Tu BiShvat: Healing and planting trees

Her mother once gave her a bag of nails and told her that every time she lost her temper or insulted somebody she must hammer a small nail into large tree in the back of their house.

The first day the girl hit 14 nails into the bark of the tree. Over the next few weeks, as she learned to control her anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled. She discovered it was easier to hold her temper than to drive those nails into the tree.

Finally the day came when the girl didn’t lose her temper at all. She told her mother about it and the mother suggested that the girl now pull out one nail for each day that she was able to hold her temper. The days passed. Finally, she told her mother that all the nails were gone.

The mother took her daughter by the hand and led her to the tree. She said, “You have done well, my daughter, but look at all the holes in the tree. This tree will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like these.” You can put a knife in a person and draw it out.

It does not matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is almost as bad as a physical one.

“How can I heal the tree?” asked the girl. “Will it have to remain wounded forever?”

“Yes and no” said the mother. “Our Rabbis say that if the tree is a special tree called a tree of life, and she responds to the way you have changed, she too can change and heal herself.

If the tree is not a tree of life, and is dead to the possibility of your repentance, it will carry its scars onward. The tree will never be as it was before, but she doesn’t have to become like new to be a good tree of life. If you do your part and change, and the tree of life does her part in response, God will do something wonderful.

God will promote a healing that will make you and the tree of life better. This process is called repentance and atonement. It means that the changes that come about from repentance and forgiveness lead people to higher levels of relationship than was the case before the wound took place.”

“What happens if the tree doesn’t respond?” asked the girl. “Can I ever make it whole?”

“Our rabbis say you should try on three different occasions,” said the mother, “but if the tree remains dead to your change, even after you have changed, YOU can’t force it to become whole. In that case you should prune an unforgiving tree, or plant a new tree, or find another tree somewhere else to heal.

There are always other trees that need healing, and most of them are trees of life. We celebrate Tu BiSvat each year to remind ourselves that there are always new trees to be planted and old trees to be healed.

Whenever you plant a new tree or heal an old tree of life God will make something wonderful happen. That is the miracle of repentance and atonement.

God always responds to our attempts to change for the good, by helping us change; and then always responds to our change for the good, by giving us new and wonderful opportunities for repentance. atonement and planting.