Letter 55

January 19, 1962, Eve of Rosh Hashanah to the Trees, Bnei Brak

Hello and all the best to my friend,

I thank you for the invitation to the wedding that I received. Yet, I regret not being able to participate in your joy from up close, but I will participate from afar, for joy is a spiritual matter, and in spirituality space has no influence at all. Only in corporeality does space set apart or bring close, but in spirituality I can partake in your joy even when far away, for it is only nearing of the hearts that we need. So blessings to the groom and bride, and may there be a generation of upright and established forever.

And by the way, I am writing to you what I said regarding the fifteenth of Shevat. Our sages said, “Rabbi Yohanan said, ‘Why is it is written, ‘For man is the tree of the field?’ Is man the tree of the field? But because it is written that you will eat from it but do not cut it, and it is written, ‘This you will destroy and cut down,’ how so? If he is a decent wise disciple, eat from it but do not cut it. If not, ‘This you will destroy and cut down.’’”

We should understand the connection between a decent wise disciple and the tree of the field. The verse says, “You shall not destroy its tree by swinging an axe against it; for you may eat from it … Only the trees which you know are not fruit trees you shall destroy and cut down.” It follows that the verse speaks of a tree, so what does it prove about man?

The holy Zohar says, “‘Another god is sterile and does not bear fruit.’ That is, one who is not working for the Creator does not see fruits in one’s work. What are the fruits? It is written in the Midrash: ‘These are the generations of Noah.’ It is as it is written, ‘A fruit of a righteous, a tree of life.’ What are the fruits of the righteous? Mitzvot (commandments) and good deeds.” Thus far its words.

In the Gemarah, before the words of Rabbi Yohanan, it is said there: “Tania, Rabbi Banaa says, ‘Anyone who engages in Torah Lishma (for Her sake), his Torah becomes for him a potion of life, as it is said, ‘She is a tree of life to they who hold her,’ and it is said, ‘It shall be a healing to your flesh,’ etc. Anyone who engages in Torah Lo Lishma (not for Her sake), it becomes to him a potion of death, as it is said, ‘Let my lesson decapitate as rain.’ There is no decapitation but killing, as it was said, ‘And they decapitated the heifer there by the stream.’” We should understand the proximity of the matters.

However, we should interpret this by ethics. Rabbi Yohanan asks, “Is man the tree of the field?” That is, what similarity is there between man and the tree of the field? What do we learn by the comparison in text between man and the tree of the field? He brings evidence to that from the verse, “You may eat from it but do not cut it down,” etc., referring to a wise disciple. If he is decent, meaning learning Lishma, which means that he is learning things that will lead him to yielding fruits, it means that this learning will make him bear fruit, meaning Mitzvot and good deeds. He will learn this because by that he will be rewarded with the potion of life. This is the meaning of, “You may eat from it but do not cut it down.” If not, if you see that the learning you are learning does not bring you to do Mitzvot and good deeds, called fruits, then know that it belongs to the Sitra Achra and not to the Kedusha (holiness).

This is the reason for the custom to eat fruits on the fifteenth of Shevat, to imply that we are going by the way of holiness, and we have fruits.

From your friend, who wishes you and your family all the best,

Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag