Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
Parshat Bechukotai begins with the promise that if we observe Hashem's decrees and commandments, He will provide "rains in their time, and the land [will] give its produce and the tree of the field will give its fruit..." One would not think that following spiritual pursuits would result in material well being, as implied in this promise. However, Rabbi Pam zt”l explains that Rambam answers our question by positing that our commitment to following Hashem's dictates serves as a catalyst for Hashem's removing impediments to our observance and spiritual growth. By removing our concern and providing for our physical and material needs, and by removing fear of our enemies, Hashem is removing the stumbling blocks to our Torah learning and observance. This is the blessing of peace and prosperity that we will ultimately experience in the era of Moshiach, a time when we will be able to serve Hashem wholeheartedly.
While most of these blessings are self explanatory, our Sages question the terminology of "the trees of the field." After all, aren't trees in the field? Actually, trees in an orchard bear fruit, but a tree of the field often does not. But Rashi explains that even these trees of the field will be destined to bear fruit. However, if trees of the field do not naturally bear fruit, how can the Torah say the tree of the field will bear its fruit, implying that it already does so? Rabbi Druck explains this seeming contradiction by referring to creation, when all trees bore fruit. Only after Adam's sin was the earth cursed so that not all trees continued to bear fruit. This original nature, according to Rambam, will return with the coming of Moshiach when all trees will again bear fruit.
The difference between the world before the sin and our world lies in time. There was conception and immediate birth, not a nine month pregnancy, writes Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz zt”l in Daas Torah. [According to the Gemarra and many medrashic sources, either only Kayin, or both Kayin and Hevel with their twins were born before the expulsion from Gan Eden. The element of a time lapse, a nine month pregnancy, was introduced after the sin. CKS] Similarly, planting trees and realizing its fruit now takes years. These two elements, immediacy and time lapse, both continue to exist. We say "ישועת ה כהרך עין /God's salvation happens in the blink of an eye." Our redemption from Egypt happened in the blink of an eye, at midnight. Our journey to the Promised Land was supposed to take only three days after Sinai. But the sin of the golden calf introduced the time element of forty years until the nation would be ready and "ripe enough" to enter the Land.
But we live in a world of sin, and that sin creates barriers that slow the progress of salvation. Sin is the leavening that now makes time necessary for things to mature and come to fruition.
Our parshah is telling us that if we observe Hashem's mitzvoth, we will enter the dimension of quick time; if we do not follow Hashem's commandments, we remain in the dimension of necessary time lapse of the natural world, with the yetzer horo adding the leavening.
Rabbi Grosbard zt”l explains that if we invest our time and effort in serving Hashem and actualizing our spiritual potential, Hashem will invest Himself in our effort so that it we will need less time for our physical needs. Just as our potential toward spirituality can be actualized, so too can the trees' potential to bear fruit be actualized. When we do all we can for spirituality, the world will do all it can. It is up to us us to draw out that original goodness, writes Rabbi Mintzberg zt”l.
Using the creation narrative, and citing Rashi and the medrashim, Rabbi Rivlin interprets our verse allegorically. When Hashem created trees, Hashem created them with three conditions: the bark would have the same taste as the tree, the trees would bear fruit immediately, and all trees would bear fruit. Rav Kook zt"l explains the symbolic argument between the trees and the Creator. While the fruit is the result, the bark and branches indicate the process. According to the tree's argument, all that matters is the end result. Hashem's response is that the process itself is fundamental for the development of the fruit. Based on its argument, the tree therefore "refused" to have its bark taste like the fruit. It is this lesson which we must take to heart in our performance of mitzvoth. While we give great importance to and take pleasure in mitzvah performance we should feel the same joy and render equal importance to mitzvah preparation, to buying the lulav and etrog, to preparing the Chanukah menorah, to cooking for Shabbat, and even to cleaning for Pesach. With the intrusion of sin, we began to disconnect the process that enables the mitzvah from the mitzvah itself, forfeiting the joy we should feel in the preparation process.
A tree, even without fruit, declares the glory of God, but we do not hear it. Without sin, we would have lived in a world of clear reward and punishment, where everything screams out the unmistakable glory of God. Just as the tree began using its own "reasoning" to argue with Hashem, so did Adam, learning from the tree, question Hashem, sin and eat of the tree. The lines between process and goal were blurred.
Our Prophets emphasize the connection between the trees' fruitfulness in Eretz Yisroel and the redemption. The fruitful trees are a symbol of our clear and close connection to Hashem.
Actually, the blessings Hashem promises here begin not with the trees and the produce, but with rain. Rav Schlesinger uses the Chasam Sofer 's zt”l innovative interpretation to explain the connections within these verses. While our verse here presents the blessing of rain, we recite the contrasting verses daily in the Shema: "Beware... lest you turn astray and serve other gods... Then the wrath of God will blaze against you. He will restrain the heavens so there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its produce."
What the Chasam Sofer zt”l suggests is that the rain cycle is not bounded by the seas and the heavens, but includes also the vapor emitted from human speech. When we speak loshon horo, even the negative speech that we may not consider sinful loshon horo, the mist released from our bodies contains a negative quality that enters into the water cycle. To prevent our ingesting this negative energy, Hashem restricts the rainfall so that the vegetables and fruit we consume do not absorb this water in their growth, and we do not incorporate it into our selves. On the other hand, the vapor emanating from our mouths when we study Torah enters the water cycle as positive energy. When both positive and negative speech produce water into the cycle, we have trees that produce fruit and trees that do not produce fruit.
Rabbi Birnbaum zt”l understands that there are simple people who do not learn Torah, but he envisions a future where everyone will learn Torah, every Jew, like the tree of the field, will bear fruit. As Rabbi Tuvia Weiss zt”l explains, no one should give up on Torah learning, not on himself and certainly not a teacher regarding his students. With proper effort and cultivation, every Jew, even the simple one, can produce some juicy Torah fruit. Hashem promises, if you put in the effort, you will bear fruit.
Indeed, "Man is the tree of the field," writes Leket Imrei Kodesh, and each soul will return to its perfected state, will actualize its potential and contribute its unique fruit. As Rabbi Schwartzman zt”l explains, no man is empty. Every person, like every tree, has potential to contribute according to his own nature. Do not negate the possibilities within any individual.
This was what transpired at Sinai. When we accepted the Torah at Sinai, we returned to the state of perfected Man, of Adam before the sin. That was why all were blind or deaf was cured, could see and hear. The physical perfection was connected to the spiritual perfection Hashem had created in Adam, writes Rabbi Friefeld zt”l. That is why there are 248 positive mitzvoth to correspond to 248 limbs and organs in the human body, and 365 negative commandments that correspond to the 365 blood vessels. The physical, human body is intimately connected to the spiritual, human, Godly soul. This is the perfected form of Man Hashem had envisioned; this is the perfected person, a person who strives for impeccable middot to match perfected mitzvah observance. This is our challenge as we near Shavuot, the anniversary of our receiving he Torah.
Moshiach is not about enjoying the pleasures of the physical world. It is about restoring the image of Man that Hashem created as His blueprint in creating Man.
Rabbi Wallerstein zt"l urges us never to give up on ourselves. We can rise above the sky. [Indeed, Hashem raised Avraham Avinu above the stars. CKS] Like the trees of the field, each of us has unlimited potential. Believe in yourself, your children, your students. Help them and ourselves grow the special, unique fruit within each of us.