Newspapers / The Charlotte Jewish News … / Jan. 1, 2013, edition 1 / Page 31
Part of The Charlotte Jewish News (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
The Charlotte Jewish News - January 2013 - Page 31 Repairing the World, and Your Home, on Tu b’Shevat By Edmon J. Rodman Los Angeles (JTA) — The Jew ish green day of Tu b’Shevat is not just the new year for trees any more. Jews are being asked inereas- ingly to dedieate Tu b’Shevat to repairing the world. The Tu b’ Shevat seder at the Jewish Funds for Justiee is ealled “Tikkun [re pair] and Transformation.” Kolel, the Adult Center for Liberal Jew ish Learning, suggests four tikku- nim, or repairs, to interaet with traditional Tu b’Shevat seder themes: soeial, eosmie/existential, national, and eeologieal. On the Reelaiming Judaism website. Rabbi Goldie Milgram writes, “Tu b’Shevat is meant to help repair this world.” But before you go out and make your repairs to the world, don’t you think you should fix up your home? Like what about that broken elothes dryer or dish washer? You might be surprised, but this has a basis in Jewish tradition. The injunetion of “ba’al tasehit” - do not destroy - is the Jewish ver sion of “waste not, want not.” To avoid waste, we need to learn how to repair rather than throw things away. It’s time to think globally and aet loeally — very loeally, like in your kitehen or utility room. Yes, there’s a drought in Israel and there was that terrible fire in the Carmel Mountains of northern Israel, but that doesn’t absolve you of doing something about the water drip dripping down your drain beeause you don’t know how to fix it. At Tu b’Shevat, eonsider this: With the money saved from a few simple home repairs, you ean fix your house and your world. The holiday is often observed with a Tu b’Shevat seder, a Feast of Fruits. Nuts in the shell, like al monds, play a part in the ritual, and to those bent on repair, they bring to mind another kind of nut - those metal hexagonal ones that are really holding the world to gether. Repairs have never been more expensive, but repair parts and in- struetions on how to install them have never been more aeeessible. With household expenses sueh as insuranee and utilities on the rise, why throw away that perfeetly good but too-expensive-to-repair applianee when you ean fix it yourself? What you ean toss is that old stereotype of Jews, men or women, not being handy, or even owning tools. To get started, the Talmud says, “On three things the world stands: on justiee, on truth, and on peaee.” Generations of Jewish engineers, plumbers and eleetrieians would Tooling around: A basic set of tools helps you green up your life in a variety of ways. (Edmon J. Rodman) add a fourth: a toolbox. With a household tool set as basie as flat head and Phillips head serewdrivers, adjustable wreneh, pliers, and hammer, you ean save enough money over a year to green up your yard for the next Tu b’Shevat. My toolbox was a wedding gift. It was wrapped with a bow, just like the other presents, but over the years its eontents have far outlived the usefulness of the eroek pots, slieers/dieers and sundry plug-in spaee-taker-uppers that we reeeived for our home. Over time, my tool box has opened my eyes to eonservation. I like to think that with my repairs of a washing maehine, dryer and oven, even eomputer, my personal landfill is smaller. Eaeh repair has been a re minder that what is broken ean often be fixed. With eaeh re pair, eaeh turn of the wreneh, the kabbalistie eon- eept of the Tu b’Shevat seder known as asiyah - gaining awareness of the physieal world - beeomes more aeeessible. For those who are tool ehallenged, do as Pirkei Avot, the Ethies of the Fa thers, suggests: “Find for yourself a teaeher.” I eonsult with my father- in-law, Stanley Berko, a pro fessional who has repaired applianees for mueh of his adult life: TVs, ovens, mierowaves. In a kind of repairman’s oral law, he has passed down to me, patient phone eall after eall, an order to repair worth sharing: “Al ways eheek first to see if it’s plugged in,” he invariably tells me. “Then eheek the eireuit breaker,” he adds for good meas ure. This might sound like a big “duh” until Stanley regales me with tales of the house ealls he has made in whieh the plug is simply out or the breaker popped. Our dishwasher tanked re- eently. Not enough water was going in, resulting in eloudy drinking glasses and a serving of grayish dried patina on everything else. With California in a drought, all that extra hand rinsing eer- tainly wasn’t helping. By Googling the dishwasher’s make and model number along with the prompt “Doesn’t elean, not filling with water,” I found a help site where several respon dents for a similar request had suggested elearing the filter in the washer’s inlet valve. But where was the valve? At an Internet parts site I found a sehematie that showed the valve and filter were up front and easily aeeessible. I also found instrue- tions on how to remove and elean it out. After unplugging the applianee and turning off the water, I did ex- aetly that, with the aid of an ad justable ereseent wreneh and serewdriver. The result: eloudless eups and elean eutlery. A basie repair eall would have been $100. Additionally there would have been the eost of a re- plaeement part and the labor to in stall it. By doing the repair myself, I saved a lot of green. Yes, there was fire in Israel, and with a simple repair or two you ean save enough to replant a eouple of trees — with enough left over for a fine spread of nuts (the edible kind) for your Tu b’ Shevat seder. ^ (Edmon J. Rodman is a JTA columnist who writes on Jewish life from Los Angeles. Contact him at edmojace@gmail.com.) Op-Ed: Our Tu b’Shevat Responsibility By Steve Gutow and David Saperstein Washington (JTA) - As the hol iday of Tu b’Shevat approaehes, eongregations and families pre pare to look at the natural world with wonder and eelebrate the abundanee of earth’s ineredible resourees. At many of our eelebra- tions, we will read from Eeelesi- astes 1:4: “One generation goes, another eomes, but the earth remains the same forever.” Yet our generation is learning that this promise may not be ensured. The earth is ehanging be fore us, and the resourees we enjoy today - abundant food, a stable elimate, and elean, breath able air - may not be here forever. This Tu b’Shevat, whieh falls on January 26, brings an awesome responsibility: We must aet to save the very ereation that we eel ebrate - the planet that is ours in trust. Tu b’Shevat, whieh began as a minor holiday marked by a festive meal, has grown into the modem Jewish Earth Day, linking tradi tional eelebration with our grow ing sense of environmental responsibility. As we eonneet our tradition to these modem ehal- lenges, we deepen our sense of personal responsibility, planting trees, and reminding ourselves that it’s a mitzvah to reduee, reuse, and reeyele. Jews have long taught that every aet eounts and eaeh deeision matters. But we must also step beyond. As eitizens of the nation that sets the tone for the world’s environ mental standards, Ameriean Jews have a speeial duty. It is a Jewish imperative to raise our voiees for what we believe is right and just: legislation that will effeetively ad dress the environmental erises of our generation. This Tu b’Shevat, we have the opportunity to move beyond indi vidual and eommunal eelebratory aetivities to raise our voiees in ad dressing broader ehallenges to our environment. To tmly mark the holiday and meet its intent, we must do more than plant trees or attend a Seder - we must eommit to advoeaey on the poliees that affeet environmental integrity. And the plaee to start is the United States Congress. Seientists, eeonomists and reli gious leaders agree on the need for eomprehensive elimate and en ergy legislation. We need laws that inelude seienee-based targets plaeing a strong eap on earbon emissions and have stringent short- and long-term goals. This is the only way to limit both the eurrent global temperature rise and future environmental degra dation. We need laws that will ereate the bedroek for Ameriea’s transi tion from polluting fossil fuels to elean, renewable energy sourees. It’s simply not enough to tell eiti zens and eorporations to pollute less. We must provide them with viable alternatives, and that will require a national legislative framework. We need meaningful measures to minimize the impaet of elimate ehange and new energy polieies on low-ineome eommunities and vulnerable populations in Ameriea and around the world, ineluding suffieient funding for international adaptation programs that help eommunities eonfront the effeets of elimate ehange - drought, flooding, ehanging agrieultural patterns - that some are already seeing. Industrial ehanges of this magnitude will have an enormous impaet on the lives and liveli hoods of millions of people. We must see to it that in our efforts to save the planet, we do not harm the people who live on it. In the aftershoek of Flaiti, we see vividly the horrifying damage of negleet- ing infrastrueture among the poor est of the poor. Some argue that Congress needs more time to eonsider envi ronmental legislation, insisting that we eannot rush sueh an im portant task. Yet time is the one thing that we, and the planet, do not have. As iee eaps melt and oeeans rise, island nations and en tire speeies are beeoming endan gered even faster than predieted. The United States exerted es sential leadership at the United Nations elimate eonferenee in Copenhagen, and it is time for our nation to follow that lead with leg- Rabbis Steve Gutow, left, and David Saperstein. islation. We must eall on our eleeted representatives and the ad ministration to pass eomprehen sive energy and elimate legislation for a healthier environment - and for the eause of human survival. In Midrash Eeelesiastes Rab- bah, we learn that the Creator led Adam around the Garden of Eden saying, “Look at My works. See how beautiful they are, how exeel- lent. See to it that you do not spoil or destroy My world - for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you.” On Tu b’Shevat, it is our moral and spiritual duty as part of our eelebration to eall on our lawmak ers to join us in the task of tikkun olam, repairing our broken world. The seasons are turning, and time is not on our side.^ (Rabbi Steve Gutow and Rabbi David Saperstein are board mem bers of the Coalition on the Envi ronment and Jewish Life.) Richard Chess of UNC Asheville Literature Faculty Wins Prestigious Award Riehard Chess of UNC Asheville’s literature faeulty was awarded prestigious honors this fall semester. Chess was named Western Region Distinguished Poet by the North Carolina Poetry Soeiety and its Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series. The North Carolina Poetry So eiety deseribes its new Western Region Distinguished Poet, Riehard Chess, as an “award-win ning mueh-sought after teaeher.” As Western Region Distinguished Poet, Chess will be literary mentor to three student poets and one adult poet; the resulting works by the four poets will be presented at Western Carolina University’s an nual Literary Festival and at read ings at area libraries. “It’s a great honor to be given this opportunity to share my love of poetry with four terrifie poets, ineluding a seventh grader from The Odyssey Community Sehool, a junior from Asheville High Sehool, an undergraduate from Lenoir Rhyne, and a professional flutist/poet/writer from Bak- ersville,” said Chess. “I hope I will be able to help eaeh of these poets in some small ways to deepen their praetiee of poetry.” Chess is the author of three books of poetry, “Third Temple” (2007), “Chair in the Desert” (2000), and “Tekiah” (1994). His poems have appeared in many journals as well as several an thologies, ineluding “Bearing the Mystery: 25 Years of Image, Best Ameriean Spiritual Writing 2005,” and “Telling and Remembering: A Century of Ameriean-Jewish Po etry.” Chess is UNC Asheville’s Roy Carroll Professor of Honors Arts and Seienees and professor of literature and language. He also direets the university’s Center for Jewish Studies. ^
The Charlotte Jewish News (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 1, 2013, edition 1
31
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75