ANTIDOTE TO DEPRESSION

What is the spiritual message of the fallen
leaves in autumn? And why does God make leaves transform into
beautiful, magnificent colors just before they loosen from the tree,
float to the ground, and die?

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, always occurs
in autumn. This is the time of year when Jews are to introspect and
evaluate the state of their souls. You might call Rosh Hashana services
the "Annual State of the Soul Address."

Too often, we may delve deeply into our souls
and find much lacking. These thoughts can depress us and make it
difficult to plan and achieve growth for the coming year. God does not
want us to become spiritually downtrodden and dejected, so He sends us
the beautiful autumn leaves.

Driving on American highways in the fall is often a remarkable sight. As Grace Aguilar writes in her poem, "Autumn Leaves":

Autumn Leaves!
How beautiful your fading glories are,
O'er hill and dell, o'er wood and fell,
ye shed rich light afar,
Of every gorgeous hue and shade-brown,
ruddy, green, and gold,
Each glance more brilliantly arrayed, new glowing rays unfold.

God truly makes a rainbow of colors in the leaves. Why?

Rav Tzaddok (in "Likutei Ma'amarim") describes
leaves as a symbol for righteous actions. These include simple actions
which are not always accentuated or perceived. Similarly, The Talmud
(Sukkah 21b) explains the verse in Psalms 1:3, "[A righteous person]
shall be like a tree planted by streams of water, that brings forth
fruit in its season, and whose leaves do not whither." The Talmud says
that "leaves" refers to the simple, idle conversations of righteous
individuals that are conducted without forethought and go unnoticed.

God shows us beautiful leaves during the
introspective season of autumn because He is reminding us of positive
and pure actions that we have overlooked. We have accomplished greatly
during the past year, yet we do not usually give ourselves credit for
meaningful and righteous deeds. We need to know that we have much to
build on for the coming year, and we should take pride in who we are
and what we have done. Yes, we need to improve and eliminate some
misguided deeds and character traits -- but we can only do that by
building on the positive accomplishments of the past year.

ONE BY ONE

We must also realize that even though we have
many good deeds under our belts, we can never rest on our laurels. The
beautiful leaves fall and the tree remains bare to show that we must
start to build new and better deeds in the coming year.

Yes, we rake in all of our leaves, all of our
hundreds and hundreds of magnificent holy actions, but we must renew
and start again to grow new leaves. We must make all our actions, all
our leaves, "for healing" -- for helping others and ourselves achieve
great heights -- as the prophet proclaims: "So its waters will grow
from the Sanctuary, so its fruit will be for food and its leaves for
healing." (Ezekiel 47:12)

In a week or two, I'll be heading outside with
my rake in hand. But instead of feeling frustrated by the mounds of
leaves, I will try to contemplate my actions, one by one, leaf by leaf.
I will gather all of my deeds from the previous year, and look to
create more of those healing leaves that cure, one by one, the
spiritual darkness and disease in our lives.

Photos from public domain.org

https://www.pdphoto.org/PictureDetail.php?mat=&pg=8317

https://www.aish.com/hhRosh/hhRoshDefault/Mystical_Autumn_Leaves_.asp