Ba'al Taschit

"When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city? Only trees that you know do not yield food may be destroyed; you may cut them down for constructing siegeworks against the city that is waging war on you, until it has been reduced." (Deut. 20: 19-20. JPS translation)

As Pesach approaches, I have been thinking about how we as Jews can show compassion to our enemies.

In one midrash G-d silences the angels from singing after Pharaoh and his army drown in Yam Suf because Egyptians are G-d's creatures too, and we shouldn't rejoice over this destruction. During the hail plague, it says in the Torah that Pharaoh tells Moses and Aaron that he has sinned and G-d is righteous, "Adonai HaTzadik" (Ex. 10:27). Some medieval commentators attribute this statement by Pharaoh to the fact that G-d warned the Egyptians prior to the plague. "Order your livestock and everything you have in the open brought under shelter; every man and beast that is found outside, not having been brought indoors, shall perish when the hail comes down upon them!" (Ex. 9:19). Some Egyptians listen to the warning, and others do not. In this moment, G-d shows compassion on our enemies, on the ones who enslaved the Jewish people for 400 years. He teaches Pharaoh what it means to care about one's creatures.

In the commandment regarding ba'al taschit, it could be that a similar lesson is being taught. Though we fight against an army or enemy population, the trees should not be punished because there is conflict on their soil. I believe this is the mission of the Arava Institute, which brings peoples in conflict together to act for the sake of their shared environment. We all, enemies and neighbors, need natural resources like fruit trees to live.

On the other hand, I can read the ba'al taschit commandment in a more pragmatic light. Maybe it's not a commandment on us to preserve fruit trees for the sake of the innocent fruit trees or to show compassion on the enemy population that may want to rebuild following the war. Maybe after we win a war and want to occupy whatever land we're fighting for, we will want to establish our society there, and we will need fruit trees to sustain ourselves. It would be harder to start from scratch and have to start planting. It is much easier for an occupier to utilize the resources already available. Though Rabbi Loevinger's reading of the ba'al taschit text is inspirational, perhaps the intention of the law is for Jews to know how to sustain their own community. It may not be about "acting to safeguard the beauty and abundance of the world" to show "our appreciation of it."

In practice, in our own lives, I believe that is what ba'al taschit teaches us. It also teaches us to have a social and environmental conscience during war times. For Jews, not all is fair in love and war.

Many of the laws in the Torah, starting with the 17 laws given following the exodus from Egypt, are for the purpose of building a community, a society, a nation. This law given in Vayikra may just be focused on building Jewish society and using resources to meet our needs. The text does not say, "and share in the fruit trees with the enemies" or "allow the opposing people to eat of the fruit trees during the war as well."