Search our Archives:

Tu B'Shvat - A Time for Hidden Beginnings

By Chana Bracha Siegelbaum

As the holiday of Tu b'Shvat -the New-Year of the Trees is approaching we would have expected to see the trees in their full green glory crowned with ripe radiant fruit. Wouldn't it at least be fitting to celebrate the New Year of the trees around Pessach time when the buds are just opening to express the beginning of their new life?

Yet, The New Year of the trees is celebrated at the time when all the fruits and leaves have fallen and the tree stands bare and naked. When the cold and dark envelops Nature with its muddy cover. The secret of Tu B'Shvat gently whispers; "when everything looks dead, dark and murky, -life, light and glory is hiding just below the surface." The time when nothing seems to be happening on the outside; is the beginning of the richest inner life.

The fact that the peak of winter is selected to mark the New Year of the Trees reflects the Jewish outlook to begin the day with its preceding night. During the night and dark times of our lives it is only faith in a better morrow that gives us the strength to keep carrying on. It is this faith that has nurtured the Jewish people throughout our troublesome history of anti-Semitism, suppression and pogroms.

Gardening and planting also help strengthen our faith in a better future. The first order of the mishna is called "seeds" because it deals with the many Torah laws connected to planting. When the Talmud (Shabath 31a) designates a name depicting the character of each of the six orders of the mishna, the order of "seeds" receives the name faith (Emuna).

The medieval Torah scholar and poet Yehuda Halevi in his book The Kuzari notices that the seed actually decomposes completely before it is transformed into a tender plant. He compares this with the fate of the Jewish people who became completely decomposed and scattered before the ingathering of the exiles and the rebuilding of the Temple. On a personal level, we can learn from the nature of seeds that when things seem most dark and devastating it is only the dark before the dawn. The more hopeless the situation, the closer is its gratifying solution.

In my own life I continuously draw on the faith I receive from the decomposing seeds that get transformed into small saplings in my garden. Many people can testify that it is the crises in their lives, which they can thank for their great personal renewals and growth. Was it not for the difficulties we experience and the decomposing depression of feeling potentially unfulfilled, we would have never taken initiative to make important changes in the direction of our lives. To this day when times are rough I remind my self how great new beginnings surely are just around the corner.

The secret of Tu b'Shvat teaches us to view the current crisis in Israel, USA and the world in a new light. Instead of losing faith and giving in to the feelings of depression and despair, we need to realize that although we can no longer hold on to the walls that are crumbling down, the fallen structures give way to building new and infinitely higher strongholds. They teach us that we cannot rely on the ephemeral values of financial success, rather we must rebuilt our world founded on spiritual everlasting values, placing G-d in the center of our aspirations for true morality. May the decomposing seeds of the present darkness take root in new and richer soil, and may we enjoy the fruits of the renewed perfected world.

Again, as the holiday of Tu b'Shvat -the new-year of the trees is approaching we would have expected to see the trees in their full green glory crowned with ripe radiant fruit. Wouldn't it at least be fitting to celebrate the New-Year of the trees around Pessach time when the buds are just opening to express the beginning of their new life?

Yet, The New Year of the trees is celebrated at the time when all the fruits and leaves have fallen and the tree stands bare and naked. When the cold and dark envelops Nature with its muddy cover. The secret of Tu B'Shvat gently whispers; "when everything looks dead, dark and murky, -life, light and glory is hiding just below the surface." The time when nothing seems to be happening on the outside is the beginning of the richest inner life. Yehuda Halevi points out that the seed actually decomposes completely before it is transformed into a tender plant. Likewise the Jewish people became completely decomposed and scattered before the ingathering of the exiles and the rebuilding of the Temple. May the decomposing seeds of the present darkness take root in new and richer soil, and may we enjoy the fruits of the renewed perfected world.

Chana Bracha Siegelbaum, a native of Denmark, is Founder and Director of Midreshet B'erot Bat Ayin. She holds a Bachelor of Education in Bible and Jewish Philosophy from Michlala Jerusalem College for Women, and a Masters of Art in Jewish History from Touro College. For more than two decades, Chana Bracha has taught Bible studies with special emphasis on women's issues in Israel and the United States. She creates curricula emphasizing women's spiritual empowerment through traditional Torah values. Chana Bracha has a married son and lives with her husband and younger son on the land of the Judean hills, in Israel.

Midreshet B'erot Bat Ayin –Center for Holistic Torah Education for Women— Integrating  textual Torah study—Tanach, Halacha, Tefila, Jewish Philosophy and Chassidut with cultivation of the Land of Israel, creative spiritual expression and healthy living.

www.berotbatayin.org Phone: 972-2-993-4945, Fax: 972-29931215 Email: info@berotbatayin.org