P'ri Etz Hadar

[bnewman]

This song was written for my synagogue's Tu BiShvat seder, a ceremony in celebration of the New Year of Trees, where we eat our way through four worlds of fruit and mystical insight.  The fourth world, in which everything is seen as a direct emanation of divine energy, or as the fruit of One cosmic Tree, is called atzilut.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

listen to this song

/ D G / A D / 1st / G A /

 

Think about something you're thankful for —

You're glad you've got what you've got, you hope there's gonna be more;

Think about where that thing comes from.

Have you thought about that before?

 

/ " / " / " / A D /

 

We're thankful for all kinds of different things on earth —

But sometimes when we're talkin' 'bout what something is worth,

If we want to make a point about its scarcity,

We say: Those things don't grow on trees!

 

They don't grow on trees?  Well, I don't know about you,

But lots of things I'm thankful for actually do!

And even more amazing, some believe it's true

That everything grows on a tree!

 

/ " / " / " / A - /

 

Can you visualize a tree with your inner eye

Growing upside down with its roots in the sky,

And at its branches' tips are all the things that exist —

Rocks and trees and birds and bees and you and I?

 

It's called the Tree of Life, and when its phloem flows,

It brings G!d's energy to everything that grows;

But when its sap dries up, you've got an empty cup —

But don't give up, because that isn't just the way it goes!

 

You see, it's up to us, when we pick that fruit,

To make sure that flow recycles back to the root,

And we give thanks because that's what thanks-giving does —

That's the mystical secret of atzilut!