Page 14 - HaMizrachi #26 Tu Bishvat USA 2021

TORAT MIZRACHI MIZRACHI SCHOLARS-IN-RESIDENCE

Sivan Rahav Meir and Yedidya Meir

Four Fruitful Thoughts

An Israeli teacher once told us that in most important applications: patience, and the means of communication with
her opinion there are four words that persistence, hard work, investment and Him is through brachot.”
1characterize this period in history: dedication. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks was once asked
me, here, now, everything. Therefore, what Judaism has to say about mindful-
Tu BiShvat carries added significance, ness. He answered that if we say a bracha
as its messages strike a strong contrast In previous generations, people slowly, aloud and with concentration, we
to these four words. would be overjoyed to receive an experience a moment of attention, of
2orange from Eretz Yisrael. Today,
We don’t celebrate the Holiday of the we enjoy an abundance of fruits and veg- focus, of mindfulness.
Trees in the spring but in the winter. etables in the renewed country of Israel. Stop for a moment and think how won-
Not at a time when everything is already Specifically, in a generation returning to derful this sentence is: “Blessed are You,
flowering and ripe, but at a time when its Land, we can attribute even greater Hashem, our G-d, King of the Universe,
we can’t see results yet. We don’t receive significance to this day, to the privilege who creates the fruit of the tree.”
everything here and now, at the click of of eating fruits in Eretz Yisrael.
a mouse. Tu BiShvat is also the anniversary
The kabbalists tell us that this day has of the death of Chaim Guri, one of
We wait. the capability to rectify the sin of Adam 3the poets of the 1948 generation,

Right now we need to just plant, water, HaRishon, who sinned with the fruit of a member of the Palmach. Outwardly,
invest, believe, pray and hope. the tree. How do we do this? By making he represented secular Zionism. But in
brachot with kavanah. many interviews in his later years, he
This flow of nature reminds us that there spoke of his fear that the revolution had
are slow, gradual and hidden processes As it says in the Sefer HaToda’a: “When been too great. He regretted the detach-
in life. Things develop underneath the Jews eat from the fruits of the Land and ment from our spiritual treasures:
surface, so we don’t see everything enjoy their goodness, they say a bracha
immediately. Hence we need to continue before and after eating them to He Who “HaKadosh Baruch Hu raises Moshe
to cultivate and be patient. This is of bestowed upon them this cherished Rabbeinu, the first prophet, the leader
course true not only in growing plants Land.” of the nation, to Har Nevo on the oppo-
but in educating children, in relation- The Ben Ish Chai writes that “through site side of the Jordan and tells him:
ships, in studies and in any significant [saying] a bracha, one causes abundance ‘You may view the land from a distance
field. to descend from Above.” (miNeged), but you shall not enter it’
(Devarim 32:52). The poet Rachel
In a generation that cannot even wait to And Rav Shimshon Pinkus uses this story in writing
see the two blue checks on WhatsApp, says: “We want to live with her poem ‘MiNeged.’
Tu BiShvat reminds us once a year of the HaKadosh Baruch Hu,

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