Tree: (ficus sycomorus, a member of the fig family, no relation to the North American and European sycamore)

Biblical Text: Luke 19:1-10

The Story:

As Jesus approaches Jericho, Zaccheus, the short tax collector, climbs a sycomore tree in order to get a better view of him. Jesus singles out Zaccheus, who was working for the hated Romans, and says he will stay at his house. The people grumble: Why is he going to the house of a sinner? But when Jesus speaks to Zaccheus, the unpopular tax collector changes. He promises to give half his goods to the poor, and if he has cheated anyone to pay them back four times. Jesus says to Zaccheus: "Today salvation has come to this house."

Why the sycomore? Significance of the tree:

Zaccheus could have chosen one of the date palms for which Jericho was famous ("Jericho city of date palms," Deuteronomy 34:3), a tall tree that would provide a good view. But instead he chose the sycomore. As it happens, the sycomore is a special tree with amazing powers of regeneration. Even if you cut it all the way down to the ground, it will always grow back.. Even if a small sycomore is completely covered with sand, it will send out new branches and new roots and survive.

Because of its ability to grow back even under the most difficult conditions, the sycomore took on symbolic significance. Here is one example:

In a prophecy of the redemption to come, Isaiah says:

"As the days of a tree will be the days of my people" (65:22). Trees live much longer than people, often hundreds of years. A later Jewish commentary makes Isaiah's words even more specific, saying that it's not just any tree, but a sycomore tree. For that is what Isaiah is saying to the people: Just like the sycomore, which can look like it's dead but will come back to life, you too, even after destruction and exile, will come back and take root and grow and have long life like a tree.

And isn't it interesting that, in this story of his personal salvation, Zaccheus awaits Jesus in the very tree that, because of its botanical features, was associated in the people's minds with new life and salvation!

Note: At Neot Kedumim, visitors are welcome to sit in a sycomore tree and re-enact the story!