Embracing the Metaphors of Growth Amidst the Crises of Life
BY CB NEUGROSCHL
During these last few years, and more specifically during the war, I’m struck by the choice to double down on faith and hope in the face of crisis. When, in fact, there is a full menu of choices and many other reasonable responses that I have learned to respect, this choice becomes heroic and a source of renewed strength for many. Faith is a choice that not only survives crises, it sustains us, even in pain and with loss. Perhaps it’s a function of my age; turning fifty means spending more time reflecting on things. Over time, we witness more crises, each met with responses across the full spectrum of human experience. As leaders, teachers, friends, and neighbors, we’ve learned to be present in others’ pain without judgment, offering acceptance and love. I’ve been humbled by those who, despite carrying permanent loss, choose to deepen their faith and hold onto hope for brighter days.
Every year Tu BiShvat is quite moving; it announces itself like the harbinger of spring. On cue, we celebrate the first flowering branches of the shkedia, the almond tree, in anticipation of the abundant growth that is still ahead. The rains may still fall; most of our fields and flora are still in winter sleep; but the signal of change is here. We know the sun will get stronger and the winds will slow, the rain will stop and the flowers will blossom. Typically, it is Tu BiShvat that reminds us of our resilience and the growth that will emerge, and that is taking shape, even during the hardest days of winter. This year’s winter has been both cold and cruel and also full of courage and faith. It seems trite to talk or write about the anticipation of spring as if the coming growth could alleviate the immeasurable losses that we’ve sustained. How do we come to this year’s Tu BiShvat with the memories of strength and resilience, loss and sacrifice, community and legacy that are all around us? In truth, this year, it feels like Tu BiShvat is late, as if the calendar and the agricultural cycle hasn’t quite caught up with where we all are. Every day we’ve waited for the blossoms of spring; for the light and warmth of spring, for the world to see the courage and the strength that Am Yisrael has demonstrated and endured throughout this long winter of endless war.
With the arrival of Tu BiShvat, this year, inspired by the charge of Rachel Goldberg-Polin, our generation’s Mother Rachel, that “hope is mandatory,” I’m choosing to embrace the opportunity to explore the metaphors of growth inherent in this chag. Let’s consider the metaphor of the almond tree and branch – emblematic of Tu BiShvat – and the ideas it can offer us this year, with the hope that they can accompany us on this long road towards “spring” and the season of redemption.
On the surface, the emergence of the whitish pink blossoms of the almond tree represents an unending cycle of growth that is inherent in nature. Spiritually, we can embrace the message that growth is a constant, and our faith remains strong even while we endure winter and stagnation. The idea that we note and celebrate the hints of growth even when winter still reigns feels especially poignant this year. We are certainly in the midst of pain, and with it, have witnessed tremendous faith which serves as a beacon to light the way, or even as a life jacket, protecting us from the current dangers, and sustaining us for the future.
Where else in our tradition does this imagery of the almond branch intensify its force? Both Moshe and Yirmiyahu are leaders charged to lead a nation in crisis towards faith and both wield the powerful almond branch. Rav Ya’akov Medan contends that throughout the exodus and desert wanderings, Moshe (and occasionally Aharon) wielded a single, consistent rod as an instrument of divine miracles. When this same staff later sprouted almond blossoms in the Tent of Meeting, we realize its nature as an almond branch had been present from the beginning: “And Moshe went into the Tent of Meeting, and behold, Aharon’s rod for the house of Levi had sprouted: it had brought forth sprouts, produced blossoms, and borne almonds” (Bamidbar 17:23).
Thus, when we celebrate the almond tree’s blossoms we are called to imagine it as a signal, a beacon for miracles, for signs and wonders, for plagues and punishments, and for facilitating redemption. Interestingly, Rav Medan suggests another hint to redemption within the almond tree is that the almond tree blossoms ahead of schedule, so to speak, by emerging nearly two months before the full onset of spring. In this way, it represents a certain disruptive quality, embedded in nature. Like the almond tree that blooms out of season, redemption defies natural timing. Just as miracles transcend the ordinary course of nature, they cannot be bound by our expectations of when they should occur. Moshe’s use of the mateh as a tool for miracles, for breaking the rules of nature, reminds us that redemption can come k’heref ayin – in the blink of an eye – ahead of any anticipated schedule.
Rav Medan writes: “Indeed, like an almond tree, which rushes ahead to blossom and herald the spring before it actually arrives, the rod of Moshe is similarly always in a rush. All of its governance of the people of Israel is in haste, in a hurry, unnatural. Miraculous governance. And the whole essence of a miracle is skipping the intermediate stages, jumping ahead of the schedule, ahead of natural development.”1 Just as there is haste, a breaking of the natural process, in the redemption of Israel from Egypt, may the arrival of this year’s almond blossoms speed up the miraculous and enduring redemption for Am Yisrael. I know so many of us are praying for just that, every single day!
Still, Rav Medan reminds us that while the almond tree blossoms first it is also the first to lose its blossoms. Similarly, the hasty redemption that Moshe’s mateh enabled in Egypt was not sustained. Its impact withered and the people lost faith. This is demonstrated through the staff at Mei Merivah, resulting in Moshe and the Exodus generation being unable to enter the Land of Israel. The miraculous and hasty path of redemption lacked the endurance needed to forge a lasting bond between the Jewish nation and the Holy Land. Instead, we find that only a nation willing to fight and sacrifice for the land became the generation blessed to settle securely within it. We can view and understand these biblical generations in a new light this year as we pray for a final and lasting end to the current war and for peace and redemption at last!
Yirmiyahu’s prophecy was also consecrated with the almond branch: “And the word of Hashem came to me, saying: ‘What do you see, Yirmiyahu?’ And I said, ‘I see a rod of an almond tree.’ Then the L-rd said to me, ‘You have seen well, for I am watchful over My word to perform it’” (Yirmiyahu 1:11–12). Though this message portends swift destruction for Israel, we now understand that the almond branch embodies dual powers. The haste of redemption manifests when the almond branch propels us forward with miraculous force because waiting is no longer possible. The hasty destruction comes when we fail to heed divine prophecy and underestimate the threats that surround us.
As we observe this season’s new blossoms, their delicate white and pink buds mirror the Jewish people’s nature. We are bound to natural cycles – the predictable arrival of seasons, our innate fears and frustrations taking root. Yet we are also nature’s disruptors, operating on divine time where miracles remain both real and accessible. We embrace both pain and fear alongside faith and fortitude as equal partners in sustaining our prayers and driving us toward a better future. Like the almond tree, this duality defines us.
On Tu BiShvat this year, as we celebrate the blossoms, we welcome a season of both natural and supernatural growth. We know that even as petals fall, our people maintain an unwavering faith to plant and harvest, in abundance and beauty, with peace and security, so that our land and our people may be delivered through divine salvation and the final redemption. This is my prayer for Tu BiShvat 5785. Keyn yehi ratzon.
1 Rav Ya’akov Medan, The Almond Tree, https://etzion.org.il/en/holidays/tu-bishvat/almond-tree
CB Neugroschl serves as Head of School at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls. She is an educator with over twenty five years of pedagogic, curricular, and administrative experience in both Judaic and General Studies.