"You shall not plant for yourselves an idolatrous tree, any tree, near the altar of G-d." (16:21)
In this week’s Torah portion, we learn that it is forbidden to plant trees in the Beit Hamikdash, the Holy Temple. What is the reason for this prohibition? Wouldn’t trees have been a wonderful way to enhance the beauty of the Holy Temple?
At one time, it was the custom of idolaters to plant beautiful trees, called asheirot, at the entrance of their temples. These trees would be venerated as holy. In the Book of Shoftim, G-d commanded the judge Gidon to "Destroy the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the asheira next to it."
The Torah prohibited the planting of any tree in the Beit Hamikdash or its forecourt. The Torah Masters then extended the prohibition to include the entire Temple Mount.
However, apart from the connection to idol worship, there is a subtler problem here.
When something is very beautiful, it’s always a challenge to place that thing in its correct perspective. Whether it’s a beautiful person, a beautiful view, or a beautiful tree, the nature of beauty is to say, "Look at me! I’m so beautiful." It’s difficult to look beyond the surface of the beauty.
In Hebrew, one of the words for beauty is shapir. The name Shifra comes from this root, as does the common Jewish surname Shapiro. In the Book of Iyov, it says, "By His breath the Heavens are spread (shifra)." (Iyov 26:13) Iyov describes how G-d’s breath spreads aside the cloud covers to reveal the Heavens beyond. The word to spread aside, to reveal, is from that same root, shifra. In Jewish thought, something is only beautiful to the extent that it reveals what is beyond, what is inside. The part of the body where the personality of a person, his inside, is revealed is the face. In Hebrew the root of the words for face and inside is the same: panim/pnim.
In Jewish thought, a beauty that reveals nothing more than itself cannot be called beautiful. "Art for art’s sake" has no place in the lexicon of Jewish thought. Jewish beauty is the revelation of what’s inside.
On Friday night, a Jewish husband sings a song of praise to wife called Aishet Chayil, a Woman of Valor. Towards the end of the poem, it says, "Charm is false and beauty empty. A woman who fears G-d, she should be praised." When charm and beauty don’t reveal their inner source, their pnim, then they are false and empty. Charm and beauty by themselves are false and empty, but when they are ennobled and animated by an interior life of holiness and spirituality, they radiate the purpose of their gift.
Similarly, in the Holy Temple, the beauty of a tree can lead the mind in one of two ways: It can lead to thoughts of the kindness of the Creator of the tree, how He brought into being such a beautiful thing, but there’s a danger that it will stop at the surface: "Wow! That’s beautiful!"
Mother Nature is so beautiful that it’s easy to forget that Mother Nature has a Father.
