Ecology as a Mitzvah 25
disturbed by air, ground, river, and sea pollution. The Torah praises every stage of creation, declaring,“and God saw that it was good”(Gen. 1). After the appearance of humans, the ultimate stage of creation, the Torah proclaims,“va-yar elohim et kol asher asah, vehineh tov meod”-“And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good.”
The rabbinic Bible commentators say that tov meod(“very good”) actually means tov adam“man is good.”? In the beginning, humanity and nature were in accord. Ecology in Jewish tradition entails a threefold covenant involving God , humankind, and nature. God created the world and humankind.
What is the role of each after creation? To whom does nature belong? Scripture quotes the Creator,“All the earth is mine” (Lev. 23:25). God , the Creator and inventor, holds the deed to the world, of which He is the sole owner . Yet the Divine bestows the earth and its resources on His creature, Homo sapiens. He does so by virtue of a mitzvah, the very first commandment in the Bible .
This primary directive to the first couple in the Torah is not only to propagate but to establish humamankind'’s relationship with nature.“And God blessed them and said to them,‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it"’(Gen. 1:28). The human being is given dominion over all living creatures in the sky, sea, and earth.
What is the meaning of the command to“conquer” the earth? What kind of conquest is mankind to make over the world of nature?
Nahmanides (the Ramban, scholar, statesman, and poet of thirteenth-century, Gerona Spain) explains in his Bible commentary how human beings are given control over all of the resources of nature:“God gave power to the first human couple to control the land and to do as they please with all living creatures. They were permitted to build and to tear down, to mine the mineral resources, and the like.”?
While human beings may utilize all the resources of nature, they do not possess ownership of the earth. They are but stewards of God ’s world. Humankind'’s control over the treasures of nature may appear to be absolute. Yet this power must be restrained by responsibility. As we have heard, it is the role of Adam to guard and preserve nature. Respondents, in a different context, expanded the Biblical phrase to read:“lovdah ul’shamroh ul’hashbiah”“to cultivate, preserve and improve.”*
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