Page 11 - HaMizrachi #26 Tu Bishvat USA 2021

TORAT MIZRACHI

Our forefathers read these verses for The Gemara (Bava Batra 14b) says Rabbi Planting trees in Israel does not only
thousands of years but did not merit to Yannai planted 400 vineyards in Israel. represent Am Yisrael holding onto and
see their fruition. We merit to read these The Rashba says he did this for the pur- becoming rooted in Eretz Yisrael. It also
verses in Eretz Yisrael, as we experience pose of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael, settling the allows for the continued existence of the
the process of redemption for ourselves Land of Israel. world and its fertilization – just as G-d
– the Land is producing a wealth of fruit planted in Gan Eden, planting connects
and Am Yisrael is solidifying its roots in These ideas have halachic implications man to the earth.
the Land. Chazal’s words in the Midrash too. The Shulchan Aruch (Choshen We will end with a story about Rav
fit in with this idea: planting itself is part Mishpat, 168:1) rules that if a person Kook (which we heard from Rav Chaim
of the redemption and hence is no less planted olive trees in his field in Israel, Druckman, who says many things in
important – perhaps even greater than and a river burst its banks and uprooted praise of planting in the Land of Israel).
– greeting Mashiach, because it itself them, sweeping them away into his When Rav Kook was in Magdiel, he
is a harbinger of the Mashiach’s arrival. neighbor’s garden, the neighbor does attended a tree-planting celebration. He
not need to return the trees to their
Holding on to the Land owner. Instead, he can pay for them and was given a hoe to plant a sapling but
refused it. He got down on his knees and
keep them.
An additional meaning to planting is planted the sapling by hand, filled with
retaining the Land. The Torah deter- The Gemara (Bava Kama 101a) explains emotion. When he was asked why he did
mines that one who planted a vineyard that the reason for this is because of the that, he replied that through planting
and had not yet consecrated it does not mitzvah of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael. The trees in Israel, one clings to G-d, and so
go to war (Devarim 20:6, Mishnah Sotah sefer Meirat Einayim explains that the he wanted a direct connection, through
8:7). The Gemara clarifies that this is original owner of the olive trees will cer- his own two hands.
referring to planting any fruit tree in tainly plant new trees, since he obviously How blessed we are that we live in
Israel. Planting a tree is a significant act needs olives, but the man into whose a generation of redemption! How
of holding on to the Land, so much so garden the trees were swept would prob- blessed we are to return to Israel
that it exempts one from going out to ably not plant olive trees if the trees were and see it blossoming with trees,
war. We can see this in the words of the taken away, and therefore the trees are agriculture and myriad branches of
Midrash which stress the importance of left by him. This is a surprising halacha technology, medicine and business.
planting in Israel: and proves how important planting in We can truly see G-d’s gracious hand
Israel is, so much so that the normal
אלא ה"בקה קסעתנ אל םלוע לש ותיירב תלחתמ and b’ezrat Hashem we will merit to see
םיהל־א ‘ה עטיו“ ביתכד אוה אדה ,הלחת עטמב halachic ruling with regards to mone- Israel’s complete redemption.
וקסעתת אל ץראל ןיסנכנשכ םתא ףא ,”ןדעב ןג tary law is changed.
לא ואבת יכ“ ביתכד אוה אדה ,הלחת עטמב אלא
.”לכאמ ץע לכ םתעטנו ץראה Summary
“In the beginning of the Creation, G-d The custom of planting trees in Israel,
did not involve Himself at first with developed by the pioneers upon the
anything but planting, as it says, ‘And return to Israel, is a very meaningful
the L-rd G-d planted in the Garden of and literally a deeply-rooted act of faith. Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon is Rosh Yeshiva of
Eden…’ Thus you, too, when you enter Today, when most people are not farm- JCT–Machon Lev and Head of Mizrachi’s
the Land, should not involve yourself in ers and do not plant trees, Tu BiShvat is Educational Advisory Board.
anything but planting, as it says, ‘When the only day that practically symbolizes Rabbanit Sharon Rimon teaches Tanach
you come to the Land, and plant fruit the idea of planting in Israel, and its and is Content Editor for the HaTanakh
trees…’” (Vayikra Rabbah, Vilna 25) great significance. website.

| 11