Jewish Law - Commentary/Opinion - Planet Under Siege, Halakhic Rescue Needed

Planet Under Siege, Halakhic Rescue Needed
Shalom Spira

Planet Under Siege, Halakhic Rescue Needed

Shalom Spira

For some time now, the media-sensitive public at large has been made increasingly aware of the ecological degradation that is transpiring across the face of our planet. Readers are very likely already familiar with the many facets of this emerging problem: poisonous contamination of air, food and potable water, ozone depletion, hazardous waste accumulation, desertification and global warming, among others. These phenomena are not simply of trivial or academic interest; they represent impending threats to human health with definite epidemiological consequences should they continue uncorrected. Some experts even think that our planet's very life support systems are jeapordized by these problems, Heaven forfend. Clearly, it is a matter of pressing urgency.

In response to this situation, a massive grassroots environmentalist movement has sprung up among concerned citizens, scientists and politicians. I argue that the time has come to raise the banner of a halakhically motivated environmentalist movement- one that is concerned with the aforementioned problems precisely because of our Torah, and one which seeks to effectively address those problems in consonance with "da'as torah" (~a public policy philosophy of Judaism based upon traditional values).

I do not mean to criticize the present state of eco-activism- those who participate in it deserve society's gratitude for sounding a long overdue and vital alarm. Nevertheless, the current environmentalist movement may be assumed to be unpalatable to the minset of observant Jews. Green activism is commonly regarded as a left-wing enterprise, whereas traditional adherence to religion is generally relegated to the right-wing of the socio-political spectrum. Moreover, there is no gainsaying the fact that some tenets popularly associated with (certain segments of the) environmentalist movement (e.g. deification of the planet, contention that there are more people than the world can sustain, belief that man and animal are on equal footing) are recognized by Jews to be patently false. Hence, what is needed is a brand of environmental concern which can be endorsed by observant Jewry. At the same time, I argue that it is precisely the observant Jew, a veritable hero with his true faith and noble set of moral principles, who ought to be the environmentally concerned citizen on the block. Is it not the Torah Jew who best understands the real value of existence, and in so doing has a strongly vested interest in seeing that the world continue to be?

Of course, our security in the belief that civilization is headed toward a utopian existence which will be realized in the messianic era ¹ precludes us from worrying about doomsday predictions that a catastrophe will wipe out the human race. Moreover, the Omnipotent One is determined that "lo tohu bira'ah lasheves yitzara"² (~the world will be populated) and we trust fully in His protective providence. Nevertheless, bechira chofshis (~free moral choice) is just as great a reality. Man has the capacity to choose to cause grave damage to his fellow man - to devalue his property, to hurt him and to kill him - damage which is readily executed by pollution. Yes, the geulah shlayma (~eschatological redemption) will still come, but how many people will suffer as a result of pollution and how many resources of the planet will be spoiled until that time? This is a question over which humankind has free choice, and which halakha recognizes under the guise of harchakas nezikin - the obligation to prevent damage against others.³

Example: Air Pollution

The physiological need to breathe reasonably clean air is fundamental, which makes air pollution of anthropological origin a rather vexing problem in dense urban settings. The adverse results are palpable in hospitalized asthmatics and other lung disease sufferers whose severely laboured breathing is exacerbated by the dirty air, lo aleinu (~we shouldn't know from it). It is no wonder that chaza"l (~the talmudic sages) recognized smoke as a mazik (~damaging agent) which has no chazaka (~presumption of innocuity) - viz., even after many years of silence, those who suffer from smoke may legally compel the polluter to stop.⁴

Thankfully, many are able to live in suburbs or even rural satellites and breathe easily. But this can create a problem of its own if those residents must commute by car to the city center, thus intensifying traffic and the resultant pollution.

Even looking beyond the city, fossil fuel burning (as from cars or power plants) is harmful on a planetary scale, according to the vast majority of scientists, because it causes global warming, a phenomenon that can wreak havoc with life on our temperate biosphere. While this may only seem to add an inconvenient shvitz to American summers, it is a major problem for Middle Eastern countries that are particularly sensitive to drought. Our brethren in Israel are sure to suffer the most intense consequences of any global warming that develops, G-d forbid, and for that reason alone it deserves our attention. Moreover, such warming causes oceanic volume expansion, an obvious flood danger to coastal settlements in any part of the world. Furthermore, an abnormal rise in temperature in any area creates a breeding ground for organisms that, biologically speaking, do not belong in the local environment, as was underscored by the recent West Nile Virus mosquito scare in New York City.

In truth, one might object to this climate causality model, seeing as the Rambam ⁵ explains that any major crisis (including a meterological one, such as a drought) should be seen as a divine call to do teshuva, and it is precisely repentance which will alleviate the problem. If so, one might claim that we need not address global warming and any resultant calamity by worrying about scientific causes, but rather by inspecting the moral causes. However, this argument is specious in absolving us of the responsibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Firstly, if there is a moral cause to global warming, who is to say that it is anything other than society's failure to observe the laws of harchakas nezikin? After all, there exists an actual issur di'oraisa (~biblical prohibition) to be mazik, as the various commentaries on Bava Kamma demonstrate! Moreover, it is noteworthy that in the case of global warming, we are discussing a phenomenon which affects every corner of the planet in an incremental, consistent and forseeable pattern. It seems implausible to suggest that all countries of the world are being simultaneously punished for some collective evil. It is far more reasonable to accept that global warming is a scientifically explainable, man made phenomenon. In fact, this is borne out by Kesuvos 31b which declares excessive heat to be a calamity that is in the hands of man.⁶ Thus, the science of global warming appears compatible with our theology, and it forewarns of a serious potential threat to the stability of life on our planet.

As such, air pollution is a prime example of an environmental dillema which needs to be addressed, both because of its local and global effects. Polluters may very well be the kindest and most sincerely pure hearted of individuals who would never dream of harming anyone. But the hezeik that is occurring is unmistakable and must be stopped.

Foundations to Solving this Problem

The multi-faceted nature of the present environmental crisis requires a variety of solutions, but a few general observations rendered by environmental experts are appropriate for mention:

- We cannot rely on so called "techno-fixes" - inventions or advances in technology that will miraculously obviate our ecological problems at some time in the future. These are unreliable, and typically replace one mess with a more complicated successor. The real solution lies in changing society's behaviour. Consumer habits have a major influence on the shaping of international industry, and so they are the major focus of this much needed change. Society must learn to reduce consumption, reuse and recycle what it does consume wherever feasible, and often simply refuse to indulge in frivolous consumption.

- Although our ecological challenges are global in nature, they are most feasibly and successfully addressed at the local level. Each person ought to critically evaluate what impact he/she has on the local neighbourhood and community. This dovetails very nicely with the Rambam's choice of title for what are essentially environmental laws - "hilchos shkheinim (~neighbours)".
Only if every individual takes responsibility for his effects on the environment will anything ever be accomplished. Otherwise, environmental protection will become like the proverbial pot shared between 2 partners, which "never turns hot or cold". (Eruvin 3a)

- Although many occupations cause environmental degradation of some form, suspension of our economic activities cannot serve as the answer to our problems, for 2 obvious reasons: (a) it is unfair to demand that anyone refrain from pursuing a livelihood and contributing to human civilization, and (b) the result of such a demand would be to impoverish the public, whereas poverty is itself the greatest threat to environmental protection.
After all, hungry people have no time to consider anything but the procurement of food, and will do so in no matter how destructively wasteful a manner, as we find in the case of 3rd world citizens who must cultivate the rain forests by means of unsustainable "slash and burn" techniques.
If it seems bizarre to tolerate pollution for economic purposes but regard it as anathema for others, we must remember that the environment is capable of processing and adapting to a moderate amount of abuse. Nowadays, mankind is exceeding that threshold by swamping the planet's life support systems with too much waste, too quickly. The call of the hour, then, is not to totally eliminate pollution, but rather to minimize it to within reasonable limits. Granting modest allowances for economic purposes while stringently restricting discretionary sources of pollution is the key to conservation success.

- Most importantly, in order to be willing to adopt the sustainable, more modest lifestyle approach necessary to save itself from ecological harm, human society must learn to to feel happiness and achievement by means of activities other than those marked by material consumption. We need a way to find peace of mind in concert with being at peace with our environment. Otherwise, we will never have the willpower to effectively combat pollution and the current destructive trends will continue as the world population steadily grows.

For others, this poses as a formidable psycho-educational task, but thankfully we already have the direction illuminated by our Torah's injunction to be holy people ⁷, which enjoins us from indulging excessively in permitted physical pleasures, as Nachmanides explains. In light of this mandate, a simple lifestyle can be viewed as a religious ideal, and not merely as a concession to socio-economic constraints or ecological concerns. Truly, the most blissful delights which the observant Jew enjoys stem from activities (prayer, Torah study, mitzvah performance) that are typically divorced from any pollution, and quite the contrary, engender a moral character condusive to concern for the welfare of others who share the same ecosphere. As Jews, we can become stellar role models to the outside world on the feasibility of "addiction" toward intellectual/spiritual pursuits as a meaningful and healthy replacement to the compulsive addiction toward material pursuits which expoit and degrade the planet.

Air Pollution Revisited

Regarding our aforementioned example of air pollution, the following approach may be derived on the basis of these principles.

We cannot depend on the successful development of an emission-free automobile, nor upon international conventions to clean our polluted skies. The solution can only come from conscientious citizens who take responsibility for the tortious effects of their own fuel exhaust on the local environment and , accordingly, keep their driving to a minimum. (The local atmosphere can take a mild amount of punishment without becoming unhealthy.) Most people must commute to work by car - let them continue to do so, seeing as it is a matter of livelihood, as explained above. (In deed, there exists a number of precedents in the responsa literature indicating that certain norms of harchakas nezikin can be bent when an entire city willingly accepts upon itself the effects of an economically vital but environmentally noxious activity.⁸) But what justifies driving for any other purpose, especially if it will contribute to the asphyxiation of a busy urban core? For conducting our everyday activities, we ought to seriously consider alternatives such as walking, bicycling and public transit wherever possible, approaching our ignition keys with genuine trepidation as a last resort only. Finally, we must convince ourselves that true fulfillment and success are not derived from driving around town in a sporty vehicle, but rather from growing close to G-d through halakhic observance, which includes, as an intrinsic component, caution not to harm the air that others breathe.

If the idea of inconveniencing aspiring automobile travellers for the sake of ecological protection seems unreasonable and unprecedented, attention may be called to the gemara's description of the Yom Kippur service.⁹ The high priest is reported to have offered a brief prayer right outside the Holy of Holies, which concluded with the curious petition that "the prayers of road travellers not be accepted before You." Rashi explains that wayfarers would beseech the Almighty to suspend rainfall, apparently hoping to enable navigation of roads. Since, quite obviously, drought would be catastrophic to the local ecosystem in Israel, the Kohein Gadol was justified in demanding that the aspiration of travellers be frustrated for the sake of the greater good, and thus, as the representative of the Jewish People, he asked G-d to summarily dismiss any such travellers' prayers. Evidently, on the Jewish scale of priorities, the value of society's health and welfare supercedes the needs of people who wish to travel roads, and so it makes perfect sense to assert that car drivers should be inconvenienced for the sake of preserving a local atmosphere breathable to human beings.

Besides arresting us from causing nezek (damage), the habitual eschewment of our automobiles will provide us with other major blessings. Increased physical exercise, which would perforce result from the public feeling morally inclined to walk and/or pursue mass transit, is known to protect against health problems such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Moreover, by using less gasoline, we will decrease our dependence on the mercies of OPEC - an oil producing cartel, infamous for its animosity toward the Jewish state. Why should son'ei yisrael (~enemies of Israel) make a good living off of us (however indirectly) when we can live more healthily and preserve our environment more conscientiously by abandoning the car at home and using our own 2 feet to get where we're going?

Automobiles, of course, are just one dimension of the air pollution problem, which in turn comprises but one of the several outstanding ecological challenges facing humanity, but this axiomatic approach may be effectively transposed to each case, and I hope others will take the initiative to do so.

If recent publications of the Jewish media are any indication, there is nothing innovative or unorthodox in what this author is suggesting. A halakhic article in Tradition recommends that the Jewish community become more informed about genetic screening as a means of assisting in the prevention of cancer, insisting that ignoring it is unacceptable in light of the divine providence that has made this technology available for our medical benefit.¹⁰ Epidemiologists generally agree that environmental factors are far more significant in the incidence of cancer than hereditary factors. If a responsible community is expected to safeguard the health of its members by taking advantage of oncogene screening, should it not a fortiori be expected to prevent public exposure to those environmental agents that cause cancer? One must recall the truism: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

A highly acclaimed cover page feature of the Jewish Observer magazine, "Are Things Bubbling Over?", reports to the kehilla about certain economically unsustainable trends, and pleads with us to curtail them for our own benefit.¹¹ Just as economically unsustainable activity can ruin a community (Heaven forfend), so too environmentally unsustainable activity. What is the difference whether a person exhausts his supply of money or his supply of life support systems? (Actually, there exists a difference, but this only strengthens the argument: money can be replaced.) Evidently, the environmentalist cause is just, and it is one that merits Jewish action.

An authentically halakhic "green" movement is one which, in consultation with choshen mishpat poskim & ecology experts, will seek to educate the public on the environmental nezikin that it is creating by its own behaviour, as well as practical means to reversing the damage. Its participants would lobby their governments on putting human health concerns ahead of other considerations by means of enforcing rigorous environmental standards. Above all, members of this movement, inspired by a Torah-true hashkafa, would happily accept a marginally reduced level of materially consumptive behaviour for the sake of preserving a pollution-free neighbourhood and a viable planet.

If we seize the opportunity now and put such a plan into action, then with G-d's help we and our descendants will be able to continue to enjoy serving Hashem in good health for all the years and decades to come. Praiseworthy is the nation for whom this is so.¹² But the plan must be executed, and "if not now, when?"

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Footnotes

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cf. Rambam, Hilchos Melachim, chapter 11

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Isaiah 45:18

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The principles of harchakas nezikin are discussed in the second chapter of tractate Bava Basra, and are codified by the Rambam in Hilchos Shcheinim chapters 9-11, as well as by the Shulchan Aruch in Choshen Mishpat , siman 155. Cf. Encyclopedia Talmudica, s.v. "harchakas nezikin" (volume X, pp. 628 - 696).

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Bava Basra 23a

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Hilchos Ta'anios, 1:2-3

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