The late winter months on the Jewish calendar are marked by two special occasions. First is ‘Asarah b’Tevet, the tenth of Tevet (January 10th this year), one of four annual fasts connected with the destruction of the First Temple, specifically marking the date when Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian armies laid siege to Jerusalem in 586 BCE, all but sealing the city’s fate. This fast might be the least observed part of the cycle, as it comes all by itself in an isolated corner of the calendar, while all the others are part of holiday “seasons” (the fasts of Tammuz and Av come together bracketing the three week period of mourning in summer, while Tzom Gedaliah falls within the Ten Days of Awe in the fall). This reminder that Jerusalem suffered six months of siege before the breaching of her walls led inexorably to the Destruction brings to mind Hemingway’s description of bankruptcy: gradual, then sudden. This is a pattern that played out even more extremely in Syria recently, where the civil war appeared to be holding in a stable impasse after a decade and a half of killing, before a sudden surge of activity resulted in the toppling and flight of the dictator Bashar Al-Assad within less than two weeks.
Just over a month after ‘Asarah b’Tevet, we mark Tu b’Shvat, the 15th of Shvat (February 13th this year), often called the birthday of the trees, or the Jewish Arbor Day. Although it falls within the wintertime – especially here in the north – Tu b’Shvat gets us thinking ahead to spring, and looking out for trees returning to life and bearing their fruit. This is a reminder that nature, too, can move in ways that are gradual, then sudden, as a slow rise in temperatures and lengthening of days suddenly turns to melting of all the piled-up snow and budding of new leaves.
Our tradition asserts that this pattern of gradual, then sudden is baked into the nature of our world, as many centuries of hard human work to gradually improve the world around us will culminate in a relatively sudden process of redemption of the world – take that as literally or as figuratively as you choose. And the pattern appears in many aspects of our personal life as well, such as the growth of our children into young adults, or the changes in our health as we age.
Let us take these quiet holidays of the late winter as a spur to appreciate the best in every part of our lives – as those things might change gradually or suddenly, but they won’t last forever. At the same time, let us not lose hope when the progress of our ideals and hopes seems achingly gradual – at any moment, it could flower with sudden new growth.