TEVA TALK
Finding ourselves in a similar spot to where we stood a year ago compels us to pause and take stock. After a full year of masking and quarantines, many people now find themselves repeating the mantra: “But we did this already.” If we shift our focus, however, to carefully examine events as they unfolded, we will discover moments of clarity, when we worked together within our community to make this year a little more manageable and a little less lonely. Taking an honest look at where we stand, we can clearly see that we are not merely “doing this again.” Rather, we have grown since Covid started and learned to stay safe, both physically and emotionally, during continued uncertainty.
Growing Up
For many animals,
surviving in a dangerous world necessitates growing up fast. When all you can
really do to stay safe is run, you have to learn quickly. Baby zebras and
giraffes can walk within 30 minutes of their birth and can run in under an hour.
Tired of having the same old things to eat everyday, lions and hyenas would
love to have a gnu option on their menu. They are out of luck, though, because
baby gnus, also known as wildebeests, can walk only minutes after they are born
and can outrun predators when they are just a few days old!
Growth happens at
incredible rates in the natural world. The red kangaroo grows more than any
other animal. It begins its life weighing only .03 ounces (about a third of a
penny) and will eventually reach 180 pounds; that’s an increase of over 90,000
times its birth weight!
On the other side
of the scale, blue whale babies, called calves, weigh over 8,000 pounds at
birth. They are mammals and drink their mother’s milk for about a year. During
that time, the calves drink around 50 gallons of milk every day and gain around
200 pounds each day, placing them among the fastest growing animals in the
world.
Growing
Unseen
Not all growth is
so apparent. The Chinese bamboo tree, one of the fastest growing plants in the
world, can grow an inch every 45 minutes; you can sit and watch it grow,
literally. But not on the first day, not even during its first year. This
impressive growth doesn’t begin until the bamboo plant is five years old. For
the first five years, the bamboo seed must be watered and faithfully cared for,
or it will die. No growth can be witnessed during all of that time, just an
aura of trust that the plant is still alive. Then, after consistently taking
care of the plant for 1,825 days, the plant will grow 90 feet tall in just five
weeks! That’s 18 feet each week!
That extraordinary
growth of the Chinese bamboo tree only happens because someone nurtured and
cared for it year after year. In Hebrew, the words for paying attention to
something are seem lev, to put your
heart into it. We can truly grow to greatness if we simply take the time to put
our hearts into what we want to accomplish, as well as understand that we have
to be patient. We may not see tangible results for our efforts right away or
even that year or the next, but each time we seem lev, each moment we put our hearts into our growth, we are
setting ourselves up to reach majestic heights.
Bamboo is a
perennial evergreen that is actually part of the grass family. (It is just a
very tall and woody type of grass.) It is interesting to note that bamboo is
often used in the schach of our
sukkahs, where we reside day after day right after the inspiration of Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It is a time we set aside to patiently “grow” our
relationship with Hashem.
Growing
Different
For some
creatures, growth means change. Insects such as bees, ants, butterflies, and mosquitos
undergo the process of metamorphosis, which means that their adult form is
completely different from their infant one. Even though we might personally
find it challenging to pick out our own grandparents from examining their baby
pictures (a fun family activity, nonetheless), they still had the same basic
features of eyes, arms, and legs that they had when they were younger. This is
not the case with many insects, which are unrecognizable as the adults they
will become from their wormlike larval stage. Only after spending time
developing inside a pupa for as little as a few days to many years will the
insect reach its potential and emerge.
Occasionally,
growth requires change, and we need to be able to move outside our comfort
zones and recreate part of ourselves into something new. The Yamim Tovim
inspire us to annually reevaluate our goals and priorities and assess the areas
we want to develop. Whether continuing down a path we have been pursuing or
choosing to change direction completely, we become recharged with focus and
motivation to succeed.
Growing
Always
Fingernails are
the only part of our bodies that grow so quickly that you can actually see
their growth from week to week. Although our hair and toenails also grow a lot,
we usually only realize it once they’ve grown too long. It seems as though,
before we turn around, we need another haircut and once in a while our toenails
need some attention. Our fingernails, on the other hand (pun intended), are
constantly growing.
Rav Hai Gaon
stated in his Responsa Shaarei Teshuva
that, because they are always growing, it is a good omen for a week of success
to look at one’s fingernails during havdala.
What better definition of a successful week than one in which you can see real
personal growth. It is interesting to note that there is a deep connection
between the custom many people have to cut their nails before we light the
Shabbos candles and the custom of looking at one’s nails in the light of the havdala candle. When we cut our nails
before Shabbos and then see that they have already started to grow again just
one day later, we are reminded that Shabbos offers a unique opportunity to
renew our motivation toward personal growth.
Growing
Home
When a seed falls
to the ground, it has within it the potential to grow. Some seeds have built in parachutes and glide to the ground on gentle
breezes; others, like nuts, fall with a thud. In whatever way it
gets to the dirt in which it will take root, whether its potential will be
reached depends almost entirely on its environment. If a seed lands in a spot
that has the right amount of water, sunlight, and nutrients, it will grow. But
if the water is scarce, the sunlight dim, or the soil is hard, the seed won’t
have enough resources to survive.
Seeds don’t choose
where they land; they are carried by the elements and animals to their fate.
Humans, however, are the masters of their environment. If it’s too hot and
humid for us (totally a hypothetical example in Baltimore, right?), we simply
(and quickly) go indoors and turn up the air conditioner. If it’s too cold, we
wear warm sweatshirts and have some soup. Just as we have the power to control
our physical environment, we can establish our spiritual one, as well. Setting
aside some quiet time, maybe during a walk under the trees, will help us know
when we need to adjust how we spend our free time in order to set up our
surroundings for success.
During Sukkos, we
disregard the physical environment in favor of a spiritual one. We take pride
in sitting in our sukkah, despite the fact that we know it will likely be too
hot or too cold. Iced tea or hot cocoa in hand, we immerse ourselves in the knowledge
that Hashem is taking care of us. Whether in huts or surrounded by clouds, we
personally build an environment for ourselves in which we can grow closer to
our Creator.
Many people have
the custom to begin building their sukkah right after Yom Kippur is over. The sound
of nails being driven into wooden boards fills the night air, even as the sound
of a single shofar blast still echoes in our hearts. That shofar also grew. A
shofar is often made from the horn of a ram, which never stops growing for its
whole life. It is made from keratin, which is the same material as our
fingernails, each layer building upon the one that came before it. This is
truly the perfect metaphor for our own growth, which we continue to steadily
build year after year, beginning from our birth until 120 years of accumulated,
patient, and faithful growth reveals something truly magnificent.
Debbie
Glazer lives in Pikesville with her husband and seven children and teaches
Language Arts in Bnos Yisroel High School.
She can often be found either writing or reading and loves to share her
passion for the written word with others.
