On Recycling and Religion

In the feverish excitement of last week over the Israeli elections, I neglected to mention the other holiday that just took place: Tu B’Shvat, better known as the birthday of the trees.

Tu B’Shvat, tied to many of our agricultural halachot, has also become associated with appreciating, and caring for, our world. Just this past Thursday (two days before Tu B’Shvat, but with the actual holiday falling on Shabbat, you gotta do what you can), my daughter was one of hundreds of kids around the country that took part in a Bnei Akiva field trip. They spent the day hiking, enjoying beautiful views and planting trees.

 

When I look at my kids and their friends, I give us grownups a collective pat on the back. I think that kids today are indeed much more aware about the effect we can have on our environment, for good or bad. When I was younger, recycling was just taking off. It was a big event—once a month, we’d gather all of our plastic and glass bottles (making sure to check that the bottles had the correct number imprinted on the bottom) to the parking lot of the train station. There, we’d separate our bottles into green, blue and brown glass (Why? Why did we do that? And why did we stop?) and place it into the huge bins that were set up.

 

Now, kids drop off recycling bottles on their way to school, thinking nothing of it. It’s not a big event. It’s just how we live. We donate old clothing or place it in a special clothing recycling box. Reusing, not wasting, turning off water and electricity—these things are second nature to my kids’ generation. We, the parents, got the message loud and clear that we need to use our resources responsibly, and we’ve passed that model of living on to our children.

 

And when we practice what we preach about sustainable living, we are not only teaching our kids how to be good citizens of the planet. We are teaching them how to be good Jews. Judaism’s message is that we are part of something greater than just ourselves: a religion, a nation and a physical world. Recycling, et al, is part of this Jewish message of responsibility. We are responsible for our parents, our children, the poor, the widowed, the orphans, the converts. And we are responsible for the place we call home.

 

To co-opt one of Judaism’s famous sayings: Treat the world like you would want to be treated. Keep it clean, don’t abuse it and if you take something you need, give it something in return.