B'Shallach: ... and That is Why We Celebrate the Trees...

It doesn't really have a clear beginning and an end. It's strange, I know, but it's done that way on purpose. Everything is part of a cycle - the year, the Torah,

life-long learning - all things go around and around, and thus our Jewish tradition intentionally likes to leave us with no obvious and definitive beginnings. Like this blog post, for example. Did it feel like you just jumped into the middle of a conversation? Good. :-) The Torah itself sets this tone, when the very first verse of Genesis states: "When God began creating..." as if something else preceded it. At the end of Deuteronomy, the Israelites are standing at the border of the Promised Land, about to enter and begin a new story. Hardly a final resolution for the end of the Torah. This week, we are celebrating a "minor" Jewish holiday that really emphasizes the cyclical nature of, well, EVERYTHING in a very crucial way.

Every year, it strikes me as a bit funny that we celebrate the festival of Tu Bishvat in January, in the dead of winter. This is the New Year for trees, plants, fruits, and basically for nature. We sing about how everything grows so beautifully...

while looking out at a barren, frozen, desolate tundra. Sure, we're singing in solidarity with the land of Israel (where it's still pretty cold too, by the way...), but it still feels odd and misplaced. Like, if we waited two more months, we'd belt out "Ha-Sh'keidiyah Porachat" (about a blooming almond tree...) with a lot more fervor! But then I always come back to the notion of "absence makes the heart grow fonder." We sure do miss the trees and leaves right now, don't we?? With so much of winter still ahead of us, we long for spring and the regrowth of nature, so our singing and yearning takes on another level of intention. To me, this also relates to how Tu Bishvat has become a central holiday for the environmental movement.

We take our planet for granted. I can give you countless proof-texts, but I sincerely hope I don't have to. Just google "trash island" if you want to see one horrific example... The point is, opportunities to express our gratitude to our planet, and recommit ourselves to caring for it, are *vitally* important.

The Torah constantly nudges us to value the earth, yet sometimes uses subtle techniques for doing so. You see, the ground/land/earth partners with God time and again, either to reward or punish us. We don't always think of nature as a character in our Bibilical stories, but it's ever-present. This Shabbat, we are chanting "The Song of the Sea," after the Israelites escaped through the Sea of Reeds on dry land... and the water crashed back down and drowned the pursuing Egyptian army. Moses then led the Israelites in singing this song, which indeed praises God, but also refers to all manner of natural phenomena - water, wind, rocks, and fire - that team up with God on our behalf. Noticing the role of nature in *this* story might also make us pause and discover its pivotal role elsewhere too. Suddenly, we see that just prior to our Torah portion, the Ten Plagues turned natural phenomena into instruments of terror against our enemies. And right *after* the Song of the Sea, the Israelites head into the desert, and there God will turn bitter water into potable drink and the morning dew into life-sustaining manna.

We sometimes miss this message. We talk about God and Moses and Pharaoh and the miracles... but we miss the role of our earth. In the Torah, it looks like fantastical fables and pure science-fiction. But the message is dead-serious. Can we really dispute the claim that if we take care of the earth, it rewards us with

bounty... and when we abuse it, it turns barren and fruitless? The text tells a riveting story, but let's not ignore the vital underlying lesson - the central principle of the holiday of Tu Bishvat: Be good stewards of the planet. Stop abusing it. Time is running out, and we simply cannot afford to ignore the warning signs. Are there costs involved with becoming more environmentally conscious and reducing our carbon footprint? Sure, of course there are. But do you think it's cheaper to maintain the status quo?? Aren't we *actually* paying, one way or the other? We humans sometimes have the absolute audacity - the chutzpah - to think we're outside (or above...) the natural order. Well, guess what? We are part of all these cycles. We are not the be-all-end-all of creation; it existed before us and will continue after us. Everything goes in a circle, without a beginning or an end. But while we're here, we need to do our utmost to take care of that which has been entrusted to us. We haven't got much time. Soon another chapter will begin, and...


Images in this blog post:
1. CC image courtesy of kmicican on Pixabay
2. CC image courtesy of Andrea Pokrzywinski on Flickr
3. CC image courtesy of amboo who? on Flickr
4. CC image courtesy of Rkantckd on Wikimedia Commons