Parashat Yitro: Pollinating and Pinching

Public service announcement: The more times a blueberry flower is pollinated, the bigger the blueberry will be.

A blueberry grows bigger when it receives more pollination, more love, more yes. But a blueberry doesn’t only depend on yes to grow! Here’s advice from the U.S. Blueberry Council: Do not allow a blueberry bush to produce fruit for its first year or two. Pinch off its blossoms so that its energy can go to growth.

It’s not just the yes of pollination that brings us the best blueberries; it’s also the no of each rejected blossom that makes space for future growth. Yes and no are partners in the cultivation of vitality.

If we trace back the yes’s and no’s of our Jewish vitality, we might land on the Torah portion Yitro, which introduces the mitzvot (commandments). In these first ten utterances, we find that mitzvot can be positive or negative, yes or no. Yes to Shabbat and honoring your parents. No to idolatry, taking the Divine name in vain, murdering, committing adultery, stealing, bearing false witness, and coveting anything (or anyone) that belongs to your neighbor.

Altogether, the Torah contains 248 positive mitzvot and 365 negative mitzvot. The Tanya, the foundational text of Chabad, maps these onto the body and the soul: The 248 positive mitzvot correspond to our 248 organs (!) and soul-powers. The 365 negative mitzvot map onto our 365 veins and soul-vitalities:

Now, I realize this math may not match up with modern scientific discoveries since Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi wrote the Tanya in 1797. But I want to highlight the idea of personifying the positive and negative mitzvot. On the most fundamental level, the Tanya’s framework suggests that our bodies and souls can express our yes’s and no’s. And these yes’s and no’s are ways to cultivate our own vitality.

For me, this sometimes looks like saying yes to reading for pleasure and no to reading extra course assignments (as great as those can be!). Sometimes, it’s saying yes to chocolate and no to salad… Your yes’s and no’s might be different from or even the opposite of mine — but we each have them, just like we each have a body and a soul.

In Emergent Strategy (a book I’ve been reading for pleasure!), author adrienne maree brown writes that “‘No’ is as important to realizing your vision as ‘yes’… ‘No’ creates the space for your ‘yes’” (235). It might feel destructive for us to pinch off a blueberry blossom, but it actually creates space for growth.

This Tu Bishvat, I pray that we may look at the blueberry bushes in our lives and find clarity around our personal needs for growth. Let us pollinate what needs to be pollinated, and let us pinch off the blossoms that need to make space.

Originally delivered 2/06/2023.