Are we really exiled from the Tree of Life? While the book of Genesis depicts the exile from the Garden of Eden and it’s Tree of Life, elsewhere Bible declares that the Tree of Life is available to us in another form.

She is a tree of life to those that hold on to her, and all who support her are happy.עֵץ־חַיִּ֣ים הִ֭יא לַמַּחֲזִיקִ֣ים בָּ֑הּ וְֽתֹמְכֶ֥יהָ מְאֻשָּֽׁר

Etz Khayim Hi – It is a Tree of Life, Rabbi David Shneyer, Psalm Songs from Rock Creek

Proverbs 3:18: She (Wisdom) is a tree of life to those that hold on to her, and all who support her are happy. We sing these words in the synagogue every time we return the Torah to the Ark, and we call the posts of the Torah, “atzei chayim,” trees of life. But the “Tree of Life,” does not just pertain to a physical scroll. “She” is Chochma, the Bible’s feminine personification of divine Wisdom. When we embrace learning, seek wisdom, and connect with Torah (divine teaching), we are nourished directly from the Tree of Life, receiving not physical immortality, but a connection to Life itself, to the ever-flowing Source of all vitality.

Featured image: Tree Roots at Rock Creek Park near Dumbarton Oaks,John Lesczczynski via Flickr

Continue to learn about the Jewish “Johnny Appleseed,” (and Rip Van Winkle),  or return to the Gateway of Trees