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\ LIBRARY
DESERTS AND GARDENS “330
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BAECK COLLEGE
as you knew, is the 24th January, and there ls nothlng
special about that. According to the Jewish calendar it is the 17th
Sh'vat, and there is nothing Special about that either. But it does
mean that the day before yesterday was the 15th Sh'vat, and there lg
something Special about that, because the 15th Sh'vat, for the last two
thousand years or more, has been a minor festival in the Jewish calendar,
a festival called Eggg Shanah La-Ilanot, the New Eear of the Trees.
What a funny festival to have! Why a New Year of the Trees? Why
not a New Year of the Crocuses or Dafodils or Tulips? Well, fdrst of
all, trees are very important, for where no tread grow nothing else
worth mentioning grows either, and where nothing grows human beings
cannot live. I don't know whether any of you have ever seen a desert.
I have.
I have been to the Arabian Desert in Egypt, the Great Salt Lake
Desert in Utah and the Mojave Desert in California. It is a weird
feeling drivmg through a desert. You may see an occasional cactus or
low shrub, but you see no trees. And bbfiause there are no trees, there
is no human habitation either: no towns, no viLlages, no houses, no
gardens: nothing but sand, mile after mile after mile.
And What is the reason? Because where there are no trees, there is
no rain, and where flare is no rain, nothing-can grow. AflrE—sbee—eaying
thaG—érees~aseduce—rain?—‘¥es7—é%&m. You see, a tree, unlike a crocus
or a daffodil or a tulip, has deep roots, roots which reach down below
the dry top-soil to the under-soil which is never dried by the sun. From
the under-soil the rooys draw meisture, enabling the tree to grow. And
then the moisture travels up from the roots into the stem and tge branches
and the leaves; From there, as the sun shines, the moisture evaporates
into the air, and forms clouds, and the clouds bring rain, and the HEX!
rain makes the soil feryilé and enables other trees and other plants and
flowers to grow.
And so, if you want to tranSform a desert into habitable land, the
first thing you must do is to plant trees, lots of trees, whole forests
in fact, a process which is called afforefistation. Of course
you can't
do even that in those parts pf the world where there is never
any rain at
all, for there even the under-soil is dry. There you have to begin
by
irrigating the land, by bringing water from the nearest lake or river
or
spring.
But there are parts of the world where there is
gggg rain though
not enough.
That is true, for example, of parts of the Middle East, sudm
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as the Negev region in southern Israel and the Sinai Ibninsula.
when
the Israelites travelled through the Sinai ainsula from Egypt to the
fromised Land, they found that it was nearly all desert. Only in a
few places did they find what we call an oasis, a ppace where there
happened to be,a source of‘nater and therefore a few trees. One such
oasis was Elim, where, as we read in the Torah, there were twelve
Springs and 70 palm-trees. .70 palm-trees: That is not a lot, and
from the fact that it was thought worthy of mention, you can imagine
hmw little vegetafion there must have been elsewhere.
In such_an area, wherné there is a little xnfiinxxxinflakkx water
but not much; you can do wonders by irrigation and afférestation. And
that is precisely what the Israelis have done. Many parts of their
country, which had been nothing but desert for centuries, are new green
and luscious, covered with fiHXflXXHXKHKEX forests of palm and fir trees,
orange groves and vineyards, cornfields and vegetable gardens, and a
great variety of flowers, wild and cultivated. And this transformation,
in turn, has made it possible to build Villages and towns where prev—
iously no human being could live. What has happened is, in fact, a kin
of miracle, the kind of miraclefi described by the prophet Isaiah in our
Haftarab: "The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert
shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with joy and singing." And in KEKXXKXX the continuation
of that miracle we are asked to play a small part by giving what we
can afford for the planting of new trees ih the land of Israel, and
Especaably IE to add to a forest already filers, which is named after
the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues.
But that is not the only miracle demanded of us. As you will
recall from our Torah portion, the Israelites, because they were
hungréy and thirsty in the wilderness of Sihai, wanted to go back to
Egypt. Now Egypt was very fertile. The annual flooding of the Nile
ensured that there was plenty of water and therefore plenty of
vegecaion and therefore plenty of food. As the Israelites said, there
they sat by the flesh-pots and ate bread to the full. And yet it would
have been very foolish of the Israelites to go_back to Egypt, and
fortunately Moses and Aaron dissuaded them. For though there was
plenty of food in Egypt, it was a wilderness in another sense. For
it was a place of slavery and oppression, of hatred and cryakty and
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a
strife. It was
place of death and decay, not in the material
sense but in the spiritual sense. A desert is a place of death and
decay. A garden is a place of life and growth. Our task is to
transfiflrm the whole world from a desert into a garden, not only by
planting trees but alsu by planting wisdom, understanding, justice,
brotherhood, love and peace.
How can we do that? How can we perform that miracle? Perhaps
the trees can teach us. XEXKXXXIKXEIKfiKXXKKXXXXKXEXXXKEXEKXEKXKKXXXEK
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KXKEXKHXXXXKXXXKKKI A: a tree, with its roots, draws moisture from
the sub—soil, so we must draw strength from our roots in the past.
As a tree, with its stem, standsfirmland erect, so we must be
upright,
not crooked. As a tree, with its foliage, gives shade to
ggilggyfarer,
so we must protect those who need our help. As a tree
grows/from year
to year, so we must try constantly to grow in spiritual stature. As
a tree proves its worth by the fruit it produces, so we
must prove
our worth by our good deeds.
Ebrhaps you remember the concluding versas of EBalm 92, the
Sabbath Ebalm: "The righteous flourish like a palm tree, and grew
like a cedar in Lebanon. Iianted in the house of the
Lord, they
flourish in the courts of our God. They still bring forth fruit in
old age, they are ever full of sap and green, to show that
the Lord
is upright; He is nw'Rock, there is no unrighbtosnnss
in Him".
The striking phrase there is "planted in the house of
the Lord".
For us Jews the Synagogue is the House of the Lord. Here
we learn
how to grow Spiritually, how to become the kind of
people who will
help to transform this strife-torn desert of a world
in which we live
into a Garden of Eden, where all men may "obtain
joy and gladness",
where "sorrow and signing shall flee away."