Just a little more Tu B'Shvat inspiration...

I went to a shiur tonite and my teacher said something very interesting. she said that the four seasons correspond to different parts of the day:

fall=evening

winter=night

spring=dawn

summer=midday

Tu B'Shvat is at about 3:00 in the morning- neither day nor night.

My situation now (like many other bloggers and friends) is like Tu B'shvat- it's between childhood and adulthood. The lesson we should take from this is to be like the trees.. to wake up parts of us that are dormant. It's a good time to change! It's a good time to work on things.

Also another thing she said in the shiur is that this week's parsha is parshas yisro. A medrash says that the mann fell down from the sky together with jewels. The simple people only collected the mann to eat. The gedolim (great people) collected only the jewels. You would think it would be the opposite. What do the gedolim need the jewels for in the desert? Food is so much more important!? But the answer is that the gedolim weren't thinking about the "today." They were thinking how one day there would be a mishkan (tabernacle) and the jewels would be needed for that. The simple people only thought about what they needed at that very moment. Great people or leaders detect what is needed for the future - "haRoeh es haNolad" - see the future. They think about what will be needed; not necessary what is needed now.