Pinchas: Sustenance from the Source
Original author - Michael Rosen, edited by the GrowTorah Summer Inchworms 2021-2022, Spence Weitzen, and Shoshi Ehrenreich
View Accompanying Source Sheet Here
“And the Lord spoke to Moshe saying, For these shall the land be divided as an inheritance according to the number of the names” (Bamidbar 26:52).
Parshat Pinchas discusses apportioning the land of Israel according to preset measurements, called “nachalot.” These delineations are to remain forever.[1] These land apportionments are intended to provide the setting for true “sustenance,” receiving in a way that connects us to the land and its Creator. Each shevet was tasked with specific roles in producing food for the nation and was thus acutely connected to their food. As part of the great system of sustenance, Hashem gave us land measures to keep as a sustainable and balanced inheritance. This system informs our approach, even outside of Israel. We need to strengthen our access to sustenance, both physically and spiritually, by feeling our connection to the land, even if we live in modern cities. We can do this by making human health and well-being a goal in the architecture and scale of our cities, and planetary health and well-being a guiding force in planning our source of nutrition.
The Torah directs us to live within the workings of Creation; approximately half of the mitzvot involve agriculture or land apportionment.[2] But city living distances people from the agricultural test of emunah, and thus they are also deprived of the resulting closer relationship with Hashem. In rabbinic literature, the order of the Mishnah related to agriculture is called Emunah, a Hebrew word that means faith in Hashem’s blessings. Dependence on the land deepens our relationship with Hashem through emunah. When we are aware of Hashem as the Source of all sustenance, we are able to see past the illusion of sustainability in urban and suburban areas. Without emunah, industrialized farming results in depleted soil, less nutritious food, and pollution from pesticides. This kind of farming has little regard for the natural balance of life. By working with nature, with Hashem, organic sustainable farming produces a healthy harvest that will sustain the human immune system, as well as the environment.
In addition to compromised nutrition, the overall health of city dwellers is an ancient issue. As early as the 11th century, Rashi explained: “Life is more difficult in the city, because so many live there, and they crowd their houses together, and there is no air, whereas in villages there are gardens and orchards close to the homes, and the air is good.”[3]
The Rambam commented about city communities in the 12th century:
“The quality of urban air compared to the air in the deserts and forests is like thick and turbulent water compared to pure and light water. And this is because in the cities with their tall buildings and narrow roads, the pollution that comes from their residents, their waste … makes their entire air malodorous, turbulent, reeking and thick…
And if you cannot move out of the city, try at least to live in a suburb created to the northeast. Let the house be tall and the court wide enough to permit the northern wind and the sun to come through, because the sun thins out the pollution of the air, and makes it light and pure.”[4]
We know today that imbalances such as lack of sunlight, lack of sleep, inadequate fresh air, and environmental stress—all deficits common to city life—degrade health and immunity levels.[5] The sages’ recommendations for the city are valid today, for they understood the balance of land and health.
Obviously, city living is imperative nowadays for many people seeking a livelihood. And while we cannot completely reorchestrate how humanity lives overnight, it can be beneficial to consider other effects of the city, which we commonly overlook. When we can give a name to a problem, we can address it. Individuals may be left weakened by living in places where identity is not reinforced and supported by a community[6]. Social fragmentation is created in cities where the public and private domains are in conflict. For Jews living in cities, the balance of public and private domain is defined by an eruv, a minimal structure symbolizing a fence that surrounds the city. Today there are many cities whose Jewish communities benefit from modern eruvim. The eruv is effective for enabling the carrying of objects on Shabbat, by symbolically unifying an entire community into one domain. Eruv construction and maintenance requires cooperative work by a community of people and benefits all involved. Thus, the eruv engenders a continuous social domain, which is supportive of community life that can be focused on Hashem. Being included in a city eruv combats social isolation and spiritual estrangement.
For city dwellers, one way of maintaining mental and physical health is to reconnect with the natural world, and its Creator. Cities without a connection to nature or agriculture, green space, sufficient light, clean air, and the horizon, can lend to an imbalance that can neither support physical nor spiritual life. Rabbi Nachman would go for walks in the woods to speak to Hashem just outside the town. In this manner, he was able to maintain a connection with nature and the Source of Creation.
By taking these minute, physical steps, we can reconnect to the land and the unity expressed in Creation. We can learn from our sages and return to the Source of all sustenance, “…by knowing and believing that all Creation is not separate from Hashem, but an extension of His oneness” (Rabbi Nachman of Breslov)[7]
Suggested Action Items:
Communities today are attempting to reclaim what is missing by reconnecting to the land. Sustainable design is bringing courtyards, green roof gardens, and community garden spaces to cities, bringing fields within city limits. In addition, agricultural and nature preserves right outside city perimeters maintain life-giving nature zones around cities. By supporting sustainable design, organic agriculture, and community gardens we can strengthen the balance of population and land
By helping to support eruv construction in your city, community bonds can be strengthened around a holy purpose.
Take a walk in a park inside or just outside of your city. Pause if you’d like and take some time to reflect on your dependence on Creation, or to pray.
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Notes:
[1] See Rashi (11th cent. French Scholar and commentator) to Vayikra 25:15. “..When you sell or buy land, know how many years remain until the jubilee year, and according to that number of years and number of yields that the land can produce in those years, the land should be sold to the buyer. Because, after all, the land will return to (the ancestral owner) in the jubilee year…”
[2] Mind over Matter G-d and Nature Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn Shamir Publications
[3] Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaky, France, 11th cent. Scholar and commentator, in his commentary to Babylonian Talmud, tractate Kettubot 110b
[4] “Rambam” is an acronym for Rabbi Moses Maimonides, or Rambam, Fost, Egypt 1135-1204 C.C, “The Preservation of Youth”
[5] Golany, Gideon, Housing in Arid Lands, Halsted, 1980.
[6] Mumford, Lewis. The Culture of Cities, Harcourt Brace and Co., 1938.
[7] Mayim Breslov Publication, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, Lesson written by Moshe Mykoff.
