Veraison – A Seedy Thought (A Grape One)

In a minute you will know more about grapes than you ever knew.

Grapes have a period in their development known as Veraison. This is when grapes begin to sweeten and turn colors from green to red.  In white (I assume real green grapes as well) grapes as well, even though they don’t change colors, this is when the grapes sweeten.  (Read more here or here.)

In the Northern Hemisphere this takes place in July.  

In this week’s Parsha Moses sends the leaders of the Tribes into the Land of Israel to spy upon its inhabitants.  He gives them a series of instructions.  The Torah concludes Moses’ instruction by saying that “the days were the days of the ripening of the grapes – veraison”.

Why is this detail important?  And if important why doesn’t the Torah generalize and say that it was the season that grapes ripen as opposed to the active verb?

(Interesting to note: that the spies traversed the land for 40 days returning according to tradition on the 9th of Av. If Veraison takes place some time in July it is consistent with the timeline of the 9th of Av.)

The Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi shares a profound insight and an idea that is so relevant to our times.  (I thank Rabbi Shais Taub rabbi.taub@gmail.com for sharing this insight and Happy Birthday Rabbi)

When you hold up a grape in the stage of veraison the grape is translucent and you can see through the grape to its seed.  

The spies were concerned about entering the Land of Israel.  Life was good in the desert; surrounded by the Clouds of Glory, Pillar of Fire, Manna from Heaven, water from the Well of Miriam, studying Torah all day with Moses and Aaron, it was a G-dly and spiritual utopia!

To enter into the land meant giving that up to work the field, to struggle to make a living, to have to deal with the hardships of life, this is not G-dly they thought.  

Moses tells them you are mistaken.  You must look at the grape in its translucency.  Look inside the struggle and see the light, see the core, see the purpose.  Look inside the material world, look inside the struggle and see the G-dly.

It may seem that the peaceful, spiritual, uncomplicated life is the one that brings to true spiritual and G-dly connection.  In truth, it is in the struggle that G-d is most found.

Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in Leonard Cohen A’H  

These days there are no perfect offerings, no spiritual oasis in the desert, no Moses and no Aaron.  These days if you are living in a utopia, you are not on this earth or at least your head is in the clouds.  It’s truly a tough time for the most patient and most grounded of us.

But don’t get stuck on the shell.  Pick the grape up to the sky, look Heavenward, see inside the challenge the beautiful seed that is waiting to give birth to new life, to a new you, to a new opportunity that wasn’t here before.  Look inside and see the light, see the G-dliness.  

Moses conveyed the message but the spies didn’t internalize it.  Perhaps he was waiting for us?

Good Shabbos.