The Short Vort
Good Morning!
Today is Tuesday the 21st of Teves 5782 and February 2, 2021
“Though your sins are as scarlet, They shall become as white as snow.”
(Hashem speaking to the Jewish people- Yeshaya 1: 18)
Hashem assures us that through Teshuva, even the “reddest” of sins can become as white as snow.
Meaning, Hashem is willing and wanting to “whiten” our lives. He promises that once we do Teshuva, the red stains, which are usually so difficult to wash away, will become white, meaning pure, like snow.
Why did the Navi use the metaphor of snow and not milk?
We know that Eretz Yisroel is a land flowing with milk and honey.
Also, Yakov Avinu uses the milk as a metaphor for white: “His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.” (Bereishis 49:12)
Or the Navi could have used the metaphor of white wool as the Psalmist does in 147:16, “He sends the snow like white wool.”
Notice that white wool is the gold standard, and Hashem spreads the white snow as if it’s white wool.
So why did the Navi Yeshaya, when wanting to describe how Hashem can “whiten” and “clean” the slate, use the metaphor of snow for white? Why not use white wool or milk?
The answer is that too often; we believe that the situation is hopeless.
We reconcile ourselves to believing we can never really change and that our defects and deficiencies will forever stain our Neshomos with the reddish tint of transgression.
The Navi, therefore, says, “No, this is not true!”
“Your sins can become as white as snow”.
Let’s explain what is so powerful about snow.
Imagine you never saw or heard of snow in your life, and I would tell you that tonight, the entire area -as far as your eyes can see -will be blanketed with white fluff which will fall from the heavens, I doubt you would believe me.
You would correctly ask, “How can that be? Even if you brought one thousand trucks filled with white fluff they could not cover every spec of the outdoor with two feet of fluff; It’s impossible.”
You would be right. It is humanly impossible to accomplish such a feat.
But lo and behold, that is exactly what Hashem did to us over the last 24 hours.
Every place which sits under heaven was blanketed with white snow.
Hashem changed our entire view (literally) of our world in just a few hours.
Now we can understand why the Navi used the metaphor of snow.
Hashem is saying to us, “Yes, I know there is a pandemic, and I know you are wondering, “When and how can it end?”
Hashem says remember, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They shall become as white as snow.”
“Just as I can change the landscape of the world in a matter of hours and make everything white, so too, I can cleanse the world of the stain of the pandemic immediately.”
Never give up hope.
Snow teaches us that the world can change to “snow-white” in a manner of hours.
And if the world can change, we can change as well.
Even when it looks as if things are so stained in red that the stain is permanent, Hashem assures us that he can clean the red and make the world as white as snow.
When you look out your window and see the snow, see Hashem and His power.
Recognize His ability to whiten the landscape in a matter of hours.
No matter how lonely and dark a situation looks, if we do Teshuva, everything can change to snow white overnight.
“If Not, Now, Then When?”- Hillel
Ron Yitzchok Eisenman
Rabbi, Congregation Ahavas Israel
Passaic, NJ
