D'var Torah
About Rabbi Barry A. Kenter
Tevet-Shevat
5764
Al Ha-artez
v’al pri ha-aretz:
For the Land and the Fruit of the Land
To my mind, the pomegranate is one of the most beautiful of the fruits of creation. One of the shivat ha-minim, the seven species native to Israel: the grape, fig, date, wheat, barley, olive, early on the pomegranate was the model for artistic motifs on the hems of the garments of the high priest; archeologists have found pomegranate shaped vials bearing the inscription ‘for the house of the king.’ The name for the individual silver finials of the Torah is rimon, pomegranate. One of the most exquisite fruits to watch growing in Israel is the pomegranate as it transforms from brilliant orange flower to orange, then deeper and deeper red fruit. The image of the pomegranate, filled to overflowing with seeds, underlies one of the most delightful of aphorisms, “may you be as filled with mitzvot, as a pomegranate is filled with seeds.”
It has been my privilege to be in Israel at each phase of the pomegranate’s growth cycle. I recall being on Kibbutz Sa’ad in the Negev, some four kilometers east of Gaza City, watching wintering birds hovering, gently easing their to the edge of brown shards of pomegranates remaining on bushes through late fall and into the winter months, nosily feasting on the seeds.
Our year and our lives are punctuated with cycles of time: transformation from season to season, journeys from birth to death, celebrated and commemorated by rituals marking moments of transition, holidays that take note of the renewal of the festive calendar, following the waxing and waning of the moon in an ever recurring annual cycle.
Tu b’Shevat, the 15th of Shevat, the New Year of the Trees, this year observed on Friday night, February 6, and Saturday, February 7. It will coincide with Shabbat Shirah, the Sabbath of Song, when we recall the song sung at the Sea of Reeds by Miriam and the women of Israel and then taught to Moses and the other members of the Israelite community; when we chant the longest by far of the haftarot, Deborah’s Song. It will also be the day on which we will participate in an old Eastern European tradition of putting out seed for the birds on the Shabbat on which we read of the giving of the manna in the wilderness. We will recall miracles large and small – the division of the Sea of Reeds, the provision of food for the Israelites, Deborah’s military victory and Yael’s prowess, intrigue, and her vanquishing of the enemy general Sisera. And we will remember the miracle of food – bringing bread from the earth is as difficult as the parting of the Sea of Reeds.
Join us for our annual Seder Leil Tu b’Shevat – rejoice with our community and our congregation in giving thanks for the Land and the fruit of the Land.
Copyright © 2004, Barry A. Kenter