Fruitful Journey

"Man is a tree of the field." Seven fruits crown the human and botanical harvest. These are the seven fruits and grains singled out by the Torah as exemplars of the Holy Land's fertility: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates.

The 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat, celebrated today, is the day designated by the Jewish calendar as the New Year for Trees. On this day, we celebrate the trees of G‑d's world, and the tree within us, by partaking of these seven fruits, which typify the various components and modes of human life.

First, there’s wheat, food that humans eat. That’s the work we do to nourish what is distinctly human in us, to feed the divine aspirations through our G-dly souls; the pure, aligned part of ourselves.

 Next comes the barley, the animal food, where we bring that work a step further to touch and transform even our human, dark side; the animal soul.

Grapes produce wine which brings joy, we plow through life with happiness.

The first clothing ever worn was fig leaves, so the fig tells of the clothes we put on. In Chassidic thought, the clothing represents our thoughts, speech and action that express our inner self to the world outside of us. Here we work to align our garments so that the way we express and present ourselves is intune with the truth inside.

The pomegranate is the mitzvos, “Every Jew is filled with mitzvos like a pomegranate”. Here we work to have our interactions with the world be for a higher purpose; using our physical possessions and the tangible reality to carry out Hashem’s will.

Olives are bitter and get crushed to create olive oil, representing the deepest dimension of the Torah. We tap into that through the toil of exile and it’s our work that brings Moshiach when we’ll experience it fully.

Dates take a long time to grow, 70 years! That’s a long time to upkeep and toil. But its fruits are the sweetest and choicest representing the deepest dimension of the Torah.

After all that long toil, we will go to Eretz Yisroel, the land praised of these seven fruits, and be in the third Beis Hamikdash now!!

Happy 15 Shvat & Shabbat Shalom!

Candle lighting time in NYC: 5:12 PM