Recycling – Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
Shemini Azteret – Yizkor 
September 28th, 2002

 

Early in my Rabbinical career I was asked a question which had never been discussed in class.

What do you do with the yahrzeit glass when it burns out?

It had a parallel question in:

What do you do with the glass of the shiva candle when it goes out?

I guess that in earlier times we just "threw it in the garbage." We were much less conscious about the environment. Yet I think that there is something much deeper involved. Earlier yahrzeit glasses were perfect to double as juice glasses, and for many years I never bought any. Now they make them out of metal and can't use them. The answer to both questions is what I do every other Monday in my neighborhood:

Put it out for recycling.

Yet I can use this word in a much grander and deeper way. It is more than just about metal, glass, paper and plastics.It's about memory and life itself.

I.

Recycling in Judaism

[This comes from a Jewish website.www.nishmas.org.il/minhagim/sukkah.htm]

1. I would like to offer some source material that could shed light on the subject of disposal of Yarhzeit glasses. TheGemara (Berachot 39b) discusses the law of Eiruv Chazterot, a rabbinic ordinance that enables neighbors in an apartment building or a common courtyard to carry on Shabbat from one private dwelling to another through the public domain. By way of setting aside a portion of bread on behalf of all the neighbors, and making a specific declaration and blessing, they are joined in common ownership and permitted to carry. The Gemara then asks: What is to be done with the bread? It answers, Ho-eal v'eetavead bay mitzvah, n'avead bay mitzvah achreatee (Since one mitzvah was done with it, we should use it for another mitzvah). Namely, as one of the challot at the Shabbat meal.

An interesting lesson is to be learned here: once an object has been used for a mitzvah it acquires a patent holiness, a cholos kedushah that is proper to continue to draw upon.

2a. For example, the lulav (willows and myrtles that are waved on Sukkot) are put away and later used for fueling the fire that burns the chametz (leavened products) on Erev Pesach.

2b. The etrog from Sukkot is poked full of cloves and used to make a fragrant pomander for the Havdalah service at the conclusion of Shabbat.

2c. The old worn tzitzit fringes, when replaced, are used as bookmarks in chumashim, etc.

2d. Olive oil from the Land of Israel is hung in the Sukkah as a representative of one of the seven species of the land. It is then saved to use for lighting the Chanukah lights.

2e. In addition, a small amount is squeezed out of the wicks, and is eaten six weeks later on Tu B'Shevat.

2f . A tallit is used for the chuppah at a Jewish wedding and then becomes the prayer shawl for the husband.

2g. Sometimes a portion of the wine over which the blessings are said during the marriage ceremony is saved and used for the cup of blessing at the brit milah ceremony of that same couple's son.

2h. At a wedding the groom wears a kittel, a simple white robe, which becomes the tachrichim, the shrouds, when dies.

Here are three more examples, one from a primary source, the second a minhag, and the third a minhag that results from a halakhah.

2i. In the Mishnah (Tractate Sukkoth 5:3) there is a description of Simchat Beit Hashoeva, a celebration in which tallmenorot (candelabras) were lit that illuminated every courtyard in Jerusalem so much so that a woman would have been able to see well enough by the light to sort her wheat grains. The wicks for these flames were made from the worn out garments of the cohanim (priests who served in the Temple in Jerusalem).

2j. In several books from Hungarian Rebbes, it is learned that there is a minhag (custom) of using the leftover challah to make a kugel for the following Shabbat.

2k. The cup of blessing that was used at the third Shabbat meal for Birchat HaMazon is may not be drunk until afterHavdalah. That cup of wine, therefore, becomes the cup over which Havdalah is made.

3. Perhaps the most famous example of recycling is the account of the "Great Act" of Rav Chiya, recounted in theGemara (Baba Metziah 85b). The Gemara bemoans the problem of Torah being forgotten from the world. How did Rav Chiya respond? He planted flax, harvested it, and fashioned from it ropes. He wove the ropes into nets to use for trapping deer. He slaughtered the deer, giving the meat to poor orphans, and tanned the hides to make parchment. He made scrolls from the parchment and wrote on them the five books of the Bible, one on each of five scrolls, as well as one order of Mishnah on each of six scrolls. He went to a place where no one was teaching Torah and taught each of five children one of the five books of the Bible, and each of six children one of the six orders of the Mishnah. When the children had all become expert in their sections, they taught one another until they were all expert in the entire Chumash and Mishnah. These children then went on to become teachers of others, and so on. In this way, Torah was not forgotten from Yisrael.

II.

Recycling of Mitzvot  

Why did Rav Chiya do this? Each step of the process, which he carried out according to the mitzvot associated with it,infused his act with an ever-increasing degree of holiness. Planting and harvesting entail their own mitzvot, as well as that of giving gifts to the poor, including peah. The slaughter of the deer was accomplished through ritual slaughter, using a proper knife, after which the meat was soaked and salted properly. The scrolls of the Torah must be written in accordance with complex laws. With the cumulative kedushah (holiness) invested in the scrolls from all of the mitzvot(commandments) that led up to their creation, he created a mitzvah momentum that carried over into the actual learning and insured the project's success.

In Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers 4:2) Ben Azzai counsels us to adhere to a simple mitzvah just as we would to a more serious one, since we do not know the reward of a mitzvah. And furthermore, "Mitzvah goreret mitzvah... ve-s'char mitzvah mitzvah..." (One mitzvah leads to the performance of another, and the reward of a mitzvah is the award of the privilege of performing another mitzvah).

I would interpret Ben Azzai's teaching in the sense of the recycling of mitzvot. Life is a cycle. Our deeds are cycles. There is the well-known phrase "What goes around comes around." The Psalmist makes it clear that there is a connection between what we reap and that which we sow.

Conclusion

Today we recite Yizkor. In doing so we bring back to the fore the memories of our family and friends. In a sense, we recycle these memories. Their lives were filled with mitzvot and thus with inherent holiness. Like the bread from Eiruv Chazterot, these lives were filled with cholot kedushah, a patent holiness, which it is proper and even necessary to draw upon. The mitzvah of their lives is our existence. We are the reward for the existence of their lives. And if we merit it, the mitzvah of our lives will be the existence of our children. Like Rav Chiya, the purpose of our remembering our parents and loved ones, and the martyrs of Israel is to ever increase our own quotient of holiness, of goodness and Godliness. Our purpose is to be part of an unending chain of mitzvot, goodness, and life.

What do we do with the glass from the candles of shiva and yahrzeit? We return it to the cycle of existence by recycling, just like the memories that we hold precious today.

May the memories of our loved ones be for a blessing. May the memories of us to be held by the generation to come be a blessing, too.

Amen.