We read in the Mishna (Rabbinic interpretation of Scripture) there are in human communities many days that stress annual beginnings. In the words of the Mishna “four New Year days appear in human calendars”. There is the political New Year. We call it Inauguration day. There is Nature’s New Year day. In the Jewish calendar it is the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month Adar. There is the New year day that connotes anniversaries of Royal regimes. Finally there is the New Year denoting the beginning of the Festival calendar. The fifteenth of Shevat, being celebrated throughout Jewish world today is the time for the annual review of what is happening to our environment. All these New Years are interrelated. If the environment is neglected then our food and shelter and ability to relate to the seasons of the year is compromised.
Up to recent times we refused to seriously consider our environmental needs. Ofttimes it became the step-sister of our political concerns. Many raised objections to careful considerations of the environment. Many said it places a heavy burden on our “G-d given right to act as we please”. After all, many said, Scripture told us man is in charge of Universe, so why hinder him?
Such blatant individualism has led us to terrible consequences. Because of environmental neglect we pay little attention to Nature’s own sense of balance. Many times products are produced consisting of conflicting combinations leading to drastic ends.
The time has come for us to realize that Nature has its rules of balance as we do individually. There is sense of “Yin-Yang” in Nature as in human behavior. We hope and pray that at this day of Nature’s New year the respect due Nature will be forthcoming.
