By Dr. Akiva Wolff
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Living in this world means being a neighbor. This fundamental principle is so deep in the Jewish tradition that it is found in the very roots of our native language. According to 19th Century sage, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch: “[The Hebrew word] shachan means both to dwell, and also to be a neighbor. Therein lies the highest social ideal. In Jewish thought, to dwell means to be a neighbor. When a Jew takes a place on earth to be his dwelling place he must at the same time concede space and domain to his fellow men for a similar dwelling place.”
Being a good neighbor, as we will see below, is a Jewish obligation. It can also be a tremendous challenge. On the one hand, we all have physical needs and wants to satisfy in order to live in this world, especially in order to live satisfying, productive and enjoyable lives. On the other hand, much of what we do to satisfy these needs and wants can negatively impact our neighbors – everyone and everything in our environment. This is especially true in modern times, where there are so many more people, with so much technology, living on a material level beyond the dreams of our ancestors.
How are we to negotiate the challenges involved in being a good neighbor? Should we deny our own needs and wants in order to avoid causing harm? Can we just ignore the welfare of others, and put our own needs and wants first – like so many around us seem to be doing? How can we manage to live our lives within the dynamic tension of trying to satisfy both, often conflicting sides?
Fortunately, our Jewish tradition has much to teach us about how to be a good neighbor. While the scale of the challenge may have changed over time, the underlying factors remain much the same. The Torah teaches us how to balance the actions we take to satisfy our needs and wants with the often conflicting obligation to take into consideration the physical welfare of others, in a way that maximizes the welfare of both the individual and society.
As we will see, in Jewish tradition, being a good neighbor means to consider the welfare of others in all that we do. This is mainly expressed in taking preventive measures to avoid causing damage to others, and to the environment that we all share. In this article, we’ll follow chronologically how this concept was expressed and interpreted in the Jewish tradition.
The Principle of Being a Good Neighbor — Biblical sources
The main Biblical source for the principle of being a good neighbor is the classic injunction to Love your neighbor as yourself.[2]The Talmudic sage, Rabbi Akiva, called this the overriding principle of the Torah{3}. The Talmudic sage Hillel also considered this a central tenet of Judaism.[4] Interestingly, Hillel rephrased this concept in the negative as: That which is hateful to you do not do to someone else.[5] Hillel’s rephrasing places the emphasis on avoiding causing any harm or damage to others which, as we will see below, forms the basis of the halachic (legal) requirements for proper neighborly relations. On this verse (Love your neighbor as yourself), Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch writes:
Hillel’s interpretation of this as: “That which is hateful to you don’t do to someone else” imposes complete equality of all as the guiding principle of all of our deeds, makes everyone take to heart the weal and woe of everybody else, changes selfishness…into consideration and love of one’s neighbor. The concept of “your neighbor” extends the ideas beyond the narrow confines of your fellow men to the idea of fellow creatures, so that in fact this sentence does contain the contents of the whole Torah, which indeed is nothing else, but the teaching of avoiding everything which is contrary and hateful to the happiness and well-being of ourselves and to that of the fellow creatures who enjoy existence down here in this world.[6]
In this commentary, Rabbi Hirsch expands the obligation of being a good neighbor beyond the conventional understanding. It is not enough to avoid harming our fellow human beings who reside in close proximity. We must also consider the welfare of other living beings on the planet. Thus, the obligation to be a good neighbor can be seen as a basis for all environmental protection. Being a good neighbor means taking good care of our environment/life support system to ensure that others can also benefit in a sustainable way.
The sages also found reference to the principle of being a good neighbor in the Biblical verse “Don’t put a stumbling block before the blind.”[7] On this verse, Rabbi Hirsch writes: This is a sentence of the most far-reaching import. It warns against carelessness in word or deed through which the material or spiritual well-being of our fellow man could in any way be endangered…. Thus the whole great sphere of the material and spiritual happiness of our neighbor is entrusted to our care. Our care and consideration must be exercised for the benefit of our neighbor to prevent his coming into any material or moral harm through our means.[8]
Another Biblical verse which addresses our concept is: “[The Torah’s] ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace.”[9] Based on this verse, the Talmud teaches that “The entire Torah is also for the sake of social harmony.”[10] The bottom line in facilitating social harmony, which closely relates to good neighborly relations, is surely the injunction to “do no harm.”[11] As Hillel says above, “all the rest is commentary, now go and learn” — which we will proceed to do.
Halachic Requirements for Being a Good Neighbor
As we discussed in the introduction, the Torah negotiates the dynamic balance between providing people with the freedom they need to act in this world in order to meet their physical needs and wants, and protecting neighbors (society and the environment) from the damage these actions may cause.[13] While the sages recognized that it is not possible, nor even necessarily desirable, to forbid all potential sources of damage, they required that these sources be carefully regulated to prevent or minimize any damage or harm to others.
With this value in mind, the sages of the Talmud translated the principle of not causing damage to others into concrete preventative measures that cover a wide scope of common activities.[14] The second chapter of the tractate Baba Batra focuses on these preventative measures. For example, the first Mishna in this tractate states: A person may not dig a cistern next to the cistern of his neighbor, nor a water channel, nor a cave, nor an irrigation ditch, nor a washing trough – unless he distances [the outside wall of his structure] from the outside wall [of his neighbors cistern] three handbreadths and seals [his structure] with plaster.[15] All of the listed activities can cause damage to neighbors. For example, digging these structures can disturb a neighbor’s land. Each of these structures can also allow the destructive infiltration of water into the outer walls of a neighbor’s cistern.
The Mishna requires that if someone digs a water structure near his neighbor’s property he must provide a suitable buffer zone – in the form of waterproofing and adequate distance to protect his neighbor’s property.[16] In our technologically advanced era, perhaps this concept of a ‘buffer zone’ can be likened to pollution control devices such as smokestack scrubbers and water treatment plants which can work more effectively in a much smaller area to reduce or eliminates damaging effects before they reach any neighbors.
Distancing Sources of Damage from and within Populated Areas
Potential sources of damage that were a danger to public health or an unbearable intrusion on quality of life were subject to broad zoning restrictions in the Talmud. Activities that were a constant source of smoke, smell, or particulates were banned within city limits. For example, the Talmud instructs that carcasses, graves, tanneries, and furnaces be distanced at least fifty cubits from a town.[18] Beyond providing a protective buffer zone, the Talmud also required that these activities be placed in locations where the damage would be minimized.[19]
For example, according to the Talmud: One must distance a fixed threshing floor fifty cubits from a town. One may not establish a fixed threshing floor within his own property unless he [allows a buffer zone of at least] fifty cubits in every direction, and he must distance [it] from the plantings of his neighbor and from his plowed-over areas so that it should not damage [them] [20]. » Threshing floors, used to separate chaff from grain, produce a large amount of potentially harmful particulate matter. Therefore, threshing floors were considered a public health hazard that should be prohibited within municipal boundaries.[21]
The Talmud also regulated many domestic activities that cannot be placed outside municipal boundaries, such as ovens, outhouses, and laundry pits. For example, the Mishnah prohibits the placing of olive refuse, manure, salt, and lime against a neighbor’s wall because of the corrosive properties of these materials.[22]
Ovens were similarly regulated to reduce the risk of fire spreading to an upstairs or downstairs neighbor[23] by requiring four cubits of space above an oven if there is an upstairs neighbor, and a layer of plaster three handbreadths thick underneath an oven located on an upper floor.
The Talmud prohibits opening a bakery, dye shop, or cattle shed under a neighbor’s storehouse because the associated heat and odor might damage the neighbor’s produce.[24] Other Mishnaic laws include requirements to distance soaking flax from neighboring vegetable gardens,[25] leeks from onions[26] and mustard plants from domesticated bees, in order to prevent damage.[27]
These Talmudic measures to prevent damage to neighbors were further elucidated and codified in the legal writings of post-Talmudic scholars such as Maimonides[28] and R. Yosef Caro.[29] Maimonides’ classic treatise, Mishneh Torah, includes an entire section devoted to Hilchot Shechanim, or “Laws of Neighbors.”
While the Sages were concerned about all kinds of damages, they particularly focused on preventing four categories of damages: smoke, bad odors, dust and vibrations.[30] These damages were considered especially harmful and difficult to tolerate.
The industrial revolution, beginning in Western Europe in the 18th century, and subsequently spreading to much of the world, brought with it massive industrial facilities that were often the source of some, if not all four, of the Sages’ categories of damages. Unfortunately, during this time period, the awareness and actions necessary for industries to fulfill the requirements to be good neighbors usually lagged far behind.
In the words of contemporary scholar, Rabbi Ezra Batzri, one-time head of the Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem: And behold, this law [of preventing damages], to our great sorrow is disregarded and many people suffer damage, and even have their lives shortened, (may G-d protect us), as the experts inform us, and we should sound the alarm on this. Especially responsible are those that are involved in community affairs, who should not be silent on this matter. New factories in particular, should be inspected carefully to know what type of damages they are likely to cause to the community and factories should not be permitted to be established until they are known to be observing the law of distancing of damages properly, and to have all the necessary devices for ensuring that their wastes will not damage the environment.[31]
Rabbi Batzri emphasizes the need for governing authorities to ensure the proper regulation of polluting industries, and bemoans the fact that this has been so disregarded in modern times. In fact, corporations, large and small, also have the obligation of being good neighbors, by preventing damage to others. Nevertheless, as Rabbi Batzri writes, compliance with these obligations has all too often been wanting.
It is interesting to note that most of the world has now adopted environmental legislation that echoes the wisdom of the Sages in the matter of being a good neighbor. The business world is also, increasingly, waking up to their obligation to act as good neighbors. There is growing recognition that being a good neighbor promotes financial sustainability as well as ecological sustainability. For example, writer Daniel Goleman, in his book Ecological Intelligence, discusses at length how several major international corporations have learned that their continued success will depend on their being better neighbors, and paying more attention to reducing their negative impacts to their neighbors.[32]
Both government and business can no longer hide from the fact that it is far more expensive to repair the damage inflicted by bad neighbors than it does to be a good neighbor and prevent the problems in the first place. For example, in a 2003 report on the cost-effectiveness of pollution prevention, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that “in almost every case, these efforts have not only led to environmental improvement, but have been cost-effective, saving millions of dollars per year.” The report showed a high benefit to cost ratio for pollution prevention assistance programs, and reported that over a two year period between 1998 and 2000, there were six dollars of pollution prevention savings for every dollar invested by the Federal Government.[35] We need to keep in mind that according to Rivash, (Rabbi Yitzhak bar Sheshet, Spain-Algeria, 14th century), “One may not save his own property from damage at the expense of causing his fellow damage.” (Rivash, Responsum 196)