Dear Friends:
In high school, many years and many lifestyles ago, I was manager of the Junior Varsity Basketball Team. Our coach was a student from a nearby college, who inspired us with a great proverb, “When you think you’re green, you’re growing. When you think you’re ripe, you’re rotten.” I mention this in my book, FROM CENTRAL PARK TO SINAI, not only because this aphorism played a part in my life, but because it’s so true!
As we prepare for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, this phrase came to mind. As our Teacher Moses (lehavdil) warns us, “You may say in your heart, ‘My strength and the might of my hand made me all this wealth….’” (Deuteronomy 8:17) If we believe that our power got us where we are, we are in trouble. If we are willing to admit that we are “green,” the very knowledge of our inadequacy may propel us to higher levels.
My wife and I did some hiking recently on Storm King Mountain in the Mid-Hudson Valley. It was shortly after Hurricane Irene, and many trees had fallen in the forest. I started thinking about what determines which tree will stand and which will fall in a storm. Just then we came to a large tree lying across the trail. We looked up and saw that the trunk had actually split, probably some thirty feet above the ground. I examined the fallen trunk to investigate why that particular tree had been vulnerable. The answer was clear: the wood inside the trunk had rotted; the interior appeared to have been eaten away by insects.
Suddenly, I realized that this is a parable for our own process of self-evaluation during the days before Rosh Hashana! This tree looked healthy from the outside, like any other tree, but in fact its insides were disintegrating. When the storm arose, this tree had no strength to stand before the wind that G-d sent into the world.
What a lesson! We may look good on the outside, but what is going on inside? Do we try to purify ourselves and work on our personality? If we don’t work on improving the hidden aspects of our beings that are seen only by us and by G-d, then how will we survive when the storm winds blow?
In the accompanying pictures, you will see the broken trunk lying on the ground and the rotted wood that was exposed when it split off and fell. I thought about how we grow upon the roots of our holy ancestors, beginning with the merits we have inherited from our Patriarchs and Matriarchs. They anchor us in the soil of Torah. But if we allow ourselves to become internally weak, G-d forbid, then their merits will no longer support us.
There was something else interesting about this hike. The trail was frequently obscure, the only guide being blaze marks on the trees, made by those who had laid out the trail originally. This is indeed how the Children of Israel has found our way through the forest of life: we have followed the trustworthy trail marked out for us by the prophets, rabbis and ancestors who have walked before us.
In next week’s Parsha we read “Perhaps there is among you a man or woman, or a family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from being with Hashem … a root flourishing with gall and wormwood.” (29:17) Rashi says this refers to a person “who increases wickedness in your midst….” Such a person excuses himself by thinking “peace will be with me, even though I walk as my heart sees fit.” (29:18) In other words, I can live as I wish; I don’t have to follow G-d’s dictates. My deeds will be hidden. I can take my own path, and I will still get to a good
place. The truth is, however, that if we don’t follow the path our ancestors have laid out for us, we will become hopelessly lost, G-d forbid!
King David, in the very first chapter of the Psalms, compares the ideal man to a “tree deeply rooted alongside brooks of water, that yields its fruit in its season and whose leaf never withers; and everything that he does will succeed.”
My friends, G-d put us into this beautiful world. He enabled us to stand upon the firm roots of our Patriarchs and Matriarchs, through whom we absorb Torah, the sustenance we need to survive. During the Month of Elul we have the honor, privilege and responsibility to delve within ourselves to consider whether or not our “wood” is healthy! At night we say Selichos. In the quiet period afforded by the darkness, we can examine our insides, our habits, our desires, the condition of our heart, the motivation for our actions. We can ask ourselves whether we are acting out of selfishness or kindness, whether we believe in the complete rulership of the Master of the Universe, whether we are totally committed to fulfilling His Torah.
Only we – and our Father in Heaven – can tell what is really going on inside us. May we succeed in purifying ourselves and filling ourselves with Torah, so that if – G-d forbid – a storm approaches, we can stand solidly against the wind and live to inherit the day “which is completely good.”
© Copyright 2011 by Roy S. Neuberger
