{"id":48996,"date":"2019-02-09T23:13:49","date_gmt":"2019-02-09T21:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=48996"},"modified":"2022-09-04T16:17:43","modified_gmt":"2022-09-04T13:17:43","slug":"cities-ancient-and-modern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/cities-ancient-and-modern\/","title":{"rendered":"Cities, Ancient And Modern"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[360],"acf":{"old_id":"48996","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34011,"related_cahpter":"152","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Some urban planning wisdom from an unlikely source","content":"

If there\u2019s one social-environmental issue that seems uniquely modern it is the phenomenal growth of urbanization. As recently as 1900 the global urban population was only 10% (160 million), with 27 urban centers of over a million. Now, more than half the world\u2019s population– over 3.5 billion– live in cities, with at least 240 megalopolises.<\/span><\/p>\n

But even though our situation is wildly different from antiquity, our ancestors asked the same questions about urban planning and design.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the division of the Land of Israel among the tribes, one tribe remained essentially landless, relegated to urban areas: the tribe of Levi. Our chapter requires setting aside no less than 48 Levitical cities, and includes instructions for their layout, making it a significant prooftext for Biblical views on urban and regional planning.<\/span><\/p>\n

The cardinal charge is to leave a sizable <\/span>migrash<\/span><\/em> around the built area of the city. <\/span>Migrash<\/span><\/em> is variously translated as pasturage, or unenclosed land. Rashi explains this to be \u201can empty open space for the beautification of the city\u2026\u201d — a \u2018green lung\u2019 for the city and its inhabitants. Open space becomes a constituent element of urban form.<\/span><\/p>\n

A key component of this plan is the prohibition of rezoning. Maimonides, based on the Talmud (Arachin 33b), rules that it is forbidden to build in these open spaces, to expand the city at the expense of pastureland or fields. Moreover, he states categorically that Levitical cities are not a special case: this applies equally to all other cities in Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, founder of modern Orthodoxy, regarding this urban inheritance, invokes Lev. 25:34 (“a possession unto them forever”) and formulates a central environmental tenet of inter-generational responsibility: \u201cPrecisely because it [the city with its open spaces] has been given to them for all the generations, no generation is permitted to change it as it sees fit. The present generation is not the sole ruler over it, but the future generations are equal in their rights, and each is required to bequeath it to future generations in the same state in which they received it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hirsch explained the rationale: \u201cThese laws are designed to maintain an urban population with a connection to agriculture\u2026 [They] served to prevent cities from growing into metropolises cut off from the fields [from their agrarian roots].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This approach expands one\u2019s personal and collective sense of home, and therefore responsibility, far beyond the usual city limits. Ironically, the contemporary suburban model which has come to dominate the countryside is practically a privatized parody of the Levitical locale: a house with a lawn instead of a town and its surrounding commons. Rather than sustainable urban planning, this leads to sprawl, and alienation from each other and our environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wise planning should re-embed the urban in the rural and the natural, with open spaces, green corridors, and a healthy agricultural sector thus strengthening communal ties, and preserving the world for ourselves, each other and future generations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Udi Steinwell Pikiwiki Israel; commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=24641093<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":48997,"id":48997,"title":"N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel","filename":"N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/cities-ancient-and-modern\/n%d7%95%d7%a635-pikiwiki_israel\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"n%d7%95%d7%a635-pikiwiki_israel","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":48996,"date":"2019-02-09 21:11:32","modified":"2019-02-09 21:13:46","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1024,"height":685,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel-300x201.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":201,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel-768x514.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":514,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel-1024x685.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":685,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel.jpg","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":685,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel.jpg","2048x2048-width":1024,"2048x2048-height":685,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel.jpg","post_full_size-width":1024,"post_full_size-height":685,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel-628x420.jpg","home_baner-width":628,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Cities, Ancient and Modern","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Some urban planning wisdom from an unlikely source","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":48997,"id":48997,"title":"N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel","filename":"N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/cities-ancient-and-modern\/n%d7%95%d7%a635-pikiwiki_israel\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"n%d7%95%d7%a635-pikiwiki_israel","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":48996,"date":"2019-02-09 21:11:32","modified":"2019-02-09 21:13:46","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1024,"height":685,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel-300x201.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":201,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel-768x514.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":514,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel-1024x685.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":685,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel.jpg","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":685,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel.jpg","2048x2048-width":1024,"2048x2048-height":685,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel.jpg","post_full_size-width":1024,"post_full_size-height":685,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/N\u05d5\u05e635-PikiWiki_Israel-628x420.jpg","home_baner-width":628,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48996"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107709,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48996\/revisions\/107709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}