January/February TBI Tablet - Flipbook - Page 3
By: Rabbi Sharyn Perlman
Blessing the Trees
Shalom, Friends.
With April sneaking up on
us, we look toward Pesach, also
known as Chag Ha’Aviv, the Festival of Spring. Pesach falls on the
15th of Nisan on the Jewish calendar; and this year, it also happens
to fall on the 15th of April.
Blessed are you, Adonai our God,
Ruler of the Universe, Who has
made nothing lacking in the world,
and Who created in the world good
creatures and good trees, in which
humanity finds pleasure.
We have a unique intimacy with
fruit trees in the Torah that goes
Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the
back to the Garden of Eden and the
beginning of the Hebrew month,
Tree of Knowledge in Genesis. The
will be on Shabbat, April 2.
connection is even more powerful
in the midrash on the verse,
Rosh Chodesh is always a
Ha’adam eitz ha-sadeh
special day – we sing Hallel
(Deuteronomy 20): “A person is a
(psalms of praise) during morning
tree of the field” (i.e., a fruit tree).
services – as we anticipate the
According to the 16th century myspromise of a new month.
tics, a fruit tree is as true an image
of God as a person. In the KabbaAnd this year especially,
lah, the Sefirot – the 10 emanaRosh Chodesh Nisan brings us
tions of God – are thought of as a
hope, the hope of the first “normal” Tree of Life, or a fruit tree. This is
Pesach since 2019. Families are
because a fruit tree embodies the
excitedly planning to spend the hol- principle of sharing, and is a more
iday together, in person(!), as we
perfect model for how God interexperience a new dimension to lib- acts with the world.
eration. That is reason enough to
celebrate the new month.
So, for at least the last 1,800
years, Jews have looked forward to
But here’s what else Rosh
Rosh Chodesh Nisan in order to
Chodesh Nisan brings – the oppor- observe the time-sensitive custom
tunity to perform a once-a-year
of reciting Birkat Ha’Ilanot.
mitzvah – saying Birkat Ha’Ilanot,
the Blessing of the Trees. W e say
This bracha, like all the blessings
this bracha when we encounter a
budding, blooming tree, and we are over food, smell, sight, and sound,
is meant to help us in our everyday
only permitted to say it in the
mindfulness. W e all need opportumonth of Nisan (although some
nities to enjoy the little things in
opinions say it extends into the
life, to literally stop and smell the
next month too).
blossoms of the flowering fruit
trees.
The blessing itself is beautiful.
There are trees that we pass every
day, and saying this bracha turns
those moments into opportunities
for blessing – by requiring us to
stop and give thanks.
This Nisan, even as we plan with
some trepidation to re-enter
“normal daily living,” may we also
take the opportunity to notice, and
to bless, what was around us all
along. To appreciate the moments
in which we can look around and
say: “Right here, right now, I am
not lacking. I have enough. I have
it all.”
Wishing you and your family the
blessings of a new month.
And a Zissen Pesach!
Rabbi Perlman
rabbiperlman@tbiport.org
Birkat Ha’Ilanot, Blessing of the Trees, is
recited upon seeing the first blossoms of a
fruit bearing tree.
ֹלהֵ ינּו מֶ לְֶך הָּ עֹולָּם שֶ ל ֹּא ִחסַ ר-בָּ רּוְך אַ תָּ ה ה' א
ְּבעֹולָּמֹו כְּ לּום ּובָּ ָּרא בֹו ְּב ִרּיֹות
טֹובֹות וְּ ִאילָּנֹות טֹובֹות לֵהָּ נֹות בָּ הֶ ם ְּבנֵי אָּ דָּ ם
APRIL 2022
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