RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH RENEWAL:JUDAH HA NASI:PIRKEI AVOT 3:7:TREE,FIELD,TORAH
Synaptic Abstract of ''Nature versus Torah'' by Jeremy Benstein, in ''Torah of the Earth'', Vol One, by Arthur Waskow
by Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal
One of the troubling Mishna's in Pirkei Avot is 3:7:'' Rabbi Yaakov would say: One who walks along a road and studies, and interrupts his studying to say, "How beautiful is this tree!", "How beautiful is this ploughed field!"---the Torah considers it as if he had forfeited his life.''
Doing a quick reading, one would conclude that Judaism is spiritually apart from nature. Benstein, in his essay, shows that in fact, the opposite is true.
He starts by parsing the texts and establishing authorship. Yaakov (Jacob) was the teacher of R' Judah ha Nasi, the redactor of the Mishna (c 200 CE), and Jacob lived c 150 CE. He gives another author who we see quoted as saying the same, Shimon bar Yochai, who's sayings, always need interpretation within context. Either of them could have said this maxim, as both were extremely involved in Torah study, and Bar Yochai even killed some farmers, who he felt were wasting their time farming, instead of studying.
But Benstein concludes it is R' Jacob and continues his clever pilpul with himself.
He arrives at the following:
a. The Mishna refers to a lone individual
b. He is outdoors and fulfilling the Mitzvah of Torah study, '' while he walks by the way." (Deut 6:7).
c. He is in deep study, memorizing Torah, repeating it (the allusion to Oral Torah, Mishna, the same root for repeating, is not lost on me), and hence is fulfilling another Mitzvah, Talmud study.
d. He breaks off his detailed study to admire nature.
e. He admires nature but does not say the Beracha acknowledging G!d as the creator of it...a Rabbinic mitzvah which he may have transgressed.
f. He admired a plowed field which is human work.
g. It is springtime with trees budding.
h. Torah is alluded to prescribing the death penalty for breaking study and looking at nature, but there is no such Torah law.
i. And ''life'' is a bad translation, but rather soul should be used.
Then Benstein reconstructs the Mishna using the above.
He then reviews various commentaries. Meiri of the 13th century says that a student so easily distracted from his Torah studies, by nature, which is always around us, will eventually find reasons to toss away Torah altogether. And he means not just the study of it, but living by it.
Abarbanel, the court Jew and Physician of Isabella 1 and Ferdinand 2, in 15th century Spain, says similar. Worldly things such as looking at trees must come secondary to Torah study.
Bertinoro of 14th century Italy states that while it is important to admire nature, as long as we acknowledge G!d, Torah study trumps this.
Magriso, of the 18th century Italy, says that while its admirable to admire nature, and bless G!d for it, to interrupt Torah study, makes this nature loving, ''useless' speech'', and is a sin. One should never stop his Torah studies except for a very good reason, and this fellow in our Mishna, should have completed his studies and then 'gone out tree hugging'.(My words).
Modern commentaries change little from the middle ages or the Renaissance. Hirsh and Bulka both say that stopping Torah study to admire nature has one's priorities upside down.
Hence, we are still stuck with the plain meaning of the verse. And one frankly I was raised with in life. Unbalanced. As a smart Jewish kid, I was excused from gym class to take more classes. After school I went to Hebrew school, and when I placed out of every Hebrew High class before I was a bar mitzvah, my synagogue paid me to take a train to Phila to Gratz college to study with adults. At Camp Ramah I didn't take sports classes or participate in nature hikes. I had one -on-one study with Rabbi Dr. Potek, obm, the camp director, and other rabbinic students who were Bunk Counselors. As the old joke goes, for me camping was staying at a Holiday Inn. I was raised with the above interpretation of the Mishna. Nature was bugs, and dirt, and something one washed off as soon as possible, with a loud 'feh!'.
So Benstein introduces us to the 19th century Caro. He is trying to give new meaning to the Mishna. He starts by asking if this maxim is when one is outside, is it permissible to stop studying when inside one's house. Caro goes into an essay, reminiscent of Pakuda in Duties of the Heart.
He says there are some people who KNOW G!D by His creations. Pakuda uses this as one of the ways to prove G!D exists and that we need to thank and love Him.
All nature proves this, and not just those heavy duty nature -based Miracles. Jews who truly aren't spiritually connected may find a temporal belief from the splitting of the sea of Reeds, but don't see G!d in every blade of grass, especially the ones they trample upon. Therefore these heavy miracles are for the spiritually week because G!d's miracles occur everywhere and most do not see any.
So while the best way of studying and loving G!d is really to look at nature, most folks cannot, and need a written Torah to guide them. Or as Bob Dylan says "And where do you look for this hope that yer seekin', You can either go to the church of your choice ,Or you can go to Brooklyn State Hospital ,You'll find God in the church of your choice,You'll find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital ,And though it's only my opinion ,I may be right or wrong ,You'll find them both , In the Grand Canyon, At sundown.''
But Caro continues and has our fellow actually not just walking, but doing derek eretz, loving Goodness, Man and loving G!d. But if he says, like Dylan, he has no need of Torah, (Dylan's 'church of your choice'), then he can lead himself to lose his soul.
So for Caro, the Mishna now has nature study on par with Torah study, but that one cannot be done exclusively without the other.
At this point Benstein turns to the Zionists. Before he does that he quotes Schwartzchild who claims that Zionism's back to nature thrust is non-Jewish and pagan.
He then cites Hoffer of the 20th century who calls Jacob a fanatic, like St. Bernard, who would be so engrossed in study and prayer, he never noticed the beauty of Lake Geneva.
Benstein then quotes Berdichevski of 19th century Russia, who says the while the universe shows Judaism the greatness of G!d, as Diasporic Jews, we only see a G!d who has abandoned Jews. Hence we are a landless people. So whoever sees a tree, and leaves it to study Torah, is giving up his life, as we must as Diasporic Jews get back our trees, fields, and land.
So to the Zionists, the Mishna is not talking about all of nature, only trees and fields in Israel. And regaining the land and holding on to it, even taking it from those who are presently living there, and putting aside Torah, and spirituality, is the meaning ascribed.
So we have gone from interpretations of Torah study trumps nature, to Torah study with a bit of admiration of God's nature, to Torah study and nature study are equal but both are needed, to nature study could be all we need to love G!d and our fellows, but the spiritually awakened are few, so we still need Torah study, to the heck with Torah, nature and land loving in Israel is what is important.
It is my thesis that the Zionist view, combined with the horrors of WW Two, have caused most of American Judaism, to bring in elements of Hebraism, make folks lack dependence on G!d, let them cling to the delusion that their finite selves and their money can save them, and has made for a palpable spiritual illness in many, if not most, synagogues, where congregants and rabbis, to paraphrase Jeremiah, are clueless that they are doing despicable acts, admit them, and are not ashamed. It is my contention that Jewish Spiritual Renewal and Eco-Judaism are needed to save Judaism and to help folks become spiritual awakened to save themselves, as well as the planet.
Benstein concludes, as I have written before reading him and others, that while we have man to man laws, and man to G!d laws, we need man to Earth laws. (mitzvoth bein adam le'chavero, mitzvoth bein adam le Makom, and mitzvoth bein adam le olamo). While we do have rules of bal tashchit, [not to destroy, don't waste, or don't over consume], these are open to interpretation, and not all Jews think these are meant to be actually commandments to be good environmentalists.
Hence we know the either- or, black and white, approach to this Mishna does not work. We cannot have a dichotomy between Judaism and ecology. Judaism and frankly Hebraism even more so, has always been Eco-Judaic. Hence the Mishna for our time needs to be: ''One who walks by the way, studying Torah, and continues that study, by seeing nature, our relationship to it, G!d's gift of it to us to care for it and not squander, is doing both an act of Tikun Olam, repairing the Earth, and well as Tikun ha Nefesh, caring for his soul, and indeed, his very life, and the lives of his fellows.''
As an important aside the NY Times, which one cannot get delivered to one's home on HHI, and hence one must read on line, states that Climate Changes are now a threat to USA security. Will Eco-Judaism become a cabinet position?
And in the ''man needs to think, study, and stop playing G!D'' category, as I mentioned in my essay on Elon's piece, doing things to the Earth, like planting on Yah B'Shevat, can do more harm than good. In a Times article also today, entitled "You say Tomato, I say Agricultural disaster," shows how mega-farming of one crop, can kill off others and ruin the soil as well.
We truly need mitzvoth bein adam le olamo because humankind has shown over and over again, we are clueless ecologically. We need Divine, Spiritual, as well as Bio-Ecology help with this new list of dos and don'ts. And we need to do it now. As the same Pirkei Avot says in a different Mishna, "If not now, when?''
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spirituality
Eco-Judaism
Hilton Head Island, SC
Bluffton, SC
Savannah, GA
Member Temple Oseh Shalom
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