As Winter turns to Spring

The spring season ushers in Passover, recalling our Exodus in the spring thirty three hundred and thirteen years ago.

At first glance, the fact that the Exodus happened to occur during the spring seems trivial and incidental. Yet the Torah emphasizes this fact, repeatedly referring to Passover as "the Holiday of Spring:" "Today you leave Egypt in the month of spring." (Exodus 13:4) "Observe Passover in the spring... for in the month of spring G‑d took you out of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 16:1)

Moderate spring weather, neither too hot, nor too cold, was ideal for our ancestors' trek out of Egypt. They probably didn't mind leaving slavery whenever, but the extra touch of nice weather was certainly appreciated.

Jewish tradition, however, places great significance on Passover's timing, as we see in the complicated 'gerrymandering' of our Jewish Lunar Calendar to align Passover with springtime.

Normally, the twelve lunar months come up eleven days short of the solar year, which determines the cycle of the seasons. If we followed only the lunar year, Passover would arrive almost two weeks earlier each year, eventually retreating back into the winter and the fall. We therefore add a thirteenth month (Adar II) every two or three years, to anchor Passover securely in the spring.

Obviously, there is more to the Passover-spring relationship than the convenience of nice weather. Passover is in the spring not by coincidence, but by design.

Spring is symbolic of Passover, which took us out of abject slavery to freedom, and from utter darkness to brilliant light. This change appropriately takes place just as the earth awakens from its winter slumber, and the hours of light triumph as they exceed those of the dark.

The seedlings planted by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob appeared to have atrophied. Generations of slavery deadened their hearts, numbed their minds and stifled their spiritual life.

Then in a flash, weary and withering slaves blossomed into freedom, and Israel was selected at Mount Sinai to serve as a Light for humanity.

Spring represents renewal and rebirth. The cold frigidity of winter has passed, and the rays of the sunrays extend a warm welcome. Leaving behind the dead of winter shrouded with snow, spring bursts forth in all directions with flora and fauna. Similarly, our people shackled in slavery, showing little hope of life, burst out of the House of Slaves toward the land of milk and honey.

As beautiful and colorful as spring appears in all its glory, it is born from the preceding bleak and barren winter. The sap of life has been coursing all along beneath winter's lifeless gray, garnering its energies and rejuvenating its potency. Harsh as it is, winter is a time of nurturing and preparation, a retreat for the sake of advance, recoiling only to spring forth with new revitalized life. Come spring, the pent-up energy breaks the surface, and suddenly, a seeming dead world is fully bedecked with green and vigor.

Ironically, it was Egypt's spiritual winter that nurtured the Jewish soul, fueling Israel's growth into a great and dynamic nation.

Regardless of the actual climate outside, we are figuratively at the end of a long, harsh winter of Jewish Exile. Amazingly, Jewish life and creativity has braved the elements, yet we still find ourselves in a state of hibernation, in a survival mode. But surely as winter finally takes leave, we look forward to the Redemption, so eloquently compared in Song of Songs as the "Spring of our People."

Collectively and individually, we all have our patches of barrenness and futility. Yet even these seemingly 'dead' periods help us develop our most productive yields. Buried beneath the earth's fallow surface lie the germinating seeds, a springboard to the greatest heights.

May we soon experience the fulfillment of the prophecy, "As in the days of your liberation from Egypt, I will show you wonders," with the righteous Moshiach speedily in our days.