According to the simple meaning of the text in Genesis, God created a lovely garden in Eden for the purpose of beautifying the land for humanity, as well as to provide sustenance and nourishment. Placed in the middle of the Garden is what God called the "Tree of Life". Throughout history, Jewish scholars have interpreted these words to directly apply to the Torah, the Hebrew Bible. In the way a tree can sustain a person's physical life, by providing food, shade or wood, how much more so can God's Torah, which is the source of the richest spiritual nourishment for the soul. For this reason, trees are not only a valuable asset to the Holy Land, giving a means of livelihood through its entire being, but a truly cherished symbol of the Torah as the single most precious commodity since the beginning of time. With the New Year under way, adding trees to Israel's landscape is a way of saying "I am devoting my life to God's Torah."
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