Tu B’Shevat 5784 Musings
Every year on the spring holiday of Tu Bishvat, the Knesset
traditionally holds a festive event, open to the public, to celebrate both
the holiday and the Knesset’s founding in 1949. This time, however, the
ceremony began with a moment of silence in memory of the 24 soldiers who were
killed in two incidents in the Gaza Strip on Monday.
Knesset Speaker MK Amir Ohana stressed the diverse backgrounds of
the soldiers who were killed, including Elkana Vizel, who was evacuated from
Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip in 2005; Nir Binyamin, from Givatayim; and Ahmad
Abu-Latif, from the Bedouin city of Rahat.
The modern celebration of Tu B’Shevat is tied to the modern state
of Israel. This year, Tu B’Shevat is overshadowed by the war in Gaza. In honor
of our recent celebration of Tu B’Shevat, I want to share three stories of hope
and resilience that relate to Israel, agriculture, and October 7:
From Reuters January 21:
Some of the bereaved families whose loved ones were killed in a
Hamas rampage at the Nova music festival joined an Israeli Jewish nature
project group on Sunday for a special tree-planting event at the site.
Around 1,000 people planted about 200 seedlings in the scorched
earth of the Re'im parking lot where thousands of young people were partying in
the dawn hours of Oct. 7 when armed Palestinian infiltrators swept in.
“I still can’t believe that we are planting a tree instead of
hugging our child,” Ela Bahat, whose son Dror was killed at the festival, told
Reuters.
Family members wept while planting trees with the Israeli Jewish
National Fund, hoping to bring new life to the scene of death and desecration.
From the Times of Israel, November 5, 2023
The owners of a small plant nursery in Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the
worst devastated communities in the October 7 Hamas onslaught, thought they had
lost their business when they were forced to evacuate. But then they returned,
only to discover soldiers had broken in to water the plants.
“Be’eri had a thriving nursery for household plants, a little
blossoming paradise that made everyone happy,” owner Avivit John wrote on
social media Saturday.
“When we were forced to evacuate, it was clear that all the plants
would dry up. Rain does not get inside and the watering was done by hand. After
two days without water, the plants start to wither,” she said.
“Now we found a small
miracle in Be’eri,” she wrote, posting a video of the thriving nursery they
found when they returned several weeks later and a sign explaining it.
“Sorry we broke into the nursery, we had to water the plants. With
love, the soldiers,” the sign said.
On October 7th a tank entering Kfar Azza ran over an
orange tree as it was responding to the terrorist attack. The tank was part of
the Israeli response that was ultimately able to kill 100 terrorists in the
kibbutz. Three weeks later, those who were in the tank came back to Kfar Azza
to plant a new orange tree to replace the one that they had destroyed. See
picture above of the planting, with the old tree in the background.
When I was a high school senior I applied to Yeshivat Har Etzion
and was interviewed by the great Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt’l. In the second
part of the interview Rav Lichtenstein asked me why I thought the founding
fathers of the United States idealized the agrarian lifestyle. The torah also
idealizes an agrarian lifestyle and a connection to the Land. Perhaps that is because Jews, like farmers,
value hard work, patience, resilience, and prayer.
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