A new inspiration

      

 After a long hiatus, there is no better day than the new year for the trees to begin anew. Tu B’Shvat (the 15^th of Shvat) is a well-known holiday with nowhere to go.   There are no real obligations on this day, except it is customary to eat some tasty Israeli fruit that one has not eaten yet that year. On this day, we recognize that most of the rain has fallen for that winter in Israel, the sap has started to move up the tree, and the first stage of the ripening fruit is about to begin.  More than that, it is a day of deep rejoicing where we don’t fast, make eulogies for the deceased, or place our heads down in submission during prayer.  Usually, we reserve joy for a tangible event, but here all that is happening is hidden and internal. What is the depth of the day and what does it mean for us? 

        A tree[2] is connected to the ground and it takes tasteless and formless dirt and produces a tasty and complex fruit.  Aside from the verse in Deuteronomy 20:19 that explicitly states it, ‘…for a man is a tree in the field’, the comparison is obvious. A human being is called ‘adam’ from the language of dirt, ‘adama’. A person is born with selfish tendencies and few things to be proud of- he is like tasteless dirt. It is his job to take his dirt, potential, and transform it to mitzvahs that have taste (reason) and purpose.  The Talmud in Sota 46a says explicitly that the main fruit of a person is his mitzvahs.

 This doesn’t happen automatically; it takes a lot of hard work.  Hopefully, the seeds were planted during the high holidays and tended up to this point. A third of the year has passed from Rosh Hashanah and this has supreme significance. Symbolically, if the body were divided into thirds, we’d now reach the midsection, we've now completed our hearts.  After much toil, we should start to feel inspired from our work, our hearts should come alive. That inspiration should lead to new directions and new actions.  

        This is the joy of Tu B’shvat. It is the process of moving from foundational work to transformational work. We should now have enough inspiration inside to actualize the plans we had for the year and create fruit that has never been tastier. 

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[1] Adapted from Shem mi Shmuel parsha B’shalach.

[2] A tree, אילן in Hebrew is gematria 91- which is the combination of the high name of G-d, יהוה and the lower name of G-d, אדוני. A tree connects both the upper and lower worlds.

Vitruvian man

I don’t think it is a coincidence that the hotel chain ‘Leonardo’ has taken over Jerusalem with the Vitruvian man as its symbol.  The Vitruvian man is a picture of an outstretched man who fits both inside a square and inside a circle simultaneously.   A recent article in the Smithsonian magazine, which questions whether Da Vinci was the originator of this icon, says that the ancients regarded the square as secular and the circle as something divine.   In other words, man lives in two worlds, the secular and the divine. This idea is a Jewish one, but there is another aspect to a circle that we need to call attention to – it is the symbol of the Satan. [1]  Why is it that the Satan’s symbol is a circle? And how does that also make it divine? 

              For an answer, we can examine the famous tussle between Jacob and the angel, which we identify as the representative of Esav, who is also a representative of Satan.  What was at the root of Esav and how does it relate to circularity?  The name Esav means ‘done’, which is one of the reasons he is described as being born hairy.   Hair is something that grows over time, and with Esav, it is as if there was no more room for growth as the hair was already there.  A circle symbolizes a similar idea.  No matter where one is located on the circle, the destination is known.  In other words, there is no room for change or growth in a circle, a person is destined to end up where he began. 

              That was the wrestling match between Jacob and the angel. He defeated the aspect within himself that desperately resented change. How did he defeat him?  He ultimately won with a simple question- ‘what is your name’? He recognized that the power within that resented change was an external entity.   His real self is not what he is at present but what he is supposed to become through change.  And that is the symbol of the square- a change in direction. Just when you get comfortable going down one path, you turn and follow a different path.  That is the world human beings are supposed to live in, the world of changes.  The world of a circle, continuity on the same path, is only relevant when you are divine, for at that point, no change is necessary as perfection has been reached.  That is the dual reality of the circle, on the one hand the symbol for divine perfection, and on the other hand the symbol for the status quo, the symbol of the Satan. 

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[1] Midrash Rabba יז: ו:  Reb Chanina the son of Reb Idi- from the beginning of the book until it has not been written a samech (circle)- since a woman was created, the Satan was created with her.