It is the time of the year when presents are exchanged, and I find myself questioning my ethics of consumption. I always believed in the Jewish concept of bal tashchit, a prohibition against wanton destruction. This mitzvah, this commandment, is based on a passage in the Book of Deuteronomy (20:19) that does not allow us to use fruit-bearing trees when involved in a war against a fortified city. If one needs to use trees to conquer the city, a tree that does not bear fruit may be used. That has been the ethical principle that informs how I deal with things. I have an innate aversion to tossing things that can still be used in one way or another. For example, during the first months of the pandemic, I took the time to make “permanent paper towels” (sewing together scraps of fabric to be used as napkins or anything else for which we use paper towels). I am still using them, since they are a good alternative to unnecessary consumption of resources. And now that it is the time of the year when most of us will exchange gifts, at work or in our families, I think it is time to hold on to that ethical principle.
I have to buy a present for a secret friend in the office. I looked at an internet site that was offering “white elephant” gifts. I felt my skin crawling when I saw those gifts. The sheer absurdity of spending money for something that has the potential of crowding a landfill very soon goes against what I believe. Jewish ethics inform the way I consume things and resources.
Bal Taschit is a way to re-think consumption, yet in the globalized environment in which we live, it is not the only Jewish ethical principal that applies.
Ethical questions in the past concerned mostly where and how we lived and our relationship to things. There was no need to consider what was the human impact in the world. The impact was mostly localized—if you pollute the water in your backyard you (and a few of your neighbors) would get sick. Now with all existing technological advances, our habits and our patterns of consumption influence the environment and have an impact everywhere else in the world, not only in our own backyard. A decision to buy paper towels (for example) must include considerations about the materials needed for the towels (such as trees or existing paper), chemicals, as well as water and electricity usage, packaging, and fuel for transportation, to name a few. In other words, if we pollute the water in our backyard we will get many people throughout the world sick.
I realized that the guiding principle for the production and consumption of food, goods and resources includes bal taschit, and that our tradition has more to teach. I started thinking about the concept of tzimtzum.
According to the kabbalah, the medieval Jewish mystical school of thought, the world was created when God (for reasons we do not comprehend, since they are beyond our limited vision of the universe) performed tzimtzum, a receding of God’s fullness in order to make space for something new. God willingly receded God’s fullness so something else could be created. I think that at this time, we must willingly perform tzimtzum. The reducing of consumption, buying less unnecessary things, reusing what can be reused, is human tzimtzum. We have to recede, reduce our footprint, know as much as we can about the consequences of our actions, be responsible for the world in which we live and that future generations will inherit.
As we prepare for this season, we ask: What is our relationship and our responsibility to the world? What is the impact of the present, or the amount of food we are purchasing on the health of the planet? How can we apply the principles of tzimtzum and bal taschit to the way we consume goods and food? With the knowledge resulting from this thought process, we will have better guidelines for shopping and giving. We can give gift cards (allowing people to buy what they need), we can donate to a cause that is important to the recipient in their names, and we can give homemade gifts. Try to find responsibly made products, and reflect about the usage of resources. Our world is in need of healing, and our individual actions, although they are a drop in the bucket, contribute to filling the proverbial bucket with goodness.
Have a happy, healthy, ethical and responsible Hanukah season!