Bal Taskhit -- Do Not Destroy in All My Holy Lands

BAL TASKHIT –

DO NOT DESTROY IN ALL MY HOLY LANDS

This powerful environmental teaching stems from a most unlikely place – the rules of war.  In Deuteronomy 20:19 it says: “When you besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy the trees thereof by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them but you shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man that it should be besieged by you?”

Our tradition interpreted this odd command to prohibit any kind of wanton destruction of the environment.  The sages reason that if you cannot cut down these trees in the heat and the urgency of battle, surely you cannot do so when you have more time and resources to find other ways of achieving your goal. 

“In one of the oldest collections of rabbinical traditions, the Sifrei - written around 300 CE - the halakha is extended to prohibit interference with water sources. The Talmud extends this to include an uneconomical use of fuel.  Maimonides mentions further extensions of the principle, pointing out that it does not refer only to periods of war, but to all times. Among the list of prohibitions that he mentions are the following: the breaking of utensils, the tearing of clothes, the destruction of buildings, the blocking of wells, and the destruction of food. This concept of bal tashkhit developed to the point that, in the 19^th century, R. Samson Raphael Hirsch reached the conclusion that nothing - including one's own belongings - may be destroyed without purpose.”  (From “Judaism and the Environment” by Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld. Center for Business Ethics & Social Responsibility at the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem http://besr.org/library/bachrach.html )

A friend of mine who worked at the Solid Waste District used to ask students, “When you throw something away, where is away?”  We all produce huge amounts of waste and it goes into the more than 10,000 landfills in our 50 states.   We can act to reduce the waste we produce. 

We can act proactively to reduce the amount of waste we produce.  Using longer-lasting light bulbs that use less energy saves money, produces lest waste at your home and at the electric plant.  Using cloth bags while shopping means you don’t need to dispose of plastic or paper bags after you arrive home.  If you are ambitious enough to compost you can convert much of your food waste into rich soil for your garden – recreating the good earth, rather than filling it with our discards.  These are all ways to avoid creating waste.

You can also act to minimize waste by recycling and reusing goods.  Paper, plastic, and metals that are recycled do not fill the dumps, but return for new uses. 

According to the midrash God warns Adam that the earth is now a human responsibility.  If we do not take care of it, no one will come after us to repair the damage.  If everyone of us does a small amount, the sum will be greater than the whole.