DO NOT DESTROY
This Resource Guide provides information and ideas for exploring themes related to the exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art and Jewish Thought including environmentalism, tree as universal symbol, and the tree in Jewish tradition.
Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought, organized by The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, is a major contemporary art exhibition that highlights how artists examine and celebrate the tree. The exhibition features the works of over 70 artists from around the world who re ect on trees and the environment, explore the concepts of “do not destroy” (ba’al tashchit), “repairing the world” (tikkun olam), and celebrate the Jewish holiday of the Trees, Tu B’Shevat.
A survey of work by international contemporary artists who have used the tree as a signifcant visual and conceptual element in their work
The Dorothy Saxe Invitational, a series of new artworks by local and national artists commissioned to create artwork incorporating reclaimed wood in response to the Jewish holiday Tu B’Shevat, a “New Year” for the trees
An immersive graphic environment, “Seeing the Forest Through the Trees,” created by artist Dov Abramson, mapping out trees in Jewish sources and tradition
Nomadic Grove, an interactive installation on Jessie Square in front of the Museum
These resources are designed to enhance your learning with or without a visit to Do Not Destroy, Trees, Art and Jewish Thought at The Contemporary Jewish Museum.
An overview of the exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought
“From Roots to Fruits: The Life of Trees and the Tree of Life,” by Dr. Jeremy Benstein. An essay from the exhibition catalogue on the interconnections of Jewish people, Torah text, and the environment
Jewish source texts on trees. Topics include: the relationship of trees with agricultural cycles, environmental stewardship, and spiritual teachings
Images of new works from the exhibition with guiding questions for classroom use
A list of additional resources for learning about Judaism and the environment
Provide students with background information on the role of trees in Jewish tradition
Use the source texts or “Seeing the Forest Through the Trees” to engage students in a text study examining the connection between Jewish texts and environmentalism
Explore the connection between Jewish holidays and agricultural cycles
Practice analyzing and interpreting works of art related to environmental themes
Use the artworks as inspiration for a creative class assignment on environmental themes.
As keen observers of the natural environment, contemporary artists continue to examine the Earth, and speci cally the tree, to draw our attention to the natural world and our impact on it. The tree appears as a symbol, a marker of time and place, a call to action, an object of beauty and wonder, a shaman with spiritual significance and healing power. One component of this exhibition features works by national and international artists who use the tree as a signi cant visual element in their work. Artists whose work is in this inhibition include Joseph Beuys, Rodney Graham, April Gornick, Charles LaBelle, Yoko Ono, and Roxy Paine, Rona Pondick, and Yuken Teruya.
The Invitational component of the exhibition continues the Museum’s twenty-seven-year tradition of inviting artists from different backgrounds to creatively explore traditional concepts and highlight their universal and ongoing relevance for a contemporary and diverse audience.
The Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shevat marks the cut-off date in the Hebrew calendar for calculating the age of a fruit-bearing tree and is celebrated by planting trees and eating certain species of fruits and nuts. In recent times the holiday has evolved into an environmental movement—similar to Earth Day—where the natural environment in general and the life of the tree in particular, are celebrated and preserved.
Because there is not a ritual object associated with the holiday of Tu B’Shevat, the concept of environmental awareness embedded in the holiday has been transmitted by each artist using reclaimed wood. The artists were asked to incorporate the wood while considering the rituals and themes surrounding Tu B’Shevat: the eating of the various species of fruit, tithing (from the ancient relevance of the holiday), planting trees, environmental awareness, and other meanings of the holiday. The artists have created an array of thoughtful works that speak to many different themes of Tu B’Shevat and its contemporary relevance.
Designed by Israeli artist Dov Abramson, this immersive educational installation explores how Jewish life and the cycles of trees are intertwined. Taking visitors through an orchard (pardes) of images, ideas and language, the installation brings ancient texts, contemporary rituals, and mystical ideas to a wide audience.
Dov Abramson is an internationally recognized, Jerusalem-based artist and graphic designer. His projects have been featured in Zeek Magazine, Forward, Maariv, and Haaretz, and his art has been exhibited at The Jewish Museum in New York and at The Israel Museum in Jerusalem. An adapted version of “Seeing the Forest Through The Trees” is included in this resource.
Rebar, a San Francisco–based art and design studio, is recognized for creating reconfigurable, reprogrammable spaces for changing urban conditions. In conjunction with the exhibition Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought, The Contemporary Jewish Museum invited Rebar to create a project on Jessie Square in front of the Museum. The CJM asked Rebar to consider the themes of Tu B’Shevat in designing an installation that includes casual seating for lounging and audience seating for outdoor museum programming related to the exhibition. In response, Rebar created a group of brightly colored gem-shaped planters that can be moved into various con gurations, both practical and playful.
Rebar describes Nomadic Grove as “a meditation on rootedness in the relentlessly changing city. To sit, relaxed, looking up at a tree framing the sky is a simple and profound human experience, but
one in surprisingly short supply in modern cities. Perhaps it is because trees resist the city’s constant motion, the city’s ruthlessness—they are specific in a world of impatient cosmopolitanism.” To fill the planters, Rebar selected oak and olive trees that are adapted to the climates of both Israel and the Bay Area, representing the Mediterranean biome that is shared between the two regions and resonating symbolically with the holiday of Tu B’Shevat.
From the very first chapters of the Torah where we encounter trees in the Garden of Eden, to the biblical injunction of bal tashchit (do not destroy) to the resurgence of the holiday of Tu B’Shevat, trees are a centerpiece of Jewish culture and ritual.
To make sense of the richness of Jewish engagement with trees, the Contemporary Jewish Museum worked with Israeli artists/ designers Dov Abramson and Tal Hovav who created a graphic representation of the various Jewish laws, commentary, traditions, and concepts related to the tree. The CJM has utilized these graphics to create this downloadable resource for educators.
Contemporary Jewish environmentalism relies heavily on the key biblical text that prohibits the unnecessary destruction of trees (bal tashchit). The title of The CJM exhibition, Do Not Destroy, comes from this passage. Here are Jewish source texts that implore us to protect the environment:
When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, do not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city? Only trees that you know do not yield food may be destroyed...
Is the human a tree of the field? “Ki ha’adam etz ha’sadeh
This question from Deuteronomy (now part of a famous Israeli pop song), is part of a longer passage imploring humanity not to destroy trees unnecessarily (bal tashchit). Here the Bible asks how a person might be similar to a tree. One interpretation is that our lives as human beings depend on trees—and therefore we should preserve them for our bene t. The second interpretation is an ethical-philosophical assertion that reads the four-word phrase as a rhetorical question: Are trees of the eld human? Can they ght, protect themselves, run away? The answer is: Of course not! There is a radical existential difference between trees and people, and we shouldn’t cut them down, not simply because of our (long-term) needs, but because of their inherent innocence, and worth.
When God created the first human beings, God led them around all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said: ‘See My works, see how beautiful and perfect they are, and all I created—I created for you. Beware lest you spoil and destroy My world, for if you will spoil it, there is no one to repair it after you.
The Jewish concept of bal tashchit has been extended in contemporary eco-Judaism to encompass humanity’s responsibility to shield all of nature from unnecessary harm. In fact, a distinctly Jewish environmental movement has grown with its foundation based on this ancient dictum. This injunction has also been broadened to re ect the larger moral prohibition of destroying anything without absolute need.
Whenever someone destroys a useful artifact, or rips clothing, demolishes a building, plugs up a spring, or senselessly destroys food, it violates the spirit of the Torah’s ‘do not destroy’ rule. Such actions are disgraceful.
Despite centuries of living in the Diaspora, Jewish holiday and ritual life today remains tied to the agricultural cycle and to the ancient practice of giving sacrifices and tithes to support the priests and the poor. This ancient communal system manifests itself in contemporary celebrations of Jewish holidays, starting in the fall with Rosh Hashanah and the harvest holiday of Sukkot and culminating in the spring with Shavuot.
When you enter the land and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruits as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten. In the fourth year all its fruit shall be set aside for jubilation before the Lord; and only in the fifth year may you use its fruit—that its yield to you may be increased.