RAV KOOK ON Tu Bishvat Part 2: Planting a Tree in Magdiel

“At every possible occasion,” wrote Rabbi Ze'ev Gold, “I tell the story of the remarkable lesson I was privileged to learn from our great master, the gaon and holy Rav Kook, may the memory of the righteous be a blessing.” Rabbi Gold (1889-1956), a leader of the religious-Zionist Mizrahi movement, once accompanied the Chief Rabbi to the community of Magdiel1 in the Sharon area. The rabbis were invited to plant saplings in an official ceremony to inaugurate a new forest. As Rav Kook was handed a sampling to plant, Rabbi Gold was amazed to see the rabbi’s reaction. His face shone like a burning torch, and his entire body quivered with excitement. He did not use the hoe he had been provided, but knelt down to the soil and dug a hole in the earth with his bare hands. Hands shaking, he reverently placed the sampling in the ground, while murmuring his gratitude to God for the privilege of planting a tree in the Holy Land. On the trip back to Jerusalem, Rabbi Gold turned to the Chief Rabbi. “Why did you exhibit such deep emotions when you planted a tree into the ground? Nowadays, thank God, hundreds of trees are planted every day in the Land of Israel!”