The Deep Teaching of the Dried Fruit

Hey all. Sorry this is a day late...the site was down yesterday and this was my first chance to upload. But the almond buds here are still just starting to pop up (as you can see), so this should still be something that everyone can still enjoy:

Have you ever felt like a dried out fig? Sometimes stress and worry and all that nasty crud can just dry up our souls. All the more so in the winter, where the breeze is cold, and where fingers can look like dried prunes: everything outside just seems dead.

But then suddenly Tu b’Shvat comes, the new year of the trees. The mystics teach us that the sap from inside the trees starts to bubble up inside the trunk, and bring new life to what only yesterday looked so dead.

So one of the teachings of this day is the idea of personal renewal; but this is an idea that we see throughout the Torah, especially in the creation story. When the Torah begins, “In the beginning G-d created the Heavens and the Earth,” it teaches us that G-d put the opportunity of renewal in the world. Just as G-d created the world with the ability to renew itself, so too we have that same ability. We can recreate ourselves and bring forth fresh fruit from our once dry vines.

For many years, before the existence of the state of Israel, Jews from all over the world would eat dried fruit and celebrate the fruits of Israel on Tu b’Shvat. For so many years one could have compared the land itself to a dried out fruit; there were very few trees, very few inhabitants, and in short, very little life. But only a little more than 50 years after the re-birth of the State, the deserts are blossoming, and anyone who has been to the open market in Jerusalem can vouch for the fruits of the land. Despite the problems here, the land is producing so many fruits (literal and figurative) again.

Today should be a time of renewal for all of us, of blossoming new fruits, and harnessing of the creative potential that G-d has granted all of us.

*Thanks to Betzalel Edwards for inspiring this Torah.