Page 16 - HaMizrachi #6 TuBishvat 5779

Rabbi Alan Haber

Planting Trees

IN ISRAEL

sk any Israeli what we do on Tu (Leviticus 26:27, 31-32). History saw people Israel, who will soon be coming”
BiShvat, and you will be told, these verses fulfilled very literally – the (Ezekiel 36:8).
A “Plant trees!” referring mainly Jewish people were driven from Eretz
to the organized tree-planting events Yisrael and, over several centuries However, the forests one sees all over
that attract hundreds of thousands of beginning in the Middle Ages, it became Israel today are very different from the
participants each year. Because this desolate and depopulated. ones described in the Tanach. They
custom is so widespread, Tu BiShvat is are generally dominated by the above-
actually an official vacation day in Israeli Still, some forests remained. But then, mentioned Aleppo Pine trees, which were
schools. in the 19th century, the Ottoman chosen because they grow quickly and
government needed huge quantities of don’t need a lot of water or maintenance,
However, many people may be wood for the Hejaz railway line they thus allowing for quick afforestation.
surprised to learn that planting trees were building from Damascus to the These pines have become so ubiquitous
in Eretz Yisrael was not always seen Arabian Peninsula (1300 km long). that they are mentioned in the opening
as meritorious. In fact, at one time The forests of Eretz Yisrael, a nearby line of Naomi Shemer’s “Yerushalayim
it was considered a great pioneering but neglected corner of their empire, shel zahav,” and have even been given the
accomplishment to cut them down! provided a convenient source. Most of local name “Jerusalem Pine”!
As strange as this may seem today, it is the trees were cut down, decimating
clear from several biblical passages (for the remaining forests and turning some With the passage of time, though,
example, see Kings II 2:24 and Micha of them into swampland, making the it has become clear that pines may
5:7) that much of Eretz Yisrael was once country even more desolate. not have been the best choice. These
covered with thick forests, menacing trees aren’t native to the area, and
places inhabited by dangerous animals. When the first Zionist pioneers are highly flammable, which is one
So cutting down trees was a positive arrived in the 1880s, they realized that of the reasons that Israel suffers from
act of development, as it reduced the reforesting the land would have to be forest fires. Therefore, the JNF has
dangerous areas and freed up land a priority. These efforts were stepped begun to plant a variety of different
for human settlement. We even read up during the British Mandate, and trees. And when parts of a forest are
(Joshua 17:14-18) that when the tribes new species of trees were introduced, destroyed by fire, they often refrain from
of Ephraim and Menashe complained including the eucalyptus (imported replanting them. Instead, the forests
to Yehoshua that the territory they’d from Australia because it grows quickly are given the opportunity to regenerate
been given was too small, he replied, and consumes large quantities of naturally, ultimately producing typical
“Nonsense! You have plenty of land; it’s water, making it helpful for draining Mediterranean woodlands dominated by
just that much of it is a forest. Go cut swampland), and the Aleppo Pine. local species like oak and pistacia.
down the trees and settle the land!” With the establishment of the State of The contemporary custom of planting
In contrast, nowadays the JNF plants Israel, the JNF embarked on a massive trees on Tu BiShvat to help rehabilitate
over 300,000 trees in Israel’s forests afforestation campaign, eventually and redeem the land is a beautiful
every year. How did the situation change planting over 200 million trees to expression of the joy of a people
so drastically? create 280 forests that have changed the reunited with its homeland.
landscape from the Upper Galilee all the
The answer begins with a biblical way down to Eilat. By doing so, whether
prophecy: “If, with all this, you [still] they realized it or not, they were helping Rabbi Alan Haber, a member of the
do not listen to Me…I will destroy your to fulfill a different prophecy: “And Mizrachi Speakers and Tour Guides
cities and make your temples desolate… you, O mountains of Israel, give forth Bureaus, is a teacher and a licensed
and I will make the land barren” branches and produce fruit, for My Israeli tour guide

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