For Humans: An Ecological Reading of Talmudic Stories

It is widely assumed that literature has a decisive influence on shaping the relationship between humans and nature: for better and for worse, it has shaped our environmental imagination for thousands of years, while simultaneously confining it within certain boundaries that make it difficult for us to think beyond the familiar and known. In this series, we will examine these issues through the lens of rabbinic literature. We will closely read several Talmudic stories and explore questions of ecological reading, from “Take heed not to destroy My world” to the development of the prohibition of bal tashchit (“do not destroy”); from the expectation of intergenerational environmental responsibility to an examination of humanity’s status in comparison with animals.

Although these stories emerged from living conditions entirely different from our own, they offer a penetrating treatment of fundamental environmental dilemmas that continue to concern us to this day: they acknowledge human responsibility toward nature, and even toward future generations, but limit its scope; they recognize humanity’s connection to the animal world, while preserving the hierarchy between them. Ultimately, like all literature, rabbinic literature too finds it difficult not to place humans at its center. Nevertheless, attentive listening to what emerges from it—while understanding the complex forces acting upon it—may open a door, even if only a crack, to a different environmental imagination.

Prof. Itai Marienberg-Milikowsky teaches in the Department of Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He specializes in rabbinic literature, digital humanities, and literary theory. He is also the founder and co-director of the Center for Environmental Humanities at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.