c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Whether by chance or by choice, the current environmental debate between computer executive Michael S. Dell and Ken Caldeira, an ecological scientist, coincides with the upcoming Jewish New Year of the Trees, Tu B’shevat in Hebrew. It will be celebrated this year on Feb. 3, the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat. “Tu” is an acronym for the number 15.

Tu B’Shevat occurs when the fruit trees of Israel are ripe for harvesting. In recent years, the festival has become an annual opportunity for Jews _ especially in Israel _ to plant saplings and to focus on projects aimed at saving our planet from ecological disaster.

On Tu B’Shevat, special holiday foods (pomegranates, grapes, dates, figs, olives and carobs) are eaten accompanied by prayers of thanksgiving for the harvest.

In a recent speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Dell, founder of the computer company bearing his name, urged the electronics industry and the consumers who use its products to begin planting trees.

Dell sees a large tree-planting campaign in the United States as a necessary business/ecosystem trade-off. Because we pour an enormous amount of carbon dioxide into the air by using computers, automobiles and many other machines, Dell seeks to correct that imbalance with new trees that will naturally absorb the dangerous excess gas in the atmosphere.

Dell asked his customers to contribute $2 each time a laptop is purchased, and $6 for each new desk top model. The money will be used to plant trees, and Dell’s company will cover the plan’s administrative costs. He expressed hope that his tree project will be extended to other countries.

“I am personally interested in the environment,” he said, “but I have to give credit to our customers who have encouraged us in this direction.”

But Dell’s plan, seemingly a no-brainer, was sharply criticized in a New York Times op-ed written by Caldeira, of the Carnegie Institute’s Department of Global Ecology. Caldeira, who loves trees as much as the next person, pointed out it is only trees in a tropical environment that actually reduce carbon dioxide.

Caldeira argues that the trees in those dark forests we love for camping and hiking only add to the carbon dioxide problem because trees in a temperate zone soak up much of the sun’s heat, negating the cooling effect of absorbing carbon dioxide. Caldeira flatly rejects the conventional wisdom that we can “save our planet” by planting more trees. Not surprisingly, he calls for a radically new energy program that liberates us from the environmental dangers of using coal, oil and gas.

While the biblical authors and the sages of Judaism did not possess Caldeira’s knowledge about the differences between temperate and tropical forests, they fully understood that trees provided beauty, shade, food and protection.

The biblical book of Leviticus commanded the ancient Israelites to plant trees when they entered the land, and there are other Scriptural references citing the importance of trees.

Beginning in 1908, the Jewish National Fund began a massive systematic campaign to plant millions of trees in the biblical Holy Land, which over the centuries had become an ecological disaster. Today many tourists to Israel plant a sapling as a tangible symbol of their visit. Two of Israel’s most famous forests are named in memory of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

During last summer’s war, Hezbollah rockets from Lebanon destroyed many trees in northern Israel. I saw the burned groves, woods and forests during my visit a few weeks after the August cease-fire went into effect. Happily, the planting of new trees began immediately after the rocket attacks ended.

In a world that demands instant gratification and immediate results, on Tu B’Shevat I remember the ancient Jewish story of the sage Choni who saw a man planting a carob tree. Choni asked: “How long will it take for your young tree to bear fruit?” “Seventy years,” the man answered.

Choni, amazed, asked, “Are you so healthy that you expect to eat your tree’s fruit 70 years from now?” The man responded: “I found a fruitful world because my ancestors planted it for me. So, now I plant for my children and grandchildren, for future generations.”

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

KRE/LF END RUDIN

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