Cantor’s Message
Tu Bishvat 5785/2025
Dearest friends,
Recently we experienced a violent storm that blew down many trees. Luckily our own
garden was spared; but almost everywhere I looked I saw branches, trunks, and
sometimes whole trees blocking paths, and even roads. I though about the meaning
of all this — particularly in the context of Tu Bishvat, which fall this Thursday.
This holiday is known as the New Year of the Trees. We mark it by planting
saplings (often in memory of loved ones), holding special Tu Bishvat seders (which
resemble the Pesach ritual meals, and have their roots in Jewish mysticism), and
raising awareness about the environment. This year, for me, the holiday is about the
significance of trees as metaphors for our faith and our relationships with one
another — especially since I’ve seen so many toppled over in a storm.
In the service for returning the Torah to the Ark, we sing ‘Etz chaim hi’ (‘It is a
tree of life’). The words in English run as follows:
I have given you a precious inheritance:
do not forsake My teaching.
It is a tree of life for those who grasp it,
and all who hold onto it are blessed.
Its ways are pleasant, and all its paths are peace.
Turn us toward You, Adonai, and we will return to You;
make our days seem fresh, as they once were.
The lines are taken from some passages in the Book of Proverbs. They’re
appropriate to the liturgy, because the Torah is identified as the Tree of Life; it
symbolizes the relationship between God and human beings. In Kabbalah, the Tree
of Life is represented as a diagram illustrating the ten divine spheres, or sefirot; they
include attributes like righteousness, justice, beauty, endurance, and understanding.
The branches are interconnected, in order to show how these traits are linked to
each other, and to God. In Jewish mystical teaching, by accessing the spheres we
not only come closer to God; we also engage in tikkum olam, repairing our broken
world (where the divine is increasingly absent), and mending our relationships with
one another.
If we ponder these ideas, while appreciating the trees are all around us, we
come to a greater understanding of the intimate ties that bind us all together as one
human family, and also connect us to the divine. With so many broken trees around,
and the imperative to repair the damage done, the healing of the world is, for me, the
profound lesson of this Tu Bishvat.
I wish you all a Chag Sameach.
With love from Cantor Leon