SHUVOO NEWSLETTER

Issue No. 35 – April 12, 2007

 

 

BEHOLD THE BITTER ALMOND

Tu b’Shvat to Pesach, Blossom to Fruit

A Tale, A Lesson, A Sobering Thought

 

Article and Photos © Ashirah Yosefah 2007

 

In the left-hand photo above, almond blossoms bloom in Jerusalem at the time of Tu b’Shvat this year.  In the right-hand photo, the soft fuzzy jackets of green almonds now adorn the same almond tree at Pesach. Nature is more far expressive than we appreciate.  What lessons can we learn from the almond?

 

 

Behold the almond.  It begins as a delicate pink blossom that braves the chill of the Israeli winter to adorn stark and barren branches at the time of Tu b’Shvat.  Our Sages tell us that at this time of the year the entire potential of the fruit to be formed is at its peak, swelling up within the fruit trees anxious to begin new growth.

 

Purim arrives, and the almond leaves push their protective bud sheaths aside and poke out their little green tips in a valiant struggle to compete with these bold little blossoms that are now beginning to shed their pink petals softly to the ground, carpeting the earth much like the approach to a kallah’s throne (the chair in which a Jewish bride sits and awaits veiling by her chattan before they go to the chuppah.)

 

A scant two months later Pesach arrives and what does one find vying for attention amidst the now leafy almond branches?  Cluster upon cluster of spring almonds in velvety soft green coats, plump and luscious.

 

Summer follows spring, of course, and with it comes hot, dry weather, one cloudless blue sky day upon another.  The elegant velvet coats of the almond will change seasons, too, turning from sage green to brownish-black.  The changes are not all superficial, however, the inside undergoes a transformation, too… as we will soon discover.

 

The summer heat mellows a bit by the time we reach Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot .  The ripened almonds will have been harvested, their parched black jackets popped and their fawn-colored shell revealed.  Some will make their way to the markets “as is”, but most almonds will be freed from their casings to be roasted, salted, sugared, or simply sold au natural, piled high in the vendors’ bins in Machane Yehuda and at markets and produce stands throughout Israel.  Such is the life cycle of the lowly, yet regal, almond!  After all, was not an almond branch selected by Hashem to bud, blossom and bear fruit in testimony of Aaron’s chosen status as Cohen Gadol?

 

Almonds actually have two harvests.  Not only ripe almonds find their way to market, the green almond does, too!  These are better known as “bitter almonds” in keeping with their flavor while young and immature.  Just before Pesach each year, the first almond harvest begins and baskets of bitter almonds take their place at the Shuk and in Israel’s supermarkets.  Now, pray tell, what does one do with a bitter almond? 

 

Last year I dutifully purchased this novel young nut as I am determined to savor every significant (kosher) flavor of this amazing and holy land.  I pronounced the bracha, “…borei pri ha eitz”, then the blessing of Shechiyanu which we say each time we experience something new or new for the first time in a year.  I attempted to crack, cut, peeled and poked at the soft green shell trying to gain access to the almond within.  After much persistent effort, I freed a thin white sliver of an almond from its shell.  It passed between my lips and “yuck!!!”  Such a bitter taste!  “Why on earth would people buy these,” I wondered to myself.  Ahhh, the uninitiated!

 

The almond, as we have seen, is a dutiful observer of the annual Jewish feasts.  It blossoms for Tu b’Shvat, leafs out for Purim, bears green fruit for Pesach, then takes time to savor Shavuot and the beautiful Israel summer to be ready for harvest in time for Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot.  It was at Sukkot that I was to learn the appeal of the bitter almond.  Sitting in a sukkah in the heart of Jerusalem, I was served a fennel and almond salad accompanied by the profuse apologies of the hostess that the salad really was supposed to be made with green almonds!  Ah-hah!  Culinary curiosity is my nemesis.  I could not wait for spring to arrive and with it bitter almonds.  So it has been that fennel and bitter almond salad, glistening in a robe of mint, lemon, olive oil and sugar (thank goodness!) has graced my table for the past two weeks.  But I’m not telling you this to take you on a culinary journey, I am about to give over a Torah concealed within the bitter almond. 

 

There are many beautiful legends in the Midrashim that tell how Avraham, from a young child, contemplated the plants and animals, the heavens, the forces of nature, and the seasons in his quest to understand what sustained the ancient world.  The people around him worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars, the elements, but Avraham found neither solace nor sustenance in such claims.  The Rambam in his Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Avodah Zorah, wrote:

 

“… he (Avram) had neither teacher nor guide, but wallowed in Ur of Chaldees amongst brutish idolaters, his father and mother and all the people serving the stars, he among them, his mind roving and seeking understanding, till he arrived at the true path and perceived the line of righteousness from his own right reasoning.”

 

And from a Midrash:

 

“Finally, by observing the regular rhythm of day and night, of the seasons, and of all natural laws, Avram inferred the presence of an omnipotent and wise Creator.”[1]

 

There are lessons concealed in all of Creation, if we take the time to look, wonder and ponder as did Avraham.  Nothing in this world and the galaxies beyond can exist for a split second without the sustaining sparks of Divine Presence that exist within all created beings and matter.  The Ramchal, in Mishkeney Elyon, notes that if Hashem were to suspend His flow of Divine Light and energy to the worlds for but an instant, all would cease to exist.  We are because He Is, He Was, He Will Be.  Therefore it makes perfect sense that everything about us contains a lesson on life, and life is, simply put, Hashem, in varying degrees of concealment.  As I sliced through a bitter almond last Erev Shabbat, Hashem allowed me a moment of awe.

 

The Torah tells us, “Ki haAdam etz hasede.” (Parsha Shoftim ~ Devarim 20:19)  A simple translation of this Hebrew phrase would be “Man is like the tree of the field.”  How are we like an almond tree?  Let’s take a look  …

 

 

While the immature almond looks substantial, it is actually very vulnerable.  How many people maintain such a stalwart façade when within they are burdened with cares?  As resilient as the almond fruit looks, one can easily bite into or cut it.  In similar fashion, humans have the ability “bite into” feelings, psyches, and damage souls if we do not temper our words and our actions with wisdom.  The Torah likens the sin of lashon hara (evil speech) to murder because by it we can forever kill the reputation of others.

 

Slicing through the young almonds, I discovered a tender, translucent heart:  An almost quivering orb of purity concealed beneath a fuzzy outer skin and two layers of soft almond “flesh,” green without and almost skin colored within. These same layers, now so pliable, will darken, turning into a brittle shell and a taunt skin with the passage of time, and the tender heart will harden.  How many human beings have experienced a hardening of heart and developed brittleness as the seasons of life have come and gone?  Have you?

 

The heart of the bitter almond is encased in a thin white membrane.  Did you know that the human heart is covered by a membrane-like sac referred to as the “cull?”  There is another covering that comes with the human body.  It is the foreskin that covers the tip of the male organ at birth; a foreskin that is removed during Brit Milah, placing of the sign of God’s Covenant with Israel indelibly upon the flesh of Jewish men. 

 

Torah speaks of yet another circumcision; one that does not require a mohel and that must be performed by the individual themselves, be they male or female:

 

“You shall cut away the foreskin of your heart and stiffen your neck no more.” (Devarim 10:16)

 

“Circumcise yourselves unto Hashem – remove the barriers of your hearts – O people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest My wrath go forth like fire and burn with none to extinguish [it], because of the wickedness of your deeds.”  (Yirmeyahu 4:4)

 

What happens when we have uncircumcised hearts?  How to we act and react?

 

In recent weeks, there have been public appeals from the renown Kabbalist Rabbi Eliyahu Leon Levi of Bnei Brak urging people to do as the Prophet Jeremiah proclaimed, to do teshuvah.  He warns there is danger on the horizon:  A rapidly approaching war that could well be disastrous if Jews do not repent and seek Hashem’s Mercy to sweeten the judgments which must come from The Righteous Judge in response to our wayward ways and world.  Rabbi Levi has advised people in Israel to prepare practically as well, stocking up with food and water sufficient for two weeks.  He advises that failing to take such precautions in the face of imminent war would transgress the Torah mitzvah that commands us to protect life.  Rabbi Levi also decried the blatant lack of modesty in dress and behavior by women, noting that this rampant societal blight contributes hugely to the judgment that has been decreed On High.

 

Rabbi Levi’s words seem to have faded as distant echoes, all but ignored, and more often scoffed by the majority of people walking the streets of Israel.

 

These are perilous times.  Mounting evidence of a coming war between Israel and her Arab neighbors is everywhere.  Daily we are forced to play an insane and surreal game of Hide and Seek, or is it “Russian Roulette,” with the terrorists plotting our demise while Israel’s military is ordered to exercise restrain.  Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Tzvika Fogel, a former chief of staff for the IDF Southern Command, spoke this week on Channel Ten television warning of two possible coming scenarios:  A surprise attack by the Hezbollah-aided Gaza Hamas-Fatah alliance, or the IDF being forced into a full scale offense in Gaza by this summer in response to the “increasingly strengthened Hamas-Fatah military capacity.”   

 

In the face of such warnings, our Prime Minister considers a prisoner swap that, if accepted, will release 45 top Hamas criminals, returning them to their deathly trade.  The list is headlined by Hamas super-terrorist Abdullah Barghouti, who is serving 67 life sentences for the murder of dozens of Israelis and for his part in numerous suicide bombings.  Joining him on the list are many other multiple-murder felons, suicide attack planners and the assassin of former Tourism Minister Rahavam Ze’evi.  Israel National News has described the Hamas list as a “Who’s Who of Terror.”

 

Yet, as ominous as all of this feels, the majority of the populace seem oblivious.  The barriers covering hearts and minds have grown so thick as to seem impenetrable.  Are people impervious to the times?  Numbed to the point of insensitivity by years of official and unofficial Intifada?  Duped by media spin?  So consumed with the material world that their long range vision stops at their immediate social circle? 

 

A few days ago a journalist who covered the war with Lebanon last summer  recalled with horror how she went down to Café Hillel the day after the ceasefire to find it was “life as usual” among the young adults who smoked and drank at tables beside her.  Nary a word she heard about the abrupt end of conflict with no return of IDF captives and no victory at all.  It was as if the war had never occurred, she told me.  In her mind, however, she could not help but think that should war erupt again these same young people enjoying their coffee would find themselves in combat fatigues.

 

“Many designs are in a man’s heart, but the counsel of Hashem, only it will stand.”  (Proverbs 19:21)

 

Some protest that the Prophets of the Tanach cannot be interpreted accurately enough to worry about their significance for today, but this mindset is a deceptive ruse.  It goes without saying that only history will reveal the true nature of prophecy, but the counsel of Hashem for the years preceding the Redemption is too sobering to be ignored and, despite protests, much of it is unmistakably clear.  The God of Israel has ensured that His Words in Torah and through His Prophets have survived the centuries.  There is a reason.  His Words are Eternal and His message is for today. We live in perilous times.  We can add to our peril, or we can take steps to improve our situations such that we can unabashedly cry out to the Master of the Universe for His Protection and Providence. 

 

In the photo above, the bottom caption reads “… and they are bitter, bitter, bitter… until…”  Paradoxically, I discovered that the secret to transforming bitter almonds into a delightful salad was lemon juice.  It preserves their color and changes their bitter bite into a unique piquant flavor.  This raises a sobering thought courtesy of the transformable fruit:  Is it going to take the “sourness” of war to sweeten bitter hearts and ambivalent minds that heed not the warnings of religious and military authorities?  How often has Hashem allowed bitterness in our personal lives to awaken us and turn our hearts to Him in teshuvah?  Will we press on hard and resilient like the ripe almond protected by its tough shell and leathery skin?  Can we really protect ourselves in the face of war, or are we falling prey to our own deception?  Would it not be be wiser to “Sh’ma Yisrael” – Hear O Israel?  And all the Children of Israel responded:  “We will (first) DO it and then HEAR (and understand it).” (Shemot 24:7) 

 

God has commanded us to cut away the barriers of our heart, to cast off the klipot (hardened shells of spiritual impurity) we’ve accumulated in our waywardness.  In return, He has promised to cleanse us and to give us new hearts, pure and tender like the heart of a bitter almond.  Only then will there be true peace in the Land.

 

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My spirit within you, and I will make it so that you follow My decrees and guard My ordinances and fulfill them.  You will dwell in the land that I gave to your forefathers; you will be a people to Me, and I will be a God to you.”  (Yehezekel 36:-28)