Author: Garth Silberstein

Confessions of a Shemitah Skeptic

Two weeks ago, on Rosh Hashanah, we marked not only the beginning of another year in the Jewish calendar, but the beginning of Shemitah, the Jewish sabbatical year.  Every seven years, Jewish farmers in Israel are commanded to let their lands lie fallow, not to plant, plow, prune trees or in any way improve the land, to harvest only what they can eat themselves (from perennial plants that do not need to be sown each year), and to leave the rest for whoever wants to pick them. In addition, at the end of the Shemitah year, we are commanded to release debts. Shemitah has become a hot topic among progressive American Jews, largely as a result of an awareness campaign by Hazon, the largest Jewish environmental organization in North America.  Given my involvement with Hazon, and the Jewish environmental movement more broadly, people I speak to are often surprised to hear that I am deeply ambivalent about efforts to adopt some form of Shemitah-observance outside of Israel.  My reservations are threefold: As an Orthodox Jew, who sees Shemitah primarily in halakhic (legal) terms, I’m leery of efforts to redefine Shemitah in a way that is counter to the halakhic tradition. By suggesting that Jews outside of Israel should be practicing some version of Shemitah, we risk disparaging the halakhic tradition, which tells us Shemitah is primarily about agriculture and exclusively applies to the land of Israel. There also seems to be something almost anti-zionist about taking a commandment that by law only applies in the land of Israel (a “mitzvah teluyah ba’aretz”), and applying it elsewhere.  This would seem to represent a basic denial of kedushat ha’aretz, the sacred status of the land of Israel in Jewish law and imagination.  To be sure, in the days of the Sages, Jews in Egypt and Babylonia adopted practices that by law only apply in Israel, such as tithing their produce, but even so, they stayed away from Shemitah (and, in fact, tithed even during the shemitah year, when Israeli farmers practicing Shemitah were of course exempt from tithing). Any effort to transpose Shemitah outside it’s existing halakhic framework depends on a clear understanding of the underlying values of Shemitah. While I have no theological or halakhic objection with the attempt to identify the underlying values of mitzvot such as Shemitah, this is a process that requires serious study, and must be approached with deep humility and an open mind. Otherwise, it is all too easy to just look for our own pre-existing values in the mitzvot.  As an environmentalist who believes that in order to survive as a society, we need to move beyond industrialized, petroleum-driven mono-crop agriculture, it would be very easy for me to say Shemitah must be about practicing sustainable agriculture. It’s much harder to honestly ask what Shemitah is doing, and to look for answers with an open mind among the details of the law and the writings of great thinkers. Because of these serious reservations, I have been hesitant to join in with others in the Jewish environmental world in adopting shemitah-type practices outside of Israel, or practices deemed to be “in the spirit” of shemitah.  But I do want to participate participate in this once-every-seven-years opportunity for a conversation about halakha, values, and utopian social visions.  As an Orthodox rabbinical student, the most obvious and natural way for me to start engaging with Shemitah, is simply to study the sources. After spending this past summer studying the laws of Shemitah as found in the Mishnah, the Yerushalmi and in Rambam, and reading what some Jewish thinkers over the centuries have said about the underlying values of Shemitah (for an excellent summary, see Shemitah by Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon).  I found myself, in spite of all my reservations, thinking about taking on practices for the year that would embody some of the underlying values of Shemitah.  The question remained how to do so in a way that would be respectful of halakha and sanctity of the land of Israel, and that would be intellectually honest. The third concern is in some ways the easiest to address.  While I still believe it’s impossible to fully understand the meaning of a mitzvah without actually practicing it, in the case of Shemitah this is not a realistic option. Even in Israel, less than 2% of the Jewish population is professionally involved in agriculture, and in any case, legal work-arounds enable the agricultural economy to continue to function during the Shemitah year with some minor adjustments.  Without the option of an immersion in the gestalt experience of keeping Shemitah, our next best option for understanding the mitzvah and its underlying values is a thorough study of the halakhic and philosophical literature on the subject. Even after spending a summer studying the subject of Shemitah, I don’t feel like I can say what THE value behind Shemitah is. Even were I much more learned and wise than I am, and even if I felt I understood Shemitah perfectly, my instinct tells me that few mitzvot, if any, can be boiled down to a single motivating value, certainly not a mitzvah as complex as Shemitah.  However, I do feel that, based on what I’ve read as well as my own thinking, I can with some confidence describe SOME of the values that seem to be inherent in Shemitah. This removes the third concern.  What about the first two? These amount to a worry that by removing Shemitah from it’s traditional halakhic parameters, we risk insulting the halakhic system and denying the sanctity of Eretz Yisrael.  Both of these concerns can be addressed by adopting practices and a rhetoric that make it clear that we are not attempting to co-opt halakhic Shemitah for Chutz La’aretz.  While I know that others have made different choices, I would never dream of refraining from plowing, pruning, planting, or harvesting in the United States, the activities which constitute the core of Shemitah observance in Eretz Israel.  However,

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The Book of Yonah and the People’s Climate March

A month from now, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Jews all over the world will read the book of Yonah in synagogue.  The book is an appropriate selection for the day when the Torah instructs us to “afflict your souls and don’t do any labor…because on that day he will atone for you, cleansing you; of all your offenses before the Lord you will be cleansed.” (Vayikra 16:29-30)  In contrast to Vayikra (the Book of Leviticus), which describes an elaborate ritual to cleanse the sanctuary of metaphysical impurity, the book of Yonah explores the sometimes tortuous processes through which individuals and societies repent of past misdeeds and change their behavior. The book tells of the prophet Yonah’s flight from the word of God, culminating famously in the prophet’s being thrown overboard from a ship and swallowed by a large fish.  After the fish vomits him up on a beach, Yonah finally accepts his prophetic mission to the people of Nineveh.  The text tells us “Nineveh was a city great to God, a three-day’s walk across.  Yonah set out, came one-day’s walk into the city, and declared ‘In another forty days, Nineveh will be toppled!’”  (Yonah 3:3-4)  Then, in perhaps the most incredible part of the story (much more surprising than the business with the fish): the people of Nineveh immediately accept Yonah’s message and declare a public fast.  The king of Nineveh himself not only participates in this public mourning but issues a decree calling for real change: “let all turn from their evil ways and the violence which is in their hands.  Who knows, maybe God will turn and relent, turning from his anger so that we are not destroyed?” (Ibid. 3:8-9)  In the end, God does relent in response to Nineveh’s repentance, making Yonah the only prophet in the bible whose warnings of imminent destruction are heeded, and thus avoided. On Sunday, September 21, along with about 200,000 other people, I will be participating in the People’s Climate March, a “one-day’s walk” into the heart of New York City to demand immediate action on climate change.  The march has been planned to coincide with a gathering of world leaders in New York for the 2014 UN Climate Summit.  I am marching because the experts agree that if we as a global society do not meaningfully cut our CO2 emissions, we can expect to see uncomfortable changes coming our way.  In recent years, as a New Yorker, I have seen first-hand the devastation wreaked by extreme weather events, the frequency and severity of which are expected to increase as atmospheric CO2 levels rise.  If our society continues along the path that we are on, then, if not in forty days, perhaps in forty years, or a hundred and forty, our Nineveh will be toppled.  That is why we must march, to demand that our leaders stand up to the powerful economic and political interests that would have them ignore or deny the very real threat of global climate change. I have heard people ask whether a march in the streets to demand action by political leaders is a futile exercise.  If past experience is any indication, it certainly does not seem likely that the leaders gathered at the UN Climate Summit will react to the warnings of climate scientists and activists with the same alacrity exhibited by the king of Nineveh.  However, I don’t think that the answer is to give up and stay home.  It’s important to remember that in this story, we are not just Yonah.  We are also Nineveh. Marching to the center of the city to deliver a prophetic warning of coming destruction is only one part of the mission of the People’s Climate March.  The other part is to hear the warning ourselves, and be inspired to turn back from our evil ways (to borrow a phrase from the king of Nineveh).  If, on September 21, 200,000 people march through the streets carrying signs and chanting slogans, and on the 22nd, we all go home again to business as usual, it’s safe to say we will have wasted our time.  But if those same 200,000 people, or even a fraction thereof, are inspired by the experience to become more active in the global climate movement and to take concrete steps to reduce their own carbon footprint (e.g., taking mass transit or biking to work instead of driving, avoiding air-travel as much as possible),  then the march will have been a success, whatever decisions are or are not made that day at the UN Climate Summit In the story of Yonah, it was only after the people declared their fast and took action themselves that the king was moved to make the fast official and legislate the changes that would save their society. If we follow in the footsteps of the people of Nineveh, changing our behavior as a society from the ground up and building an ongoing mass movement to fight climate change, then our leaders will have no choice but to follow.  If that happens, then, to once again quote the king of Nineveh, “perhaps God will turn and relent, turning from his anger so that we are not destroyed.”

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Yonah and the People’s Climate March

A month from now, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Jews all over the world will read the book of Yonah in synagogue. The book is an appropriate selection for the day when the Torah instructs us to “afflict your souls and don’t do any labor…because on that day he will atone for you, cleansing you; of all your offenses before the Lord you will be cleansed.” (Vayikra 16:29-30) In contrast to Vayikra (the Book of Leviticus), which describes an elaborate ritual to cleanse the sanctuary of metaphysical impurity, the book of Yonah explores the sometimes tortuous processes through which individuals and societies repent of past misdeeds and change their behavior. The book tells of the prophet Yonah’s flight from the word of God, culminating famously in the prophet’s being thrown overboard from a ship and swallowed by a large fish. After the fish vomits him up on a beach, Yonah finally accepts his prophetic mission to the people of Nineveh. The text tells us “Nineveh was a city great to God, a three-day’s walk across. Yonah set out, came one-day’s walk into the city, and declared ‘In another forty days, Nineveh will be toppled!’” (Yonah 3:3-4) Then, in perhaps the most incredible part of the story (much more surprising than the business with the fish): the people of Nineveh immediately accept Yonah’s message and declare a public fast. The king of Nineveh himself not only participates in this public mourning but issues a decree calling for real change: “let all turn from their evil ways and the violence which is in their hands. Who knows, maybe God will turn and relent, turning from his anger so that we are not destroyed?” (Ibid. 3:8-9) In the end, God does relent in response to Nineveh’s repentance, making Yonah the only prophet in the bible whose warnings of imminent destruction are heeded, and thus avoided. On Sunday, September 21, along with about 200,000 other people, I will be participating in the People’s Climate March, a “one-day’s walk” into the heart of New York City to demand immediate action on climate change. The march has been planned to coincide with a gathering of world leaders in New York for the 2014 UN Climate Summit. I am marching because the experts agree that if we as a global society do not meaningfully cut our CO2 emissions, we can expect to see uncomfortable changes coming our way. In recent years, as a New Yorker, I have seen first-hand the devastation wreaked by extreme weather events, the frequency and severity of which are expected to increase as atmospheric CO2 levels rise. If our society continues along the path that we are on, then, if not in forty days, perhaps in forty years, or a hundred and forty, our Nineveh will be toppled. That is why we must march, to demand that our leaders stand up to the powerful economic and political interests that would have them ignore or deny the very real threat of global climate change. I have heard people ask whether a march in the streets to demand action by political leaders is a futile exercise. If past experience is any indication, it certainly does not seem likely that the leaders gathered at the UN Climate Summit will react to the warnings of climate scientists and activists with the same alacrity exhibited by the king of Nineveh. However, I don’t think that the answer is to give up and stay home. It’s important to remember that in this story, we are not just Yonah. We are also Nineveh. Marching to the center of the city to deliver a prophetic warning of coming destruction is only one part of the mission of the People’s Climate March. The other part is to hear the warning ourselves, and be inspired to turn back from our evil ways (to borrow a phrase from the king of Nineveh). If, on September 21, 200,000 people march through the streets carrying signs and chanting slogans, and on the 22nd, we all go home again to business as usual, it’s safe to say we will have wasted our time. But if those same 200,000 people, or even a fraction thereof, are inspired by the experience to become more active in the global climate movement and to take concrete steps to reduce their own carbon footprint (e.g., taking mass transit or biking to work instead of driving, avoiding air-travel as much as possible), then the march will have been a success, whatever decisions are or are not made that day at the UN Climate Summit In the story of Yonah, it was only after the people declared their fast and took action themselves that the king was moved to make the fast official and legislate the changes that would save their society. If we follow in the footsteps of the people of Nineveh, changing our behavior as a society from the ground up and building an ongoing mass movement to fight climate change, then our leaders will have no choice but to follow. If that happens, then, to once again quote the king of Nineveh, “perhaps God will turn and relent, turning from his anger so that we are not destroyed.”

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