DEUT1020 Would you like assurance of the personal concern of Providence, that it will never consider you utterly worthless and insignificant? Become a holy part of a holy undertaking. Join your religious community. Become a vital part and partner of a project for the support and study of Torah. Make yourself an indispensable, irreplaceable "cog" in the system of the Almighty. In Scripture we read: "When you besiege a city a long time, in waging war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees… for you may eat of them; hence you shall not cut them down; for man is [as] the tree of the field" [this verse]. The prohibition applies only to fruit-bearing trees--"for you may eat of them"; they are not to be destroyed, says Scripture, even to help win a war--because they are like people. The metaphor bears us out, once we turn it around: Man is not to be destroyed, because he is a fruit-bearing tree. A human being is to be especially safeguarded from harm and destruction, Scripture indicates, when and if he "bears fruit" and contributes productively to a worthwhile community. The Torah signifies its protection for those who will nourish others, especially spiritually. Then see to it that the world of Torah and good deeds benefits from you.