The Torah and the Tree of Life
Torah is also called the "Tree of Life," as it points us to God as He reveals Himself in the Sephirot, and thus His salvation. Going back to the time of Moses, God Himself states that His Torah is the way of "life."
Deuteronomy 30:6 - ...to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
The third chapter of the book of Proverbs (a highly kabbalistic text), speaks of the Torah in terms of "Wisdom and Understanding" (the Sephirot of Hokhmah and Binah), calling it a "Tree of Life." The Torah is this "Tree of Life" that founded the earth and established the heavens:
Proverbs 3:13-19 - Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.
A prayer recited when the Torah scrolls are placed back into the ark in a Synagogue service, is Etz Chayim He, "It is a Tree of Life:"
It is a tree of life to those who take hold of it, and those who support it are praiseworthy. Its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace. Bring us back Lord to You, and we shall come, renew our days as of old.
The request, "Bring us back Lord to You," in the above prayer is a petition for teshuvah, commonly called "repentance," but more accurately defined as "return." As mentioned in our background studies, the path up the kabbalistic Tree of Life, is the path of return to God.
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