Maya Buhrich – Alumni Informal Jewish Life Educator

“And when, O Man, you will return to Nature—on that day your eyes will open, you will gaze straight into the eyes of Nature, and in its mirror you will see your own image. You will know that you have returned to yourself.”  AD Gordon 

On Tisha Be’av one of the tragedies we remember is the destruction of the First Temple and our exile from Jerusalem. The prophet Jeremiah – who is credited as the author of Eicha, a text which responds to the immediate suffering felt by those exiled – provides an interpretation of why the Jewish people were subject to such tragedy. He writes it is because the Jewish people did not let the land rest every seven years, as mandated in the Tanakh, that they were exiled from Jerusalem. 

Jeremiah seeks to explain this tragedy by making sense of God’s motivation to subject the Jewish people to exile. This may leave us questioning: Why is failing to let the land rest justification for exile? Jeremiah’s interpretation may seem like a desperate attempt to rationalise the tragedies that have ensued. As such God is painted as a character whose punishment of the Jewish people doesn’t fit the crime. 

Yael Grunseit – Alumni Informal Jewish Life Educator

The idea of God taking retribution on the Jewish people is difficult to relate to. How then does a secular Jew make sense of this testing relationship with God? What we understand the message to be is that land and caring for our planet is of utmost importance. This link is easy to see as the negative impact of human behaviour on the environment becomes more apparent today. If God was upset about failing to let the land rest, think about fast fashion, corporate pollution, the meat industry and rising sea levels… 

A defining tragedy of the 21st century is climate change. As young people, it is difficult to imagine a future without first tackling the treatment of our planet. The COVID-19 pandemic has understandably diverted our attention away from climate change and towards caring for ourselves and loved ones. This is important, however, Tish’ah BeAv can be used as a reminder to treat our planet with care. Jeremiah, in all of his grief, was able to make sense of our people’s misfortune by considering the treatment of land. In a similar way to Jeremiah, we should continue to reflect on our treatment of the planet, whilst also remembering the larger tragedies of our people. 

There is a long tradition of great Jewish thinkers remembering the importance of land in regards to spirituality, the preservation of Jewish culture, labour and Zionism. Care for land and the planet is not as arbitrary as the Tanakh’s rulings may seem. What we take from AD Gordon is that by caring for our planet we are able to confront the tragedies of our time. As such, by caring for our land we are caring for ourselves and our future.