Tasting Trees

Our lives on this beautiful planet depend on trees foroxygen, food, medicine, shelter, climate stability, habitat for wildlife andbeauty.  According to scientificresearch, planting billions of trees around the world could remove two-thirdsof all harmful emissions caused by human activity. A global tree-plantingprogram would be one of the most inexpensive and impactful ways to absorbcarbon dioxide emissions and tackle the climate crisis.

The Rabbis of the Mishna (edited in 200CE) certainly did nothave the climate crisis in mind when they established Tu Bishvat as a New Yearfor the Trees.  But they built into theJewish calendar a formal way to mark a mindful human relationship with trees,rooted (literally) in sustainability, gratitude, human self-restraint andresponsibility. The Torah prohibits eating the fruit of a tree for the firstthree years of a tree’s life.  In thefourth year, the fruit was given as a gratitude offering to the priests in theTemple and in the fifth year, the farmers could enjoy the fruit.  The Rabbis of the Mishna established the 15^th(T”U) of the month of Shvat as the birthday of all trees for the sake ofmarking these stages, and for the sake of ensuring that the trees could mature sustainablyand that human consumption was framed by gratitude and generosity.

In the 16th century, the Kabbalists in Tzfat layeredspiritual meaning onto Tu B’Shvat by creating a Seder that explored the fourworlds or layers of reality – 1) the physical, 2) emotional, 3) mental/consciousness and 4) spiritual realms. The Seder ritual they created carries its participants from the surfaceof things to their innermost essence, elevating and bringing healing to each realm.  When they created this celebration, I don’tthink the Kabbalists had environmental concerns in mind either, but they sawtrees as ideal teachers to sensitize and awaken us to the work of creatingbalance, harmony and repair in all four realms, out in the world and in thelayered reality within each of us.  Justimagine what our world would be like if as much attention was given to thedevelopment of compassionate awareness and spiritual potential as we give tothe development of physical resources and commodities!  

For the Kabbalists, the trees all around us are echoes ofthe Tree of Life itself – the cosmic tree with its roots in heaven, its trunkchanneling the flow of Divine Life into the world, and its branches and fruitcontaining the potential of all that exists. Just like at the Pesach Seder, at the Tu Bishvat Seder we don’t justtalk about these ideas.  We bite intothem!  With different nuts and fruitsassigned to each of these four realms, we taste the trees.  We internalize the gifts of trees and absorbthem into our bodies.  We savour theessence of the Tree of Life, the Divine spark, hidden in the shells and peelsand set free through our intentional, sacred eating.  With the sap beginning to rise in the treesin Israel, this is a month of awakening from sleep into activated potential.  Trees have tremendous healing potential.  What opportunities will you take this monthto be nourished by the trees, to celebrate them, honour them and become theirguardians? 

Here are some suggestions:

            *Hug atree.  If you’ve never done it, it mightfeel silly at first.  Try it anyway.  Find a big, old tree and wrap your armsaround it.  Remember that you inhale whatthe tree exhales and you exhale what the tree breathes in.  Spend some time breathing together.

            *Planttrees.  Support reforestation efforts faraway and in your own backyard.

            *Gather a group of friends for a Tu Bishvat Seder on the evening of Sunday February 9^th.  Use resources from Hazon: A Jewish Lab for Sustainabillity – hazon.org

            *Support Shoresh: Jewish Roots, Canadian Soil by joining me at Taking Root: Planting for the Future on Wed. Feb. 12^th