january / february 2007:

30 Second Sermon
In this age of global warming, Al Gore documentaries, and our environment on the brink, the traditional holiday of Tu B'Shevat gives us many lessons for the modern day.

By Rabbi Ezra M. Cohen



There is a little known festival that comes in the darkness of winter called Tu B’Shevat. It’s the Jewish new year for trees and a time for us to reflect on Judaism’s concern for the environment.

Our ancestors were deeply immersed and connected to the world of nature. The eco-rhythms of the year were very significant to them. Tu B’Shevat marked a time, therefore, when they were especially aware of life’s miracles: winter passes, spring emerges, the seasons alternate in a regular pattern. So too do we as humans live in the ebb and flow life — from tragedy to celebration from being down to being uplifted. This is the existential crisis of man. One day you can be on top of the world, the next you can be at the bottom.

After having recently watched the very powerful and informative documentary An Inconvenient Truth, I am reminded of contemporary implications, which deserve our consideration on Tu B’Shevat. In this era of global environmental threats such as the greenhouse effect, the solid-waste crisis, oil slicks, and the pollution of our water and foods by pesticides, Tu B’Shevat reminds us how fragile and complex our ecosystem really is.

There is a fascinating law in the Torah which teaches us that, in the midst of besieging a city during war, an army is forbidden to destroy its trees. Protecting the natural world becomes both a legal and ethical imperative. If an enemy’s trees were to be preserved in a time of war, how much more so the earth, the water, and the air in a time of peace.

On Tu B’Shevat we need to focus on those teachings and the way in which they can sustain and enhance our world. Tu B’Shevat challenges us to turn our attention to the commandment of preserving the divine gift of nature and to live a life of being environmentally conscious. So this year, as we celebrate the festival of Tu B’Shevat, we should bask in the beauty of nature all around us and embrace the responsibility for ensuring that future generations will also experience that same privilege.


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