the leaves come

I write to you in the hours of the Hebrew month of Nisan with a time-sensitive invitation to say a blessing. The practice of saying a blessing is intended to cultivate awareness, wonder and gratitude. While almost all Jewish blessings that are not mitzvah related (ie: lighting candles) are tied to an experience (like seeing a rainbow or eating bread), there is one blessing that can only be said at precisely this time of year. (I hope I am catching you just in time!) 

Birkat ha’ilanot - the Blessing of the Trees, is recited in response to seeing the buds of fruit trees in the spring month of Nisan. The practice as we know it comes directly from the Babylonian Talmud (Brachot 43b). 

“Rav Yehuda said: One who goes out during Nisan and sees trees that are blossoming recites: Blessed…who has withheld nothing from this world, and has created in it beautiful creatures and trees for human beings to enjoy.”

Before living in the midatlantic region, I never understood the hype and majesty of the cherry blossom tree, nor the timely nature of this blessing. But over the last 10 years, I have come to anticipate these weeks with a flutter of joy. Brushing up against the luscious flowers, heavy on their branches. The way the sky rains flowers. And the sidewalks are glazed with pink petal frosting. It is pure delight to bless these blossoms. 

In these precious few weeks of the year one single poem consumes my subconscious. In her poem Instructions on Not Giving Up, Ada Limón actually manages to capture the resilient magic of these “almost obscene” trees. This week I had the added blessing of hearing her read the poem in an interview in the NY Times where she shared with so much humility and candor that it was in fact given to her by a tree. But of course, how else could it know itself so well!?

I love this poem so much that Rabbi Mó and I made it part of the epigraph to our new siddur. I always try to read it on Shabbat morning at this time of year. And yet hearing her read it, I heard it anew. I heard, “the leaves come” with a defiant, persistent, hopeful certainty. 

Being that today is the 30th of Nisan, it is your last day to bless the fruit trees - the last hours before shabbat when the new moon of Iyyar begins.

If you have not blessed a cherry blossom tree - this is your moment. Listen to this poem. Listen to the trees. “Despite the mess of us,” these are our instructions for not giving up. ​