大象传媒

From Julia Neuberger Senior Rabbi at the West London Synagogue:聽
Finally, this weekend, I finished working on a book I鈥檝e been writing since the autumn, and sent it off to the editor for its last edit before it goes into production. Phew! A quick blessing to celebrate the moment, and I was off out into our garden utterly ablaze with spring flowers....... the weather is extraordinary for February, and we have camellias, snowdrops, hellebores, azaleas, and primroses all in flower, and masses of burgeoning nature.聽
There鈥檚 something very odd with the calendar though. Most of those flowers would be out for Easter and Passover, still seven weeks away. I usually decorate the Seder table with spring flowers, for Passover, along with the story of the Exodus from Egypt, is really a spring festival. We have eggs on the table for new birth, just like the symbolism of eggs at Easter. But this year the spring flowers will be all over.聽
We鈥檒l have roses rather than daffodils, and rhododendrons rather than camellias on the table. Is this just a freak year with the weather so warm? Or will we have to rethink our spring festivals and call them early summer celebrations, if climate change means our spring will be over before those festivals even take place? On one level, it doesn鈥檛 matter- we鈥檒l just shift our thinking forward. But on another level, it does. We human beings have our rhythms, our body clocks. Spring is when we wake up from winter sloth, celebrate longer days, get renewed energy, throw ourselves into new things.聽
That鈥檚 part of what we celebrate at Passover- a new beginning, as free people, after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. If the seasons go out of kilter, we may find it difficult to adjust. I hope this year is a one-off, so I can enjoy everything flowering early. But I reckon we should also keep the underlying spring message in mind whenever the first flowers bloom- spring is a time for a clean up, for new beginnings, for a spring in our step, and for renewed energy. It鈥檚 a wonderful time of year- let鈥檚 enjoy it, and celebrate new beginnings.