"Man is a tree of the field" (Deuteronomy 20:19). I have a friend who doesn’t buy avocados: "Fifty percent of the weight is the seed," he explains. He loves to buy apples, grapes, and bananas, but avocados and mangoes, never. Peaches and dates are borderline—he’ll buy them occasionally, but with deep misgivings. "My friend thinks the fruit business is a sham. Trees need to produce; that’s why they have seeds. But trees aren’t very mobile,” and they have the problem of how to get their seeds planted at a reasonable distance.
One way would be to lightly tap the shoulder of a passing bird, animal, or human and say, "Excuse me, sir, could you please take these seeds and drop them some distance from here, preferably in a place with good soil, sun, and an abundant supply of water?" But they would probably mutter something about a doctor's appointment or some other obligation and quickly wander off... Then the tree would pack its seeds into a colorful, tasty, and nutritious pulp and market them as "fruit.".
The Torah says, "Man is like a tree of the field." We humans resemble trees in many ways, including our ceaseless upward striving, our need for roots, and the way our lives branch out and diverge in various directions.
The main similarity to the tree is the way in which everything we are and everything we do is centered on the "generation of the seed." Human beings are spiritual beings, which means that we not only reproduce physically—by giving birth to children—but also spiritually: we spread by sowing our ideas, feelings, and convictions in the minds and hearts of others.
And here, says the Lubavitcher Rebbe, we find an interesting parallel between the way a fruit tree sends out its seeds and the way we disseminate our thoughts and experiences. The fruit tree's vehicle for reproduction consists of two basic components:
1) The seed, in which the tree condenses itself - its characteristics, its nature, its very essence as a tree;
2) The "wrapping" that makes it attractive and tasty for its consumers.
Both are necessary. Without the "container," the seed wouldn't travel very far, or would do so with great difficulty. On the other hand, if a tree produced the most delicious and attractive fruit but forgot to include a seed, nothing would happen. There wouldn't be a shortage of consumers, but rather no offspring.
When we seek to "reproduce" ourselves spiritually, by communicating our thoughts and feelings to others, we also package our seeds. We wrap them in intellectual sophistication, soak them in emotional sauce, and dress them in colorful words and images. If we didn't, our message wouldn't travel very far. But the most important thing to remember is that inside, there must be a "seed." If the fruit of our mind doesn't contain a piece of our soul, what's the point?
By Yanki Tauber; according to the teachings of the Lubavitch Rebbe.
Extracted from www.jabad.org.ar