If you follow My laws and are careful to keep My commandments, I will provide you with rain at the right time, so that the land will bear its crops and the trees of the field will provide fruit? (Leviticus 26:3-4).
Rashi comments: ??If you follow My laws?: If you study Torah diligently, then ?the trees will provide fruit? ? even shade trees will bear fruit. Conversely, ?if you do not listen to Me? and you instead denigrate My decrees? (ibid., 26:14-15), then ?your land will not yield its crops, and the trees of the land will not produce fruit? (verse 20).?
Rashi adds that if the land does produce fruit, that fruit will fall off the tree early.
It is well known that man is compared to a tree. Some people are compared to the ?tree of the field,? i.e., shade trees. They have little talent, intelligence or self-esteem. They are unsuccessful in life. They ?bear little fruit.? Other people are compared to the ?tree of the land,? i.e., the fruit tree. That type of person is blessed with talent and high potential, and seemingly should be headed for success.
The Torah informs us that even if an adult or child is a ?shade tree,? if he toils diligently to study Torah, he will turn into a ?tree of the land,? a fruit-bearing tree. Conversely, if someone is more the ?fruit-bearing tree,? if he does not toil to study Torah, he will turn into a barren shade tree, or his fruit will fall off his tree early. The key to a person?s success is not just his natural talents, but more especially the degree to which he is privileged to toil at Torah learning.
Today, the State of Israel is investing 25 billion shekels [5.8 billion US dollars] each year in education. Yet sometimes one gets the feeling that its education system is barren, both in moral and spiritual terms, and in terms of its general intellectual achievements.
The way for that education to ?bear fruit,? in terms of producing a visible change in pupils? moral behavior and the way they relate to their fellow man, their parents, their people and their land, is for those pupils to study Torah diligently. Torah is the ?tree of life for those who grasp it? (Proverbs 3:18). It grants life to the whole society and to the individual.
We have to effect a major change in education in the State of Israel. We have to return to Judaism, to return to study of our holy Torah, to return to our roots. Then, through us will be fulfilled the prophet?s words:
?As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the L-rd: My spirit it is which shall be upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your children, nor from the mouth of your children?s children, says the L-rd, henceforth and forever? (Isaiah 59:20).
Rashi comments: ??If you follow My laws?: If you study Torah diligently, then ?the trees will provide fruit? ? even shade trees will bear fruit. Conversely, ?if you do not listen to Me? and you instead denigrate My decrees? (ibid., 26:14-15), then ?your land will not yield its crops, and the trees of the land will not produce fruit? (verse 20).?
Rashi adds that if the land does produce fruit, that fruit will fall off the tree early.
It is well known that man is compared to a tree. Some people are compared to the ?tree of the field,? i.e., shade trees. They have little talent, intelligence or self-esteem. They are unsuccessful in life. They ?bear little fruit.? Other people are compared to the ?tree of the land,? i.e., the fruit tree. That type of person is blessed with talent and high potential, and seemingly should be headed for success.
The Torah informs us that even if an adult or child is a ?shade tree,? if he toils diligently to study Torah, he will turn into a ?tree of the land,? a fruit-bearing tree. Conversely, if someone is more the ?fruit-bearing tree,? if he does not toil to study Torah, he will turn into a barren shade tree, or his fruit will fall off his tree early. The key to a person?s success is not just his natural talents, but more especially the degree to which he is privileged to toil at Torah learning.
Today, the State of Israel is investing 25 billion shekels [5.8 billion US dollars] each year in education. Yet sometimes one gets the feeling that its education system is barren, both in moral and spiritual terms, and in terms of its general intellectual achievements.
The way for that education to ?bear fruit,? in terms of producing a visible change in pupils? moral behavior and the way they relate to their fellow man, their parents, their people and their land, is for those pupils to study Torah diligently. Torah is the ?tree of life for those who grasp it? (Proverbs 3:18). It grants life to the whole society and to the individual.
We have to effect a major change in education in the State of Israel. We have to return to Judaism, to return to study of our holy Torah, to return to our roots. Then, through us will be fulfilled the prophet?s words:
?As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the L-rd: My spirit it is which shall be upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your children, nor from the mouth of your children?s children, says the L-rd, henceforth and forever? (Isaiah 59:20).