The usual focus of Tu Bishvat (the Jewish New Year for Trees) is on messages of growth, fruits, branches & roots. But there’s some beautiful Chassidus about the disintegration of the seed within the earth to enable (exponential) growth. It’s a jumpstarting setback, a darkness that craves & builds off light.
It’s also about letting go, giving (physical & emotional) space, allowing the seed (or person who is likened to a tree) to do its own thing without controlling the whole process. You can’t force the seed, you can’t expose it or shock it. It needs to fall apart & grow on its own!
This process is called “Bittul” a state or act of self-transcendence, nullifying an existing format to become part of or be absorbed within something much higher and greater.
This is an important but uncomfortable idea: It takes vulnerability to blossom. You have to to open up to grow. It starts with a crack, that becomes a door, that ends up transforming who we are, revealing & developing our hidden, inner potential.
About the earlier concept of letting go – that doesn’t equal neglect. Farmers may let go of the seed into the earth, but continue to irrigate, to weed, to enrich. There are ways to nourish without stifling growth, to be supportive & still foster independence.