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Mid-Winter Musings

We now enter the depths of this winter, with a long stretch between the afterglow of the lights of Chanukah and the dawning of the joy of Adar and Purim. Furthermore, there is an extra month between them with this year being a Jewish leap year.

During this winter we might feel particularly down. I refer, of course, not just to the lack of holidays, but to the continuing pain of Israel’s war with terrorists in Gaza and on other fronts. We are still processing the cataclysmic loss and pain of the murderous attacks of 10/7 as more and more details come to light.


Every day, alas, we hear of more hostages murdered, and more and more of our best and brightest killed in the IDF’s war against our implacable enemies. Those we have lost are: Wonderful people still in their teens who had whole, brilliant, lives before them.

We have lost those who are parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters. We have lost great scholars of Torah, artists and scientists, doctors and nurses, craftspeople and tradesmen and so many more. They were all beloved and each one was as the Talmud tells us “A complete world”.

We will fight darkness and fend of despair with spiritual light and faith in a better future. We shall, of course, continue to support our family in Israel in all the ways we have been doing in the last 3 months – with spiritual, physical, financial, and social contribution and activism, in person and online.

We will take the year-round lesson of the Chanukah lights to heart and keep adding and growing in all of the above.

However, it is crucial that we come together in this challenging time. Furthermore, there are all the challenges and opportunities that flow to us on the river of life beyond the situation in our Holy Land. So let me suggest and offer the following:

There are 21 Tefilah -prayer- services in the Jewish week – drop in anytime, for any of them, to refresh yourself in the combined light and power of networked souls reaching upward and inward in unison.

There are many Torah classes in person all over the world, and online each week. Let’s fortify ourselves with the knowledge that is our strength and the secret of our surviving and thriving in all the environments we have been in throughout our journey as the family of the House of Israel.

There is one holiday* in this long stretch – Tu B’Shevat – the 15th of the Jewish month of Shevat -the New Year for Trees when the fruit trees in the Land of Israel typically begin to bud and revive after the winter.

This is a holiday that announces the coming warmth in the midst of cold, and the burgeoning light of spring breaking through the winter’s gloom.

This is the point where we can take a lesson from those trees readying themselves to take sustenance and growth from the new energy they know with complete faith that will soon be flowing to them.

So may we be and see very soon – that G-d’s life and goodness reveal itself in the lives of the People of Israel, the Land of Israel, and through that – in all the Earth.

* Some Tu B'Shvat thoughts

A Tree's New Year Checklist:

Tu B'Shevat — the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat — is known as the "New Year for Trees." Naturally this would be a time for trees to engage in soul-searching — the same way people do on Rosh Hashanah.
● Did I shelter the seedlings that live in my shade — so they will grow up to be a next generation like myself?
● Did I grow towards the sun as a tree should, reaching up higher and higher towards that which I can never grasp, but which nurtures me all the same the more I strive towards it?
● Did I make sure my roots remain firmly planted in the soil that nurtures them, and did I drop my leaves there in the fall to give back life to that which sustains me?
● Did I ensure that my fruits were sweet and nourished all that came to enjoy them? Did everyone walk away from me with a smile?
● Did I bend gently in the wind, accepting what G d sends but never breaking or giving up hope?
● Did I grow in strength and wisdom with each new ring this year?
Come to think of it, not a bad checklist for us humans either!

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