Rooted in Responsibility: A Jewish Approach to Environmentalism

This week on Adapting, in honor of Tu BiShvat, Yoni Stadlin of Adamah challenges us to see our connection to the earth through a Jewish lens. 

From his unconventional journey—spending three months living in the canopy of California redwoods—to his belief that Jewish environmentalism should be the default rather than a niche, Yoni reminds us that every breath we take is like receiving CPR from a tree. Tu BiShvat is more than a celebration of trees; it’s a powerful reminder that the earth is our home, and it’s a call to action to care for the planet as we would care for ourselves.  

This episode was produced by Dina Nusnbaum and Miranda Lapides. The show’s executive producers are David Bryfman, Karen Cummins, and Nessa Liben. 

This episode was engineered and edited by Nathan J. Vaughan of NJV Media. 

If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a 5-star rating and review, or even better, share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when new episodes are released. To learn more about The Jewish Education Project visit jewishedproject.org where you can find links to our Jewish Educator Portal and learn more about our mission, history, and staff. We are a proud partner of UJA-Federation of New York. 

Transcript

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Hi everybody, and we're recording today's episode of adapting one week before to be spot the Festival of the trees, and that's exactly what we're going to be talking about today, but not just about the holiday itself, but the messages behind what it means for us as Jews to be connecting with nature, to be connecting with the world in which we live, and yes, connecting specifically to trees. I think it's also an important reminder for us that in the world in which we currently live of what we should be thankful for, what we should be grateful for, and taking a bit of the moment out of our hectic everyday life, to really be at one with nature, and especially on this day, the New Year of the trees of tube spark actually, to remember all the things which are really important to us, to the world and to the planet in which we inhabit. Thank you, as always, for listening to adapting today, and happy to be smart. This is adapting the future of Jewish education, a podcast from the Jewish education project where we explore the big questions, challenges and successes that define Jewish education. I'm David breifman. Hi everybody. I'm here with Yoni stadlin, the chief program officer at ADAMA, the largest Jewish environmental organization in North America, and we are dropping today's episode of adapting on the Jewish holiday of Tobi svat. So welcome yoni. Happy to be here. Happy to be here. So tell us a bit about this too. Bucha festival, this holiday that we're celebrating today, to be smart. This is the has become the Jewish Earth Day. This is where we stop and say, Thank you Earth. We love you. Happy to be here. And it does not have the biblical roots, as some of our other major you know, you made you may say, holidays, Yom Kippur, but this has become the Jewish Earth Day. It has its roots. And actually, as one of the four, I know this might sound a bit like an oxymoron, but the four Jewish New Years, there's Rosh Hashanah, the main year. So this is the new year of the trees. You're saying, Why do the trees need a new year? There's a couple reasons. One of them is, you're not allowed to just pick baby, you know, fruit tree. You have to leave the fruit on the on the tree for several years. So how do you, how do you know when to start counting, and it's also when you're farming, when, when the tax, when you can start being taxed on those fruit, as mentioned the Mishna and the word to be spot is actually the date in the month of spots, the two stands for for a number, and spots is the month. So that's how we know exactly when it happens. And it coincides with when, when the SAP starts rising. You know, the tree in the winter starts burning its energy into its roots, and this happens to be when, when the energy starts to starts to come back up to the leaves of the trees. So what are some of the ways we celebrate? What are some of the ways that you you encourage people to celebrate this day? Well, I invite everybody and anybody every day, but especially on two weeks, go outside, hang out with a tree. How many trees do we pass in a year, in a month, in a week, especially if you don't live in a city we pass by, hopefully, 1000s, 1000s, 1000, hundreds of 1000s of trees. How many of you actually stop and meet kind of like people? You see some people, but sometimes you stop. You say, Oh, there you are. I see you find a tree. Hang out with it. Catch your breath. Every Breath You Take is like CPR from a tree. Every breath you've ever taken in your life is a tree basically giving you CPR, giving you, giving you oxygen, and you have an exchange. So slow down with one tree. So that's the interpersonal invitation that I hope everybody does and and additionally, in more recent times, we've created a to be spot Seder. In order, there's a there's a kind of like, there's a Passover Seder. So there's also to be spot ha godda, which, by the way, on out of my website, you can download one for free. How to get your friends together and celebrate this holiday. It's very user friendly, and it's not over the top, I think you'll find very enjoyable. And you can find also on our website and lots of places there's to be shot Seders, where you go and eat and talk play to celebrate this holiday. There's lots of ways to choose your own adventures on this holiday. So let's talk a bit about this relationship that you have with trees, but more generally, why other people should or could have this relationship with trees. But tell us a bit about your journey with trees, and specifically here, I'm referring to part of your biography, which some people might know about, which is the period of your life where you spent some time, but hanging out with some California redwoods, hanging out like a monkey all the way up top. And I did spend about three and a half months of my life living aloft all the way up in the canopy of ancient and endangered redwood trees. These are the tallest trees on planet Earth. Ball sounds way up top, living, sleeping, cooking, eating, reading, fixing things, building up there. And I'll cut to the chase the I had a lot of time up there to think, could you imagine David Day Night, you're just up in a tree by yourself? Well, you're. With a forest at all times. It's with you right now. I spent about two or three weeks of that time with no other humans anywhere nearby for dozens of miles. Sometimes there was a network. There was a bunch of people. The trees were connected by zip lines. Sometimes would be 50 trees all connected by a web. The main idea was there's people coming to clear cut these forests, which means where they take all the trees and only one and by the way, reminder, the forests are the gills of the planet. Anyway, I'd love to tell you more about my time up in the trees, but I'll cut to the chase lots of time to think and ponder and pontificate while you're sitting up in a tree all day and night for weeks and weeks and weeks. And one of the main quests I asked early was, what are you doing? How did you get up here? Why? What drove you to come up and felt mind boggling, what motivated me? And it really was, the answer was my Jewish upbringing, the lessons of being somebody that cares and putting care into action, and the lesson that Adam and Adama so the Hebrew word for the human Earth is earthling Adam Adam. So what's the word for Earth? Adamah Adam Adam. By the way, this is the core the organization I work for, the biggest Earth caring environmental religious nonprofit in the world is a Jewish one. The biggest environmental faith based nonprofit in the world is a Jewish one called ADAMA, where I'm proud to work, and we're called ADAMA, and we focus on the intersection between Adam and Adam. So that was when I thought why I got out there, and I'll just cut to the chase and share what was my biggest aha moment. The biggest takeaway of sitting as a tree for three and a half months was coming down when it came down. What was the biggest takeaway that we are the Earth. We think a lot of time of the Earth as like a museum. Let's go visit the nature. Let's go visit nature's over there. We're over here. What chutzpah to think that we are not a part of nature, and that divorce, I use that word pretty explicitly, that perception that we are divorced from nature, I think, causes a lot of trauma, and us not feeling at home in our home. So this is a holiday to bring us home to our home, to remember that we're part of the earth, and therefore, until then, to love it, and therefore also to love ourselves. So when reading a bit about your biography, when you receive the 2017 pomegranate Prize Award from the covenant foundation, you wrote the following thing, or it was written of you. I'm trying to add a culture of kindness toward the earth, toward the people around us and toward ourselves, to the definition of Jewish education. That part makes sense based on what you just said. And then the part which you added after that, which I think is really, really interesting and important, particularly for this conversation, as you said, and I quote, in my mind, that shouldn't be so novel. It should be the default. And I find that really powerful that you're actually saying that the default of Jewish education, or Jewish existence, is becoming at one with the earth. I would love the word Jewish environmentalism to be like, Oh, that's that's being redundant. I started this amazing two summer camps called Eden village camp, when people are like, what's it about kindness and caring for the earth? And in my in the back of my head, I'm always saying, What a ridiculous, unfortunate world we're living in, where the that's a niche that Yiddish guy, Judaism, you know, us gathering, spend all this energy to get together in the form of religion, all these practices, and we need to carve out a niche for, he said, for kindness, for caretaking, our home and our bodies. And that needs to be a special you need us, even if those games is a specialty camp, a specialty camp that we're because the world we're living in, we're being sweet and kind to ourselves and others, and the planet is a specialty. It's somewhat sad and unfortunate. So yes, I love to see a world where where we're not needed, where kindness is the default with anything in the world, but certainly anything Jewish, we're caring for our planet, which also means caring for ourselves. So that's my that's my goal in life. So besides now just claiming that you want to put Eden village out of business, yeah, I know that's tell us a bit about Eden village. Tell us a bit about this camp that you created. It's, oh gosh, it's a camp where the kids, we're just trying to make it the world we want to so take a moment. What is a world you would love to live in, like, like, dream big. Like, don't hold back your dream that you want your kids to live in. What's the environment, what's the vibe, what's the world? What are people seeing? What are they saying? What are they really doing in this in a world that's more, I'll say, more perfected, more aligned with your dreams, and so, where there's fun and play and kids get to be kids, and so that was the starting point of dreaming up this camp. Had the idea one day while I was doing the dishes, I was at the Jewish Theological Seminary in graduate school. Had the idea one day while doing the dishes. Found out the day after my wedding, got a grant from the foundation for Jewish camp for$1.1 million the day after my wedding. Make your dream come true the UGA Federation. It's a property to use that was about 15 years ago, and now we have another camp on the West Coast, and it first a lot of kids. It's it's a place where they feel at home in their bodies with the earth, and they get to be their best selves and feel comfortable in their skin and comfortable on the planet. And hopefully, take that torch, take that magic home. So a lot of our listeners are probably familiar with Jewish summer camp. What's like one or two differences, or one or two stand out things that one would do at Eden village that really make it, you know, the special place that you're talking about? Well, there are activities, obviously a big, huge organic farm. There's herbalism, where they're learning to again, so the farm, by the way, if they're learning how to grow carrots and fruits, but they're also learning I can feed myself. David, do you know that light you're in education world self efficacy, where a kid, a kid, a kid can go home and feel you know what? I now know how to make food for myself and my family and friends. We have herbalism, where they learn how to take plants and turn it into real medicine, to a kid to go back home and through school and community. Synagogues, I can heal people. I know how to be a healer. And deep spirituality, deep floralism. There's all organic food, there's culinary arts. I can feed people. Oh, and then all the fun things and all the other boating, swimming, rivers, hiking, you know, and feeling at one, ideally, with themselves and earth. So that is, you know, programmatically and some of the outcomes. And I'd say, additionally, the coolest thing that most people go when they come back, talk about is, and this is a real the hidden curricula of what is the default setting in the culture, what is acceptable? You got some camps counselors screaming at their kids. David, it's just like, that's how they get their kids to do things. You know? They say no tolerant for bullying, but there's a lot of tolerated bullying. You know? What is the ex the default setting of how we treat each other? It's just different at edit village camps, but there's a default settings. So when somebody is bringing out their harshest self is not being considerate, it stands out in the culture so that it can be tended. There's a different culture of kindness there that really live in a different way. That's what most people most people come for the programming. They hear about the farming and the herbalism, the organic food. And the reason they come back year after year is really there's a culture of kindness that puts a glimmer in the kids eyes. This is how the world could be, and hopefully they take that home with them. So just to be up front, I have visited the camp many times. My son also went there for a summer as well. Two stories quickly. One is, we were walking around the camp, and I believe it was you or one of your colleagues, said, Let's go to the vending machine. Tell the audience about your vending machine. The vending machine in the ground. Yes, yeah, we snack gardens, where the kids, again, when they wanted a snack, all the bunks had little gardens next to the cabins where they could pick things that you could just grab and go, cherry tomatoes, snap peas and berries, the vending machine in the earth. Yeah. And then the second thing which stands out to me is, then you introduced another time you, that's when you when you got my son's attention. He told him that you were playing Quidditch. Oh, my god, yeah, yeah. Now this just for all the parents at home that might be a little nervous. This is land based Quidditch. We also do aquatic base on the boats, but we are not yet at permitted to do aerial broom Quidditch. There's all kinds of permanent, you know, the health department before the kids go aloft in their broomsticks. But yeah, the Quidditch feel for those people who have no idea we're talking about, Quidditch is the game of the Harry Potter phenomenon, and you decide you want to stop playing Quidditch at camp. Why? Well, the kids do. First of all, there's a lot of kids love Harry Potter that come to camp, and through our herbalism department, there's a lot of kids that feel a bit like they're in herbology from from the Harry Potter books, and we play off of that. And they, they they really feel like they're playing with and they, they do play with a lot of the plants, and work with the plants that are in Harry Potter. And we do have a cultural thing at the emotes camp, where this is a bit of a tangent, but we have this Mo, random Mo, you know, we spice up the culture. So I have in my closet right behind me a yellow full body spandex outfit, and at any time during camp, a staffer can run, hands, feet, face covered in spandex. And it turns no matter what's happening in the camp, it's an all camp tag, spontaneous. It gives them no idea when it's happening to try to catch the snitch and whoever tags the snitch first, if they get tagged, I've done it several times, only been tagged once I will say, I'm not, you know, but it was, it's really intense when you run out of an office and there's 200 kids chasing you full throttle, and whoever wins gets to give, like, you know, a two or three minute speech in front of the whole camp. We used to like put out a royal table for the person to catch the snitch. So there was some of that in the culture and down in. Remember, if a kid, a kid brought the ideas we do a couple things at the camp that are obviously pretty unique. The kids, on a related topic, entirely safe. No one's ever got a scratch do poi, which is fire spinning and fire Hulu fire, circus arts. Don't worry again. It's all the kids that need to test out in a non flammable test out to make sure they do it. There's a lot of unique programs at the camp and but it's has been one of them. So Yoni, I can imagine a few of my listeners listening to this podcast and say this actually sounds pretty unconventional. This this guy sounds like he's operating in a different mindset or a different reality, to the to the world in which most of us are operating in. You've heard this before that you know you're not, you're not running the normal trend of Jewish of Jewish trajectory of Jewish life. What do you say when someone says to you that you're, you're a niche, or you're an offshoot, or you're, you're not the real Jewish thing, but you feel like you're a hobby on the side for the Jewish community. Yeah. So I get that, I would say normal, like, flip on the news. How's normal going for everybody? I'd say, you know, in addition to reduce, reuse, recycle, the most important one is rethink, like, one could use something that our Jewish tradition, like, has in mind. There is something better, right? We there's a better there's something we're aiming for. And, you know, I would say there's quite a bit of Jewish laws and about agriculture that mostly have to do with justice. We have an outdoor tenting holiday. We have a tree holiday. We have, I would say Shabbat is basically a weekly Earth Day, where, where, you know, mind your electricity consumption, you're driving consumption. You're purchasing consumption once a week, all of the major pilgrimage holidays, agriculturally based. Now, I know we've gone straight, quite away from that. I you know, one that's a bit more of a stretch too, is we even have a holiday that teaches us about resource, you know, conserving resources oil, which is a limited commodity on the planet. You know, petroleum that, you know, we're using up and burning up. We actually already have a holiday. That's about, how do we make resources last Hanukkah? I know it's not wait a lot of people look at it, but so there are some, you know, I think we've also, I get that normal now is not this normal has become, you know, go to synagogue Hebrew school, learn about Judaism in this other way. But if you also talk to people, read the you know, read the room. People are starting much more and more and more and more. Thank God to come back to caring about their health, the health of the planet. Go talk to people in California right now this week, about how much they care about the health of the planet and climate change, and with climate change on the radar too, there's a Jewish imperative, you know, it used to be saved the trees. Saved the whales. Okay, that's a bit Do we really have to care about the trees? Do we get to the whales? You know? I know, at the beginning of the Torah, it says, you know, we're to be guardians of the planet. We're told to be to use the planet and to guard it. And we're like, All right, we're using it more than we're guarding it. But it used to be, save the whales, save the trees. And now it's like, save the humans. And we know Jewish law says a lot. You're allowed to because never save a soul. Save a human life. You're allowed to do just about anything to save human life. So with climate change and natural disasters happening, Jewish institutions literally burning to the ground, this is not like when it's going to happen, when are Jews going to be infected? When are people going to it's happening, and that gives you in terms of Jewish law now, it's like, Okay, now we can really do a lot and teach a lot to save, save human life. So I get it's a change. Think Judaism has, has changed throughout time, and in a way, this feels like a return, rather than a kid total, total newness, total out of nowhere. Do you have a vision in terms of, if your outlook was totally successful? What would the what would the Jewish people look? Or how would they look different to how they appear today? Thanks for that question. I would work, you know, thank god Jews. I mean, I know there's a lot of antiSemitism in the world, but are also looked upon for many contributions to society, to the world, right? There's things, oh, the Jews helped in this way, laws, contributions, science, medicine, one, it'd be great, David. And it's in this time, there's like, social, emotional suffering, and the earth is crying out. You know, if we put a microphone, if the earth could speak English, and you put a microphone to the mouth of the Earth, like, what would the earth be saying? I think most people would hear the earth crying out like, Hey, do better. Help me. Help Help us all out. Wouldn't it be great if, if the Jews were just known for being a light unto the nations, for this, for caring for for helping us get back on track, for living more close. Because here's the thing, when we say like, get back on track. Get closer to the living, closer to the earth, closer. Closer to the source. It's closer to ourselves. We pay attention to literally, where our breath comes from, literally, not like metaphor, like actually, scientifically, where it comes. Oh, it's the trees. Oh, well, let's have a holiday two spot where we actually give thanks and focus on that, like that does something for my social, emotional sense of like, what is to be alive, my wellness and the food we eat. You know, it's in the BROCA de adamah, like we say, Where does bread come from? Most people say the supermarket. Hammoti, laka, Mina arts, we have this like reminder, right in our faith? No, it's not for the supermarket comes from the earth, but we're so divorced from knowing in a meaningful way. So what happens when we we integrate that? Oh, right, I'm part of this, and we have that, like, knowing sense. And so if we could be the Jews, the Jews nation could be part of, like, reminding us where we come from, what's important, big, massive scale. And that's what Adam is doing. Yeah, we're doing, we're working with high schoolers. We're working with a coalition. We have, we have three or 400 Jewish nonprofits and institutions creating climate action plans. How do we, how do we practically come back with Jews, with climate movements? We have youth groups. We have Jewish holiday retreats where it's like, Come, let's like, be in Sukkot shampoo world, Rosh Hashanah in a in an environment, or a treat centers Pearl stone, and it's about freedom, where it's like we're gonna live close to the earth as we do live inside of these holidays. So we're trying, and I'd ask all y'all to try. Let's be a light into a nation for this. And it really could be. It could be our peak moment contribution to society. Let me ask you this question. I don't know if you feel comfortable answering it, but a lot of the issues that you're talking about have become political issues, if not partisan issues in the world in which we live. And I wonder, how do you respond to people that might come at you, saying you're actually pushing forward a particular political agenda, rather than what you're framing as an as an environmental obligation, yeah, well, it's pretty easy to politicize anything. I'd ask. You know, this sounds a little bit dark, but the I hope this answers the question. The moment I noticed, sadly, a lot of people realize, Oh, my God, Adam, Adam, Ma, we are part of this earth. You know what it is, David, don't take guess what we come we are Earth. Where do you think most people like get it in a shocking, clear way, the moment of death. Yeah, at a funeral, when you see somebody we don't want to see that. We feel divorce. We feel separated. That unbelievably tender, I mean, the most tender moment of our lives where we see somebody actually getting returned, I might say, into the inside of the earth. Is like, Oh my God. We, when you see them, like physically about to become back. Part of it, in that way, is where a lot of people have a moment. And I think it's a moment. It's almost a scary moment. It is a scary moment. Oh my God. We are, you know, we're taught David that dirt is dirty. Think about that dirt is dirty, and it's what we're literally made. Our food makes our body. The dirt makes food. The food makes our body. We literally transform dirt. That's what that's the way we're created, scientifically, God, really. And we go back right into it. That's scary. But is that political? Is that political that we are literally, scientifically, of the earth, and go back right into it? I don't think so. And if we are the earth, let's, let's, let's make it beautiful, make it healthy. Is that political to it can be, you can, but that's also a bit of a game. I'd say. You know, you can buy into it or not. So I don't know if that directly answers the question. No, it doesn't, but it gives a really important take on the question, I think, which is well worth noting. And so, Yoni, how did you get on this journey? Was there a particular educator in your life, or somebody who helped get you on this journey to be the I as a kid, for somebody that always had, wherever I've lived, I've always had a tree that I had, and I again to be spot. Go find her tree. If you don't have a tree in your life, find a tree. Sit with it, hang out with it, get to know it, look at it closely. As a kid, for some reason, I always had a tree. And in college, it was a tree I go climb. And now I the tree right up down my window. And then it was really my my my Alba, my stepfather, Rabbi Dov Elkins, and I was lucky enough to go to shul every every Shabbat and listen to him, and it's just this basic. There wasn't one thing he said, but that that the imperative is to be, and this is good for be somebody that cares about about making the world better and do something about it later and later, actions follow your beliefs. If you believe there's a better world to create. Do something better, by the way. This is a this is a strategy for living a more fulfilled and happy life later. Actions follow your beliefs, not the beliefs that the media or some book or your friend or but your truest your Neshama, your soul's beliefs. What do I know? And my soul of souls, my heart of hearts. And let your actions follow that tonight. This recipe for living a life that it's more at peace. And my Abba, you know, I remember hearing the lessons about about being a person that cares about about the state of the planet and humanity, and do something about it. And so that's, that's, that's kind of where I got on the show. And then I went on this great program called Semester at Sea that took me as great semester abroad on a boat that went all the way around the planet. And I was like, Oh my God. I fell deeply in love and and I kind of committed myself to be living a life of service in some way, a lot of different jobs that took me in this direction. Yoni, there's your discussion about going to talk to trees is personally really fascinating to me, and I think to many of our other listeners as well. In some ways, it's become almost a cliche, but there is a chapter in Martin Buber book i thou where he literally talks about developing a relationship with the tree. And in that philosophy, he talks about the tree that most of us interact with as not being an animate object, about being able to really participate with the tree in a in a dialog, in an interactive, mutual relationship. And I don't know if you're you're influenced by that, but like when you're talking about that, Buba comes to mind straight away. Love it. And by the way, I'll point out, it's pretty easy to talk to a tree or any non human object. It's a lot harder to hear something back, same with like talking to God. Hey, God, need some help with this that I could talk to my guitar right now. Hey, guitar to hear something back. That's, that's, that's the way we got us pause really, listen deep. If you're feeling shy about talking to a tree, just think people are on cell phones, you know, talking really base got loud to themselves all the time. So, you know, you're just doing that. Yeah, Moses seemed to have a good time with it. At the burning bush, he came away pretty you know, some good downloads from that, that whole and by the way, there it is. You know, it's a big stretch to talk to what Moses was not like parked in a in a ShopRite parking lot to talk to God. Didn't pick up a pay phone, did it? Yeah? What was the channel? What was the channel? And, by the way, okay, if I could go here that the, yeah, it's not normal. The first, you know, this Jewish environment not normal in the first sentence of God's and Moses's first conversation. The very first thing that is said is shown, take, take the shoes from off your feet. Which, which in one you know, why take your shoes off? By the way, nice to meet you, God, Moses. But so first of all, it's, it's Connect. Take any boundary between you and the earth, like take it off. I want, I want, I want full connection. But shall now let them all right, like I could also be a word play. Take the locks off of your pattern. Now, take the locks off your patterns. Patterns. Don't just do what's normal, we shake. Don't just do what you're told, what's pattern. So taking some inspiration from Moses and find a tree talking to it's easy peasy. I'm telling you, the words can just come out. If you don't know what to say to a tree, you can say, Hello. Do you have any wisdom to teach? That's a nice little default question. And the big trick is to steal your voice, calm, your calm, your inner voice, and to be open to to listening. And with that listeners as our message for tu Bucha, maybe try something different. Maybe take the time to unlock yourself from the regular patterns of your routine. Go talk to a tree, but just take some time to be at one with nature on this day. And perhaps it's worth adding like in the world in which we currently live, maybe just taking that deep breath is probably what we all need more than anything else. Thanks Johnny for taking the time to join us on adapting today. I really learned a lot from you, and really gained a lot from your insights and perspectives onto things which maybe I should be taking more time out of my life to pay attention to. Today's episode of adapting was produced by Dina nussen Bomber, Miranda Lapides. The show's executive producers are myself, Karen Cummins and nessa lieben, and our show is engineered and edited as always by Nathan J Bourne of njv media. If you enjoyed adapting this season, please leave us a five star rating on Apple podcasts, or even better still, share it with a friend to learn more about the Jewish education project. Visit Jewish and project.org There you can see more about our mission history and staff. As always, we are a proud partner of uj Federation of New York. Thank you as always, for listening today. And if today is to wish luck for you when you listening, then happy to wish fun you.