by Richard Greenberg
Associate Editor, Washington Jewish News, July 2008
Reuven Walder fondly remembers growing up in Hawaii, where he surfed and fished to his heart’s content. But the experience was marred when pollution ruined one of his favorite angling sites, slowly killing countless fish and other species.
The episode helped forge his long-standing commitment to environmental conservation. “I’ve always loved science and ecology and the interaction between species,” said Walder, 39, who went on to become a marine biologist.
His connection with nature and his devotion to sustaining it took on an added dimension, however, as he became more religious.
“I became more and more fascinated with Hashem’s creation; how perfect it is,” Walder said Sunday as he hiked a gently winding trail bordering a Silver Spring creek known as the Northwest Branch. The tzitzit, ritual fringes, peeking out from beneath his shirt swayed as he walked.
Trailing Walder were about 20 other Orthodox Jews from Silver Spring who were drawn to this rural oasis in suburbia for much the same reason as Walder. By glimpsing the hand of God in nature, they hoped to learn more about how the Torah and environmental sustainability dovetail.
The occasion was the inaugural activity of a pilot program launched by the national organization Canfei Nesharim, which explores environmentalism through the lens of Halacha (Jewish law) and traditional Jewish sources. The new initiative is known as Maayan Olam: the Silver Spring Torah and Environmental Group.
Maayan Olam has been preliminarily endorsed by the Silver Spring Orthodox congregations Young Israel-Shomrai Emunah, Kemp Mill Synagogue and Woodside Synagogue-Ahavas Torah. It is one of three Washington-area Canfei Nesharim pilot programs, and one of eight nationwide. (Sunday’s hike was the first official activity of all eight programs.)
The two other local Canfei Nesharim initiatives are expected to soon begin activities with the blessing of Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah in Potomac and Kesher Israel Congregation in the District. Kesher’s version of the planned program is known as the Green Group; Beth Sholom’s is called Going Green at Beth Sholom and Beyond.
“This is an opportunity to see our own backyard and to have a good time,” hike organizer Walder announced as the 1 1/2-mile journey began, not far from the Silver Spring home of environmental pioneer Rachel Carson, the author of the classic 1962 book Silent Spring.
The walk featured two Torah-based, ecology-themed talks by Evonne Marzouk of Silver Spring, the founder and director of Canfei Nesharim. Her first address was delivered overlooking a bend in the lazily meandering creek that was marked by a broad gravel bar.
Marzouk, 31, a member of KMS, told the listeners that one of the Torah’s bedrock teachings is that God is the ultimate owner of all land – deeds and bills of sale notwithstanding – and is therefore responsible for any benefits derived from it.
The hike, Marzouk said, “is an opportunity to connect with the source of all sustenance.”
In her subsequent talk, Marzouk discerned an environmental call to action in the traditions surrounding the mourning period known as the three weeks, which begins July 20 and culminates on Tisha B’Av (Aug. 10), the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. The increasingly intensive restrictions during the three weeks, she said, teach that now is the time to “Wake up! Stop doing what you have been doing!”
The activities that must cease immediately include the degradation of the earth’s ecosystems, Marzouk added, pointing out: “The Jewish tradition tells us that we need to heed the alarms we are hearing – while there is still time.”
With the aid of a map, Walder (who attends KMS and Chabad) “traced” the path of a theoretical water molecule from its origin in a Silver Spring rainfall – where it soon became saturated with gasoline, oil and other pollutants – to its destination in the Chesapeake Bay. During its journey, it would have passed through the creek along the hike route.
To mitigate the pollution caused by that water molecule and trillions like it, Walder advised listeners to avoid using chemicals or commercial fertilizers on their lawns, patch automotive leaks, stabilize dirt on their property, and push for stronger pro-environmental legislation.
Marzouk said Maayan Olam represents the second phase – the action-oriented, hands-on component – of continuing efforts to increase environmental awareness in the Orthodox community. Prior to the start of that campaign, about five years ago, “the conversation was not even taking place,” she said, adding that she hopes to organize more Torah-centric nature walks and perhaps additional environmental programs pegged to Sukkot or Chanukah.
“It was like a mini-vacation,” participant Ann Jacobson, a member of both KMS and Shomrai Emunah, said of the hike. She noted that a number of Orthodox congregants in Silver Spring have migrated from other denominations where environmental concerns are often emphasized more prominently than in Orthodoxy.
“To hear a d’var Torah [a religious discourse] in the woods relating to ecosystems and the importance of nature,” she said, “was almost thrilling.”