Parshas Yitro – THE SAP OF REDEMPTION

THE SAP OF REDEMPTION

By Roy S. Neuberger

Is it a coincidence that this climactic Parsha, in which Am Yisroel meets Hashem at Har Sinai, should fall out during the week of T’U b’Shevat? Well that question is of course unnecessary, because there are no coincidences.

My chavrusa, Rabbi Yehuda Schiff Shlita”h, showed me a Ramban on Parshas Bo which tells us a beautiful yesod in emunah: “a person has no share in the Torah of Moses our Teacher unless he believes that all our affairs and experiences are miracles …. There is [no such thing as] ‘the ordinary course of the world.’” (Ramban on Shemos 13:16) We learn from Yetzias Mitzraim that Hashem controls everything. The extraordinary miracles of Mitzraim serve to show us that the entire “everyday” conduct of nature and everything that happens in this world emanate directly from Hashem’s will.

T’U B’Shevat’s remarkable legacy is that, during the winter, when the earth is frozen, animals are hibernating and all nature appears dead, this is not the real story. The real story is that the sap hidden within the trees is starting to flow at precisely this moment. The hidden rebirth, Techias Hamaisim, the ascent from death, the salvation of the world always begins in a hidden manner. “And Rabbi Yitzchak said: Blessing is not found except in something that is hidden from the eye.” (Taanis 8b; Bava Metzia 42a) T’U b’Shevat is the day “when the sap rises in the trees…” (Bnai Yissaschar, quoted in Book of Our Heritage)

Does anyone see the sap rise? 

Only Hashem knows when the hidden explosion of salvation – the cosmic moment of our Great Redemption – is beginning, concealed from all eyes. All nature imitates Hashem, the Ultimate Hidden One. Similarly, Chazalsay about tzaddikim, “Who is destined for a share in the World to Come? One who is modest and humble, who enters bowing and leaves bowing, who learns Torah constantly, but doesn’t take credit for himself.” (Sanhedrin 88b)

Everything holy is hidden. This midah is exactly opposed to the society which surrounds us, which is obsessed with publicity, pushiness and “me first.” My friends, the news is disastrous on every level. Now they are outlawing shechita in Europe. Next they will try to outlaw every other mitzvah until they try to outlaw those who perform mitzvos, G-d forbid. 

But the sap is rising in the trees and the rains are pouring down on the Kinneret. Our secret springs of brachaare pouring down from Shomayim, and this is all a prelude to the redemption we are all awaiting. As I quoted recently, “when the wicked bloom like grass and all doers of iniquity blossom, it is to destroy them till eternity…” (Tehillim 92)

The world thinks it is close to the moment when they will solve the “Jewish Problem” forever. Little do they know that, where no one can see, the sap of redemption is rising in the Tree of Life, and the day is dawning when we will hear “for a second time in the presence of all the living … ‘I am Hashem your G-d!’” (Mussaf Shabbos Kedusha)

PICTURE CAPTION

The sap is flowing in the trees

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Roy Neuberger, author and public speaker, can be reached at roy@2020vision.co.il.

© Copyright 2019 by Roy S. Neuberger