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The winter is drawing in on us. The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder. All we feel like doing is snuggling up next to the radiator with a hot chocolate and blanket. Let’s compare this to the summer; everything’s go, go, go! The sun’s out, the sky’s clear, the grass is dry. All we want to do is go outside and do, do, do! All the sudden we have so much energy. Why does the weather have to dictate our mood like this? And if, like me, you unfortunately live in a climate which even during “summer” is constantly wet and grey then you’ve just no chance for any sort of energetic mood. So, why, Hashem, do we have winter?

I heard a beautiful answer to this conundrum. In the summer, we have so much energy, we’re so active and we want to do everything. Even those things that are forbidden to us are now in danger. In the summer we are challenged with the lo-taaseh mitzvot (negative commandments) – we need to control our actions. We must remember not do X, Y and Z. Yet in the winter we are lazy and lethargic; we don’t want to do anything. Here we’re being challenged with the taaseh-mitzvot (positive commandments) – we need to awaken the energy and motivation within us to perform mitzvot that we may just ignore when all we want to do is avoid the cold!

The seasons are now no longer just simple weather conditions; they have a role in our personal and spiritual development. Maybe this is why Hashem told Noah that He’ll never let the seasons cease (Genesis 8:22).

Metaphorically, this is what we should be doing!