by Rabbi Israel Rubin

We can't help but notice the leaves these days.

As the High Holidays arrive at the peak of the fall, let's appreciate the feast of color ablaze with fiery yellow, red, orange and purple.

You don't have to be an artist, poet, or a foliage fanatic to appreciate this beauty. Whether it is just a single tree, or miles through the countryside, it is there for all of us to enjoy and admire.

Whether we live in treesy areas dressed in full glory, in evergreen areas which show no change, or in places with no trees at all, let's take a moment to study the amazing phenomenon of even one single leaf.

A Single Leaf

Let us turn and see the leaf from a new perspective, for Divine Providence leaves nothing to chance. Indeed, the Baal Shem Tov taught, that even a single leaf blowing in the wind is part of G‑d's special design and purpose.

Which reminds me of the story of the young boy who was cleaning the lawn of a neatnik. The man insisted on a perfectly clean lawn, with all the leaves raked together neatly in a pile.

Before paying the boy, the man came out to check how the work was done. To his dismay, he pointed to a lone leaf strewn on the lawn.

"What is this here?" he demanded angrily.

"That, sir," responded the boy, "is actually a one leaf pile."

This may be typical of a lonely leaf on a lawn, but it is certainly true of a single mitzvah done with meaning. It may not appear like a big pile, but a single mitzvah done with the right intention, stands in a category all by itself.

The End is Near

But the seasons keep turning, and leaves, too, have their ups and downs. Even as we watch, some leaves have already begun to glide downward, chasing each other around in a circle. Let us listen to their rustle, bidding farewell as they take leave.

Their moment of glory comes and goes so quickly. They soon lose their sparkle, and begin to fade and pale. After the fall, they litter our lawns and walkways, they're all over the place. Considered a nuisance, they are pushed around and rounded up, crunched and stuffed into large bags to be hauled away, and dumped.

The Lofty Leaf

I would have liked to leave well enough alone, but it enhances our beleaf in the Creator of them all!

Incredible as it sounds, each leaf is a highly sophisticated energy producing chemical and electrical complex composed of millions of parts. It is a chorus of atoms, molecules and structures in each leaf, performing billions of intricate biochemical reactions in total unison.

The green in a leaf is actually a composite of tiny moving chloroplasts. A hundred chloroplasts placed end to end would fit across the diameter of the period at the end of this sentence. Despite their infinitesimal size, each chloroplast embraces 50 smaller bodies called grana, containing the green pigment that catches the sunlight. How clearly each tiny grana sings G–d's praises!

To think how this miracle is duplicated astronomically, -just one mature oak has over 250,000 leaves!

Turning Over A Different Leaf

After cleaning up the lawn, the last thing we feel like doing is to turn over yet another new leaf.

But we are obviously not referring here to a leaf from a tree, but rather to the figurative page in a book.

We don't mean it in the sense of thumbing through the yellow pages, or impatiently sitting in shul and turning the prayer book pages to see when the services are over.

"Turning over a new leaf" is a call to repent, in the words of Maimonides: "to regret our past misdeeds, and resolve to do better in the future."

On Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, we want to start fresh and new. And so this is the theme of our current holiday issue.

Our best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year!