Meaningful Moadim
  • Welcome to Meaningful Moadim
    • Index 2
    • Tu BiShevat - The New Year of the Trees >
      • Bearing Fruit
      • Lesson of the Trees
      • Pri Eitz Hadar
      • Tu BeShevat – A Day of Perceptible Belief
    • Mishenichnas Adar Marbim BeSimcha >
      • A Purim Thought
      • Mazal Adar Dagim - The Month of Adar is Symbolized by Fish
      • More on Mazel Adar Dagim
      • The First of "the Four Parshiyos" - Parshas Shekalim
      • The Month of Adar and Purim >
        • Holiday of Unity?
      • Why Megillas ESTHER?
      • Purim and Prayer >
        • Prayer in the Megillah
      • The Most Unhappiest Queen of them all
      • Purim and Charity
      • Making Purim Last Throughout the Year
      • Story: The Purim of Saragosa
      • KISLEV - Great Expectations >
        • What is Chanukah? >
          • The Name of the Holiday >
            • Chanukah: Renewal
            • Why is Shehechiyanu recited only on the first night of Chanukah?
            • Biblical Allusions
            • Another explanation of the name Chanukah
            • Ve-Al Hnissim, not Al Hanissim
            • Mai Chanukah?
            • Bais Shamai and Bais Hillel (2)
            • Mazal Kislev Keshes
            • Why didn't the Kohanim themselves defile the oil if everyone was tamei, ritually impure due to the war? >
              • Chanukah Always has a Shabbos >
                • Chanukah Always Falls our Around parshas Mikeitz
              • Tu B'shvat and Shabbos Shira
      • We blow the Shofar Throughout the Month of Elul
      • Shofar Throughout the Month of Elul
      • Reconnecting with our Father in Heaven
      • Month of Teves: Catastrophic Events
    • Chanukah: The Festival of Lights >
      • TAKING A MOMENT OUT FOR A CHANUKAH THOUGHT >
        • TAKING A MOMENT OUT FOR A CHANUKAH THOUGHT
      • Are we celebrating the victory over the Greeks or the Miracle of the Oil? >
        • Miracle Oil?
        • The Jewish People Are Above Nature
        • The Light of the Jewish Soul Glows on Chanukah
        • Chanukah: A Winter Festival
        • Chanukah: A War of Conflicting Philosophies >
          • Alexander The Great and The Jewish Sages
          • Uphold Good or Destroy Evil?
          • LeHashkicham Torasecha U’LeHa’aviram MeiChukei Retzonecha
        • Why was a holiday established specifically for the war that led to the Chanukah miracle?
        • U’Leamcha Yisrael Assisa Teshua Gedola U’furkan K’Hayom Hazeh…
      • Give the Gift of LIGHT!
      • Customs, Symbols & Observances >
        • More Reasons for Doughnuts on Chanukah
        • The Letters on the Dreidel
        • More Customs >
          • More About the Dreidel
          • More on Dreidel
          • Chanukah Gelt
          • The Lesson of "Chanukah Gelt"
          • L'Hodos U'LaHallel
        • More Symbolism >
          • Symbolism of Olive Oil
          • The Greeks vs. The Jews
          • The Little Jug that Traveled Through Time
        • The Custom to serve Dairy and Cheese Products on Chanukah
        • Tzedaka - Charity
      • The Shamash >
        • The Secret of the Shamash
      • Putting Away the Menorah?
      • Recommended Reading

The Lesson of the trees

A Tu B'shevat Thought

Tu Bishevat is listed as a Yom Tov; the Rosh Hashanah of the Trees. If this date was significant enough to be enumerated in the Mishna in Mesechta Rosh Hashanah, there must be some deep lesson that we can learn from it to strengthen our Avodas Hashem, Service of G-d.
 
What is the lesson of Tu Bishevat?

The Torah talks about trees “If you besiege a city many days to wage war against it, to capture it, do not harm [any of] its trees by chopping it with an ax, because you eat from it you are not to cut it down; For, is the tree in the field a man to join the besieged to escape you?” The Torah compares man to a fruit-bearing tree. What is it about this kind of tree that man can learn from in the Torah’s comparison of the tree to a man? And what is the specific mitzvah of not cutting down a fruit tree with relation to man?

Rabbi Yaakov Bender shlita (Dean of Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway) writes in Oraysa (Yeshiva Darchei Torah’s Periodic Torah Journal: Teves 5765) quoting Harav Simcha Kook shlita in the name of the Gerrer Rebbe, the Pnei Menachem; we know that Hashem created the world with certain rules. Everything on earth depends on the influence of gravity. Gravity is constantly pulling; keeping everything on the surface of the earth. When one opposes gravity by jumping, he is not firmly on the ground and his control is compromised. The more anchored he is to the ground the greater leverage he has and the more in control he is. A tree is the only thing that goes against the rule of gravity; rather than growing in the direction that gravity is pulling it; downward, a tree grows upwards, away from the ground. The higher it grows, the stronger and firmer it becomes.

Another characteristic of a tree is that its entire existence depends on the moisture it draws from the depths of the earth and brings it up to its highest leaves. Even during the cold winter when it  does not bear fruit and appears dried out and bare, it continues to get nourishment from the earth so that in the future it can bear fruit anew. To sum up: all of creation is drawn downward, while the tree springs upward against the natural pull.

This, Rabbi Bender says is the lesson: Man is like a tree; in that although his base desires are constantly pulling him downward with a powerful force, he has the capacity to resist the pull, to repel the impulse for gashmiyus, his physical attractions, and to raise himself high above the mundane forces that seek to keep him firmly entrenched in earthly lusts and passions. The greater the pull against this gravity, the higher and higher he will go producing luscious fruits and refreshing shade! And just as a tree has its seasons that it is naked and bear with seemingly no hope for the future, similarly man has his times of adversity that seem to offer him no relief. But just as the tree that has its roots firmly planted deep in the ground, constantly drawing nourishment, man too, as long as he is bound to the heritage of his forbearers, and connects to his neshama, soul, which is a part of Hashem Himself, he will yet blossom and produce beautiful fruit.
 
When we sit down to celebrate the New Year of the Trees, let us ponder the lessons the tree provides and raise ourselves to greater heights in spirituality and the service of H-shem.
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  • Welcome to Meaningful Moadim
    • Index 2
    • Tu BiShevat - The New Year of the Trees >
      • Bearing Fruit
      • Lesson of the Trees
      • Pri Eitz Hadar
      • Tu BeShevat – A Day of Perceptible Belief
    • Mishenichnas Adar Marbim BeSimcha >
      • A Purim Thought
      • Mazal Adar Dagim - The Month of Adar is Symbolized by Fish
      • More on Mazel Adar Dagim
      • The First of "the Four Parshiyos" - Parshas Shekalim
      • The Month of Adar and Purim >
        • Holiday of Unity?
      • Why Megillas ESTHER?
      • Purim and Prayer >
        • Prayer in the Megillah
      • The Most Unhappiest Queen of them all
      • Purim and Charity
      • Making Purim Last Throughout the Year
      • Story: The Purim of Saragosa
      • KISLEV - Great Expectations >
        • What is Chanukah? >
          • The Name of the Holiday >
            • Chanukah: Renewal
            • Why is Shehechiyanu recited only on the first night of Chanukah?
            • Biblical Allusions
            • Another explanation of the name Chanukah
            • Ve-Al Hnissim, not Al Hanissim
            • Mai Chanukah?
            • Bais Shamai and Bais Hillel (2)
            • Mazal Kislev Keshes
            • Why didn't the Kohanim themselves defile the oil if everyone was tamei, ritually impure due to the war? >
              • Chanukah Always has a Shabbos >
                • Chanukah Always Falls our Around parshas Mikeitz
              • Tu B'shvat and Shabbos Shira
      • We blow the Shofar Throughout the Month of Elul
      • Shofar Throughout the Month of Elul
      • Reconnecting with our Father in Heaven
      • Month of Teves: Catastrophic Events
    • Chanukah: The Festival of Lights >
      • TAKING A MOMENT OUT FOR A CHANUKAH THOUGHT >
        • TAKING A MOMENT OUT FOR A CHANUKAH THOUGHT
      • Are we celebrating the victory over the Greeks or the Miracle of the Oil? >
        • Miracle Oil?
        • The Jewish People Are Above Nature
        • The Light of the Jewish Soul Glows on Chanukah
        • Chanukah: A Winter Festival
        • Chanukah: A War of Conflicting Philosophies >
          • Alexander The Great and The Jewish Sages
          • Uphold Good or Destroy Evil?
          • LeHashkicham Torasecha U’LeHa’aviram MeiChukei Retzonecha
        • Why was a holiday established specifically for the war that led to the Chanukah miracle?
        • U’Leamcha Yisrael Assisa Teshua Gedola U’furkan K’Hayom Hazeh…
      • Give the Gift of LIGHT!
      • Customs, Symbols & Observances >
        • More Reasons for Doughnuts on Chanukah
        • The Letters on the Dreidel
        • More Customs >
          • More About the Dreidel
          • More on Dreidel
          • Chanukah Gelt
          • The Lesson of "Chanukah Gelt"
          • L'Hodos U'LaHallel
        • More Symbolism >
          • Symbolism of Olive Oil
          • The Greeks vs. The Jews
          • The Little Jug that Traveled Through Time
        • The Custom to serve Dairy and Cheese Products on Chanukah
        • Tzedaka - Charity
      • The Shamash >
        • The Secret of the Shamash
      • Putting Away the Menorah?
      • Recommended Reading