The concept that humans should rule (יִרְדּוּ֩ or yirdu) over nature appears as early in the Bible as Genesis 1:26-28. These verses have created a lot of trouble for our planet, as they seem to endorse any and every exploitation of the Earth’s resources to meet the whims of the rich and powerful. But in the Talmud, one of the rabbis suggests that it is our evil deeds, not God’s mandate to rule, that create trouble (צַעַר or tsar).
One of the early scholars in the Talmud, Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar, launches an inquiry into the sustenance granted by the Earth to all its creatures (in two verses, Kiddushin 82a.7 and Kiddushin 82b.4). First he airs a simple observation that Jesus also liked to make: that the beasts and birds in the wilderness don’t need to learn a trade, but are sustained by nature itself.
This passage from the Talmud is an astonishing evocation of the world as it is meant to be: a place where creatures, including humans, co-exist in harmony.
Rabbi Shimon even says that the beasts and birds don’t experience trouble (tsar). We may challenge this easy claim, because they certainly suffer from injuries and violent deaths. But perhaps Rabbi Shimon is referring to a state of enviable harmony with their environment that we lack.
In these brief, packed verses, Rabbi Shimon then repeats the common opinion that nature exists only to serve humans. He reintroduces a bit of humility by claiming that we in turn exist only to serve God. But he’s distraught: If he serves God, why shouldn’t he earn a living without trouble like the beasts and birds?
Rabbi Shimon concludes that he suffers trouble because of his evil deeds. Indeed, he goes further and says that because of these deeds he has lost his sustenance (פַּרְנָסָ or parnas) entirely. (Parnas is an interesting word, originating in a Persian term for a garden and being used to refer to heaven, but also playing a workaday role in ancient and modern Hebrew to mean earning a living.)
In an era where farms dry up, towns burn down, and people have more trouble sustaining themselves everywhere due to our crimes against the environment, the lament of Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar strikes home. As we contemplate our sins during the High Holidays, we can strive to repair our relationship to the beasts and the birds who understand their place in the cosmos better than we.
October 31, 2023
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