Rav Huna said: Nine plus an ark in which the Torah scrolls are stored join to form a quorum of ten. Rav Naḥman said to him: Is an ark a man, that it may be counted in the quorum of ten? Rather, Rav Huna said: Nine who appear like ten may join together. There was disagreement over this: Some said this halakha as follows: Nine appear like ten when they are gathered. And some said this halakha as follows: Nine appear like ten when they are scattered, the disagreement being which formation creates the impression of a greater number of individuals.

Similarly, Rav Ami said: Two people and Shabbat join to form a zimmun. Rav Naḥman said to him: Is Shabbat a person, that it may be counted in a zimmun? Rather, Rav Ami said: Two Torah scholars who hone each other’s intellect in halakhic discourse join together and are considered three. The Gemara relates: Rav Ḥisda pointed to an example of two such Torah scholars who hone each other’s intellect: For example, me and Rav Sheshet. Similarly, Rav Sheshet pointed: For example, me and Rav Ḥisda.

[A righteous person] shall be like a tree planted by waters, Sending forth its roots by a stream: It does not sense the coming of heat, Its leaves are ever fresh; It has no care in a year of drought, It does not cease to yield fruit.

(16) The One named you
“Verdant olive tree, Fair, with choice fruit.”

(6)I will be to Israel like dew;He shall blossom like the lily,He shall strike root like a Lebanon tree.(7)His boughs shall spread out far,His beauty shall be like the olive tree’s,His fragrance like that of Lebanon.(8)They who sit in his shade shall be revived:They shall bring to life new grain,They shall blossom like the vine;His scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.(9)Ephraim [shall say]:“What more have I to do with idols?When I respond and look to [God],I become like a verdant cypress.”Your fruit is provided by Me.

(13)The righteous bloom like a date-palm;they thrive like a cedar in Lebanon;(14)planted in the house of the One,they flourish in the courts of our God.(15)In old age they still produce fruit;they are full of sap and freshness—

(3)Like an apple tree among trees of the forest,So is my beloved among the youths.I delight to sit in his shade,And his fruit is sweet to my mouth.

(10)But I am like a thriving olive tree in God’s house;I trust in the faithfulness of God forever and ever.

(30)The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life;The wise captivate people.

(19) When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. For [is it that] the tree in the field is a human coming before you in the besieged city?

(4) Each angel is put in charge of something. Even all the trees and grasses have [angels] appointed over them. As our Sages, of blessed memory, said: “There is not a blade of grass below that does not have an angel from Above.” Each angel receives its vitality from the word, and transmits [that vitality] into the thing in its charge—i.e., some grass or other thing over which it is appointed.

(7)The Master of the Field also looks after the trees and labors constantly at watering and cultivating them and at tending to the other needs of the field. He keeps the trees at the proper distance from one another so that one should not overshadow the other....

(4) The voices of five (objects of creation) go from one end of the world to the other, and their voices are inaudible. When people cut down the wood of the tree which yields fruit, its cry goes from one end of the world to the other, and the voice is inaudible. When the serpent sloughs off its skin, its cry goes from one end of the world to the other and its voice is not heard. When a woman is divorced from her husband, her voice goeth forth from one end of the world to the other, but the voice is inaudible. When the infant || comes forth from its mother's womb. When the soul departs from the body, the cry goes forth from one end of the world to the other, and the voice is not heard. The soul does not go out of the body until it beholds the Shekhinah, as it is said, "For man shall not see me and live" (Ex. 33:20).

(11)1C. There are, however, many types of students. The one who is firmly bound to the tzaddik is literally like a branch of a tree. He senses all the tzaddik’s ascents and descents inside himself, even if he is not in the proximity of the tzaddik. For if a student is genuinely bound to the tzaddik as he ought to be, like a branch to a tree, he ought to feel all the tzaddik’s spiritual advances and setbacks, just as the branches feel all the [seasonal] changes that the tree undergoes. In the summer they grow and have vitality. This is because the tree nourishes vitality from its source, drawing life-force from there through its vascular tissues—i.e., the lumina through which it draws its nourishment. Therefore in the winter, when the moisture dries up and the lumina shrivel, all the branches shrivel as well, causing the leaves to fall off; and in the summer it is just the opposite.

(2) Master of the world, help me always engage in a great deal of hitbodedut. May I accustom myself to go out every day to the fields, among the trees, grasses and all of the vegetation of the field.

(3) There, may I engage in hitbodedut and a great deal of conversation — that is, prayer — between myself and You, my Maker, expressing everything that is in my heart.

(4) May all of the vegetation of the field, all of the grasses, trees and plants, be aroused to greet me, rise up and invest their strength and vitality in my words of conversation and prayer.

(5) Then may my prayer and conversation reach the ultimate perfectionwith the aid of all of the plants of the field, so that all of them, with all of their might, vitality and spirit, reaching up to their supernal root, will be incorporated into my prayer.

(22)...For the days of My people shall be As long as the days of a tree...