Withhold, Sanctify, and Produce

I love the laws of trees that bear fruit, as discussed in VaYikra 19:23-35.

The timeline is simple:

Plant a tree

Years 0-3: do not touch it.  Consider the fruit "blocked"

Year 4: sanctify the fruit "to give praise to G-d"

Year 5: eat it "so that it will increase for you its produce"

And Verse 25 then ends with the conclusion "I am G-d."

There must be thousands of lessons buried in this succinct lines.  One of them is almost . . . dialectical in its logic.  How should we ensure that the tree produces abundant material good?  By ensuring that we do not touch it at all for three years, and then sanctify it - as we should with everything, as belonging solely to G-d - in the fourth year.

There are lessons of patience and virtuous withholding and careful tending and, of course, obvious spiritual dedication and focus implicit here too.  The most important point being that none of this - not the tree, not the fruit "we"  or "it" grew, not the food we eat, is our handiwork whatsoever.  It is Someone Else's Handiwork, and we must carefully and sometimes painfully (if it is painful to withhold material goods - and tasty ones at that) remind ourselves of that constantly.  

At the same time, there is also a clear instruction to eat - to enjoy - the fruit, so that it will increase.  It is not enough to build, earn, invest, save, and, yes, hoard; material gain should not only be enjoyed, but in fact that enjoyment (so long as it is done with the mindset discussed above - that the enjoyment is solely due to G-d's blessing) will increase future enjoyment.

It is truly a tree that keeps on giving.