DEUT1022 (Continued from [[DEUT1005]] Deuteronomy 20:19 destroy SACTAB 163-5). Biblical Origins of Bal Tashchit. [Deuteronomy 20:19-20]. Chapter 20 of the Book of Deuteronomy contains the biblical origins for the Rabbinic category of bal tashchit. It should be noted that Deuteronomy uses the term lo tashchit (do not destroy), while the Rabbinic texts use the synonymous term bal tashchit. Verses 19-20 prohibit cutting down the fruit trees that surround a besieged city during a time of war, while allowing non-fruit-bearing trees to be cut down and made into instruments of war. The Israelites were allowed to eat the fruit, but they were not permitted to cut them down in order to gain an advantage during combat. Deuteronomy 20 creates a distinction between trees that produce true and trees that do not. According to the medieval biblical commentator Abraham Ibn Ezra from eleventh century Spain, the former is a source of life and the latter is not. For him, there is an implicit relationship between fruit trees and human beings, the fate of one being bound to the fate of the other. Stressing the sacred relationship between fruit trees and human beings, Ibn Ezra writes that the trees of the field are not to be cut down because “the life of man depends on the trees of the field.” Ibn Ezra’s comment implies that the fate of human beings is intimately linked to that of the trees of the field. If humans cut down the fruit trees while besieging a city, then they would essentially be abusing themselves as the beneficiary of the fruit from those trees. Fruit trees are vital to human beings’ existence in times of peace and, all the more so, in times of war. Inherent in Deuteronomy 20:19-20 is the notion that human beings must treat the environment with special care all the time. The implication is that the destruction of trees leads to the loss of food sources and, therefore, the loss of human life that is dependent on this sustenance.
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