planting the seeds of geulah

 Mes Kesubos, which I finished today l'iluy nishmas my father on his yahrzeit, ends:

 אמר רב עתידין כל אילני סרק שבארץ ישראל שיטענו פירות שנאמר כי עץ נשא פריו תאנה וגפן נתנו חילם

One day even the barren trees that produce no fruit will bear fruit in Eretz Yisrael.

Chodesh Adar and Purim will soon be upon us, so I wanted to connect this gemara with inyana d'yoma.  The gemara (Meg 5) tells us:

אמר רבי חנינא רבי נטע נטיעה בפורים ורחץ בקרונה של צפורי בשבעה עשר בתמוז ובקש לעקור תשעה באב ולא הודו לו 

Rebbi planted a tree on Purim, he went to the bathhouse on 17 Tamuz, and he wanted to do away with the fast of 9 Av.

1) Didn't Rebbi have better things to do on Purim other than garden work?  Did he get the holiday confused with Tu b'Shevat?

2) Why does the gemara put together the statement about Rebbi planting trees with his attempt to abolish or push off the fast days that commemorate the churban?  What does one thing have to do with the other?

The gemara elsewhere (San 98) records another statement about trees:

אמר רבי אבא אין לך קץ מגולה מזה שנאמר ואתם הרי ישראל ענפכם תתנו ופריכם תשאו לעמי ישראל וגו'

Rashi comments:  כשתתן ארץ ישראל פריה בעין יפה אז יקרב הקץ ואין לך קץ מגולה יותר

The truest sign of impending redemption is when the trees of Eretz Yisrael begin to produce beautiful fruit.

Various gedolim in the past century have said that we are living in aschalta d'geulah.  How do we know that this this is true?  Rav Kook in a letter quotes this gemara.  He writes that the restoration of Jewish agriculture in Eretz Yisrael is the truest sign that we are closing in on redemption.  How do we know that we are close to Mashiach coming?  Look in the supermarket for Jaffa oranges!  Look at all the produce and products of Eretz Yisrael now available. 

The gemata (Meg 17) writes that the reason why the bracha of "t'ka b'shofar gadol," which speaks about kibutz galiyos, comes in shmoneh esrei right after the bracha of "bareich aleinu," is because enjoying the bounty of Eretz Yisrael (as we discussed once before, according to the GR"A, the nusach habracha of bareich aleinu is "nisba m'tuva," that we should enjoy the bounty of Eretz Yisrael, which radiates out from there to the rest of the world) is a precursor to kibutz galiyus. 

Purim is a holiday of geulah.  The gemara (Meg 6) writes that when there are two Adars, we celebrate Purim in the second one, in the Adar closest to Nisan, because  מסמך גאולה לגאולה עדיף, we want the geulah of Purim to adjoin the geulah of Pesach.  Achashveirosh thought the 70 years of galus were up and redemption had not arrived, so it was all over for us, but he miscalculated, and we did end up returning to Eretz Yisrael with Ezra and Nechmia and building Bayis Sheni.

Therefore, davka on Purim, Rebbi went out to plant.  Rebbi was thinking of geulah, and geulah means trees and agriculture.  

It is Rebbi l'shitaso who wanted to do away with Tisha b'Av, because Rebbi wanted to overcome the mourning of churban.

Ki ha'adam eitz ha'sadeh.  Geulah means each one of us will produce peiros of Torah umaasim tovim to the best of our ability, and hopefully soon, not only will the fruit trees flourish, but even barren trees, those who have nothing going for them, will produce amazing fruits.