AUGUST 17 • 2023 | 55

The
Limits 
of Grief

SUSTAINABILITY
In the case of bal tashchit, however, there 
is an obvious fit with much else in Jewish 
law and thought. The Torah is concerned 
with what we would nowadays call “sus-
tainability.” This is particularly true of the 
three commands ordaining periodic rest: 
the Sabbath, the Sabbatical year and the 
Jubilee year.
On the Sabbath, all agricultural work is 
forbidden, “so that your ox and your don-
key may rest.” (Ex. 23:12) It sets a limit to 
our intervention in nature and the pursuit 
of economic growth. We become conscious 
that we are creations, not just creators. The 
earth is not ours but God’s. For six days, 
it is handed over to us, but on the seventh 
we symbolically abdicate that power. We 
may perform no “work,
” which is to say, 
an act that alters the state of something for 
human purposes. The Sabbath is a weekly 
reminder of the integrity of nature and the 
boundaries of human striving.
What the Sabbath does for humans and 
animals, the Sabbatical and Jubilee years 
do for the land. The earth, too, is entitled 
to its periodic rest. The Torah warns that 
if the Israelites do not respect this, they 
will suffer exile, “then shall the land make 
appeasement for its Sabbaths, for as long 
as it lies desolate, and you are in your ene-
mies’ lands. Then the land will rest and 
make appeasement for its Sabbaths.
”(Lev. 
26:34)
Behind this are two concerns. One is 
environmental. As Maimonides points 
out, land that is overexploited eventually 
erodes and loses its fertility. The Israelites 
were therefore commanded to conserve 
the soil by giving it periodic fallow years, 
not pursuing short-term gain at the cost of 
long-term desolation. The second, no less 
significant, is theological. “The land,
” says 
God, “is Mine; you are merely migrants 
and visitors to Me.
” (Lev. 25:23)
We are guests on Earth.
There is another group of commands 
that directs us against over-interference 
with nature. The Torah forbids cross-
breeding livestock, planting a field with 
mixed seeds, and wearing a garment of 
mixed wool and linen. These rules are 
called chukim or “statutes.
” 

Nahmanides understood this term to 
mean laws that respect the integrity of nature. 
To mix different species, he argued, was to 
presume to be able to improve on creation 
and is thus an affront to the Creator. Each 
species has its own internal laws of devel-
opment and reproduction, and these must 
not be tampered with: “One who combines 
two different species thereby changes and 
defies the work of creation, as if he believes 
that the Holy One, blessed be He, has not 
completely perfected the world and he now 
wishes to improve it by adding new kinds 
of creatures.
”
Deuteronomy also contains a law forbid-
ding taking a young bird together with its 
mother. Nahmanides sees this as having 
the same underlying concern, namely of 
protecting species. Though the Bible per-
mits us to use some animals for food, we 
must not cull them to extinction.
Samson Raphael Hirsch in the 
19th century gave the most forcible 
interpretation of biblical law. The statutes 
relating to environmental protection, he 
said, represent the principle that “the same 
regard which you show to humanity you 
must also demonstrate to every lower 
creature, to the Earth which bears and 
sustains all, and to the world of plants and 
animals.
” 
They are a kind of social justice applied 
to the natural world: “They ask you to 
regard all living things as God’s property. 
Destroy none; abuse none; waste nothing; 
employ all things wisely … Look upon all 
creatures as servants in the household of 
creation.
” 

TO SERVE AND GUARD THE EARTH
Hirsch also gave a novel interpretation 
to the phrase in Genesis 1, “Let Us make 
man in Our image after Our own like-
ness.” (Gen. 1:26) The passage is puzzling, 
for at that stage, prior to the creation 
of man, God was alone. The “Us,” says 
Hirsch, refers to the rest of creation. 
Because man alone would develop the 
capacity to change and possibly endanger 
the natural world, nature itself was con-
sulted as to whether it approved of such a 
being. 
 The implied condition is that humans 

may use nature only in such a way as to 
enhance it, not put it at risk. Anything else 
is ultra vires, outside the remit of our stew-
ardship of the planet.
In this context, a phrase in Genesis 2 is 
decisive. Man was set in the Garden of 
Eden “to work it and safeguard it.” (Gen. 
2:15) The two Hebrew verbs are signifi-
cant. The first — le’ovdah — literally means 
“to serve it.
” Man is not just a master but 
also a servant of nature. 
The second — leshomrah — means “to 
guard it.
” This is the verb used in later 
Torah legislation to describe the responsi-
bilities of a guardian of property that does 
not belong to him. He must exercise vigi-
lance in its protection and is liable for loss 
through negligence. This is perhaps the 
best short definition of humanity’s respon-
sibility for nature as the Bible conceives it.
Man’s dominion over nature is thus 
limited by the requirement to serve and 
conserve. The famous story of Genesis 
2-3 — eating the forbidden fruit and the 
subsequent exile from Eden — makes just 
this point. Not everything we can do, may 
we do. Transgress the limits, and disaster 
follows. All of this is summed up by a 
simple Midrash: “When God made man, 
He showed him the panoply of creation 
and said to him: ‘See all My works, how 
beautiful they are. All I have made, I have 
made for you. Take care, therefore, that 
you do not destroy My world, for if you do, 
there will be no one left to mend what you 
have destroyed.
” 
We know much more than we once did 
about the dangers to the Earth’s ecology 
by the ceaseless pursuit of economic gain. 
The guidance of the Oral tradition in 
interpreting “do not destroy” expansively, 
not restrictively, should inspire us now. 
We should expand our horizons of 
environmental responsibility for the sake 
of generations not yet born, and for the 
sake of God, whose guests on Earth we 
are. 

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (1948-2020) was a 

global religious leader, philosopher, the author of 

more than 25 books and moral voice for our time. 

His series of essays on the weekly Torah portion, 

entitled “Covenant & Conversation” will continue to 

be shared and distributed around the world. 

