Jewish Ecology

"And G-d saw the earth and behold it was corrupted, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth." (6:12)

The Rosh Yeshiva’s wife had to make a decision. Her dining room suite was on its last legs. An investigation was made. It would cost almost exactly the same amount of money to repair the old suite as it would to replace it with an identical new one. Obviously she would want to have a new suite, rather than an old one that had been patched up, however good the repair.

Obviously. However, without a moment’s hesitation she decided to have the old suite repaired. One of the yeshiva students asked her why she didn’t prefer to have a new suite.

"It’s not for sentimental reasons." she replied. "Around this table sat all the great Torah sages of Europeat one time or another. When they came to Baltimore, they would always stay with us. It was at this table that Reb Chaim Ozer learned Torah, that Reb Boruch Ber ate gefilte fish on Shabbat. It was on this chair that the Chafetz Chaim sat."

When we think of ecology, we tend to think of our physical impact on Nature. However our spirituality and our morality also impact the ecosphere.

Two identical tables come off the factory assembly line. One table finds its way to a bar. One to a yeshiva. The table in the bar is not the same table as the one in the yeshiva. The table in the yeshiva, supporting holy books and thoughts is a different table. Not metaphorically – but in reality. Its very essence is altered and uplifted.

Such is the power given over to man. We can alter the very eco-structure of the world.

We can destroy the world by polluting it with sin. Or through the mitzvot of the Torah we can raise ourselves and the world with us to the Heavens.