Like Grass

In the heart of Camp Dora Golding's magnificent 156-acre campus is the camp shul. It was a major project and was completed about 10 years ago just before the camp season began. The area in front of the newly built shul was roped off so the newly planted grass could grow. A few weeks before, only fertilized mud was visible there. But within a few days little spurts of green were visible. After a week and a half, the grass was noticeably growing.

But then, for a few days before the camp season began, the campgrounds were hammered by torrential downpours of rain. Although much of the grass was still growing, the deluge of rain destroyed growth in noticeable areas. Although it was annoying and somewhat unsightly for when the campers arrived, it wasn’t such a major issue because the grass was easily replanted and grew a few days later.

Contrast the growth of grass with the growth of a tree which can take years to fully mature. When a tree reaches its full height it towers majestically over the surrounding area, its branches spreading far beyond it, and its roots firmly taking hold deep beneath the earth in all directions. In addition, unlike grass which any child can nonchalantly rip out of the ground, chopping down a tree is a great challenge, and uprooting all the branches beneath is an even greater challenge.

In the Song of Shabbos, Tehillim 92, Dovid HaMelech compares wicked evildoers to grass. “When the wicked bloom like grass and the doers of iniquity blossom – it is to destroy them till eternity.” The wicked are numerous and seem to dominate in all directions. Yet like grass one strong deluge can flood them all out.

The righteous, on the other hand, are compared to mighty trees, firm and strong. “A righteous man will flourish like a date palm, like a cedar in Lebanon he will grow tall. Planted in the House of Hashem, they will flourish in the courtyards of our G-d.” Even the greatest and most severe tempests can only rock the branches and leaves upon the mighty trees, but their deep roots and great strength hold them in place to withstand all opposing forces.

Dovid HaMelech concludes that the righteous – like the palm and the cedar – will never wither. Because they are so deeply rooted in the ground, they draw nourishment from the minerals and waters beneath even as they age. So too the righteous: even as their bodies physically atrophy with old age, they continue to be vibrant and in love with G-d, His Torah, and His world. They never forfeit their vitality and spirit, because they remain firm and committed in their faith.

Throughout the six-day week we do not speak about this lofty perspective, because it’s hard to decipher truth from mirage when in the thick of the bog. But on Shabbos when we view the world from a celestial perspective, with a Divine point of view, we strengthen ourselves by reminding each other that all of the wickedness and iniquity that surrounds and abounds is merely grass in the hands of G-d. And when the moment comes when G-d decides to eradicate all that evil, it will happen at an unbelievably frenzied pace – as happened with the rapid fall of communism in the early 1990s. When it happens the mighty cedars and date trees will proudly watch the destruction of the miniscule grass which G-d will trample and destroy.

The grass in front of the shul was replanted and quickly grew into a lush aesthetically beautiful area. But whenever grass is ruined by rain or turns bleached white in the summer heat, it serves as a reminder to us that “Your enemies, Hashem… shall perish” – on the day when our nation will live in peace and security and Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and all their nefarious friends will be destroyed forever.