1. The Tu B'Shvat Seder in which fruits and nuts
are eaten, along with the singing of songs and the
recitation of biblical verses related to trees and
fruits, is the only sacred meal where only vegetarian,
actually fruitarian, foods, are eaten. Hence this
meal does not even require the killing of plants,
as would be the case if, for example, carrots and
bread were eaten. This is consistent with the diet
in the Garden of Eden, as indicated by God's first,
completely vegetarian, dietary law:
And God said: "Behold, I have given you every
herb yielding seed which is upon the face of all
the earth, and every tree that has seed-yielding
fruit--to you it shall be for food." (Gen.1:29)
2. The Talmud refers to Tu B'Shvat as the New Year
for Trees. It is considered to be the date on which
the fate of trees is decided for the coming year.
In recent years, one of the prime ways of celebrating
Tu B'Shvat, especially in Israel, is through the planting
of trees. Vegetarianism also reflects a concern for
trees. One of the prime reasons for the destruction
of tropical rain forests today is to create pasture
land and areas to grow feed crops for cattle. To save
an estimated 5 cents on each imported fast food hamburger,
we are destroying forest areas in countries such as
Brazil and Costa Rica, where at least half of the
world's species of plants and animals live, and threatening
the stability of the world's climate. It has been
estimated that every vegetarian saves an acre of forest
per year.
3. Both Tu B'Shvat and vegetarianism are connected
to today's environmental concerns. Many contemporary
Jews look on Tu B'Shvat as a Jewish earth day, and
use Tu B'Shvat seders as a chance to discuss how Jewish
values can be applied to reduce many of today's ecological
threats. When God created the world, he was able to
say, "It is very good" (Genesis 1:31). Everything
was in harmony as God had planned, the waters were
clean, the air was pure. But what must God think about
the world today? What must God think when the rain
he sends to nourish our crops is often acid rain due
to the many chemicals poured into the air by our industries?
when the ozone layer that He provided to separate
the heavens from the earth is being depleted at such
a rapid rate? when the abundance of species of plants
and animals that He created are becoming extinct in
tropical rain forests and other threatened habitats,
before we are even been able to catalog them? when
the fertile soil that He provided is rapidly being
depleted and eroded? when the climatic conditions
that He designed to meet our needs are threatened
by global warming? An ancient midrash has become all
too relevant today:
In the hour when the Holy one, blessed be He,
created the first person, He showed him the trees
in the Garden of Eden, and said to him: "See My
works, how fine they are; Now all that I have created,
I created for your benefit. Think upon this and
do not corrupt and destroy My world, For if you
destroy it, there is no one to restore it after
you." (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28)
Today's environmental threats can be compared in
many ways to the Biblical ten plagues, which are in
the Torah portions in the weeks immediately preceding
Tu B'Shvat: When we consider the threats to our land,
water, and air, pesticides and other chemical pollutants,
resource scarcities, threats to our climate, etc.,
we can easily enumerate ten modern "plagues". The
Egyptians were subjected to one plague at a time,
while the modern plagues are threatening us simultaneously.
The Jews in Goshen were spared the Biblical plagues,
while every person on earth is imperiled by the modern
plagues. Instead of an ancient Pharoah's heart being
hardened, our hearts today have been hardened by the
greed, materialism, and waste that are at the root
of current environmental threats. God provided the
Biblical plagues to free the Israelites, while today
we must apply God's teachings in order to save ourselves
and our precious but endangered planet. The Talmudic
sages assert that people's role is to enhance the
world as "co-partners of God in the work of creation."
(Shabbat 10a) They indicated great concern about preserving
the environment and preventing pollution. They state:
"It is forbidden to live in a town which has no garden
or greenery" (Kiddushin 4:12; 66d). Threshing floors
had to be placed far enough from a town so that it
would not be dirtied by chaff carried by winds (Baba
Batra 2:8). Tanneries had to be kept at least 50 cubits
from a town and could be placed only on the east side
of a town, so that odors would not be carried by the
prevailing winds from the west (Baba Batra 2:8,9).
The rabbis express a sense of sanctity toward the
environment: "the atmosphere (air) of the land of
Israel makes one wise" (Baba Batra 158b). Again, vegetarianism
is consistent with this important Jewish environmental
concern, since modern intensive livestock agriculture
contributes to many current environmental problems,
including soil erosion and depletion, air and water
pollution, the destruction of habitats, and potential
global warming.
4. Both Tu B'Shvat and vegetarianism embody the
important teaching that "The earth is the Lord's"
(Psalm. 24:1) and that people are to be stewards of
the earth, to see that its produce is available for
all God's children. Property is a sacred trust given
by God; it must be used to fulfill God's purposes.
No person has absolute or exclusive control over his
or her possessions. The concept that people have custodial
care of the earth, as opposed to ownership, is illustrated
by this ancient story:
Two men were fighting over a piece of land. Each
claimed ownership and bolstered his claim with apparent
proof. To resolve their differences, they agreed
to put the case before the rabbi. The rabbi listened
but could come to no decision because both seemed
to be right. Finally he said, "Since I cannot decide
to whom this land belongs, let us ask the land."
He put his ear to the ground and, after a moment,
straightened up. "Gentlemen, the land says it belongs
to neither of you but that you belong to it."
With their concern about the preservation and expansion
of forests and their focus on plant-based foods, both
Tu B'Shvat and vegetarianism, reflect this important
Jewish teaching.
5. Tu B'Shvat and vegetarianism both reflect the
Torah mandate that we are not to waste or destroy
unnecessarily anything of value. It is interesting
that this prohibition, called bal tashchit ("thou
shalt not destroy") is based on concern for fruit-bearing
trees, as indicated in the following Torah statement:When
thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war
against it to take it, thou shall not destroy (lo
tashchit) the trees thereof by wielding an ax against
them; for thou mayest eat of them but thou shalt not
cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that
it should be besieged of thee? Only the trees of which
thou knoweth that they are not trees for food, them
thou mayest destroy and cut down, that thou mayest
build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with
thee, until it fall. (Deut. 20:19-20)
This prohibition against destroying fruit-bearing
trees in time of warfare was extended by the Jewish
sages. It it forbidden to cut down even a barren tree
or to waste anything if no useful purpose is accomplished
(Sefer Ha-Chinuch 530). The sages of the Talmud made
a general prohibition against waste: "Whoever breaks
vessels or tears garments, or destroys a building,
or clogs up a fountain, or destroys food violates
the prohibition of bal tashchit" (Kiddushin 32a).
In summary, bal tashchit prohibits the destruction,
complete or incomplete, direct or indirect, of all
objects of potential benefit to people. Rabbi Samson
Raphael Hirsch states that bal tashchit is the first
and most general call of God: We are to "regard things
as God's property and use them with a sense of responsibility
for wise human purposes. Destroy nothing! Waste nothing!"
(Horeb; Chapter 56, #401) He indicates that destruction
includes using more things (or things of greater value)
than is necessary to obtain one's aim. (Horeb; Chapter
56, #399) The important Torah mandate of bal tashchit
is consistent with vegetarianism, since, compared
to plant-based diets, animal -centered diets require
far more land, water, energy, and other agricultural
resources.
6. Tu B'Shvat reflects a concern about future generations.
In ancient times it was a custom to plant a cedar
sapling on the birth of a boy and a cypress sapling
on the birth of a girl. The cedar symbolized strength
and stature of a man, while the cypress signified
the fragrance and gentleness of a woman. When the
children were old enough, it was their task to care
for the trees that were planted in their honor. It
was hoped that branches from both types of trees would
form part of the chupah (bridal canopy) when
the children married. Another example of the Jewish
concern for the future that is expressed through the
planting of trees is in the following story: Choni
(the rainmaker) was walking along a road when he saw
an old man planting a carob tree. Choni asked him:
"How many years will it take for this tree to yield
fruit?" The man answered that it would take seventy
years. Choni then asked: "Are you so healthy a man
that you expect to live that length of time and eat
of its fruit?" The man answered: "I found a fruitful
world because my ancestors planned for me. So I will
do the same for my children." Vegetarianism also reflects
concern about the future since this diet puts a minimum
of strain on the earth and its ecosystems and requires
far less water, land, energy, and other scarce agricultural
resources than animal-centered diets.
7. It is customary to recite Psalm 104, as well
as other psalms, on Tu B'Shvat. Psalm 104 indicates
how God's concern and care extends to all creatures,
and illustrates that God created the entire earth
as a unity, in ecological balance:...Thou [God] art
the One Who sends forth springs into brooks, that
they may run between mountains,To give drink to every
beast of the fields; the creatures of the forest quench
their thirst.Beside them dwell the fowl of the heavens;...Thou
art He Who waters the mountains from His upper chambers;...Thou
art He Who causes the grass to spring up for the cattle
and herb, for the service of man, to bring forth bread
from the earth....How manifold art Thy works, O Lord!
In wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is full
of Thy property....
Vegetarianism also reflects concern for animals
and all of God's creation, since for many people it
is a refusal to take part in a system that involves
the cruel treatment and slaughter of 9 billion farm
animals in the United States alone annually, and,
as indicated above, that puts so much stress on the
earth and its resources.
8. Both Tu B'Shvat and vegetarianism are becoming
increasingly popular today; Tu B'Shvat because of
an increasing interest in and concern about nature
and environmental issues, and vegetarianism because
of increasing concern about health, the treatment
of animals, and also the environment and the proper
use of natural resources.
9. On Tu B'Shvat , the sap begins to fill the trees
and their lives are renewed for another year of blossom
and fruit. A shift toward vegetarianism means, in
a sense, that there is an increased feeling of concern
for the earth and all its inhabitants, and there is
a renewal of the world's people's concerns about more
life-sustaining approaches.
In 1993, over 1,670 scientists, including 104 Nobel
laureates - a majority of the living recipients of the
prize in the sciences - signed a "World Scientists'
Warning To Humanity." Their introduction stated: "Human
beings and the natural world are on a collision course.
Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible
damage on the environment and on critical resources.
If not checked, many of our current practices put at
serious risk the future that we wish for human society
and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter
the living world that it will be unable to sustain life
in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are
urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present
course will bring about." The scientists' analysis discussed
threats to the atmosphere, water resources, oceans,
soil, living species, and forests. Their warning: "we
the undersigned, senior members of the world's scientific
community, hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead.
A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the
life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be
avoided With the world's ecosystems threatened as never
before, it is important that Jews increasingly discover
the important ecological messages of Tu B'Shvat. Similarly,
it is also urgent that Jews and others recognize that
a shift toward vegetarianism, the diet most consistent
with Tu B'Shvat, is not only an important individual
choice today, but increasingly it is a Jewish imperative
since the realities of modern intensive livestock agriculture
and the consumption of animal products are inconsistent
with many basic Jewish values, as well as a societal
imperative, necessary for economic and ecological stability.