while others, when examined closely express thoughts not consistent with the environmentalist point of view.
Most Jews are familiar with the simple statement prohibiting the destruction of an orchard during the siege of a city(Deut. 20:19f.). This statement was limited to fruit trees in biblical times and was not intended to be the source of protection for natural sites. In its original meaning it played no role in later Jewish life as Jews had no military forces to engage in sieges until the emergence of the modern State of Israel . The statement“do not destroy”(bal tash-hit) found in this verse has been used to prohibit needless destruction, but most environmental destruction takes place because of economic pressures from those who seek to use the land for other purposes.! How shall we use this statement? Can we use it honestly? We should note that the mixture of plants and animals, presumably for breeding was prohibited (Deut. 22:9 ff). That issue has environmental implications, but a full discussion would take us into many other areas such as genetic engineering that are beyond the scope of this paper. We will address these matters at another time.
The issues surrounding the environment have become numerous and quite distinct from each other. They focus on the relationship of human beings to the environment. Most of these concerns deal with the problems that we have caused through improper crowding, poor zoning, and pollution of the air, land, and water; modern technologies have raised these issues far beyond anything contemplated earlier. They bring us in conflict with manufacturing, power generation, the automobile, farming, fishing, pest control, water pollution, noise pollution, and so on. Their discussion focuses on human welfare, economic progress, and the natural world.
A handful of rabbinic laws dealt with some of these matters? and have developed into bodies of halakhah; they have been considered in other essays in this volume. We must ask how far they go and whether they are a sufficient basis for a Jewish environmental policy and a comprehensive Jewish view of the natural world.
For the average modern Jews , who are urban dwellers , the world of nature lies largely outside their ken and often does not extend beyond a good lawn. However a large numbers of Jews in
earlier times lived in villages or rural areas, engaging in farming or the lumber industry.