Tu Bishvat-Trees & Humans Part Four
Transcribed by Michael Beller: So if we are right it has to be that the earth itself produced the sin. The groundwork for the sin predates Adam. When God originally told the trees how to grow, He told then to grow so that the bark was as edible as the fruit. The trees did not listen, because they said if we grow the way that God wants us to grow then nobody will climb to get the fruit they will just eat the bark and we will die.
There was one place where the trees grew the way they were supposed to, and that was in the Garden of Eden, because God was the gardener of the Garden of Eden so the trees did not have to worry about dying. When God said to the trees I want your bark to be as edible as your fruit, God is saying that I want your potential to be totally consistent with you, whatever you do has to be a total expression of who you are and what you are.
Tu b’Shevat is the day we ask ourselves, Do you want your full potential to be actualized or not.
Therefore Tu b’Shevat is a day of tremendous introspection, it’s a day to seriously consider what are my strengths what can I do to nurture those strengths?