Roots of Renewal: Embracing Personal Growth and Spiritual Reflection on Tu B'Shvat (Rebroadcast)

Transcript

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To ask someone when is Tisha B'Av Would be like asking someone for the correct number to dial 911.

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Or who's buried in Keva Rachel?

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Or what color is the White House?

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They're all self-explanatory, self-evident.

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They're obvious.

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Tu B'Shvat, named very cleverly for the date that we celebrate Tu B'Shvat on the 15th day of Shvat, a minor holiday for the Jewish people.

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Some actually refer to this day as Hamisha Asar B'Shvat.

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But the name of the holiday, while it does tell us when we celebrate it, while it does tell us when we celebrate it, the name doesn't speak to its significance or what our service should be on the 15th day of Shabbat.

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It's also rather perplexing and pressing that we discover what is the significance of Tu B'Shvat.

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Why are we excited?

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Because, after all, it's such a serious and energized holiday that we omit Tachanon, the same Tachanon that kept Amorim alive, the same Tachanon that shows our total subservience and subjugation to Hashem, is skipped because of the significance of Tu B'Shvat.

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A holiday, a Moed of sorts.

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It's actually a rather frightening day as well.

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A lot hangs in the balance.

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A minor Yom Kippur?

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Yeah, because the B'nai Yisrael, he tells us in his mimer on the month of Shabbat, citing a reference to the Mishnah in Mesech.

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The Rosh Hashanah Tu B'Shabbat is the new year for tree.

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Rosh Hashanah, le'ilon is the literal text of the Mishnah.

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It is singular not Le'ilonot but Le'ilon.

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Even if the song is sung with different words, the Mishnah is in singular just one tree.

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It's a rem as a reference to the tree that will be used in the coming year for Kedusha the Elon, that is, the Esrog Elon.

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And today is the day that we daven to have a mehudr, a beautiful, symmetrical, dazzling citron and esrog.

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You daven for it today.

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It's very scary.

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You don't want to be the fellow on the side of the shoal that's stuck with an ester.

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It looks like it's a cheap suitcase that's been handled by some aggressive TSA agents that by the time you arrive at your destination, your suitcase comes down, that baggage claim mechanism that brings the suitcases out and all you see is a big, bumpy, beat-up, cheap, barely recognizable suitcase.

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You don't want that ester to be your ester of choice and that all hangs in the balance today.

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And if you're a capitalist, you like the mysticism.

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Well, it's a unique day, for the Arizal would have the custom to set the table and make a quasi-Pesach Seder Tu B'Shvat Seder with the fruits of Eretz, yisrael, letting out the sparks and the hidden jewels of Kedusha that have been trapped inside of these fruits, going after the Nitzaitzis.

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So if you have the Mesorah of the Lurianic Kabbalah that you like to practice, there's even more on the line.

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If you're a kalta litvak like me, when you like your Yiddish guy to be cold and dark, well, it is even doubly as scary Because Tu B'Shvat brings all these bracha questions.

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Do you make a shehechiyanu on these fruits?

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All new, odd fruits that you haven't eaten in quite some time?

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Suffolk, brachos all over the place, don't even mention the tulaimk.

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Brachos all over the place, don't even mention the tulaim, the insects that are crawling in the fruit.

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Do they have to be checked?

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How many isuri de orisa are there?

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If, god forbid, one does have one.

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What to do with a chocolate-covered apricot and the jelly-dipped kiwi?

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Are we allowed to consume?

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Should we?

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How do we consume these $75 fruit platters?

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It's a serious day, a weighty day and a great opportunity.

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So let's explore, let's figure out what we can take out of this day, what our avodah is.

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Hopefully, unearth the depths, plumb the goldmine of Tu B'Shvat and maybe we will be Zohar to bring home a goodie bag full of Yerushalayim and something practical to do.

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Full of Yerushalayim and something practical to do.

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So let's start at the very beginning.

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Where's the source for Tu B'Shvat?

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Where does all this come from?

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Need the text?

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That's a very easy question to answer.

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It's an open Mishnah, the beginning of Masech Terash Hashanah, don't you know?

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Be'ez Amar, aleph Ar Bo'Rosh Hashanah M'Heim.

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There are four new years on the calendar.

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The Mishnah finishes off the first day of Shabbat.

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Not today was the Rosh Hashanah for three.

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That is, kediv, rebbe Shammai that is how the Academy of Shammai learned and Beis Hillel, Omrim, bechamisha Asarbo.

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No, in fact, the Rosh Hashanah is on the 15th and the Gemara explaining the root of the Machlokes of Beis Shamay and Beis Hillel.

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It does so on Dafya Dalet, going back and forth about what changes on the first day of the month, the 15th day of the month, is it the end of the rainy season, the beginning of a new season?

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Does it still rain?

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Are there cold days to come, rainy days to come, monsoons to come?

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A fascinating Gemara, but the bridge that connects trees to people never seems to be crossed.

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Seems like the trees should be celebrating.

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It's their bar mitzvah, it's their special day.

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What does it have to do with people.

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Why do we eat $75 kiwi apricot platters?

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So maybe we aren't outlandish to draw the parallel that people are very similar to trees and celebrations and lessons can be had and should be learned from trees, for after all, the Torah notes of this similarity between trees and people very frequently.

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The Torah talks about the importance of trees in Mishnah, in Psukim, in Gemara.

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Even if you start at the very beginning of Tanakh, you'll find that the tree of knowledge plays a significant role.

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Trees obviously have something deeply rooted pun intended.

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In Chachmas Hashem, the parasha tells us that literally, the apostle says that man is a tree of the field.

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How about the Mishnah in Avos that says that you should be like a tree with a lot of roots, so that even when a ruach she'enem mitzvah, a very intense hurricane, tornado-like wind comes, that you're in-rooted, entrenched in the ground with your fear of heaven, that even the Haskalah movement or technology cannot uproot your fear of heaven Because you've got to have deep roots like a tree.

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So maybe we are kind of like trees, really.

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The Torah comes to mind as, even compared to a tree, for Yitzchayim, hilamachazikimba is a tree of life and there are a plethora of parables, similarities, examples and lessons that are taught about our spiritual climb to greatness, to growth, to that of a tree.

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But there must be something unique about the 15th of Tu B'Shvat that we get all excited about.

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Yeah, there is Tu B'Shvat.

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Something happens to trees, something that we, it seems, feel the need to commemorate and celebrate.

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And I heard this from the great Rabbi Kalish, the angel, the Malach, himself, and pointing out Making a beautiful diak in one of the Rashi's when Rashi's explaining the machlokas of Beishamayim, beish Hillel, about when Tu B'Shvat actually is that.

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What happens at this time is the tree finishes soaking up its nutrients from the ground.

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During all the past couple months, the tree has spent its waking hours soaking up the sap from the ground, building itself up.

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But on this day, the tree's all grown up.

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It's his bar mitzvah Rashi explaining the gemara.

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A little bit later gives over the halachic explaining the halachic nafgeminas about why we have to know this state for laws of tithes and netaravai and different halachic reasons.

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But what happens on this day, hashkaficly, is that the tree is no longer samach al shulchan shal ground.

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The tree is no longer supported.

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It's a self-sustaining organism.

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It's all grown up.

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The maturation phase has concluded.

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It has reborn, taken its first steps and now will walk by itself, even get a job by itself as a new California redwood that doesn't need any help from anyone else.

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On this day, a powerful lesson is that human beings commemorate this new beginning for trees, this Rosh Hashanah L'Elon, for it's something that in our lives we should incorporate, for we really are dependent upon people, the nutrients that life provides.

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We are dependent on our parents when we're young, some of us still dependent upon our parents when we're young, some of us still dependent upon our parents when we're older, we are dependent upon our rabbeim and our chavrusos for spiritual encouragement and Torah teaching.

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We are dependent upon our spouse.

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We are dependent upon others.

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We are dependent on so much to get the mitzvot and Torah done.

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But the altar of Kelm says over, very poignantly, that the more of a necessity something is to life, to existence, the more readily accessible it is.

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Hakadosh Baruch Hu made it easy for us to access water because it is a tremendous necessity for life.

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Bread, easy to get, air, would be impossible to live without.

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So it's everywhere, it's a spectrum, and when you go the other way, the more of a non-entity, non-important luxury that the item is more rare.

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It's because vice toice it must be.

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It's not all that important and crucial to human survival, but really a human being, him by himself, with nothing else but a brain in his head, could survive.

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Hashem gave him everything you can take shelter in trees, and if it wasn't for other aspects of honor, maybe we would live in a cardboard box and some basic shelter and food and water.

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But v'yevaser Yaakov levado, v'yayelachav roham are avos, the B'ruchim points out.

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They were able to become their own hotels, five-star hotels of Torah and Kedusha, self-inspiring organisms, self-sufficient, re-energizing ruchnias, factories, their own soul, torah proprietorship.

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They could learn and they could grow on their lonesome.

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Rabbi Kalish, he told his Bachrim this beautiful lesson that there is a time that a person needs to become self-inspired, he needs to be able to recreate his Rebbe's enthusiasm with his own mind.

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And this is the lesson of the trees that they no longer need the help of the ground, but they grow into tall, towering California redwoods by themselves.

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In our lives we probably, hopefully, will have help from others Help from Artscroll, help from Online Shurim, help from our parents, help from our abayim, help from the daily motivational Torah platform, the motivation congregation like.

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Subscribe, donate, rate, review.

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But in Ein Ani Li Mili says Rabbeinu Yonah.

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It means, if you are not for yourself, who will be for you?

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Because if you don't learn to be like a tree and become a self-inspiring human organism, well then it's not going to work out.

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You know, these getaways that Michaelis spoke about, these beautiful, inspiring Shabbos projects, the Torah, umasasorah principle Shabbatons, the question-answer sessions with the Gedolim, the Hanukkah Ruchnius conferences, the Halacha summits.

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They're all so inspiring, so reinvigorating.

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But what to do?

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Because they only happen every so months.

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We need one every week.

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But all the mates have said that, like on Tubishvat, there comes a time when a man can learn that his own Friday night, suda him and his spouse and his children, they can recreate the Shabbos project, the Torah and Masorah convention, around the table with the Shabbos candles off to the side.

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He can have his own question answer session with his family.

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He can have his own inspiring talk with his Shnaya Mikra Sefer and his own motivational drusha from his Mishnayas Mishnias.

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That's what it means to grow up, to grow into a large, towering California redwood.

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On the day of Tubishvat, it's tree independence day.

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It's a quasi-moed.

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We leave our parents basement and we become self-sustaining rechneus organisms.

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It's not by coincidence that we celebrate the 15th day of Shabbat.

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Something big's happening and a big lesson is being taught at the University of Trees.

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A holiday, it's packed.

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We omet tachanon, it's packed.

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Bi'omet tachanun, it's a moed.

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If you're Sfardi, you're going to have to make sure to sit down and have a great big bowl of the delicious ashur, some sort of cocoa dessert made of grains and dried fruit, to celebrate the holiday.

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Or maybe you're going to sit down and have a full Seder with four cups of wine.

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But either way, we soak up the nutrients, we enjoy all the inspiration, but we take our first steps as our own tall, towering California redwoods.

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So, my tubishvat, what is this day Today of independence, today, a holiday?

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We learn that we are for ourselves.

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Mili, who's for me?

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I'm for me, and even if I'm alone, by myself, I'm able to recreate the inspiration, re-energize and galvanize myself like a tall, towering California redwood.

Roots of Renewal: Embracing Personal Growth and Spiritual Reflection on Tu B'Shvat (Rebroadcast)

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