The great masters of mussar and Jewish thought derived many important insights from Tu B’Shvat, which always falls in the midst of winter, while the trees are totally bare of leaves and seemingly bereft of any sign of life.
The fields are usually covered with snow, the white shrouds of winter. Yet when this special day arrives, a techiyas hameisim (Resurrection of the Dead) begins. Something happens under the earth; life-giving “sap” begins to work its way up through the trees to give them new life.
This expresses itself in buds, blossoms, flowers, and, eventually, luscious fruits that the trees will produce in the coming spring and summer.
Man is compared to a tree of the field (see Devarim 20:19).
At times it seems that he, too, is totally stripped of any spiritual life, with little or no connection to God and His Torah. Yet the pintele Yid, the indestructible spark of one’s Godly soul, lies dormant under the surface.
It waits for an opportunity to burst forth and flower with spiritual growth that can erase years and decades of apathy to a life of spirituality.
