3.2.5 - Stewardship
Stewardship gives human beings power within creation, but also makes that power answerable to God. Genesis, bal tashchit and tza'ar ba'alei chayim frame Jewish responsibilities towards land, resources and animals. Modern knowledge of pollution, consumption and climate change raises the possibility that inherited teachings demand stricter practices than earlier communities could have imagined.
Stewardship As Accountable Use
In this AQA point, stewardship means responsible care of the created world under God's authority. It is not the same as saying that human beings own the world absolutely. A steward is entrusted with something and is answerable for how it is used.
Stewardship
Stewardship is the religious idea that human beings have a responsibility to care for and use the created world responsibly, because it ultimately belongs to God.
For Judaism, stewardship begins from creation belief. If God is creator, the natural world is not merely raw material for human convenience. Psalm 24:1 is a useful source anchor because it presents the earth and its inhabitants as belonging to God. Human beings may use the world, but their use is morally limited by the fact that it is God's world.
That produces an important balance:
| Claim | Meaning for stewardship | Possible mistake to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| The world is created by God. | Nature has value because it belongs within God's ordered creation. | Treating the environment as sacred in itself in a way that ignores Jewish monotheism. |
| Human beings have a distinctive role. | Humans can cultivate, use and govern parts of creation. | Turning human authority into unlimited exploitation. |
| Human beings are accountable. | Use of animals, land, water and resources must be judged morally. | Thinking stewardship means never using nature at all. |
| Mitzvot shape moral life. | Care for creation is not only personal preference; it can be framed as obedience to God. | Reducing Judaism to modern environmental opinion without source support. |
The AO1 point is that Jewish stewardship is a role of responsible use, not total ownership. The AO2 issue follows straight away: is this strong enough to protect the environment, or is it too human-centred because it still gives humans the central role? A balanced answer can say that stewardship is human-centred, but not selfish, because humans are accountable to God for how they exercise that role.
Creation Sources And Human Role
Two Genesis source anchors help explain why Jewish attitudes to the environment contain both authority and restraint.
| Source anchor | AO1 meaning | Stewardship significance |
|---|---|---|
| Genesis 1:26-28 | Humans are described as made in God's image and given a role of rule over other living things. | Human beings are not just one creature among others; they have responsibility and agency. |
| Genesis 2:15 | The human is placed in Eden "to till it and tend it." | Human work in the world should include cultivation and protection, not careless exploitation. |
These sources are not best read as simple opposites. Genesis 1 can sound like authority; Genesis 2 can sound like service and guardianship. Together they give a more careful Jewish account: humans may act in the world, but their action should be ordered towards care.
This matters because AQA asks for Jewish attitudes to animals and the environment, not only a dictionary definition of stewardship. A student needs to show how a source becomes an attitude:
| Source idea | Attitude it can support |
|---|---|
| Humans are made in God's image. | Human power should reflect moral responsibility, not arbitrary force. |
| The world belongs to God. | Waste and environmental damage can be treated as misuse of what is entrusted by God. |
| The garden is to be tended. | Human interaction with land can be productive and protective at the same time. |
| Torah gives commands about created things. | Environmental and animal responsibilities can be expressed through mitzvot. |
The evaluative tension is useful. A critic might argue that the language of rule in Genesis has encouraged human superiority over nature. A Jewish response can argue that the same scriptural world also limits human power through divine ownership, commandment and accountability. The stronger judgement is therefore not "Judaism is simply environmentalist" or "Judaism permits domination", but that Jewish sources hold human authority and responsibility together.
Bal Tashchit And The Environment
The most important Jewish teaching for environmental restraint is bal tashchit, usually explained as "do not destroy" or "do not waste." The Torah source is Deuteronomy 20:19-20, where Israel is commanded not to destroy fruit trees during a siege when those trees can provide food.
Bal tashchit
Bal tashchit is the Jewish principle against wasteful or needless destruction, classically rooted in Deuteronomy's prohibition on destroying fruit trees in wartime and expanded in later Jewish legal interpretation.
Maimonides gives the principle a wider legal shape in Mishneh Torah, Kings and Wars 6:10. He extends the prohibition beyond fruit trees to destructive waste of useful things such as utensils, clothing, buildings, springs and food, when done with destructive intent. This is important because it shows how a narrow Torah case can become a broader ethical rule.
| Stage | What changes | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Torah case | Do not destroy fruit trees in siege warfare. | Even war does not make all destruction morally acceptable. |
| Rabbinic/halakhic reasoning | The fruit-tree law is treated as a wider warning against needless destruction. | Environmental restraint becomes part of ordinary moral life, not only wartime law. |
| Maimonides' formulation | Waste of useful objects and resources can violate the command. | Stewardship applies to daily consumption, food, water and property. |
| Contemporary application | Food waste, energy use, pollution and overconsumption are considered through this older principle. | Changing knowledge of environmental damage expands the practical questions Jews ask. |
Bal tashchit is powerful because it gives environmental responsibility a source-based structure. It is not merely "be green because that is fashionable"; it is a way of reasoning from Torah and halakhah about what counts as destructive use.
It also has limits. Bal tashchit does not automatically forbid every use of natural resources. If destruction has a legitimate purpose, or if preservation would cause greater harm, Jewish legal discussions may treat the case differently. That limitation creates a good AO2 judgement: bal tashchit is a strong Jewish foundation for environmental care, but it needs interpretation when applied to modern problems such as fossil fuels, plastic waste or climate policy.
Bal tashchit turns stewardship from a general attitude into a source-based principle: humans may use resources, but wasteful destruction needs moral justification.
Animals And Compassion
AQA explicitly includes Jewish attitudes to animals as well as the environment. Jewish sources do not usually present animals as equal to humans, but they do place moral limits on how animals may be treated.
Useful source anchors include:
| Source | Attitude to animals |
|---|---|
| Exodus 20:10 | Sabbath rest includes cattle, so animals are not treated only as machines for human work. |
| Deuteronomy 25:4 | An ox should not be muzzled while threshing, so a working animal's needs matter. |
| Deuteronomy 22:6-7 | The mother bird command limits how humans take from animal life. |
| Rabbinic discussion of tza'ar ba'alei chayim | Causing unnecessary suffering to living creatures is treated as a serious moral and legal concern. |
Tza'ar ba'alei chayim
Tza'ar ba'alei chayim means the suffering of living creatures. In Jewish ethics it names the concern to avoid or relieve unnecessary animal suffering.
This gives a distinctive Jewish attitude. Animals can be used by humans, but not with cruelty or indifference. That means Jewish stewardship is not only about forests, water and climate; it also concerns the way human beings treat living creatures within creation.
A careful answer should avoid two exaggerations:
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