Let’s Dance Like Sunflowers

My new favorite flower is the sunflower. It’s not because of its seeds which I enjoy but instead because of a recent scientific discovery.

Apparently, sunflowers dance. Let me explain.

Every flower requires sunlight. When sunflowers grow together, they block the sunlight from each other. And so, scientists discovered they move around so that each is exposed to the sun. They do not do this when a building shades the sun. They do this when grouped together in a large patch of sunflowers. They dance in a coordinated fashion to make room for each other.

As we mark the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul and the approach of the High Holidays the sunflowers provide us with a model for how we might behave towards each other during this contentious and painful year…

This post continues on The Times of Israel.