Kol Tzedek
  • Spiritual Life
    • Hanukkah
    • Shabbat Links
    • Spiritual Care
    • Yahrzeits
    • Life Cycles
    • KT's Simcha Band
    • New Siddur!
  • About
    • Purpose, Vision, & Priorities
    • Calendar
    • Staff
    • Community Resources
    • Black Lives Matter
    • Israel-Palestine
    • Budget
    • Event Requests
    • COVID Community Guidelines
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Access at KT
    • Contact Us
  • Membership
    • Become a Member
    • KT Community Brit
    • Member Login
    • Update Your Sustaining Share
  • Learning
    • Members' Teachings
    • Torah School
    • Adult Learning
    • Rabbi's Blog
    • Rabbis' Sermons
    • The KT Library
    • Sha"tz Training Program
  • Ways to Give
    • Donate
    • Sponsor KT's New Sanctuary!
    • Sponsor an Oneg
    • Sponsor Captioning
    • Dedicate a Prayerbook
    • Friends of KT

Rabbi's Blog

the greening of the trees

4/12/2024

 
f you have ever sat in the shade of an old olive tree, you know its like being embraced by an elder or even an ancestor. Ancient olive trees are known for their twisted, gnarly trunks and silvery leaves. The first time I encountered olive trees that were hundreds of years old was in the West Bank of Palestine. I placed my hand on the tree’s limb and was instantly transported into the arms of my nana, who used to gently scratch my forearms with her knobby fingers, joints gnarled from years of arthritis, skin paper thin. 

It says in the Torah that when you go to war (why must we go to war?!), you are not to cut down the fruit trees. Consider them like human beings, consider them civilians, says Torah. I thought of this verse earlier this week when I read that 48% of all of the trees in Gaza have been destroyed, most of them fruit trees, many of them ancestral. It will take generations for the earth to regenerate. 

This week marks six months since October 7. Six months of kaddish for the 1200 Israelis who were murdered. Six months of relentless siege displacing 2 million civilians in Gaza, killing more than 32,000, and starving the rest of them. I do not know the words to describe the horror of this genocide. 

This week also marks the beginning of the month of Nisan and the coming of Spring. There is a special blessing that can only be recited under the moon of Nisan called Birkat Ilanot, the blessing of the trees. It is specifically designated that we should bless the flowering of fruit trees in Nisan: Blessed are You, Source of all Life, whose world lacks nothing and who made wondrous creations and beautiful trees for human beings to enjoy.

With the cherry blossoms popping off and their flowers frosting the sidewalk, I feel called to gratitude, wonder and delight. And also to disgust and disgrace and despair. What is the blessing for a felled fruit tree? What is the blessing for fertile ground turned to “sand, shit and decomposing flesh”? 

Every year at this time, at the same time as I seek out trees to bless, I return to words of Ada Limón, in her poem, Instructions on not giving up,

“More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out
of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s
almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving
their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate
sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees
that really gets to me. When all the shock of white
and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave
the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath,
the leaves come. Patient, plodding, a green skin
growing over whatever winter did to us, a return
to the strange idea of continuous living despite
the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then,
I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf
unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.”

This year I need these words more than ever. Despite the mess of us, we must find courage and endurance in the slick leaves unfurling all around us, green skin growing over what this winter has done to us, and to mother earth herself. 

Join me, let the greening of the trees really get to you. Find the strength to bless this brutal, beautiful world. Today and everyday.

Comments are closed.

    Rabbi's Blog
    ​

    You can search Rabbi Ari Lev's blog below:

    Author

    Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari brings Torat Hayyim, a living tradition, to Kol Tzedek through thoughts about prayer, justice, and community. 

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Office & Mailing Address: 5300 Whitby Ave, Commercial #2, Philadelphia, PA 19143 
 General Questions: (267) 702-6187 or [email protected]
Shabbat Services: 5300 Whitby Ave, Commercial #1, Philadelphia, PA 19143 
  • Spiritual Life
    • Hanukkah
    • Shabbat Links
    • Spiritual Care
    • Yahrzeits
    • Life Cycles
    • KT's Simcha Band
    • New Siddur!
  • About
    • Purpose, Vision, & Priorities
    • Calendar
    • Staff
    • Community Resources
    • Black Lives Matter
    • Israel-Palestine
    • Budget
    • Event Requests
    • COVID Community Guidelines
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Access at KT
    • Contact Us
  • Membership
    • Become a Member
    • KT Community Brit
    • Member Login
    • Update Your Sustaining Share
  • Learning
    • Members' Teachings
    • Torah School
    • Adult Learning
    • Rabbi's Blog
    • Rabbis' Sermons
    • The KT Library
    • Sha"tz Training Program
  • Ways to Give
    • Donate
    • Sponsor KT's New Sanctuary!
    • Sponsor an Oneg
    • Sponsor Captioning
    • Dedicate a Prayerbook
    • Friends of KT