One of the big things in the news this week was the confirmation hearings and public debate over Trump’s controversial Secretary of Education Betsy Devos. Intense discussion of her qualifications, educational background, personal wealth and political contributions, opinions on education (or lack thereof) were all over the internet.
OK, don’t worry, we’re NOT going to get into the politics of it here, but one of the big buzz words going around were public vs. private education – and that private/public conversation triggered these thoughts below about Tu Bishvat. So, what I want to share with you about public/private has nothing to do with Betsy Devos or the educational system in America. It has to do with trees, because tonight is Tu Bishvat – the Jewish New Year for Trees.
Trees grow in two different directions, they grow both privately and publicly. On the outside, above ground, they grow tall and beautiful, branching out in all directions, with pretty foliage and sometimes delicious fruit. But they also grow underground, roots spreading deep and far into the earth, giving the tree’s above-ground growth stability and strength and nourishing life-sustaining water.
People are like trees, says the verse. We, too, grow in two different directions, we grow both privately and publicly. There’s the type of growth you notice on the outside, the growth that involves and relates to other people. And then there’s the quiet, hardly noticeable but extremely important inner growth, that happens within.
As with trees, these two types of growth are both necessary, and depend on each other. You can’t have true lasting external growth without the internal private growth that powers it, and internal growth that doesn’t have outward expression and effect isn’t doing enough. It’s important to recognize and appreciate how the two types of growth, inner and outer, private and public, are complimentary and impossible without each other’s support and input.
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Personally, as the Shabbos House family, living the Chabad on Campus life, we find ourselves straddling the public/private line all the time. We are a private family living a very public life, interacting with public in a private personal way. We really feel the need for growth in both directions, and how richly the two types of growth interact and benefit one another.