Parshat Beshalach, February 11

Tu BiShvat, the New Year of Trees, is a date that started out in life as a technical demarcation for determining which year a tree’s produce belongs to, for purposes of tithing. Relatively recently in Jewish history, in just the last couple hundred years, in fact, this date came to be associated with another purpose:  a day to plant trees in the land of Israel. Early Zionist settlers would plant trees on this date, and to this day, many people use Tu BiShvat as an occasion to donate money to the Jewish National Fund to support the planting of trees in Eretz Yisrael.

While the association of Tu BiShvat with tree planting is a relatively recent phenomenon, Judaism has a long tradition of valuing and honoring the planting of trees. Vayikra Rabbah contains the following Midrash:

“Rabbi Yochanan ben Shimon began, “‘After the Lord your God shall you walk’ (Deuteronomy 12:5). But is it possible for a man of flesh and blood to walk after the Holy One, blessed be He?!…Rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, from the very beginning of the creation of the world, only occupied Himself with planting first. Hence it is written (Genesis 2:8), ‘And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden.’ You also, when you enter into the land, only occupy yourselves with planting first. Hence it is written, ‘When you shall come to the land.'”

While the idea of imitatio Dei, following God’s ways, shows up in various forms in Judaism, this Midrash chooses to focus on planting trees as the way that we are to imitate God. How strange—it might have focused on acting with compassion or pursuing justice or being holy, but instead this Midrash focuses on the mundane, earthly task of planting trees as the means of imitating God.

What is so special about planting trees? One who plants trees is thinking about the long term. I can plant a tomato and enjoy its fruit in a matter of months. I can plant salad greens and harvest them in just a few weeks, but planting a tree, I may not see any benefit from it for years to come. However, the tree may live to produce fruit for many years and benefit people long after I am gone. While we cannot think on the time scale of God, who is eternal, by thinking and planning for more than just the passing moment, we are doing our best to imitate His focus on the big picture.

Moreover, unlike annual crops which almost always involve plowing and tilling, degrading the quality of the soil and increasing the likelihood of erosion, planting trees stabilizes the top soil, increases soil structure and sequesters carbon, all of which provide long term environmental benefits beyond any fruit that will be produced. Thus by planting trees, we are imitating God who oversees the world, seeing to both the human needs for sustenance while also seeing to the needs of the non-human world (“who covers the heavens with clouds, provides rain for the earth, makes mountains put forth grass; who gives the beasts their food, to the raven’s brood what they cry for.” Psalm 147:8-9).

Let us seek on Tu BiShvat and all year round, to walk in the ways of Hashem by caring for His creation and meeting our present material needs in ways that will continue to enable us and all life to thrive on this planet for the long term.

Rabbi Garth Silberstein