The peel of the crisis that precedes the growth of the fruit

The Parasha in our everyday life – Parashat Beshalach - Shabbat Shira and Tu Bi’Shvat

Rabbi Eliezer Shenvald

Last Friday night, seven people were murdered with heinous cruelty and three were seriously injured, outside a synagogue in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood in Jerusalem. On Shabbat, Shabbat Shira, the eve of Tu Bi’Shvat, the days of mourning will be over. This painful onslaught joins a chain of recently carried out attacks. And to many years of painful assaults, since the Jewish settlement renewed itself in the Land of Israel. The attacks are a tool in the hands of our enemy who are fighting against us for the Land of Israel. They believe they will break our spirit, and make us give up parts of our country. However, despite the great pain, they will not break us and we will win. As a nation, we have learned about trouble and pain; from the day we ascended the stage of history. And every time we are beaten, we try to turn pain into strength, crisis into growth, destruction into creation, and the insolvency of death into the re-creation of life. In retrospect, we learn from history. Unfortunately, among the most important processes we have gone through, some were driven precisely by severe blows that hit us.

וְכַאֲשֶׁר֙ יְעַנּ֣וּ אֹת֔וֹ כֵּ֥ן יִרְבֶּ֖ה וְכֵ֣ן יִפְרֹ֑ץ

"But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out…" (Shmot 1:12).

וְעֵֽת־צָרָ֥ה הִיא֙ לְיַֽעֲקֹ֔ב וּמִמֶּ֖נָּה יִוָּשֵֽׁעַ׃

“It is a time of trouble for Yaacov, but he shall be delivered from it”. (Yirmiyahu 30:7).

אבל מן הצרה ההיא תצא לו עוד תשועה

“But from that trouble another salvation will arrive” (Metzudat David ibid)

Parashat Beshalach and the exodus from Egypt allows us to look at Egypt's slavery problems in retrospect. It was precisely the tears of the slavery hardships that led to the song of redemption:

…וכמו צרת גלות מצרים היתה סבה להטיב להם באחריתם כן כל צרות הגלות הזה הם סבה לישראל להושיעם תשועת עולמים

"And just as the hardships of the Egyptian exile were a reason to benefit them in their afterlife, so all the troubles of this exile are a reason for Israel to deliver them eternal salvation." (Sefer HaMenucha on Mishneh Torah Leavened and Unleavened Bread chapter 7:6:1).

Therefore:

בכל דור ודור חייב אדם להראות כו'

"Every Jew throughout the ages must bring himself to feel that he himself took part in the Exodus of our forefathers from Egypt" (ibid).

“And in this remembrance, the fear of G-d will always be in front of him as he sees how G-d took care of Israel and his heart will never turn away from him. He will trust in G-d as his savior in times of trouble” (ibid)

Ramchal explains that turning the crisis into a lever for growth is a principle of Divine leadership.

In the article "Return to Bitzron" Rabbi Kook ZT’L sought to strengthen the spirit of the settlement after the Hebron massacre in 1929. And so, he wrote:

אותו היסוד הקדוש, שהוא הנושא העיקרי של כל החזון הגדול הזה, יש בו משום ניצוץ טמיר של אורו של משיח, הגואל שנגלה ונכסה וחוזר ונגלה. בשביל כך הרינו רואים במשך המהלך של תחית האומה והרחבת הישוב בארץ ישראל הרבה חליפות, עליות וירידות ועליות…

"That holy foundation, which is the main theme of this whole great vision, has in it a spark of the light of the Messiah, the redeemer who is revealed and covered and then revealed once again. That is why we see during the course of the revival of the nation and the expansion of the settlement in the Land of Israel many changes, ups and downs and ups again… " (Maamarei Reayah).

We also see this principle in the nature of the trees whose festival we will celebrate this week - the peel always precedes the fruit:

ילפינן מברייתו של עולם דבכל דבר הלילה קודם ליום כדאי' ריש ברכות. כי בכל דבר ההעדר קודם להויה וכי אשב בחושך אדע כי אח"כ ה' אור לי. כי כל חיי האדם כך מורכבים מהזמן חושך ואור יום ולילה כך חוזר חלילה רק שהחושך קודם דקליפה קודמת לפרי...

"We learn from the creation of the world, that in all matters, the night comes before the day, as the Talmud teaches. (Berachot 2a) For in all matters, absence precedes existence. “When I dwell in darkness”, I know that afterward “Hashem will be my light.” (Michah 7:8) Indeed, a person’s entire life is comprised of times in darkness and light, day and night, and that cycle repeats itself as a circuit, with the darkness always coming first, as the peel precedes the fruit"... (R’ Tzadok MeLublin -Tzidkat HaTzadik - 11)

This time, too, we will raise our hands and the pain of the crisis will turn into growth.