Menachem Bluming Muses Why Cicadas

In many states of the United States this spring of 2021 will welcome in billions of Brood X cicadas. With over 1 1/2 million of these creatures per acre the region will be blanketed. 

They live just long enough to mate and then they soon pass away. Their progeny fall into the earth where they borrow for the next 17 years to emerge again.

Imagine a mother cicada sitting with her children beneath the earth before they emerge:

“Listen here my dear children cicadas! These are the moments that we have been waiting for. It will be only a brief few weeks on this earth and then you will be gone. Make sure to fulfill your purpose and mission because there is only a small window of opportunity.”

Our souls too descend to this earth for a very short period of time and before they descend they are warned to be righteous and to remain focused on the mission (Talmud Chapter Three Niddah). Don't allow the time to slip through your fingers because before you know it, your allotted time is complete.

So maybe that is why G-d created cicadas, to remind us of how fleeting and quick our lives are and to not allow this precious time to slip away...

Mendel (Menachem) Bluming

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