Selichot 5784
You can listen to Rabbi Eleanor's sermon here or read it below
Seeding the Future – 28 September 2024
Already this evening we have begun to use page after page of words, and we will use many more pages over the coming weeks as we celebrate, commemorate, and celebrate again together; yet Jewish tradition also directs us to some simpler ways to start the self-reflection that is such a key part of this season. Among the many home traditions for Rosh Hashanah is the custom of eating apples and pomegranates: the explanation given by the Shulchan Arukh (Orach Chayyim 583:1), the major compendium of Jewish law, is probably familiar to many of us. The Shulchan Aruch says that as we eat apples we should say, “May a sweet year be renewed for us” and as we eat pomegranates, say, “may our merits be as many as the seeds of a pomegranate.” Lovely symbolism of sweetness and of being crammed full of goodness! Tonight, I’d like to add, or perhaps remind us of, an extra layer of symbolism that has been hiding in plain sight.
Usually we think of apples and pomegranates as fruit: that is, as something tasty that we enjoy eating. Botanically, however, a fruit is the delivery device of its seeds: something that gets the seeds from within the plant to a place where they can grow into a new plant. For a plant, the point of fruit is the means of self-recreation: we also see this from the very first chapter of Genesis, where the creation of plant life begins with G-d saying “Let the earth sprout forth with sprouting-growth, plants seeding forth seeds, fruit trees yielding fruit, after their kind, in which is their seed” (Genesis 1:11). The potential for new growth, even of the largest trees, is contained within the tiny seed. It will take time to grow, though, and seeds need the right conditions to grow into their potential: if they fall on hard ground, or lack water or sunlight, or if the temperature is too extreme, the seeds will not grow.
Those who cultivate seeds soon learn the importance of patience, care and attention as they encourage them to grow into plants. By eating fruit at Rosh Hashanah, we have an opportunity to be like nursery gardeners and think about the more metaphorical seeds in our lives: to consider what we want to plant and what those seeds would need to grow into something beautiful. Where do we need to prepare the ground? Which seeds will we choose to plant? How could we nurture them from seeds until they grow into mature plants? It almost sounds too simple, yet in our dark and difficult times, daring to plant seeds is an expression of hope in the future and faith that something wonderful could grow and change the world for the better, even if right now it looks too small and insignificant to have much impact.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of Hersh (who was killed at the end of August, while held hostage by Hamas), used the image of planting seeds in a poem she shared last year, in which she imagined the sea of tears cried by mothers of suffering children and asked: “Can we take them / gather them up, / remove the salt / and pour them over our desert of despair and plant one tiny seed.” She dares to imagine seeds of hope being planted even in times of “fear, trauma, pain, war”, watered even by tears, and growing from the tiniest sprouts to fully-flowering reality: she paints a vision of a future where women from supposedly opposite sides of conflict “could be sitting together in 50 years / laughing without teeth / because we have drunk so much sweet tea together”; a future of hope and goodness, all because of that tiny seed planted now.
This year I invite you to taste the sweetness of the apple, and to appreciate how packed the pomegranate is with those little ruby jewels; and then also to think about the seeds of the future that they contain. Perhaps you’ll put some botanical seeds into some compost; perhaps you’ll find the courage to plant a symbolic seed by doing something little that’s possible now, even if it feels like not enough to make a difference. Whatever seeds we plant, may our faith be rewarded by seeing them grow to bear fruit and create a better and a sweeter world for us all.
