The Mystery of the Zugspitz’s trees

Welcome to the foot of the Zug Spitz, the highest mountain in all of Germany. It rises almost 10,000 ft into the sky, sitting right on the border between Germany [music] and Austria. And every year, hundreds of thousands of people come here to ski and hike and stand on the top. And on a clear day, you can see hundreds of mountains [music] peaks stretching across four different countries. But as breathtaking as the view is, there's something else about this mountain that fascinates me. If take a look [music] at the trees at first, the entire mountain side is covered with them. spruce [music] trees, pine trees, as far as the eye can see. And then almost as if someone took a ruler and drew a line across the mountain, [music] they just stop above that point, there's nothing there. Why is that? Did the mountain suddenly run out of soil? No. So why don't the trees grow near the top? The [snorts] answer is that the higher you climb, the harsher the conditions become. The temperatures drop. The [music] winds become relentless. The growing season becomes incredibly short. The environment demands more than what most trees can possibly [music] handle. And that's why they don't grow there. only a handful of plants and animals in the world can survive that high. It's just simply too demanding of an environment. And maybe that's one of the greatest misunderstandings [music] people have about Yiddish. People so often look at Judaism and say, "Why are there so many mitzvah? And why are there so many things I have to do? And why are there just so many things I can't do?" But maybe that's like standing at the top of the Zugpits and complaining that the conditions are different than they are down in the valley. Yeah, of course they're different. You're on top of a mountain. Life changes with elevation. The higher you climb, the greater life demands. And that's exactly what Hashem wanted from the Jewish people. We're not here to live in a valley. We're here to live on a mountaintop to carry Hashem's banner where the air is thinner, where fewer people are willing to climb, where the view reaches further. A nation with a higher calling naturally lives by a higher standard. Not because Hashem wanted to make our lives more difficult, but because he wanted to lift our lives higher. The summit of a mountain demands more from every living thing that grows there. Why should the summit of humanity demand anything less? Maybe that's why the Tyra asks more of us, not because we're burdened with more rules, but because we've been entrusted with a greater mission. So the next time someone asks, why does Judaism ask so much? Maybe the answer is simple. Because the Tyra wasn't written for people living in valleys. It was written for the flagbearers living on mountains.