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As I was tramping through the snow last week and looking out at the beautiful foot or more snow drifts of sparkling white, I started pondering the fact that snow is crystallized rain, which is water.
Water is symbolic of Torah.
Snow is the metaphor we use for white, because indeed it can be so glaringly white it hurts your eyes.
So, if you take water (Torah) and freeze it – slow down the particles, thus condensing it, you get ice. Which, depending on the process of freezing, either becomes crystal clear or white as snow. Either way, it’s absolutely pure . As anyone in the North knows, snow any other color than white is because of another substance which is tainting the natural whiteness. So, if you condense Torah, you’re left with perfect clarity, and perfect whiteness – totally free of sin or any blemish. “Toras Hashem temima” – the Torah of Hashem is pure (Tehillim). As pure as the whitest snow.
And what if you heat water up? It becomes steam, a gas. Again, it’s totally clear and even if you don't realize it’s there, just cool it down and it becomes water all over again. Torah can never be lost. It can only be diluted or tainted, c’v. In fact, through all these processes, water never changes chemical structure. Hence, water (Torah) has Hashem’s seal – emes. Emes also never changes. And so too, Torah never changes.
Furthermore, if you really condense ice – like in a glacier – the ice actually becomes blue again. And blue is illustrative of a sapphire, which has many connections to Torah. Some opinions hold that the area under G-d’s Throne of Glory is the bright blue of a sapphire, and some also hold that the luchos, the Tablets the Ten Commandments were written on by G-d, were made of sapphire. In fact, there’s something called a “Star Sapphire” – a super-polished sapphire that reflects light back out in a shape. Guess the shape? A magen david. (Wow. What a coincidence…)
Finally, snow is a magical agent when it comes to farming. Because it traps air, it actually keeps the ground beneath it warmer, allowing the seeds sown during the fall to not freeze over. Farmers love snow because it saves their crops. Similarly, Torah keeps the light of our neshamas (souls) burning, even when we’re in the dark, cold night of exile.
Just my thoughts while looking out at this beautiful winter landscape.
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