embrace the potential of each generation of seeds

In this New Year,
may we embrace the potential of
each generation of seeds to
transform the fields of our planet for good.
May these seeds yield
growth, blessing, repair, and peace.

A con­tem­po­rary view of this verse stress­es the sym­bol­ic nature of trees: “the anthro­po­mor­phic form of trees, which like peo­ple have roots (feet), a trunk (body), branch­es (hands), twigs (fin­gers), and leaves (hair).” (Prof. Shai Secun­da of Bard College)

This idea of human­iz­ing trees is at the core of the poem by award-win­ning Israeli poet Natan Zach titled “Tree of the Field.” Writ­ten after the 1982 Israeli war with Lebanon and set to music by Shalom Chanoch, it became a nation­al song of grief.

In prepar­ing this year’s card, I extend this metaphor. As the tree sym­bol­izes humans, the field rep­re­sents our nat­ur­al world, a sym­bi­ot­ic relationship.

In this year’s card the Hebrew let­ters that spell tree: עץ (in script form, with the ע invert­ed) depict the tree. Sim­i­lar­ly, the script of the let­ters that spell [grass­es of] the field: השדה por­tray the field.

A num­ber of ren­di­tions of the song are avail­able on YouTube:

Amer­i­can Can­tor Azi Schwartz:

Israeli singer Shalom Chanoch

Israeli singer Nurit Galron

initial concept

At the Jan­u­ary 2023 gath­er­ing of the Pacif­ic Asso­ci­a­tion of Reform Rab­bis, I par­tic­i­pat­ed in a work­shop on cre­ativ­i­ty and the rab­binate. We were offered a prompt. Com­bin­ing Gen­e­sis 2:9 and Deuteron­o­my 20:19, I drew:

I imag­ined the “tree of the field” as the tree of the knowl­edge of good and evil in the cen­ter of the garden.

The image and the thought were too com­plex to fit into my 4″ x 6″ format:

settling on simple

the cut blocks:

the prints: