Patience in the Book of Leviticus
“When you enter the land and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten.”
Reader, I have a confession to make. I find the book of Leviticus a bit boring and difficult to interpret. After the richness of Genesis and Exodus, Leviticus has proven a bit of a let down. Rule after rule about things I mostly cannot relate to—the text leaves me cold and dry. Reader, I made a commitment in the fall to read the entire Torah, parsha by parsha. I will keep that commitment, so I’m slagging through the last 3 Torah portions of Leviticus. I’m nearly finished reading Leviticus, the third of the five books of the Torah, aka Pentateuch. Occasionally a nugget of wisdom reveals itself from the mundane readings. Take a look.
The word used in the Hebrew text, erelim אראלים literally translates to uncircumcised.1 It has an association to the word orlah אורלה, which also means uncircumcised. Uncircumcised in this context refers to unsanctified, unused, or cut off from g-d, as unfit for consumption. Remember we are talking about the fruit borne by a tree in its first 3 years of life.
Typically a fruit tree produces small and subpar fruit in its first three years of life, the most important years of a tree’s life. Botanically speaking, in this early stage of a tree’s growth, much root development happens, in addition to balancing of soil nutrients and acidic balance, as well as balancing out of moisture content. The size and taste and quality of the fruit reflect these profound arboreal developmental changes. Such fruits would not be suitable offerings for g-d, and how could we eat from a tree whose fruit we haven’t yet offered as consecration to g-d? Alas, we must wait for the tree to reach a suitable stage of maturity before we begin eating its fruits.
Reader, can you see the lesson in this passage, in this instruction to wait three years before eating the fruit of a newly planted tree? Patience. It’s a thing I struggle with a great deal. What about you? Reader, remember in Genesis, when g-d instructed the first humans to wait and not eat the fruit of a particular tree in the Garden of Eden?
We can cleverly draw a connection between this passage from Leviticus and that passage from Genesis that instructed Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam and Eve couldn’t wait, they disobeyed, succumbing to temptation by the adversary. They ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil before its time. Midrashic sources tell us that, had they obeyed, had they believed and trusted in g-d’s commands with patience and steadfastness and self restraint, they would have been able to enjoy the fruit of that tree on sabbath day. G-d had a plan for the first humans, and they didn’t believe in Him enough to see these plans come to fruition.
Adam and Eve didn’t have enough faith, they didn’t have enough patience to trust g-d and take Him at his word. We often behave like impulsive and impatient children who want to taste what life has to offer—right now now this minute no I cannot wait, says the child. Often this childish haste comes at a cost.
So, in Leviticus 19:23-25 g-d instructs Moshe and Aaron and Bnei Yisrael to wait before tasting the fruit of their newly planted trees after they enter the Promised Land. As an aside, note that neither Moshe nor Aaron saw the Promised Land because they disobeyed g-d — in order to find water for the Israelites Moshe and Aaron struck the rock at rather than speaking to it as g-d instructed them to do.
So, back to the fruit trees.
Impatience and impulsivity have a cost. Waiting with steadfastness, moral courage, and trust in the process reaps rewards. Sometimes we aren’t ready even though we feel like we are ready. Sometimes we don’t need that thing even though consumed by a burning desire. Sometimes impatience erodes our resolve. Sometimes impatience corrodes our process.
“But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you do not.” (Quran 2:216)
Reader, remember The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, from the Disney Fantasia movie? You can catch a short clip above. Mickey was impatient and eager to become a great sorcerer like his master. Things got out of hand, though, and he got into big trouble he couldn’t fix on his own. That’s what happens when we let impatience rule us, we find ourselves over our head.
What would happen if we resisted the urge to harvest and partake of the premature or young fruits of our gifts and skills? What would happen if we simply resisted the strong urge to hasten the process of growth and development? Why do we think we know better than nature does? Why do we think we know better than our elders and mentors? Why do we think we know better than the Universal Programmer? Readers who are Christian will know that Jesus waited 3 decades before revealing Himself and beginning His ministry.
“When you enter the land and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten.”
Reader, how can we apply that lesson in our daily lives? How can we apply that lesson with ourselves, in our internal environment? How can we apply that lesson in our connection to ourselves, with respect to our response to our thoughts and feelings and emotions? How can we apply that lesson to temptation we face all around us? Can you wait before taking that next cigarette, or beer, or chocolate bar, or cannabis cigarette? Can you wait before saying or tweeting that asshole thing that’s pressing your brain down? Can you wait before giving into the lustful thought that would derail you from your commitment to your spouse or vocational or ethical endeavour? Can you wait before buying that frivolous thing you think you really need and must have?
Reader, wait. Just wait. It’s good for your soul.
I’m gonna pause here and state for the record here that I don’t believe in circumcision as a practise forced upon male humans and I don’t believe the foreskin is bad or unclean, that’s silly superstition that I pragmatically cannot endorse and never have done. Amputation of healthy body parts for a tribal ritual I find repugnant and extreme. So, that part of the biblical interpretation I reject. Just gonna get that out of the way now. I judge no one who follows that belief of circumcision as a religious obligation, I acknowledge we each have our own observances we follow and that’s fine. I’m simply not inclined to entertain that interpretation in my biblical literary analysis, so reader, don’t expect it or you will find yourself disappointed.