Senate Devontional
Senate Devotional
Rabbi Tobie Weisman
January 5, 2024
There is a story about a person who was dying. Everyone who was in the room with him had given up hope. The Rebbe walked into the room, took one look at the person who lay dying and declared, “He will live!”. Two minutes later, the man died. The Rebbe’s disciples cried out to him, “Rebbe, why did you say he was going to live?” The Rebbe replied, “although I knew he was going to die, I wanted to make sure that he really lived for those last two minutes!”
We all know and feel how hard 2023 has been. We are painfully aware that the world is facing many crises. There is so much darkness. It is difficult to hold on to hope that life will get better.
But we can’t give up now! We are now celebrating the New Year, 2024. We are beginning a new legislative session. We are wishing each other a Happy New Year. We are hoping that life will get better this year.
The name of the Israeli National Anthem is HaTikvah, The Hope! This eternal hope that things will get better is how the Jewish people have survived for thousands of years and continue today, even in the midst of an unwanted, terrible war, not only to survive but thrive.
According to the Jewish tradition, every new month, called Rosh Hodesh is celebrated as a mini-Jewish holiday. Our tradition teaches that just like the moon’s light is renewed every month, so is the light of each person as well as the light of all of creation renewed. We are taught that we all have the power to renew our light on Rosh Hodesh, the new moon. The moon at first is only a sliver of light, but it grows and reaches it’s fullness at the full moon. During the upcoming Jewish month of Shvat starting next Thursday, there is a Jewish holiday called Tu B’Shvat, falling on the 15th, the full moon, when we celebrate the birthday for the trees, especially fruit trees. The moon is full, lighting up the heavens. On the full moon, we feel more hopeful that our light and the light around us will shine stronger.
In the land of Israel, celebrating fruit trees makes more sense since it falls at the end of the rainy season and trees are starting to blossom. But for us here in Vermont, facing cold weather, what sense does it make to celebrate the Trees’ birthday? The answer, according to Rabbi Menachem Meiri from the 13th Century, the 15th of this month is actually the midpoint between fall and spring. Once half the winter has passed, its strength is weakened, the cold is not as intense, and the budding process begins. (Rabbi Menachem Meiri (1249–c. 1310).
So take heart. Yes, we may be smack in the middle of winter, and it feels very dark, but the 15th of Shevat marks a turning point, a time when under all that cold and snow the sap of the trees is rising, readying for spring. In a sense, the 15th of Shevat signifies that sometimes it is precisely from within the darkest and coldest moments of our lives that the new blossoms burst forth!
Let us begin today, to be like the trees. Let us dig our roots deeper into the rich soil of hope and imagination, so that our sap and positive energy will rise within us and make room for the blossoming of a better world. Let us start right here, right now.
