Tu’Bshvat: Thank You Honi

Photo courtesy Sandra Taradash
Photo courtesy Sandra Taradash

            Tu’B’shvat arrives this week. The “New Year of the Trees” has now become a major focal point of the growing Jewish Environmental movement. No doubt many of you are taking in celebrations and maybe even a “Tu’b’shvat seder. Thankfully, we are experiencing a meaningful revival of interest in our planet and what we are doing to it.

            But in thinking about the external environment, I could not help but also think our internal environment. Specifically, the spiritual environment that we may inhabit. In the classes we have been part of these past few years, this internal focus has become more pronounced.So many of our generation, while still deeply involved in external issues of tikkun olom, are becoming increasingly concerned with their internal spiritual environment. This is not limited to the devoutly faithful. This really is about our own aging, our search for our own sense of meaning and purpose.

            In many of these classes we often discuss the creation of a personal spiritual practice. This is part of our generation’s desire to create or discuss what we may call a mature spirituality. This is the rejection of the “pediatric” religious truths of our childhood, often unexamined since that childhood, but now, thanks to our own aging and life experience, we now are forced to re-examine. This may have a lot to do with how we begin to consider our own legacy. What is our place in the universe and how shall we be remembered? The tree image for this week’s festival is quite apt for there is the famous story of Honi who comes across a person planting a tree and asks why they are being so diligent. This person answers that they are carrying on the tradition of planting the tree even though they will not be alive to see its’ maturity.

            What are our deeds? Can we think of them like trees that, because of what we may have done, they will grow and mature? Every day we are presented with new opportunities to impact a life, even our own.  Sometimes this is hard for us to imagine. We often may not even be aware of the impact we may have on someone or something else. It is like planting a seed and hoping that the seed will grow and flourish because of what we have done. We all may wish to see what that future is. That is not possible, so, our challenge is to find meaning in what we do now, meaning in the relationships that we create and nurture, no matter what our age or circumstance. In that sense we may all be Honi, for we are part of nature, each in our own unique way.

Shalom,

Rabbi Richard F Address

 

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