After the silence that beats speaking, a new section opens. These five chapters are about endings and beginnings. The first is the sequel to the man who stood inside a circle asking for rain, Choni.
A Tree That Takes Seventy Years
Choni was walking along when he saw an old man planting a carob tree.
He asked, this tree does not bear for seventy years. You will not be alive then. Why plant it?
The Old Man’s Answer
The old man answered.
כִּי הֵיכִי דִּשְׁתַלוּ לִי אֲבָהָתִי, שְׁתַלִי נָמֵי לִבְרָאִי (ki heichi dishtalu li avahatai, shtali nami livra’i) Just as my ancestors planted for me, I plant for those who come after me. (Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 23a, translated directly)
The Man Who Fell Asleep
Choni sat down there to eat and fell asleep.
A rock closed around him so that he was not seen, and he slept for seventy years.
When He Woke
Waking, Choni saw a man gathering fruit from that carob tree.
He asked, and learned it was the grandson of the man who had planted it. Exactly seventy years had passed.
Nobody Believed Him
Choni went home. He said he was Choni, and nobody believed him.
He went to the academy. There people were speaking his name like a legend, saying that in Choni’s day things were this clear. And when he said he was that Choni, nobody believed him and nobody showed him respect.
Either Companionship or Death
In his distress Choni asked for mercy, and he died.
הַיְינוּ דְּאָמְרִי אִינָשֵׁי: אוֹ חַבְרוּתָא אוֹ מִיתוּתָא (haynu de’amri inashei, o chavruta o mituta) This is what people mean when they say, either companionship or death. (Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 23a, translated directly)
Rava added it here. If there is nobody beside you, it is better to die.
Today, Between the Two Stories
The old man planting the tree worked for a harvest he would not see. And Choni, arriving at the very hour that harvest came in, found only a world with nowhere for him to belong.
Working for a future you will not see and holding the place you belong to now are both necessary. This story shows what happens when only one of the two is left.