As we enter the new month of Shvat, it is appropriate to take a look at a verse from Isaiah 66 - the haftarah reading when Sabbath and the New Month coincide – which refers indirectly to this month's holiday: Tu B'Shvat, the New Year for Trees. 

The verse, at first glance, is tremendously puzzling: "For, as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making, stand before Me, says the Lord, so shall your seed and your name stand" (66,22). One who read this verse understands that G-d will expand the world, will build a new heaven and a new earth, and Israel's generations will never cease forever. 

How is such a thing conceivable? Will there then be a new world, with new heavens and a new earth, to which Israel will be relocated and then last forever?!

Many commentaries have been written on this verse, and the Medrash Yalkut Shimoni cites several of them. However, the Radak (R. David ben Kimchi, France, d. 1235), ignored all the other explanations and provided his own. To understand it, let us begin with the following story. A nice and gentle man got married and had a son, whom he loved mightily with all his heart. When he would leave every day for morning prayers, he would look at the boy with overpowering love, and would say, "My son! How cute you are, how beloved!" He would then embrace and kiss him. Upon his return from the synagogue, he would see him and again exclaim, "My child, how I love you!" while kissing and hugging him. And so he would do every day. 

One day his father-in-law came to visit, saw how his son-in-law behaved to the child, and asked, "What's this?" The young father answered, "For me it's as if he was just born today; my love for him is renewed each day as if it were totally new, and that's why I love him so much." The father-in-law said, "I see. OK, we'll give it another year or two, and then you'll be over it…" But of course the young father continued along the same path.

We recite about G-d in our morning prayers, "He renews in His goodness every day, always, the act of Creation." G-d created His world, as we see – but we don't really look. Today's sky is not the same as yesterday's. We arise in the morning, look around outside, and see the earth flowering and the trees growing – but every day is different. You can go out each day and see a new growth, as if it were Tu B'Shvat each day!

We should know that when we speak of G-d's renewing "in His goodness every day, always, the act of Creation," we mean that it is as if He constantly fashions a new heaven and a new earth; He will not destroy the old world, but it will rather look as if it is new. And this is how our children will be forever to Him – as beloved as if we were just now born to Him! G-d's love for us will always remain before Him; everything is new, nothing is the same old thing as it was before. O Nation of Israel: your descendants and name will last forever and ever. 

Another explanation of this verse – it is cited in the Yalkut Shimoni – is that when G-d created His world, He considered that, in fact, He would create new heavens and a new earth, and that Israel would remain as it is. And the Medrash states there that if the heavens and earth, which were created for Israel's honor, last forever, how much more so is this true for the tzaddikim [and Israel], for whom the world was created, that they will last forever. 

In any event, the Nation of Israel will be in existence for all time. As the verse states: As the new heavens and the new earth that I make stand before Me, so shall your seed and your name stand."

Translated by Hillel Fendel