TuBShvat - Man is like the Tree in the Field
Tu BShvat
Based on the Sefer Olamot by Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh
As learned with my chavrusa, Nechama Wells
One major way the plant is more like us than an animal.
while an animal crawls, swim stand erect
Trees have an aspect of standing erect and reach upwards.
The plant / tree reaches upwards drawing its inspiration from its light source
Tu bshvat the new year of the tree.
A day which expresses the renewal of the tree and the fruits
However it is said, that “man is a tree of the field,
if so tu be shavat is the celebration of the human being
The aspect of tree-ness in the person
In what fashion is a person compared to a tree and what can we learn from that about our spiritual growth.
One important aspect I which the plant is closer to humans than the animals are.
Plants reach towards their life force
We and trees grow vertically
Reaching up which we aspire to
Animals live horizontally, they go TO WHAT THEY NEED.
It has an essential job in forming the structure of our consciousness
We are creatures that live according to a ladder of values
And ladders of success (ladders of consciousness)
These ladders help us distinguish between a low culture and a higher culture
We don’t want to degenerate
And we aspire to ascend to rise up
These qualities don’t exist by a plant
But its being erect and aspire whats above
Becomes a kind of earthy /natural vantage point
The tree of the field
Bsvalanut: in its patience and its constancy
To that which is above and it spreads out to the sides
The way to put in order this equation
Is to draw the person as a plant
Like the tree from below to above.
We are fed, we take in our sustenance from below
Like trees from their roots
And we strive to become higher
In aspects of thinking and spirituality
But in fact to this schema
Its appropriate to add another schema
A second dimension which is parallels to that of growth
To which a person is an upside down tree
Where our sustenance is in heaven
And its branches ascend down toward the earth
That’s the main illustration in this equation between the man and the tree
After all, we are NOT TREES, WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS
That our main aspect is our being baale chaim
That have a soul and consciousness.
While the first equation concretizes the bodily growth of the person
The second equation concretized our spiritual growth
Which draws inspiration from a HIGH SOURCE
AND brings it down to the earth
This turning the image of the tree
Flipping of it
Makes it possible for us to equate the person and the tree
And at the same time to limit the equation
And to contrast between them.
The division that kabbala into 4 parts
The roots are hidden under the earth and they draw forth vital matter
Whatever the tree needs
The trunk expresses that main part of the body
And grows upwards
The branches grow and the leaves complete the sustenance nutrition by means of photosynthesis.
And at the end in the case of fruit trees
The tree produces fruit
Which offers others to be nourished from them.
When we come to set out the parallel to these parts to that of human
Make use of an intermediary model
And in kabala the basic model of structures with four levels
Is the shaym Havaya
Its even more than average, because a person is describe as being created in the image of Hashem
And in that case its tremendously completely appropriate to describe the structure according to the Name
When we make aid of the shaim Havaya
We write it from above to below
And we divide it in 2 halves
Roots / Shorashim /yud
Trunk / Geza /hey
Branches /Anafim /vav
Fruit / Perot /Hey
We use this marechet of these 4 letters
Each time we use this structure, the lower hey has the elemental aspect of being revealed Malchut
1 SHORASHIM / ROOT
the first layer of the spiritual growth is the shoresh (ROOT) neshama.
so too just as the tree draws nourishment from the ground
We acquire inspiration from the ruchnius source of his neshama.
his soul the soil of Divinity
represented by the Yud, the only letter of the alef bet whose form is a dot
similarly the only one hanging in the air.
Representing potentzial
It is not our personality at all
Rather a small seed
in which our powers and various characteristics that are going to determine my personality and tafkid
the yud is not about me: in my particulars : its hanging in the air
our powers and characteristics at the potential.
2 GEZA TRUNK
when the root sprouts, grows and thickens it turns into the trunk.
Unfolding personality
The trunk takes the nourishment and develops circularly
and continues wider.
it turns it from the dot to a complete area.
chochma is the yud
and bina is the first hey
at this level the neshama is none other than an abstract idea
a vision of what man might be before it takes on a physical form.
being as the trunk is the aspect of the heart; hey
the trunk causes life and vision to penetrate the root
and begins to develop it into something which will have complete and complex beingness
the first 2 layers express the inner ripening of man that is hidden within
the first 2 the root and the trunk are hidden within you.
3 ANFIM / BRANCHES
the world of branches begins to show itself
its bursts forth from its private aspects and it bridges a connection with the outer world.
branches expresses itself as going into experiencing a variety of life experiences
and in forming contact with other people.
In this stage its primarily purpose
the reaching out of the branches in order to LEARN from them.
is to get from them.
the leave synthesize light to energy
the plant gets energy from the leaves
the image of the tree as human
our root is in heaven and our branches are earthbound; the yechida of YH and VH
receiving abundance from the earthly world
the individual personality
internalizing what one gets from the outside world to make it part of you.
The VAV with its elongated form expresses the linear movement
and the descent to the physical world.
4 PEROT / FRUIT
the last stage in the growth of the soul and its descent in reality in its production of fruit
the produce. which she bequeaths to the world
the fruits primarily take the form of mitzvos and maasim tovim
which nurture: the friends and environment.
that is the highest purpose of the soul - to descend to the ground level of reality and make it flourish.
By means of the fruit, a person disseminates to the world
his unique spiritual seed and he causes to flourish / puriya (feritlity)
causing others to become fertile impregnating/ giving of your ideas and deeds and
giving to others which they can produce also.
The first yud and hey, which by themselves create one of Gds names.
ie. the root to the trunk is a tight connection
the vav and hey theres a weaker connection which rules over them.
the fruit to the branch is not so tight
this matter sheds light on the ability to cause the fruit to separate and to transmit to another
Summary:
HEY / perot / THE mitzvot and maasim tovim m’unakim - that has given nurture the others
VAV / anaphim / SELF realization by means of going out to the world
HEY (FIRST) / trunk / to expand in order to creatE the personality geza
YUD / shoresh / the essential point of the neshama.
the pnimi goal YEUD (mission) of tu bshvat is to plant ourselfs anew in our spirital soil,
to cause our hidden essence to penetrate into our revealed light.
this matter is expressed in a very nice fashion in the date of tu bshvat.
yud hey 15 and vav hey : 11= 26
15 is hidden inside the 11
the idea is that behind the notion of reading yud hey in the vav hey
symbolizes the dwelling of the hidden levels of the soul within the revealed levels of the soul.
it is incumbent on us to be equated to the TREE OF THE FIELD.
whose outer most fruit flow from the deepest roots.
the notion of the root system and the canopy of the tree are parallel to each other
as far as the branches go above ground thats how deep the roots go
footnote: interesting to point out add value of eitz hasadeh is equivalent to DAAT which 474. 400 70, 4. the sefira that connects the yud hey and the vav hey. hidden and revealed. see 10 sefirot and inner meaning.