Tevi Troy on the Politics of Tu B'Shvat

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2017

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Until recently, Tu B’Shvat—the Jewish “new year” for trees—was a minor observance on the Jewish calendar. It isn’t mentioned in the Bible, and the Talmud has little to say about how to observe the day. So why is it that, across the modern denominations, Tu B’Shvat has grown into a festival of larger significance? How did what Rabbi Irving Greenberg once called a “minor semi-festival” become an environmentalist blockbuster?

In this podcast, policy expert and presidential historian Tevi Troy joins Tikvah’s Jonathan Silver to discuss the history of Tu B’Shvat and its growing association with left-wing environmentalism. Using Troy’s 2015 Commentary essay, “I Think That I Shall Never See a Jew as Lovely as a Tree,” to guide their conversation, Troy and Silver discuss the history of the day and its politicization, opening up onto a larger discussion of the dangers of preaching politics from the pulpit and the proper Jewish attitude toward the conservation of nature.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble, as well as Ich Grolle Nicht, by Ron Meixsell and Wahneta Meixsell.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the Tikva podcast and great Jewish essays and ideas.
0:12.0	I'm your host, Jonathan Silver.
0:14.0	If you like listening to our podcast, I invite you to subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.
0:19.0	And I hope you'll also leave us a rating and a review. If you want to learn more about our work at Tikva, you can visit our website, tikvafund.org. Follow us on Twitter at TikvaFund or like us on Facebook. My guest today is Tevi Troy, the president of the American Health Policy Institute. It's got a very distinguished career in American government. In the Bush
0:37.8	administration, Tevi served in the White House running the Domestic Policy Council, and then was
0:42.5	confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human
0:46.8	Services. Beyond his work in health care and public policy, Tevi is a presidential historian.
0:51.8	His most recent book, I think his third, is a study of how American
0:54.8	presidents have responded to disasters, public health crises, terror and cyber attacks, natural
1:00.9	disasters, civil breakdown. He's with us today to talk about an essay he wrote back in 2015,
1:06.4	about the holiday, To Bishvat. I think that I shall never see a Jew as lovely as a tree was published in commentary,
1:12.6	and it traces the evolution of what Rabbi Irving Greenberg called a minor semi-festival
1:18.6	to what it is today, a veritable monument to environmental activism.
1:22.6	Tevi, it's an honor to welcome you to the Tikva podcast.
1:26.6	Why don't you orient us to the roots of the holiday?
1:29.7	Where does it come from? What was its original meaning and purpose?
1:33.7	Well, thanks, John, for having me. And I just want to say at the outset that I'm not only happy to be on the podcast, but I'm a subscriber.
1:39.2	So one of those people who you recommend listens up via Stitcher. And so thank you for that.
1:44.4	I was interested in Tubeshvat because it always bothers me when you see politics from the beamer.
1:51.1	I just don't like it.
1:52.3	I'd never like it.
1:53.1	Growing up as a kid in Queens, there was a sense that the rabbis would get, and this is an old joke,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tikvah, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Tikvah and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.