So, what’s an environmental mitzvah?
Easy. Anything you do to protect the environment is an environmental mitzvah.
What WE mean is a project that actively cleans up our local area.
For example, we join Hadassah’s road cleaning crew, and every spring and fall we all get together and clean up the roads generally bordering the Tucson JCC. We pick up a lot of trash, and then have a great picnic lunch.
In 2008, Temple Emanu-El invited us to help plan and participate in their religious school’s Mitzvah Day. They officially “adopted” a park for a day and the students picked up trash, learned about the water cycle, heard a rousing story about Noah, made bumper stickers and car trash bags, and made lists of things they could do to protect the environment. Tucson City Council member Rodney Glassman came and spoke about the importance of keeping our neighborhoods clean, and distributed reusable canvas bags to all of us.
In November, 2009, Temple Emanu-El’s Mitzvah Day expands to be a Community Youth Mitzvah Day. While the emphasis is on several mitzvot, SAZ COEJL will be working with 6th and 7th grade religious school students from multiple religious schools to plant desert-friendly plants at the Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) office.
Also in 2009, SAZ COEJL will plant desert-friendly plants at the “B’nai Tzedek” project – a community wide project to build a Habitat for Humanity house for a refugee family.
Mike Jacobson, COEJL co-chair, with the Anshei Israel Tzedek Build Team
