Trees occupy a special place in Jewish thought and practice. In the beginning, God places the Tree of Knowledge
in the center of the Garden of Eden. The
book of Proverbs famously describes Torah as a Tree of Life and the Midrash
teaches that, indeed, “the life of humanity is from the tree.” The Kabbalists employ the tree as a metaphor
for the diverse aspects of both the human psyche and the Divine nature. It is no wonder, then, our tradition
celebrates the New Year of the Trees every Tu B’Shevat.
This week’s Torah portion, Vayera, begins: “God
appeared to Abraham beneath the great oaks of Mamre.” We should not be surprised that the Holy One
becomes manifest in a grove of tall trees—one need only look up from the base
of a redwood, sequoia, or even an old growth Idaho ponderosa pine to feel the
awe that these ancient, majestic and holy creatures inspire in the human heart
and soul.
What’s even more amazing is that humans and trees dearly
need one another. We inhale oxygen and
exhale carbon dioxide; trees do just the opposite. As Rabbi Arthur Waskow notes:
“We breathe in what the trees breathe out; the
trees breathe in what we breathe out: we
breathe each other into life.” Waskow adds: God’s most sacred name, YHVH,
is, in its essence, the sound of breathing.
Abraham’s encounter with the Holy One beneath the oaks of Mamre is
renewed each and every moment of each and every day, in the Interbreathing of Life
that spells out the Divine Name in the miraculous, loving exchange between
lungs and leaves.
Today, when
climate change poses an existential threat to life as we know it, perhaps no
act is holier than planting a tree. It
embodies hope for the future—and creates the breath that might yet sustain us
through it.
May we, too, find
God in and amongst the trees.
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