Ecology as a Mitzvah 29
We see here that the builder must take every precaution to prevent harm to others, even though the work he is doing is at quite a distance and is caused in part by the wind, over which he has no control. We might apply this principle to the large factories of our day that are at a distance from centers of population, but nevertheless dump quantities of toxic industrial waste that cause great damage near and far.
How much the more can this ruling be applied to nuclear power plants and their waste disposal? Here is a question of responsibility to one’s neighbors, to society, and to natural resources like forests, mineral deposits, and rivers. The recently poisoned Danube , which may be permanently ruined, is a case in point.
The Talmud relates that ten regulations were ordained for Jerusalem .'? One was the prohibition to make garbage heaps, because reptiles are found in them. Another is forbidding the use of lime and pottery kilns because of the smoke which Rashi says, blackens the buildings around. This smoke had a deleterious effect on the residents of the Holy City.
When I was a youngster in Los Angeles , there was an incinerator in every backyard. When we flew into the airport, we could see pillars of smoke ascending from earth to heaven(like the timrot ashan of Joel 3:3 and the Haggadah ). Many years ago, the Municipality of Los Angeles passed an ordinance banning home incinerators which succeeded in eliminating this mass pollution. Similarly, in many countries industrial smokestacks have been gagged. Unfortunately, this is not true of every locality. On the way from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem , you can see white smoke billowing out of the Nesher plant near the city of Ramleh.
The Talmud tells us that it is difficult to live in a big city." How did the sages reach this determination? Rashi explains in his commentary:“Everyone comes to live there in overcrowded conditions. The houses are so close to each other that there is no air to breathe. But in small towns there are gardens and orchards next to their homes and they enjoy fresh air.”'* Our sages in the thirteenth century considered urban living to be incompatible with maintaining quality of life.
The Gemara gives us the scriptural precedent for the determination that it is difficult to live in a large urban center. It quotes the Book of Nehemiah , which relates that“the people praised all those who volunteered to live in Jerusalem ”(Neh .