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January 25, 2002/12 Shevat 5762, Vol. 54, No. 19
Rebirthing trees and rebirthing peaceRABBI ARTHUR WASKOWOn the night of Jan. 27, the full moon will gleam across a chilly winter in Israel and the Palestinian West Bank.It will be Tu B'Shevat, when Jewish tradition teaches that trees are reborn, their juice begins to flow again, and the abundance of all life renews itself from that sacred tree whose roots are in Heaven, with its fruits our world. This year, a minyan of rabbis will give Tu B'Shevat a new meaning. They will join with Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel to replant both Palestinian olive trees destroyed by Israeli troops and settlers, and Israeli pine trees destroyed by Palestinian arsonists. To both communities, the tree-planters will be speaking in the name of the Torah: "Even if you make war against a city, you shall not destroy its trees." (Deuteronomy 20:19) Tu B'Shevat has had many incarnations. It began more than 2,000 years ago as simply the "fiscal year" date for taxes on trees. Before that date, Jews were obligated to tithe on last year's fruit; after, to tithe on this year's fruit. The mystics of Safed, 500 years ago, made it the new year of the tree. They created a mystical seder that celebrated the four worlds of reality: spirit, knowledge, emotion and physicality. The meal they crafted was made up of fruits, nuts and four cups of wine. It was not only vegetarian, but since trees give fruit and nuts in much greater profusion than necessary for their own replacement, the meal required the death of no living being - not even a carrot. It was the food of Eden, the peaceful covenant between Adam and adamah, the human earthling and the earthy humus. One century ago, the Zionist movement made Tu B'Shevat the day when trees were planted in Israel, especially by schoolchildren. And in the last 30 years, it has become an affirmation of Jewish concern for the whole earth, a Jewish day to celebrate, protect, and heal the environment. Rabbis for Human Rights is the only rabbinic organization in Israel that includes rabbis and rabbinical students of all streams of Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Renewal. The organization has addressed the human rights needs of Israelis, Palestinians, and foreign workers. And - as rabbis usually do - RHR has rooted its protection of human rights in its understanding of the Torah. One year ago, RHR decided to face the question that Israeli soldiers and settlers had been destroying olive trees in Palestinian villages. Sometimes the trees were near bypass highways and might have been used for cover by Palestinian snipers or rock-throwers attacking Israeli travelers; but often, the trees had been so far from any Israeli site that their destruction was clearly an attack on civilians and on the basic economic survival of the villages. To RHR this seemed a violation of the Torah's command not to make war against trees. And they felt that attacks by Palestinian arsonists on Israeli trees were also violations. Out of this understanding grew an Olive Trees for Peace campaign in North America, raising money to help RHR replant Palestinian trees; give humanitarian help to Palestinian families left destitute by destruction of one of their most important sources of income to buy food, pay for their children's schooling, support their children's marriages; and spread word of these needs. More than $100,000 grassroots American Jewish money was raised to support these efforts. And this year, RHR invited American and European rabbis, as well as other Jews, to renew on Tu B'Shevat the grass-roots energy of peacemaking as well as the tree-roots energy of life itself, of the Torah, and of God's presence in the world. Rabbi Arthur Waskow is the director of the Philadelphia-based Shalom Center. |
