TuB'Shevat Growth

Brrrrrr. Brrrr. Brrrrrr. The noise rattles the house. The windows shake with fear as they witness the butchery across the street, along the avenue. Eighty years of peaceful life to be ended with the whine of power saws cutting away at the trunk of life. What did the lindens do to deserve the amputation of their lovely arms? Their majestic stature lopped off into ugly contortions, mocking the architecture of God. Birds frightened from their nests chatter frantically for those nestlings doomed within their secret places. Spring is no time for cutting trees. Spring is not the time to come when the songbirds have just made nests and laid their eggs. it took eighty years or even a hundred for a tree to become a major apartment house, sheltering the gentle life within its boughs, a perch for the weary hawk, seeking the next potential dinner in the hedgerows below.

Growth and development over years and decades-so slow that it can't be easily measured with the eye. Sometimes it seems like this. We begin with only somethng small: a seedling of an idea and nuture it until the roots have taken into the foreign soil. Sometimes, a project takes years of planning and cultivation before it yields its first fruits. The environment must be friendly, the weather conditions conducive for growth. Even the finest violinist may fail if he fiddles in an unfriendly environment. Tenacity may make a twisted tree, but it does not necessarily bear fruit or bring great beauty into the world.

To grow, we must study; we must do. Growth is not passive. Just as a gardener must tend his plants, so we must tend our lives so that they develop to bear fruit. Learning without application is worthless. To reinforce our growth we need to sow our seeds carefully, each day setting a side some time for cultivation. A garden soon disintigrates into a jungle of nettles and dandelions when left unattended. Nettles and dandelions have their virtues as herbal medicines, components of foods, shampoo and clothing, but abandoned, they soon become a nuisance, choking out the other plants of a garden. So our lives need to be ordered, so that there is time and place for the myriad of activities which we face in daily life. When we turn our backs and neglect the small areas that we spent hours plotting, we lose control.

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