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Good Morning,

Tonight brings the Jewish Festival of Tu Bishevat, the New Year for Trees. Originally a date in the agricultural tax year, it’s become a time for celebrating trees and all the natural world.
The authors of the Hebrew Bible were deeply connected to the hills and fields. Nature provided the context for the life of the spirit. The soul searching for God was like ‘a deer longing for pools of water’; the tall date-palm symbolised the uprightness of the just.

Those authors understood the rhythms of planting and harvest. The earth was the Lord’s; its crops were a gift. The corners of the fields had to be left for the homeless and refugees, tithes given to the poor. Rainfall or drought were signs of God’s pleasure or displeasure with our conduct.

The Bible’s conclusion was simple: ‘The king is subservient to the field’. So are prime ministers and presidents.

Most of us no longer experience that link between God and produce; we dismiss the notion that social justice affects the perfect annual rainfall. Yet many farmers are returning to the awareness that agriculture is a spiritual matter, the privilege of custodianship of a corner of God’s earth.

City-dwellers know, too, that we need our trees and parks to nourish not only our bodies but our souls. We must return to a humbler, more respectful relationship with land.

The earth is crying out in warning; God, make us listen.