Books are made
of paper which, of course, comes from trees. Today, a very special
festival, celebrated by all sectors of the Israeli public, is the New Year of
trees (Tu Bishvat). David Gefen writes in this weekend’s Jerusalem Post: “Tu
Bishvat has a beauty of its own – a time when we continue to ensure that our
land will grow and develop through afforestation.” To commemorate the 70th
year of the State of Israel the Jewish
National Fund published a call to all Israeli citizens: “Whether we are from
the right or the left, religious or secular, new immigrants or veteran
citizens, let’s all give back to Mother Earth. This year we celebrate Tu B’Shvat
as a symbol of unity.”
As I write these words - from kindergartens to Senior Residence Homes, trees
and other green plants are being planted all over Israel. There are also Tu B’Shvat
events being celebrated in every part of the country.
It is written in the Bible “When you come into the land you shall
plant….” [Leviticus 19:23]. The Holy One said to Israel, “Even though you will
find the land full of goodness, don’t say, ‘We will sit and not plant.’ Rather
be careful to plant trees. Just as you found trees which others had planted, so
you should plant for your children.” It is also written “When you besiege a
city many days to bring it into your power by making war against it, you shall
not destroy the trees ….[Deut. 20:19-20].
There are countless parables written in the great Jewish opus, the Talmud,
on the subject of nature in general and trees in particular. The great medieval
scholar Rabbi ben Maimonides wrote: “In order to serve God, one needs access to
the enjoyment of the beauties of nature….For all these are essential to the
spiritual development of even the holiest of people.”
It is only when we returned to Israel that it was possible to celebrate
the Festival in a practical way. The following is a description of a Tu Bishvat
witnessed in 1884 in a settlement in the Hula Valley by a resident of
Pittsburgh R. Avraham Silverstone: “ Last week, we planted a grove of 1,500
trees….And we shall plant with God’s will other types of trees. For aside from
large profits from the fruits, which with God’s help we will be successful, we
shall also need good health. For humans are one with the trees of the fields
and without them, we do not have a good life.”
When Theodor Herzl made his first and only visit to Israel in 1898,
his entourage stopped at a small community, called Motza. When Herzl looked out
at the land of Judea and saw all the lights reflected upon its hills, he knew
that he had to plant a tree there, so he climbed the hill and planted a young
cypress. A few years later, it stood tall and stately symbolizing to those
settlers the Jewish People’s return to Zion.
Even people who don’t live in Israel are
encouraged to pay for planting a tree for which they get a certificate in their
name, stating the place in which it is planted. Today, Israel has a multitude of forests to ensure
that the country is, and will always be, green. As far as I know, Israel is the
only country in the world which ends the calendar year with more trees than that
which it started.
“I think that I shall never see,
A poem lovely as a tree…….
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.”
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