The Baal Shem Tov experienced God's presence very powerfully in Nature. He often traveled by foot through fields and woods, finding inspiration and a place to meditate on God's creation, the work of the Divine hands. The Besht rejoiced with all his being in the majesty of the sky, the sun by day and the moon and stars at night. He listened with open ears to birds singing praises to their Creator and to the lowing and bleating of herds of cows and flocks of sheep exulting in the fields. He bent his ear to hear the “speech of palm trees” and songs from the mystic Book of Songs, Perek Shira. At these moments, his soul was filled with love for God and for all God’s creatures on the face of the earth. He rejoiced with God between the blue sky overhead and the green grass beneath his feet.
Sometimes he was so entranced by his surroundings that he began to sing, and it seemed to him as if the heavens and earth and all they contained – the trees, grass, birds, and animals, even the stones – sang with him. His ear caught the chirping of the birds and the buzz of the bees; it seemed as if the spirit of God was moving in waves through all animals, all plants, even all inanimate creation. At times of ecstasy like this, he felt nullified before the infinite light of God. Feeling the divine wind pass through him, he sang to the living God “who has all of this in Your world.” Often, unable to bear the intensity of his longing, he prostrated on the ground, amidst the grass that also humbly bends and prostrates when a strong wind/spirit passes over it.
Once, after traveling in the countryside under the open sky for a number of days, on a mission for the hidden tzaddikim, the Besht stopped in a town and went to the beit midrash to study Torah. Inside, he suddenly felt depressed and realized why. The rabbi of the town came over, introduced himself, and started a conversation with the visitor. The Besht innocently revealed to the rabbi that he experienced a feeling of great expansiveness outdoors, that he found God in Nature and felt that seeing natural beauty purified his soul in a mysterious way.
The rabbi was critical and said, “Who gave you permission to create a new path in Judaism? Didn’t our ancestors purify their souls by studying Torah and doing mitzvot? Why do you need to view the creation to purify your soul?” “This is not a new path to God at all,” replied the Besht. “Didn’t our Sages stay in the Talmud, ‘When someone goes outside in the month of Nissan and sees trees in new bloom, they should say: “Blessed are You God, Whose world lacks nothing, and You created in it good creatures and trees in which human beings can take pleasure”?’
When I am out in the wide fields, I realize how poor language is to express even the least bit of the holy feelings that passed through my heart then. Only singing can convey a little of the ecstasy and joy I experience. When I turn my ear to hear the speech of all creation, I learned to know the One who spoke and created the world, and to love the Holy One and every part of Its creation, without exception or distinction. That’s the meaning, I think, of Perek Shira, which our early Sages composed, that is the secret of the ‘language of the birds and animals,’ which King Solomon knew; that is the ‘language of the palm trees,’ which Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai understood. The Midrash says on the verse (Gen. 2:5): ‘no shrub* of the field was yet on the earth, because there was yet no human being to till the soil’– All the trees are as if speaking to each other; all the trees are as if speaking to human beings.’ How happy is our lot if we understand the speech of the trees, the palms, the shrubs, and grasses, because they all tell one thing: the glory of the one and only God, blessed be God’s name, the Creator of heaven and earth!”
Despite the Baal Shem Tov’s enthusiastic explanation, the rabbi was unconvinced by his views, and the Besht left, considering their encounter as he went. He realized how difficult it is for a scholar whose whole life is lived within the four walls of the beit midrash, whose religious ideal is to just sit and study for as many hours as possible, to understand his love for Nature and appreciate his path up the mountain of God.
*Shrub=siach in Hebrew. It also means “speech” or “conversation.”
-- Translated by Yitzhak Buxbaum [English adapted by me for gender sensitivity], in The Light and Fire of the Baal Shem Tov, page 102. Originally published in a somewhat obscure Hebrew sefer (sacred text) called Sarei HaMaiya, in the 1940s. I have some doubt that this story is actually authentic to the Baal Shem Tov, but it is at least authentic to an early 20th century Hasidic understanding of the Baal Shem Tov.
Sit spot instructions:
1) Just take quiet time in a spot that calls to you—being present, not having an agenda, enjoying the spaciousness, opening the heart. Enjoy the blessing of slowing down!
2) Open up your senses (sight, touch, smell, hearing, maybe taste too)! “turn your ear to hear the speech of all creation.” Notice the small stuff—bugs, lichen, plants, the play of light/shadow.
3) If it feels right, you can offer praises of gratitude to the Everflowing Presence, or just offer gratitude to the beauty and the various beings around you.
4) Since it's still Nissan, if you can find a lovely flowering tree, you may want to offer this bracha, mentioned in our text:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יהוה אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁלֹּא חִסַּר בְּעוֹלָמוֹ כְּלוּם וּבָרָא בוֹ בְּרִיּוֹת טוֹבוֹת וְאִילָנוֹת טוֹבוֹת לֵהָנוֹת בָּהֶם בְּנֵי אָדָם.
Blessed are You God, Whose world lacks nothing, and You created in it good creatures and trees in which human beings can take pleasure
5) If you need more inspiration, reread the Besht text above!