Planting seeds of hope to restore the tree of life

The holidays of Tu B’Shuvat and Purim straddle the months of January and February, tethering these two holidays, both venerating life, together.

Tu B’Shuvat, colloquially known as the “New Year of the Trees,” often also referred to as Israeli Arbor Day, is commemorated by tree-planting events in Israel and around the world wherever Jews live. It is a holiday associated with environmental activism, a life-affirming renewal, manifested through the reforestation of Israel by literally and symbolically planting trees of life.

Purim tells a story of liberation from the imminent threat of annihilation, culminating in joyful and often raucous celebration. Purim is also often synonymous with hope and good luck for the Jewish people.

As we find ourselves in the throes of one of the darkest winters in our lifetimes, amid serious illness, death and wrenching societal and economic devastation wrought by the global pandemic, we can take solace in recalling that even the bleakest of times eventually yield to brighter days ahead.

We are all anxiously awaiting the COVID-19 two-dose vaccines expeditiously engineered and produced in intensive collaborations among Pfizer, BioNTech and Fosun Pharma, on the one hand, and between Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), on the other hand. We can also anticipate a single-dose vaccine, currently in Phase 3 clinical trials, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, to be approved by the FDA and the CDC in late January or early February.

These vaccines, along with the advent of new and promising therapeutics for

COVID-19, are seeds of hope for a world desperately in need of good news. As a most prideful aside, we can revel in the knowledge that many of the movers and shakers in the unprecedented alacrity of the effort to bring these lifesaving and effective vaccines to the market have been Jews.

Mikael Dolsten, the head scientist at Pfizer, grew up in Sweden and studied immunology at the renowned Weizmann Institute in Israel, which piqued his interest in pharmaceutical science. Albert Bouria, the Pfizer CEO, is a Greek Jew, while the Chief Medical Officer for Pfizer, Tal Zaks, is an Israeli immigrant. One of the leading scientists in the development of mRNA, the type of vaccine manufactured by both Pfizer and Moderna, is Drew Weissman, a University of Pennsylvania professor, who worked with Dr. Fauci at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Their work, and that of many others, is a testament to their commitment to Tikkun Olam and exemplifies that immigrants do “…get the job done.”

As our individual commitment to Tikkun Olam, each of us should pledge to get the COVID-19 vaccine offered to us, as a concrete way to not only protect ourselves, but just as importantly, to protect others. We are requesting that our NJC members get inoculated unless there is a medical reason not to get the vaccine.

As our darkest winter begins to recede and the seeds of hope sprout new branches on our trees of life, we will emerge to be able to gather again together for our Shabbat services on Friday nights, celebrate our holidays together and get together with family and friends, with optimism for the future.

We at NJC look forward to that time, with appreciation for all those who helped us weather this bleakest of our recent times, and with the utmost gratitude for those who cared for our loved ones’ COVID-19 related illnesses, and comforted those who succumbed to its scourge. We can never thank them enough.