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Reflecting on our environmental habits – TuBishvat 5781

Snow and ice cover the ground outside my house; the windchill makes it feel well below 20 degrees. My mind, however, is in my spiritual homeland, where the first buds of the almond tree are beginning to bloom. It is where, in most years, I would be this week interviewing our Israeli Mishlachat members who come to camp to inspire our campers and staff with their love of Israel and passion for educating young Jews.

Tu BiShvat, a one-time minor kabbalistic holiday to mark the birthday of the trees, has rightfully become a significant date in our Jewish calendar. Jews the world over celebrate this day by hosting Tu BiShvat sedarim, planting trees, and taking time to assess our own impact on the environment. 

As we prepare to reopen our camp in six months, we too are taking stock of our own environmental habits. This summer, we will focus on three main aspects of our own environmental impact.

Energy Use

Solar Panels on the top of our new Health Center

In 2020, we installed our first solar panels and geothermal wells. At present, these systems power our new wellness center (or Mirpa’ah as it is called in the summer). Because of these systems, this building is carbon neutral to operate. To date, we have saved the 13,017 lb of CO2 emissions compared to using fossil based energy, which in turn is equivalent to planting 98 trees! During most of the winter, the panels return power to the electrical grid since our electrical needs are minimal. The building is well insulated with R39 foam insulation in the walls; it is heated in the winter by a geothermal system. Our hope is to publish the data from the building on a weekly basis both during the summer and year round, so that campers can analyze the data and learn more about energy use.  In the coming years, we hope to install three more solar arrays on our site so that we can cut our carbon-based electrical use by over 75%.

STEM Program

In 2021 we are launching a new STEM program with a dual focus on ecology and sustainable design. In addition to opening a renovated farm education center, we will be hiring two staff members to lead this program.  One staff member will focus on ecological observation projects – monitoring stream flow, observing reforestation, and cataloging the species that are native to our ranch.  The second staff member will help campers evaluate our own environmental impact, and problem-solve to design new systems focused on our water usage & waste streams.  We will draw upon curriculum designed for youth, and hopefully begin a partnership with a local environmental science department at a Colorado university in the next year. 

Waste & Composting

Over the past few years, we have devoted considerable resources to reducing the waste we produce at camp and set a goal in 2016 of being at zero waste by 2020. While we have made some progress, we have fallen far from our goal of being waste-free. Unfortunately, the large scale bokashi system we implemented in 2016/17 has not been able to deal adequately with our organic waste in the way we had originally envisioned. Similarly, while we have significantly increased the amount of cardboard and metal we recycle, we would still like to capture more. Finally, while we have reduced the amount of paper towels we use for hand washing through increased use of hand dryers, in all likelihood COVID protocols this summer will require us to use even more paper towels and single-use cleaning cloths. Nonetheless, we know that we can be more conscious of the waste we produce and find better avenues for composting and recycling. In 2021 we hope to contract with a commercial composter to process most of our organic waste and paper towels. We also hope to be more transparent with our campers about where our waste goes and set aspirational goals of how we can do better to reduce the waste we put into landfills and incinerators.

Tu B’shvat happens once a year. As Jews, however, our focus on the environment needs to be a year-round endeavour.  Our goal as a camp is for our alumni to return to their home communities as advocates for change in both personal habits and collective policies that mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. 

-Rabbi Eliav

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Nature Up Close

Morah Nehamah Liebowitz, the late Torah commentator, is said to have hated the concept of Mother’s Day; she thought it crazy that we would take one day to be nice to mothers— according to her, every day should be a celebration of mothers! When thinking about Tu B’Shevat, what has become Judaism’s annual version of Earth Day, I sometimes feel the same as Morah Liebowitz. 

Ilanot campers planting plants in our greenhouse.
Ilanot Chalutzim planting in our greenhouse.

Tu B’Shevat began as a fringe Kabalistic tradition celebrated by mystics. In the past few decades, through a number of Jewish communal initiatives, it has become a mainstream holiday; a time for all of us to take meaningful actions to incorporate Jewish environmental values into our lives.  And let’s be clear, it’s a good thing that the Jewish community has days like Tu B’Shevat where we can think about how our actions affect the environment. But, to echo Morah Liebowitz, one day is not enough! 

For us to fully commit ourselves to changing the way in which we interact with the natural world, we are going to need more than a day to make these changes. We are going to need to see how our lives, most of which are lived in urban environments, affect the natural world around us.

At Ramah in the Rockies, our community comes together each summer to spend ten weeks living consciously with nature, although our campers rotate in and out every two to four weeks.  Yes, we use many of the modern conveniences found in our urban lives – electricity, fossil fuels, and satellite phones. Yet, at the same time, we go out of our way to be intentional about our relationship with the natural world.  Our campers live in bunks with no power. We use a method of fermenting garbage, called Bokashi, for most food scraps that are composted for our garden. We pre-heat our shower water using the sun’s rays.

Most importantly, each camper spends time during camp experiencing nature up close. There is no better way to appreciate the great outdoors, than to surround oneself with the phenomena of our living world. On a multi-day backpacking trip, campers view incredible vistas, drink in the warmth of sun on their faces, and encounter the thirty-degree temperature swings common in the Rockies in July. We often see our younger campers playing with rocks, sticks, and dirt, and building forts using fallen branches. 

Illanot Campers looking at Ponderosa pine tree
Ponderosa pine trees smell like butterscotch!

An activity I love to lead is part of our morning t’fillah, where we take ten minutes for campers to stop, explore a single tree, and its surrounding area. I ask the campers to hug, smell, and stare at the tree. I ask them to reach down to the ground and grab a handful of dirt, smelling, feeling, and sometimes even tasting it. We do this as part of our morning prayers, because it helps raise our awareness of just how alive the world around us is, and how magnificent and complicated nature can be. We do this as part of our t’fillot because, as a Jewish educator, I believe our Torah has a role in answering many of the issues facing our people and society.

I see Ramah in the Rockies serving as a lab for young people to develop a Jewish love and appreciation for the natural world around us, creating a society living in concert with nature and helping it continue sustaining human life for the next ten thousand years – answering an acute challenge of our time. Having our campers and staff translate their summer experiences into lifetime engagements with others working to protect, grow, and sustain our living world, that is our goal.

-Rabbi Eliav

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