By Rabbi Jay Weinstein
This year, on Shabbat Parshat Beshalach, we celebrated Tu b’Shvat, which the first Mishnah in Masechet Rosh Hashana calls the “New Year for Trees.” While the holiday of Tu b’Shvat might be agricultural in nature, our Rabbis have always connected trees to spiritual growth. One such example is found in Parshat Beshalach where we find a tree playing a critical role.
Surprisingly enough, trouble began just moments after Bnei Yisrael crossed through the Red Sea. They traveled for three days and were unable to find water. They arrived at the city of Marah and when they encountered bitter water (hence the name Marah, which means bitter), they immediately began to complain to Moshe. Hashem responded by showing Moshe a tree, which Moshe threw into the water and miraculously, it sweetened the water thereby enabling Bnei Yisrael to drink. The Medrash explains, “Teach them lessons of the Torah which are compared to a tree.” In other words, throwing the tree into the water was not just a magic trick but rather a process to begin to teach Torah and mitzvot to the people of Israel. As the next pesukim describe, Moshe used this as an opportunity to inspire the people.
This is just one example of many throughout Tanach where we find trees used as a symbol of Torah and spirituality. Every Friday night, in reciting Kaballat Shabbat, we find one specific pasuk from Tehillim which provides an important lesson for us to think about. “The righteous (tzaddik) will flourish like a palm tree and will grow tall like a cedar in Lebanon.” In this pasuk, a righteous person is compared to two types of trees, the palm tree and the cedar tree. What’s the difference between the two? Why in one scenario are we taught that the tzaddik will flourish like a palm tree while in the other scenario the tzaddik will grow tall like a cedar in Lebanon?
The Maggid Mezritcher, Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritch, explains that the two trees are two different types of tzaddikim. The cedar tree bears no fruit and grows tall and therefore represents a person who is interested in his own religious growth but not those around him. This tzaddik still has merit, which is reflected by the term yisgeh, meaning to grow tall. The second type of righteous person is compared to the date of a palm tree. This tree does produce fruit, therefore this tzaddik not only attains spiritual heights for himself but inspires growth in those around him. He has filled the world not only with his personal mitzvot but by the “fruits of his labor.”
This expresses an important Torah value and hits close to home. We must sacrifice to help those around us. It is part of the religious experience to both focus on ourselves and devotes our time, resources, and energy to our friends, neighbors, and fellow Jews. Over the last few months, in the aftermath of the recent attacks in Israel and Hurricane Sandy, we saw our community take this message to heart.
However, there is another way of understanding the pasuk. Amos Chacham (Tehillim, Mosad HaRav Kook) suggests we aren’t talking about two different types of tzaddikim but rather that both trees refer to a single righteous person. The pasuk is teaching us that a tzaddik has qualities similar to BOTH a palm tree and a cedar tree. A palm tree has praiseworthy fruits, while the cedar tree has strong roots. Connecting to the theme developed by the Maggid Mezritcher, if the fruit of the palm tree represents our responsibility to inspire others, then strong roots of the cedar tree represent our responsibility to inspire ourselves and to develop our own religious ambitions. Having strong roots in Torah values is what allows us to produce fruit that influences others.
Let us make sure that we take the message of the trees and apply it in our lives.
Rabbi Jay Weinstein, a native of Miami Beach, Florida, serves as the Rabbi of Young Israel of East Brunswick, New Jersey. He received Semikhah from YU’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, holds a B.A. in accounting from Sy Syms School of Business and a Master’s Degree in special education from Columbia University. He lives in East Brunswick together with his wife Sharon and their three children, Ora, Ayal and Eitan
