If a tree was created for us to enjoy and if in fact many of the brachos we recite are expressions of thanks over Hashem’s beautiful world why does the mishnah impose a stricture? Why does a person “forfeit his life” if he stops for a moment to admire a beautiful tree?
At first glance a mishnah in this week’s third chapter of Pirkei Avos is disturbing. The mishnah says “When a person is walking along the road and reviewing his learning and he interrupts his learning to say ‘What a beautiful tree! What a beautiful field!’ he is considered by Scripture as one who forfeits his life” (Avos 3:7).
This seems baffling. Are we really forbidden to enjoy the beauty of This World to delight in the marvels of nature? Didn’t Chazal enjoin us to open our eyes and hearts to the wonderful world around us and draw from its pleasures — in a permissible way of course — and chiefly to bless and thank the Creator for every pleasure that comes our way?
Many of the brachos we recite are expressions of thanks for various elements of the physical world in which we live. In fact one of those brachos is a blessing upon viewing beautiful trees. Halachah bids us to say Bircas Ha’ilanos in the spring the time when the fruit trees first come into bloom each year. Look at its wording and see the clear implication that Judaism expects us to take pleasure in nature: “Blessed are You… Who has omitted nothing in His world and has created in it good creations and good trees by which to give pleasure to people.”
If a tree was created for us to enjoy why does the mishnah impose a stricture? Why does a person “forfeit his life” if he stops for a moment to admire a beautiful tree?
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Looking more deeply into the sources we find that taking pleasure in contemplating nature is actually an obligation — a religious obligation that is vital to any person striving for righteousness. Our Torah Sages emphasize the value of connecting with nature as an important factor in developing a well-balanced personality.
For example Rabi Avraham son of the Rambam writes that delighting in natural scenery is a necessary component of religious and intellectual growth: “And therefore even the most venerable important and learned of men including the most pious and righteous among them take pleasure and delight in viewing green lawns beautiful gardens flowing streams and such” (HaMaspik L’Ovdei Hashem).
In modern times Rav Yosef Leib Bloch founder of the Telshe Yeshivah in Lithuania and a leading mussar personality spoke of the importance of the aesthetic sense as a means of serving Hashem. He writes:
“The way of a great person is to live with full use of all his powers to be aware of and sensitive to everything. He should not suppress those feelings but rather the greater he becomes the more alive and developed those feelings — and his sense of beauty too — become. He is stirred by the sight of a glorious natural landscape or the sound of a pleasant melody. And when he sees an exceedingly beautiful creature he is deeply affected… and he knows how to use this emotion for the most elevated purpose — recognition of the Creator. Not only does this not harm him or bring him down from his high level but on the contrary he raises that emotion and in turn is raised with it using it as a medium through which to contemplate Hashem and His greatness.” (Shiurei Daas Vol. I p. 194)
Actually this idea goes all the way back to Gan Eden. Among the words that describe Gan Eden we find the phrase “Every tree that was pleasant to see and good for eating” (Bereishis 2:9). What does this pasuk teach us?
According to Rav Hirsch “The garden supplied all of man’s physical needs yet Scripture places the words ‘pleasant to see’ before ‘good for eating.’ That is satisfying the sense of beauty precedes satisfying the desire for food. And here too man’s preeminence over all other species is revealed. Many forms of beauty are revealed in the creation of our world but man is the only creature that is able to enjoy beauty. This shows the importance of the aesthetic sense to man’s ethical purpose. Joy in the beauty of nature brings us to enjoyment of ethical beauty as well. Man’s joy in aesthetic harmony is closely related to his joy in ethical harmony.” (Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch on the Torah)
And the Maharal of Prague says that the beauty of nature that gives us pleasure and stirs our hearts is a revelation of the Shechinah in the inanimate world.
Similarly the Malbim once told his family to rise early in the morning and dress in their Shabbos clothes because they were going to greet an important guest. At dawn he led them outside to greet the guest — the sunrise.
So why then did the Tanna Rabi Yaakov forbid a person to say “What a beautiful tree!”?
Let’s have another look at the mishnah: “When a person is walking along the road and reviewing his learning and he interrupts his learning to say ‘What a beautiful tree…” It could not be that it is prohibited to admire and delight in the stunning and varied beauty of nature because as we have seen it is a mitzvah. But the Tanna is clearly teaching something deaper: If you are pondering words of Torah as you walk and you stop your learning and shift your thoughts to the blossoming trees the lovely blue sky the greenery of a park or the pounding of waves on the beach you have put the means in place of the end.
Yes aesthetic pleasure is an exceedingly important power of the human soul — but not as a value that stands on its own. It is meant to serve a purpose. It is vital for the perfection of man who is created in G?d’s Image but it must serve that perfection namely the ethical beauty in a person’s heart which is the gateway to avodas Hashem. And therefore while a person is occupied with Torah learning he must not allow himself to neglect the Torah and instead turn his attention to the beauty of nature. If you are doing that says the Tanna then your understanding of the proper place of Torah in your life is not as clear as it ought to be. Is it any wonder that in such a case you forfeit your life?
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But there is still a deeper level to explore and that is the seeming contradiction between Torah and life between religion and science. Note that the Tanna speaks of a person who interrupts his learning. Saying “What a beautiful tree!” is a mitzvah. To say yes to the enjoyments of life within the limits set by the Torah is to do Hashem’s Will and the blessings we say when indulging in various pleasures bring the spiritual dimension of grateful acknowledgment of Hashem into these pleasures.
But as Rav Shlomo Zalman Breuer Rav Hirsh’s son-in-law explains if a person thinks he should stop his learning — in other words leave Torah and mitzvos — in order to sip from the flow of abundance that life offers if he sees a contradiction between the two then “he is considered by Scripture as one who forfeits his life.” For this means that he understands neither Torah nor life.
Life says the Rambam is like a stoked blazing oven. A person who leans up against the oven will be badly burned. On the other hand a person who moves far away from the oven will suffer from the cold. A wise person with a clear view of reality one who knows the laws of nature and the workings of his body will place himself at the ideal distance from the oven where he will benefit from its heat and not get burned.
So it is with life. If a person withdraws out of fear of life’s temptations his natural powers will become frozen within withering his soul and distorting his moral compass.
On the other hand if a person becomes addicted to unbridled fulfillment of every desire if he takes indulgence to an extreme he will be consumed by the fire of his passions.
The mishnah in Avos is giving us a third way. It is telling us that one does not have to stop learning in order to say “What a beautiful tree!” One does not have to reject the Torah and its ethics in order to fully express one’s creative powers. On the contrary the Torah gives man the correct boundaries the dimension of depth and the true measuring tools that will allow him to maximize and enjoy life to the fullest. It will prevent him from slipping to either extreme.
Torah learning — meaning Judaism and all its mitzvos — may seem to some like a barrier against enjoying life. But ultimately it is in fact that very Torah that keeps us at the ideal distance — where we will enjoy the warmth of all the good things the Creator made for us. —
Food
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Thought
As soon as a person says good morning to his friend he already needs to ask his forgiveness; perhaps he hasn’t shown him enough respect.
(Rav Yisrael Salanter)