Question of the Week: What young New Yorker became

interested in theater after his favorite teacher, Blanche Rothstein,
encouraged him to read aloud from Psalms?

sb6on6uo1 Jo Jamod eL puolsJapun wL padIGH
swiosd waq 6uipoei 4DL pips oHm 1oupoci IV :Janksuv

Long before the animals came two by two, Noah had his
hands filled with the gopher.
Not the animal. The tree.

It was from the "gopher tree" that Noah created wood to
build the ark.

On Tu b'Shevat, which this year falls on Feb. 8, we cele-
brate the birthday of the trees, the "Jewish - Arbor Day."

— hence its name — and originally was the cutoff date for
tithing fruits from trees. In ancient Israel, every Jewish

farmer gave a percentage of his produce to the priests and
Levites to maintain the Temple in Jerusalem.

Today, we celebrate by planting trees and enjoying their
fruit and, in our cover story, by taking a look at the many
trees mentioned in the Tanach.

The holiday comes on the 15th day of the month of Shevat

41A

2/2
2001

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Elizabeth Applebaum
AppleTree Editor