A Tu B'Shevat Story for the Ages

Honi the Circlemaker was a pretty famous man in his own time. People said that he was so close to God he was practically family. Once when there was a terrible drought in the land of Israel, he prayed for rain by drawing a circle on the ground and standing in the middle of the circle.

"I'm not moving' out of here until it rains," he said. And you know something? It rained!

Oh, it's true it didn't rain very much at first - just a drizzle. The people came to Honi and said, "This isn't what we need. It's not enough! Try again!"

So he tried again.

"This isn't what I meant," he said to God from the middle of his circle. "I meant really rain, not this drizzly stuff." And you know what? It rained harder. Maybe too hard. It rained so hard that there were floods! People were taking boats to work.

Everyone went up to the Temple Mount to escape the floods, and when they saw Honi, they yelled at him. "It's too much!" they said. So Honi tried again. "We need just enough rain," he said. "Rain that will be a blessing!" And you know what? It happened. Just enough rain.

It was the rain of blessings, good for the flowers and especially for the trees. And for mushrooms! The people immediately went out to gather mushrooms. The rain was definitely a good thing, but people just can't have too much or too little of a good thing.

Some time afterward, Honi took a walk. He felt proud of himself, and he liked the fact that everyone knew him.

He came across a man who was planting a carob tree. "Hey there," he called out. "Tell me," said Honi. "This carob tree that you're planting, how long will it take until it grows carobs?"

The man scratched his head and looked at Honi.

"Well, it'll take 70 years until this tree grows fruit," he said.

"What a waste of time," said Honi. "You'll never eat from this tree. Why bother planting it?"

"Oh, I don't know," said the tree planter. "I'm not planting this for myself. I'm planting it for my children and their children."

"Life is too short," laughed Honi, and walked on his way.

Honi suddenly felt tired, oh so tired. He saw a nice shady rock, lay down behind it and fell asleep. He slept really soundly. In fact - he didn't know it - but he slept for 70 years.

When he woke up, he felt so refreshed, but he didn't realize he had slept so long. He started walking home, and he chanced upon the same tree. Only suddenly, it was giant. And a man was picking the carob fruit from the tree.

"Hey there," called Honi. "Are you the man who planted this tree?"

"Are you kidding," said the man. "This tree was planted by my grandfather."

Honi was taken aback.

He realized that he must have slept for years and years. In his sleep, life had blossomed around him. And he finally came to understand how important it was to plant for the next generation.