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Daffodils among the ashes

Translation by Yehoshua Siskin

I received this beautiful picture from Abigail Kadosh, who lives in moshav Beit Meir, together with the following words:

"As you surely know, there was a major fire near our home in the Judaean Hills four months ago. It destroyed thousands of trees and killed numerous animals in the Masrek Nature Reserve and the Ya'ar HaKdoshim (Forest of the Martyrs), planted in memory of Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust.

Today, in the wake of the horrific fire that incinerated this amazing slice of nature, I went outside and to my surprise discovered, among the remnants of the blaze, the year's first daffodils in bloom. The bulbs buried in the earth survived the intense heat of the fire and began to flower. Whoever said 'There is no despair in the world at all' was right.

The Creator of the universe renews the act of creation each day. The ashes of burnt trees produce fertilizer that sustains new growth. How symbolic for each one of us, as we are all visited by various hardships which, in the end, contribute to our growth. How symbolic in regard to the Exodus we are now reading about in the Torah, the process of going out from slavery to freedom.

After Moshe returns from Midian to begin the mission of taking his people out of Egypt, instead of going forward with redemption, things go backward, conditions worsen, and all seems dark and bleak. Moshe asks: 'Why have You harmed this people? Why have You sent me?' And then it's written: 'The Lord said to Moshe: 'Now you will see what I will do'. From here, within overwhelming darkness, redemption begins.

You are all invited to the Judaean Hills to see this process currently unfolding before your eyes".

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