Torah: What Seeds Have You Planted?
When you shall come into the Land, and you shall plant all types of food trees, you shall regard its fruits as uncircumcised (orlah); for three years they shall be uncircumcised to you, they shall not be eaten. (Vayikra 19:23)
Two years ago, before studying at the Conservative Yeshiva, I spent a week volunteering on a vineyard in the Galilee. Working there was a transformational moment for me; I felt in some small way that I was like one of the early pioneers (albeit in much better living conditions), tilling the land and helping to make my ancestral homeland bloom. I harvested the grapes, painted the new building where the grapes were stored, and took the UTV out on the Israel trail to see the beautiful sites around me. It happened that my visit coincided with Tisha B’av, our day of commemoration for many of the worst tragedies to befall the Jewish people. That afternoon, while still fasting, I got up and went to work on the land. In that moment, I felt the contrast between Jewish helplessness and Jewish power. Here I was, on the saddest day of the Jewish year, living in the Jewish state, working the land to make it blossom!
Unbeknownst to me, I was actually fulfilling the mitzvah of planting fruit trees in the land (and also, incidentally, coming into the Land willingly). On the above verse, the Or HaChayim (1696-1743, Morocco and Jerusalem) taught,
Three mitzvot are enumerated here: 1) To come into the Land [willingly], as Chazal (the Rabbis) say, ‘Anyone can force [others] to ascend to Eretz Yisrael’ (Ketubot 110b). 2) To plant all types of food trees, in order to enhance the Land. 3) To keep the laws of Orlah.
He teaches from our verse that in Eretz Yisrael, it is a mitzvah to plant trees, and not just regular trees, but trees that bear all types of foods. Like our Creator, who in the story of creation planted trees in the Garden and commanded them to sprout fruits according to their kind, we should plant in Eretz Yisrael. Indeed, Vayikra Rabbah (25:3) brings a Midrash teaching us thus.
Yehudah ben Simon began: ‘You shall follow the Lord your God’ (Devarim 13:5). Is it possible for flesh and blood to follow the Holy One Blessed be He… Rather, this means that at the beginning of creation the Holy One Blessed be He engaged in planting first, as it says, ‘The Lord God planted a garden in Eden (Bereshit 2:8). Similarly, when you enter the Land, engage in planting first, as it says, ‘When you shall come into the Land, and you shall plant’ (Vayikra 19:23).
Not only are we commanded to plant, teaches the Midrash, but in the very act of planting we are emulating the Holy Creator. Two years ago, by beginning my year harvesting grapes, I was claiming my stake in the Land and doing my part to manifest the Divine presence in this often troubled land.
As we approach Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, it is important to be grateful for the miracles that occurred and the sacrifices of many thousands who died in creating and sustaining this Jewish state of ours. However, we must also take an active role, planting anew and sowing the seeds for our own vision for what the Jewish state could be.
This Yom Ha’Atzmaut, ask yourself, what seeds have you planted? And may the Holy Blessing One bless us that we may taste of the sweet fruits that we have planted.
T’fillah: The Proper Intention
“When you sacrifice an offering of well-being to the LORD, sacrifice it so that it may be accepted on your behalf” (Vayikra 19:5).
Throughout the Talmud, there is a tension between being commanded to say the prayers and needing the proper kavannah, intention, while saying it. On the one hand, we’re commanded to say the prayers at their proper times. But if we didn’t have the proper intention, do we have to pray again?
One such example is found in Talmud Berakhot 16a (you can find the full text here). The sages are debating the Mishnah, which claims that laborers can recite the Shema while standing on precarious surfaces. The Gemara then asks, can it be true that they didn’t require kavannah, proper intention, to say the Shema? No, they resolve, the workers can only recite it when they are idle from their work, so that they can focus their hearts. Here, the Rabbis define proper intention as refraining from thoughts of physical work and to focus on the words of the prayers themselves.
On the above pasuk, Rashi comments: “From the very outset, you must slaughter the sacrifice with the intent that [it is for the purpose of causing] contentment [to God, as it were,] for your acceptance [by the Divine]. For if you think an invalidating thought regarding it, [says God,] the sacrifice will not gain your acceptance before Me.” According to Rashi, a person must intend that the sacrifice will actually be a sacrifice when it’s killed. You can’t accidentally kill an animal, and then decide you want to offer it. As we’ve established in previous weeks, prayer is based at least in part off of the sacrificial system. So it’s interesting to note that here, in sacrifice, proper intent is necessary for the sacrifice to be accepted; merely offering it is not sufficient.
Just like in sacrifice, prayer too requires proper intent, namely, to block out our mental to-do lists and to focus on the words of the prayer themselves. The Rabbis recognized that this is really tough though, so they restricted the amount of liturgy that we truly need to have full attention for to a minimum. However, the ideal is to be present for as much of our prayer as possible, both with the words of the text and our personal response to them. Start small. You can begin with the first words of the Shema or the first blessing of the Amida, and work your way up from there.
May the words of ours mouths and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to you, O Lord.
Sam Blustin is an alumnus of the Conservative Yeshiva (2014-2015) and a current Rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary (Class of 2020). You can view more divrei Torah at www.samblustin.com or contact Sam directly at samblustin@gmail.com.
