Tu B’Shvat |

As I stated two weeks ago, when we welcomed the new month of Shvat, the name for today’s holiday is actually just the date. Tu is how one would pronounce the two letter abbreviation for 15 (like Roman Numerals, Hebrew has a number system that uses the letters in various combinations.)

And, today is really a celebration for the agriculturalists of my religion. It is “kind of” first mentioned in the third book of the Tora (Vayikra, which you know as Leviticus). This is when the Supreme Being states “When you enter the land [of Israel, of course] and plant any tree for food, you shall regard that fruit as forbidden for three years.” The fruit is granted to the Priests (Kohanim), who service the temple, as a means to thank the Supreme Being for the bounty of the land. It’s not until year 5 that the farmer gets to use the fruit and the tree the way he expected.

This law meant that the definition of the birthday of a tree became critical. So, the rabbis drew deep in their magic bag of tricks (The Talmud, actually the Mishna portion [not the G’mara] Rosh Hashana 1:1), and elected that the 15^th of Shvat would forever be the birthday of trees, no matter when they planted.)

Why fruit trees? They are considered harbingers of the Supreme Being’s favor and their involvement in sustaining life.

And, then during the Middle Ages (Medieval times), a bunch of mystics (kabbalism) got involved and tried to impart greater spirituality to the event. Rav Yitchak Luria compared the spark of Divine Providence in our body to the nuts and fruits of trees, since they both have the potential for new life and potential growth.

As Zionism took over in Israel, it became embedded in the building of the nation and the requisites of a safe environment. Planting trees was a means to restore the Jewish nation and to help folks bind together with the land (and its beauty). Which led to a resurrection of the kabbalistic seders that celebrated Tu B’Shvat. (Not to mention having folks contribute funds to the Jewish National Fund (JNF) (in Hebrew, that’s Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael [KKY]), that is devoted to reforesting Israel and promoting a safe and sustainable environment. (Until a series of terrorist fires a few year ago, the JNF/KKY actually used some of the funds to thin out the trees to preclude natural forest fires.)

So you can see, today’s holiday is really the first “Earth Day”. It teaches our tradition of responsible stewardship of the Planet Earth, to celebrate the Supreme Being’s creations, and ecological activism.

Consider planting a tree- here or in Israel today.