Some people once to Martin Luther turned
and asked: “What would you do, sir, if you learned
the world would end tomorrow?” to which he
replied: “Good question. Plant an apple tree.”
If they would ask me the same question, I
would say: “Here’s what I’d do before I die.
I’d write a poem, which I would address
to God. Perhaps He hardly could care less
about my verses than He does about
the tree of Luther – He can do without
them both – and I’d challenge Him to find
a poem He can plant inside His mind!”
But whether I would plant a tree or write
a poem, I would carry on performing
commandments as I am obliged, despite
my ignorance of their rationale; conforming
with them being as natural as to those
the tree – that Luther never planted – would
have followed, quite unable to oppose
rules which no tree has ever understood.
כִּי הָאָדָם עֵץ הַשָּׂדֶה, because man is a tree of the field. Deut. 21:19
Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.
