On a quiet street in New York City, perhaps even yours or mine, Something small happened.
She was small enough, at first, that only a few people saw her.
Some kind neighbors watered the Something Plant, and the Summer rains watered her, too.
By Fall, people began to really notice the Something Plant. Kids, running home from school, noticed her beautiful green leaves.
Some grown ups only saw the cracks in the sidewalk around the Something Plant.
And other people wondered endlessly what kind of Something the Something Plant would one day be.
Suddenly it was Winter, cold and snowy. One especially frosty day, Ms. Margaret tripped on the ice that had grown in the cracks around the Something Plant.
It was nobody’s fault. Sometimes, it’s just how things go. The city sent surveyors, and then, once Spring arrived, workers came to remove the Something Plant.
The neighbors watched as a brave girl named Charlotte approached the workers and asked a question: “Can I please have the plant?” The workers thought for a few moments. “I don’t see why not,” they answered. Charlotte took the Something Plant and brought her home. The workers filled in the sidewalk cracks.
The Something Plant loved her new home in Charlotte’s backyard. The children of the neighborhood visited her, staying to touch her leaves and water her. She grew taller.
Taller, taller, and taller. Tall enough that she became a Something Tree. Charlotte loved to sit in her shade and read. Her little brother Leo liked to climb the Something Tree’s branches. As they got older, the Something Tree did too. Her branches stretched toward the sky.
And one day, one of those branches grew a small green fruit, barely noticeable. The kids were overjoyed: “The Something Tree is an apple tree!” The first apples did not taste very good. But as Charlotte and Leo grew older, so did the Tree, and within a few years the apples were perfect: sweet and crunchy.
Charlotte and Leo loved those apples and they loved their Tree. So did their friends in the neighborhood, and the birds and butterflies and bumblebees. The squirrels loved to grab the bright fruits and run off with them, leaving seeds all over the sidewalks of a quiet New York City street, perhaps even yours or mine.
And, well, you know the rest.
On a quiet street in New York City, perhaps even yours or mine, Something small happened.
Dedicated to the children of KJYD, who grow up and upwards every single day. Thank you for teaching me. Written with love by Morah Ruthie for Yom Kippur 5787