

[4] Babylonian Talmud, Tamid 32a

[5] Report by the National Resources Defense Council

[6] Ron Nielsen, The Little Green Handbook: Seven Trends Shaping the Future of Our Planet, Picador, New York, 2006

[7] Midrash Tanhuma on Parshat Terumah, Chapter 10

[8] “Hamburger Connection Fuels Amazon Destruction,” report by the Center for International Forestry Research.

[9] Allegorical rendering following Rashi on Isaiah 41:19-20

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In this week's Torah portion, G-d tells Moses:"Command the Children of Israel that they shall give to the Levites, from the heritage of their possession, cities for dwelling; and open space all around the cities shall you give to the Levites. The cities shall be theirs for dwelling, and their open space shall be for their animals, for their possessions, and for all the amenities of life."[1]

The subsequent verses specify the dimensions of this area that was to surround the Levite cities, as a belt 1,000 cubits wide, and then as 2,000 cubits wide (2,000 cubits is equivalent to between 3,000 and 4,000 feet or 914 to 1219 meters).[2] Rashi explains the apparent contradiction and further describes the uses of this area: “He assigned two thousand [cubits] for them around the city, of which the inner thousand was for open area and the outer [thousand] for fields and vineyards.” [3] Sforno adds that this open space also enabled city residents to have "beehives, dovecotes, and other such items".[4]

The Torah uses the Hebrew term ‘migrash’ to describe this “green belt.” What is a ‘migrash’? Onkelos translates it as ‘revach,’ or space.[5] But why does the Torah require an open space around cities?

The answer is surprisingly practical. The Talmud explains that the inner belt serves to beautify the city; residents may plant trees there, but may not use the area for construction or agriculture. Rather, it is to remain open park land. The city itself is “zoned” for construction, and the outer belt for agriculture. The Talmud forbids converting land in any of these three zones to uses reserved for the others. [6]

With this practical explanation in mind, we should not be surprised that the majority of the rabbis involved in the Talmud’s discussion of the migrash concluded that this law applies to all Jewish towns in Israel, and not just to those reserved for the Levites. Maimonides accepts this opinion as settled law. [7]

Do the Jews observe the laws of migrash today? To address this question, we need a bit of historical perspective. After the destruction of the second temple, we lost political sovereignty and were exiled from our land. For almost two thousand years, we were not able to realize this mitzvah (commandment) because we lacked our own sovereign cities in the land of Israel. We were aliens in other people’s lands. When many of our people returned to our land in the past century, Jews began once again to build cities and farms in Israel, and a new society took shape. Vigorous and creative debates about how to observe other mitzvot (plural form of mitzvah) of the land of Israel under modern conditions deepened our appreciation of shmitah, yovel, and other neglected agricultural laws. These discussions continue to produce novel modern solutions to ancient problems. However, the mitzvah of migrash has not yet become part of the conversations of Israeli rabbinic authorities or regional planners. [8]. Returning it to today’s Jewish agenda is one of the challenges facing those who are concerned about Torah and the environment.

A major exception is the great nineteenth century German writer Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch. Rabbi Hirsch takes a broad view of the implications of the mitzvah of migrash for both social relations and land use. He views this mitzvah as promoting the development of a society that combines urban sophistication and rural connectedness to the natural environment—“an urban population engaged in agriculture”. Rabbi Hirsch also sees the mitzvah of migrash as a limit to the urban sprawl that would otherwise be inevitable: “Clearly these laws place an obstacle to the growth of large cities at the expense of the surrounding country which otherwise is so very prevalent. Not even the open spaces of the city, or any part of it, may be used as building sites.”

The commandment of migrash in the Torah inspired the “garden city movement” founded in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. A garden city was intended to be a self-contained community surrounded by a green belt, with carefully planned regions of commerce, living, and recreation. Howard himself established two such garden cities in England, which remain successful today.[9] His ideas influenced the planning of other cities around the globe, and also influenced the British urbanist Sir Patrick Geddes in the planning of Tel-Aviv, Israel. [10] In the 1950’s when Be’er Sheva, the largest city in Israel’s Negev region was developed, it was built according to a ‘garden city’ plan, with small housing units generously spaced apart. However, the regional climate soon proved unsuitable for such urban planning, and neighborhoods gradually became more developed and crowded as the garden city theory was abandoned. [11] Eventually, criticisms of the effectiveness of the ‘garden city’ arose, and many modern architects developed ideas radically different from those of Sir Howard. [12]

Today, the applicability of the garden city philosophy is contested, but the mitzvah of migrash remains part of our eternal Torah. The mitzvah of migrash was a wonderful institution for our agrarian ancestors, but how could it be practiced today, when nearly 11 million people live west of the Jordan River, and the Earth’s population is approaching 7 billion? In the industrialized Western countries, 98% of the population works away from the land, in manufacturing and service jobs. In 2005, the United Nations reported that the majority of people in the world today live in cities. [13] As city dwellers, we can certainly grow from internalizing the principle of migrash, even without apportioning an actual green belt. Migrash moderates some of the negative effects of city life, such as the alienation of a person from nature and from the source of the food they eat. That’s why migrash comes from the root ‘legaresh,’ to divorce or separate, because it separates one urban area from another in an attempt to marry Jews to the natural existence G-d gave them in the land of Israel.

Our disconnection from nature is one of the root causes of environmental degradation, causing people to abuse resources, spread pollutants, and plan poorly for the future of our planet. A civilization can radically damage the natural world when it does not see itself as part of that world. Which city residents actually know the river to which their sewage flows during the common occurrence of storm-related flooding? A society can squander natural resources when it is not aware how it uses them. How many of us know exactly where our electricity is produced and how the plant transports the coal for its production? And when a community does not realize its dependence on certain natural processes (such as the growth of rainforests, the reproduction of fish schools, the flow of clean water aquifers) it is unlikely to prioritize their unhindered continuation.

Judaism does not emphasize abstract, quietistic contemplation of G-d’s greatness. Rather, appreciation of G-d develops from the physical performance of mitzvot in G-d’s world, and leads back to appreciation of G-d and the world. Thus, restoring our awareness of nature and our place within it will invigorate our efforts to solve environmental problems, inspired by the mitzvoth of the Torah.

_________________________________

Suggested Action Items

• Experience nature at least once a month. The Israelites with their green belts had constant access to natural areas where they could look out and see signs of human civilization. To the extent that we can connect to the natural world G-d created, we can recover some sense of the grandeur of G-d’s creation.

• Grow some of your own food. Backyard gardens can help us connect to the natural cycles of plant growth and reduce the use of fossil fuels to transport our food from farm to market.

• Support sustainable urban planning in your community by encouraging zoning laws that limit sprawl.

• Promote access to green spaces and parks in and near urban areas.

Dr. Greenberg received his Bachelor’s degree with honors in biology from Brown University and his Master’s and Doctorate in agronomy from Cornell University. He has also studied with Rabbi Chaim Bravender at Israel’s Yeshivat Hamivtar and conducted research at Cornell, the US Department of Agriculture, and the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Greenberg was a Senior Editor of science textbooks at Prentice Hall Publishing Co. and an assistant professor at the School of Education at Indiana University. He teaches science at University of Phoenix and Yeshivas Ohr Yosef and is a frequent speaker at synagogues and schools.

1

Numbers 35:2,3

2

Ibid. verses 4 and 5

3

French Torah Scholar and commentator, 11th cent.

4

Ovadiah ben Jacob Sforno, Italian scholar and commentator, 13th-14th cent. Commentary on Numbers 35:4

5

Onkelos was a famous convert to Judaism in Talmudic times (c.35-120 CE). He is considered to be the author of the famous translation of the Torah into Aramaic, Targum Onkelos (c.110 CE).

6

Babylonian Talmud (200 C.E.-~500 C.E.), tractates Baba Batra 24b, and Arachin 33b

7

Maimonides is Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, Spain and Egypt, 2nd -3rd cent. His ruling is found in Zeraim, Hilchos Shmittah V'Yovel 13:5

8

This is due in part to a halachic debate about whether the law of migrash applies to cities in Israel when the majority of Jews do not reside in Israel. The halachic consensus is that other land-related laws such as shemitah (not farming in Israel every seventh year), yovel (cancelation of land contracts every 50 years), and terumah (tithing) apply regardless of the percentage of Jews living in Israel, and so today they are vigorously applied and developed in an Israeli religious context.

9

Buder, Stanley, Visionaries and Planners: The Garden City Movement and the Modern Community, Oxford University Press, USA 1990.

10

Boardman, Philip, Patrick Geddes: Maker of the Future (1944)

11

Gordus, Yehoshua, and Stern, Eliyahu (Ed.) The Book of Be’er Sheva, Keter,1979.

12

Geocities

13

United Nations, DESA, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2005 Revision.,

• Architecture: Greening the Building
• Bathroom: Greening the Bathroom
• Classroom: Green Learning
• Commuting: Driving to Greener Pastures
• Green Gardens: Eco-landscaping
• Kitchen: Eco-Kosher
• Office Space: Greening Your Work

Learn more at http://urj.org/green/building/checklist/.

Greening Your Building

Excerpt: When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it. (Deuteronomy 22:8)

Energy Audit
Conducting an energy audit is an important first step toward greening your congregation and is a great way to engage your youth group in eco-friendly behavior. Plus, implementing changes after your audit could save households almost $400 a year!

Learn more at http://urj.org/green/building/.