Agriculture in Israel

By Joshua Mitnick for MyJewishLearning

Reprinted with permission from The AVI CHAI Bookshelf.

My family had the Sukkah de rigueur when I was a kid. There was enough room for four folding tables to seat 30. The walls were brown burlap to complement the pine branches overhead. Decorations of orange and yellow gourds along with purple and browned cobs of corn hung from above. And although I enjoyed their autumnal colors and strange shapes, the significance of the dangling vegetables was lost on a suburban kid who thought anything could be found in the supermarket.

Reclaiming the Land

In Israel, however, the agricultural motif of the holiday isn't missed, whether you're from the city or the country. It's part of the history here. For the many Zionist pioneers who first settled in the Land of Israel at the beginning of the last century, the most important theme of Sukkot was found in a biblical passage that called for a week long thanksgiving at the end of the harvest season:

"You shall hold a festival for the Lord your God, seven days, in the place the Lord will choose; for the Lord, your God will bless all your crops and all your undertakings, and you shall have nothing but joy" (Deuteronomy 16:1).

Still, farming meant much more than providing a daily sustenance for Israel's founders. They wanted to reclaim what they saw as a barren country and realize the vision of a "land flowing with milk and honey.'' At the same time, the kibbutz movement spread its agricultural communes along the frontiers of the land in order to set up outposts that would one day be used in defense of the Jewish state. So when Sukkot came, the relevance of the holiday went beyond religion. It gave Israelis a chance to celebrate the agrarian enterprise and the national socialist values of the settlement movement.

Continue reading.

Coal: The Dirtiest Fuel

Originally printed on COEJL

By Benjamin Kahane

Depending on how much pressure and temperature to which it has been subject, coal is a sedimentary or metamorphic rock comprised mostly of carbon. Coal is a fossil fuel used primarily in the generation of electricity. To turn coal into electricity, the rock is pulverized then combusted in a furnace, the heat from which converts water into steam used to spin turbine blades to create electricity.

Coal is mined from the Earth in one of two basic methods: surface mining and underground mining. Surface mining — or strip mining — is the most economical way to extract coal if it is located close to the surface; it’s also the most ecologically devastating method, since the surface of the land, complete with trees, topsoil and all plants, are removed. This method is particularly common in the Appalachian Mountains, where the entire tops of mountains are removed, with debris pushed into valley streams.

Underground mining accounts for about 60 percent of world coal production and is the preferred method when the coal seams are too deep or the land is protected. Strip mining accounts for the remaining 40 percent. However, in the United States the numbers are reversed, and surface mining dominates.

There are many negative environmental impacts to using coal. Although coal is comprised mostly of carbon, smaller quantities of sulfur, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and other heavy metals including mercury also exist in the coal we burn. There are higher and lower qualities of coal, just like petroleum, however the use of lower quality coal is widespread due to more widespread availability. If these harmful byproducts are not removed before or during combustion, they can lead to damaging events such as acid rain, background radiation exposure and cancer in humans and animals. Carbon dioxide emissions are also a cause for concern since carbon dioxide is a major contributor to climate change.

 Continue reading.

Why Jewish Environmental Education Matters

By Nili Simhai for Zeek

When we hear the words “Jewish environmental education,” we often only hear “environmental education” and not “Jewish education.” It’s easy—too easy—to think of environmental programs as a fun add-on, rather than core, to Jewish learning. That is a mistake. At a time when educators are rethinking the content, methodology and even purpose of Jewish education, Jewish environmental education has much to offer.

Here’s just one example. I was called into Manhattan one chilly fall day to do a training for congregational educators. As usual, I found myself in a roomful of skeptical middle-aged women. While everyone was very pleasant and polite, there was an undertone to the conversation which I am now very familiar with. The unspoken questions: How did I end up being in the group that has to shlep to Central Park instead of the one drinking coffee in a warm room? Is this really going to help me teach the Amidah / the aleph bet / my fourth grade chumash class?

We read a few lines from Bereshit that detail how God created the world, put on our coats and headed out. It was a gorgeous autumn day outside, with sunlight sparkling on leaves in changing colors. When we arrived at the park, there was one of those low, foot-high fences between us and the grassy area I wanted to use. So I asked them, are you ready to hop the fence? They looked at me with more skepticism, but then, with a little nervous laughter, they did it. The minute they got over the fence, it was as if they became different people. The change was incredible. One woman started picking up leaves and throwing them into the air; another scrambled up a tall rock; they all began smiling. It was as if the fence was a literal barrier between their “educator” selves and their more playful selves.

We did our project—a great exercise in nature art based on the work of Andy Goldsworthy—and closed with a discussion around how to create things in this world with more Godly intention. Both our experience and the text from Breishit fueled the discussion. When we went back inside, I couldn’t help asking these women: what happened when you went over the fence? Why did you change? They each had specific reasons, but the general answer was that they felt they were finally being given permission to do something different—given permission to be more expansive in their thinking, more playful, more spiritual.

 Continue reading.

Trees in Jewish Thought

Jewish sources single out trees as one of the most important aspects of the natural world.

By Rabbi Akiva Wolff for MyJewishLearning. Reprinted with permission of Canfei Nesharim.
The Mishnah teaches that Tu Bishvat is the new year for the trees.

By Tu Bishvat, the majority of the winter rains have already fallen, sap is rising, and new fruits are beginning to form. Therefore, when it comes to mitzvot such as orlah (fruits prohibited in the first three years of a tree's production), Tu Bishvat distinguishes between the last year’s fruits and the fruits of a new year.Forest

That Tu Bishvat has come to be associated with sensitivity to and appreciation of the natural environment is not by chance. Trees occupy a special place in Jewish thought, which closely relates to man's relationship with the natural environment, our life-support system.

Trees in the Midrash

For example, the Midrash in Kohelet Rabbah teaches: "When God created the first man he took him and showed him all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to him, 'See my works, how beautiful and praiseworthy they are. And everything that I created, I created it for you. Be careful not to spoil or destroy my world--for if you do, there will be nobody after you to repair it.'"

This Midrash singles out the trees of the Garden of Eden--rather than the Garden of Eden itself--to represent the natural world, the work of the Creator. Why should trees be chosen to symbolize the natural world?

Continue reading.

Living an Environmentally Conscious Jewish Life

The Jewish spiritual tradition offers ways to think and act in harmony with nature and for the benefit of the environment.

By Rabbi Fred Dobb for MyJewishLearning

The created world is both bountiful and fragile.

A Jewish environmental activist suggests that treating it with respect and care should be an integral part of our living out the Jewish concepts of Torah (instruction/learning), avodah (service/worship/work), and gemilut hasadim (acts of kindness).

"O child of Adam, when you return to Nature, on that day you shall open your eyes… You shall know that you have returned to yourself, for in hiding from Nature, you hid from yourself… And you will recognize on that day…you must renew everything: your food and your drink, your dress and your home, the character of your work and the way that you learn -- everything."

So wrote Aaron David Gordon, the pioneer-philosopher of Labor Zionism, at the dawn of the kibbutz movement in 1910. A century later, with species disappearing and pollution rising and the globe warming, it's time to do what Gordon said, in ways he could not have imagined, and indeed "renew everything." We must bring our entire being to the sacred work of Creation care -- and in so doing Jews are blessed with millennia of thought and experience to draw upon.

Awareness

The Jewish tradition offers myriad opportunities for uttering a formulaic blessing. We've got blessings for seeing heads of state, Torah scholars, and ugly people. Blessings over sunsets, meteors, rainbows, reunions, and bad news. Blessings for bread and baked goods and fruit and vegetables, all different. In the Talmud, Rabbi Meir suggests reciting 100 blessings each day (Menachot 43b) -- one every ten minutes of our waking lives. In other words, Jews should be constantly aware of the world around us, and should respond through gratitude and prayer.

Continue reading.

Celebrating Jewish Food in the Sunshine State

By Michael Kaminer for The Jew and the Carrot

My most pungent memories of annual childhood trips to Miami Beach involve food. There were free bowls of pickles at Rascal House, matzo ball soup at Pumpernik’s, danish at Wolfie’s.

But as a new exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Florida – FIU reveals, there’s much more to Jewish food in the Sunshine State than deli. As its title implies, Growers, Grocers & Gefilte Fish: A Gastronomic Look at Florida Jews & Food highlights key roles Jews have played in Florida’s food industries, from citrus groves to farms to canneries.

Among the highlights at the meticulously curated show: A full size replica of a revolutionary rolling chicken coop invented by a Jewish farmer; a giant soft-sculpture bagel, encrusted with 32,000 Swarovski crystals, by Coral Springs artist Jonathan Stein; and a recreation of Wolfie’s legendary lunch counter, complete with stools and menus.

The Forward spoke with Jo Ann Arnowitz, the museum’s executive director and chief curator, about the show’s tasty offerings.

Why were Jews drawn to food—related businesses in Florida in the first place? Based on what I saw in the show, there seems to have been an unusually high concentration.

Jews who settled here from all points on the globe adapted to their lives in the Sunshine State by working in any type of business where they could make a living, including becoming produce growers and cattle ranchers — not professions that naturally come to mind when you think of Jewish family businesses.

 Continue reading.

Israel, Palestinians, Jordan Sign Water Deal

Sure it’s not a land deal, but maybe we’re getting somewhere?

By Adam Chandler for Tablet Magazine
As Oscar Wilde semi-famously wrote in Lady Windermere’s Fan: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Of course, the Middle East is not a four-act comedic play about a Victorian mother and daughter who are knocking boots with the same man (although sometimes it feels that way, nu?). Nevertheless, it seems important, extremely important, to note good things when they happen. If outrage (real or manufactured) can be summoned on a daily basis, why not take a holiday and summon some goodwill?

With that grandiose thing said, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Jordan inked a deal yesterday to build a pipeline between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. The deal was signed in Washington, D.C., and will help provide drinking water to all three parties as well as help revive the Dead Sea, which has been slowly drying up for years (or ever since tour guides started warning visitors against peeing in it).

The project will bring about 100 million cubic meters of water a year from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea to slow the drying up of the latter. It also will establish a seawater desalination plant in Aqaba, Jordan, to provide fresh water annually for all three signatories.

The World Bank is financing the project at a cost of $200 million to $400 million, with the three signatories to repay the bridge loans being used.

Silvan Shalom, who is Israel’s Minister of Energy and Water (it seems big deal when there’s a water minister), likened the deal to a dream of Herzl’s, by which he may have meant to “make the desert bloom,” but perhaps he meant more than that.

Sure, there were some detractors, but they were largely pessimistic about the deal on environment grounds.

Eli Raz, a geologist and biologist at Israel’s Dead Sea and Arava Science Center, praised the project as a symbol of regional cooperation, but said it would do little to alleviate the Dead Sea’s woes. The Dead Sea is losing roughly 1 billion cubic meters of water each year, he said, while the project would only return about 10 percent of that amount.

“As a symbol, it’s very good. In respect for the Dead Sea, the deficit, the water balance, this is nothing,” he said.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry is returning to the region (yet again) for the second time in two weeks to press the Israelis and Palestinians on their flagging peace talks as well as continue to sell Israel on the Iran deal. Here’s what Kerry said at the JDC Centennial:

Kerry, who said he speaks two to three times a week with Netanyahu, addressed the peace talks. “I believe, as President Obama does, that Israel will be far more secure if we can also put to test the possibilities of the two-state solution. And so we will continue to attempt to do that despite the skepticism, despite the cynicism in some quarters.”

Kerry also swore again that the United States will not let Iran build a nuclear weapon. For more fanciful thinking on the dream of elusive peace, check out Jeffrey Goldberg’s thought experiment in which he argues that Israel should offer the Palestinians exactly what they want (with the previously established parameters in mind) to test them as a true partner for peace.