Expert: Rabbi Barry Dov Lerner - 7/12/2011

Question
Five of us friends went together to get a friend, she is Jewish though she does not attend services, to have a town tree planted in her honor. One of the other people in our group also is Jewish. Our birthday girl was furious, saying that the Jewish tradition is that trees are planted only in remembrance of dead Jews. We all were shocked, and since then, I've found online discussions related to Jewish Arbor Day, other notices of ways to give to plant trees in Israel, etc.

So, were we really offending Jewish custom and tradition, not to mention the Old Testament, by having the town plant a tree in her honor?

Please help us answer this one, and thanks. We feel very badly. Thanks for your help

Answer
Dear Amy,

Thank you for writing.

In brief, it is a misconception that trees are planted only in memory of someone. If you share the following URL with your friend she will immediately see - if she is sufficiently open-minded - that you accepted properly and with an intention to honor her:

https://secure2.convio.net/jnf/site/Ecommerce?store_id=3181&VIEW_DEFAULT=true&FOLDER=&TYPE=Tree%20Certificates&NAME=&JServSessionIdr004=9y577mj1r3.app225a

As the page pronounces in the center:  

"Planting a tree in Israel is the perfect way to show you care. You can plant trees for many different reasons and help green the land of Israel while sending a special gift to a friend or loved one. For each order, a beautiful certificate of your choice is mailed to the recipient with your own personal message. Plant trees for all of these occasions: birth, Bar or Bat Mitzvah, graduation, wedding, birthday, get-well wish, or in memory of someone special. Over the last 100 years, JNF has planted over 240 million trees in the land of Israel."

For at least 2000 years Jews have planted trees when children were born:  

According to the Talmud, TB Gittin 57a, it was a custom in Betar, a city in ancient Israel, to plant a cedar tree when a boy was born and a pine tree when a girl was born. When they grew up and were to be married, the trees were cut down and used to make the chuppah poles.

And so, your friend should realize that trees are planted today in Israel for multiple reasons, and the ultimate goal is to restore and invigorate the land of Israel  once again through reforestation. In addition, we have all learned since that we don't just plant pine trees but rather a variety of woodland growth enabling the land to recover from natural disaster and hopefully from human caused disasters as well.

Help your friend to enjoy your gift. Perhaps next year you can all travel to Israel and "water her tree" and also plant some for each of the friends!

Rabbi Dov