New Year for the Trees? Part 2

????????????In the first part of our Tu B'shvat article, we discussed why a person is compared to a tree, and we analyzed the differences between a fruit tree and a vegetable. We identified two differences: vegetables provide more of an immediate gratification, but no long-term gain. Trees, on the other hand, require more patience before one can benefit from it, but the long-term gain is greatly out of proportion with the short-term investment. We then saw that while vegetables are more comparable to animals, human share more in common with trees – a delayed maturity followed by an exponential development.

???????????Thus far we have explained an aspect of why people are compared to trees; and we have started to appreciate why trees have a higher place in our lives than vegetables. It still remains to be discussed: what do we do with this “tree mentality?” True, we can appreciate the general concept of delayed gratification. But what is the Jewish expression of this concept? We find this concept is two main areas: our concern for the future generations, and in our mitzvah performance.

???????????We have already mentioned how raising children is a fulfillment of this idea. Years of investment during early childhood eventually lead to a fruitful and productive adult life. Judaism places a major emphasis on populating the world. The very first commandment is to be “fruitful and multiple” (we can hear an echo of the comparison between man and trees in the word “fruitful!”) In Neviim (the books of the Prophets) we find that G-d says, “I didn’t create the world to be desolate; rather I formed it in order to be populated!”

???????????Some people view babies as being like pets – cute, able to do some tricks (“Oh look, she’s smiling!”) and providing some companionship (who doesn’t love a baby’s hug?) They are a source of gratification for the parent. Babies are cute, that is, until they become children. The Terrible Twos turn into Threes, and Fours… There are PTA meetings, and extra-curricular activities where kids need to be driven back and forth, and paying for clothes which they will anyway grow out of before they even get home, and just an endless list of drains on our resources- financial and emotional. And this is before they become teenagers! Since the baby was viewed as a cute pet, when he stops being so cute he starts draining us. This is a result of the "vegetable mindset" - the baby is for immediate enjoyment.

???????????The real perspective, however, is to view our children as saplings. We have planted the seeds of a tree, and it will require tender care to help it develop. Babies are cute, but that’s not why we take care of them. By shifting our perspective to one of caretakers, we can take everything in stride. We can be prepared to invest in our children happily, knowing that this is our purpose as parents – to help them grow and develop their own personal strengths.

???????????Besides the specific commandment to engage in procreation, there is the general concept of promoting the future generation. Thus, we find the Talmudic statement that students are like ones’ children. In fact, investing in a pupil can be even greater than fathering him. The Oral tradition places the teacher of Torah above the parent in certain contexts, because "the parent only brought him into this world; the teacher brings him into the World to Come." The Talmud also praises Rabbi yehoshua ben Gamla, who instituted community-sponsored schooling in order to ensure that all children receive an education, even orphans without fathers to teach them.

The other aspect is represented by fruit. The fruit symbolizes our mitzvot and good deeds. The Talmud mentions in a couple of places that we don’t receive reward for our good deeds in this world. Another place states even more explicitly: This World is for working, and the Next World is for receiving reward. Though a very deep concept, deserving of a proper article focused just on this topic, in a nutshell we can understand that this world is Finite and the next world is Infinite. Since by doing mitzvot, we are earning “reward” which is understood as a certain closeness and awareness of G-d, who is Infinite, the place to receive the reward is in the Next World.

This means that every action we do, every mitzvah, is really accumulating significant rewards which we can’t relate to in our finite sense. Picture a person planting apple seeds and trying to grow an orchard, while at the same time he has never seen an apple. He can’t really comprehend what he is doing, or what the result will be. It’s hard work developing his orchard. But after he sees the results, after he can enjoy the apple and realizes that he has an ongoing source of these apples as a result of his hard work, he will have no regrets about all of his labors. This is the same with our mitzvot. After we are able to experience the World to Come, and we can enjoy the “fruits” of our labor, we will have no regrets about all of the challenges we had to overcome to fulfill the mitzvot. If anything, we will have regrets that we didn’t do more.

This Tu B’shvat, rather than just thinking about Jewish Arbor Day, let us try and develop a Tree Growth attitude. As the rest of the world just “vegetates” in front of TV screens, let us focus on these two areas of investment and delayed gratification: the investment in the youth as the future of the Jewish people, and appreciating that every mitzvah we do, no matter how small or slight, is an eternal investment which will reap dividends for all eternity.?

Rabbi Binyomin Fishman is a rebbe in Yeshivas Derech/Ohr Somayach and is the associate director of V’chol Bonayich Community Programs, based in Tel Zion, Israel. A graduate of Ohr LaGolah and kollel Toras Chaim, he is a highly regarded lecturer in halachah and hashkafah. He is involved in projects promoting a balanced Torah lifestyle for individuals and communities. For feedback about this article, to find out more about his projects or for information about speaking arrangements, he can be contacted at??[email protected]

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