As
with all our other holidays this past year, Tu B’shevat, the “birthday of the
trees” will be arriving “early” (at least on the Gregorian Calendar) next week,
despite the frigid air in North America!
While we are scraping the ice off our windshields, Israel will soon be
bathed in pink and white, as the almond trees start to blossom and once again,
the earth renews itself.
One
of my favorite Tu B’shevat activities to do with young children is to plant
seeds in a small container so they can experience the magic of watching them
grow. Parsley seeds are a nice thing to
plant, and put on the windowsill. Through careful management of sun and water,
you should have some parsley for your Passover Seder!
We
use the expression, “planting a seed” to mean so many things. It can mean the beginning of an idea that
will “germinate” into something positive, or we can plant “seeds of doubt” or
plant “seeds of discontent.” Unlike “voila” moments, when the light bulb goes
off in your head and everything becomes perfectly clear, “planting a seed”
requires that the mind be prepared to accept that seed, and that seed needs to
be nurtured in order to come to fruition.
But
what if we went to the seed rack at Home Depot and found that all the seed
packets were blank? It throws us off,
because we’ve always taken it for granted that if we plant a certain variety,
within an exact gestation period we should expect to get exactly what we planned
for… down to color, size, texture and taste and smell.
Since October, when the
results of the Pew Research Center’s Religion and Public Life Project study “A
Portrait of Jewish Americans” were released, there have been seismic rumblings
throughout the Jewish world. Throughout
organized Jewish life there has been gloom, doom and a “Chicken Little” cry of
“The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling” as article after article bemoans the
projected fate of the American Jew.
The numbers show that
America’s Jewish population is declining, and religion is becoming less
important to overall Jewish identity. With
62 percent of U.S. Jews identifying with their heritage through ancestry,
instead of religious affiliation or faith, Pew Research asked the following
question: “What does being Jewish mean in America today?”
Here
are the answers in order of their popularity:
73% Remembering the Holocaust
69% Leading an ethical life
56% Working for justice and equality
43% Caring about Israel
42% Having a good sense of humor (I kid you
not!)
I
refuse to be shaken by the numbers. Since the beginning of Jewish history, we
have heard about our impending doom. After
the destruction of the First Temple, the crème de la crème of Jerusalem’s Jews
were carried off in captivity to Babylon. The Jews of the Spanish Inquisition were
faced with death, conversion, or expulsion. Enlightenment and Emancipation with
their new opportunities shook the foundations of traditional Jewish life in
Europe. The pogroms in Eastern Europe cast wave after wave of immigrants to the
shores of America. The Holocaust destroyed a thousand years of secular and
religious life, in the wave of a hand. And Israel, as we have seen since its
inception, is always on the precipice of destruction (although these days I
worry more about INTERNAL COMBUSTION than EXTERNAL THREATS!)
Picture,
if you will, these events as “unmarked seed packets.” One by one history tore open these packets
and tossed them up into the winds of change.
Each packet, and its subsequent dispersion, has yielded unexpected and
unanticipated results. From the Babylonian captivity we created a new system of
Judaism that allowed us to be remain Jewish without the sacrificial system. From
the Spanish Inquisition we dispersed to every corner of the earth and
established new and vibrant centers of learning, commerce, and Jewish culture.
From the Enlightenment, we gained access to the new worlds of Science,
Philosophy, Literature, Politics and Art. The Pogroms awoke a passionate call
for a Jewish State. The “poor huddled masses yearning to be free” built a
Jewish America, the likes of which could never have been imagined. From the dust and ashes of the Holocaust came
the State of Israel, a political and spiritual address for the world’s Jews, be
they secular or religious.
So,
here we are. While the Pew Results appear to portend grim things for the fate
of Jews in America, I don’t agree with the doom scenario. Instead, I say, “Look at all those unmarked
seed packets!” Let’s toss them into the
air and see where the winds of change lead.
All I ask is that America’s Jews remain receptive. Wherever these seeds land, they will still
require water and sunshine, and nurturing (and perhaps a little infusion of
financial fertilizer) to take root and grow, and hopefully, flourish. Our numbers have waxed and waned throughout
history. Doom has often lurked right
over the horizon. And yet, we continue
to blossom and make adaptive changes just like any evolving living thing.
For
some words of solace regarding the Pew predictions, I leave you with the
closing remarks of an article written by Mark Twain in Harper’s Magazine, March
1898, entitled “Concerning the Jews.”
“To
conclude. - If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one per cent.
of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star-dust lost in the
blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is
heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any
other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion
to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great
names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse
learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.
He
has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with
his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it.
The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound
and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the
Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have
sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit
in twilight now, or have vanished.
The
Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no
decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his
energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal
but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his
immortality? “
Rabbi
Rose
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