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From Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski, rabbi of Golders Green Synagogue and CEO of University Jewish Chaplaincy:

Tonight is the start of the Jewish calendar year, the first day of the month of聽spring, known as Nisan. When I was studying for the rabbinate, it was a聽standing joke that the start of Nisan is always a good time to buy a Japanese聽car. Of course, the word Nisan isn鈥檛 Japanese at all, but related to the聽Hebrew word 鈥榥es鈥� 鈥� miracle.聽

The Jewish calendar is very much attuned to the seasons. It鈥檚 by design聽that the start of the calendar year 鈥� a moment for renewal and opportunity聽鈥� coincides with the start of spring. But if spring is just a phase in a natural聽cycle, why is the month called Nisan 鈥� miracle?

I鈥檓 inspired by a great Jewish teacher called Professor A.J. Heschel, who聽died in the early 70s. Heschel was a restless soul. While his colleagues sat聽quietly at prayer, he annoyed them by pacing up and down. He was a civil聽rights activist who marched side-by- side with Martin Luther King at Selma聽in 1965, convinced, in his own words that 鈥榟is legs were praying鈥�.

Heschel often spoke about how religious life had become sterile and had聽lost mystery and grandeur, which he experienced through activism but also聽through nature. He wrote that as 鈥榗ivilisation advances, the sense of聽wonder declines鈥�. He meant that many who live in cities have lost our聽direct connection with nature 鈥� concrete covers the ground, buildings block聽natural scenery, there are no animals, trees are manicured to fit our needs聽and there barely a difference between night and day.

For Professor Heschel, the world is now a gigantic tool box for the聽satisfaction of our needs, into which nature must fit. 聽But the advent of spring can allow us to remember nature; to feel the wind聽on our faces, experience trees, plants, animals directly, not on a screen.

When we sense the mystery and grandeur of nature, we regain the ability聽to look beyond the world into the unknown. This is the miracle of Nisan聽and the wonder of spring.

An early Jewish teaching captures the importance of spring in a few words:聽鈥榠f you have a sapling in your hand and someone tells you that the messiah聽has arrived, first plant the sapling and then go out to greet him鈥�.