• •
Spirituality
OLJ AY 101
Tu B'Shevat At A Glance
Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News
W
hat the words mean: Shevat
is the name of a month on the
Jewish calendar. Because in
the Hebrew alphabet each letter also rep-
resents a numerical value, the number 15
is written as tet vav, which forms the acro-
nym Tu. The second part, b'Shevat, means
"in Shevat." Thus, Tu b'Shevat means "15th
of Shvat."
•When it occurs this year: Monday, Feb. 9
• What it is: Tu b'Shevat does not appear
in the written Torah. It is known from its
reference in the Talmudic tractate, Rosh
Hashanha. In Halachah (Jewish law), the
15th day of the month of Shevat is desig-
nated as the cut-off date for tithing fruits
from trees. In ancient Israel's agrarian
economy, every Jewish farmer gave a
percentage of his produce to the priests
and Levites to maintain the Temple in
Jerusalem. In Hebrew, this is known as
teruma, a tithe. Tree-borne fruit that
came from blossoms formed before the
15th of Shevat belonged to the current
tithing year, and fruit from blossoms that
formed after the 15th were designated for
the next year.
The laws of Tu b'Shevat applied only
in the Land of Israel, so Jewish farmers
in other parts of the world did not set
aside fruit.
Tu b'Shevat is often referred to as the
"new year of the trees!' The source of this
designation is the Torah. In Parshat
Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:23-
25), the Torah teaches us
that we may not harvest
fruit from a tree's first
three years of production.
How do we calculate these
years? On Tu b'Shevat, every
tree is regarded as another
year old — no matter when
in the previous year it was
planted. Thus, if a farmer
planted a tree at any
time prior to the 15th of Shevat
— even on the 14th of Shevat
— come Tu b'Shevat, that tree is one
more year old.
• How it is observed: Today, whether
in or outside of Israel, there is no tith-
ing because there is no Temple (the
Muslim Dome of the Rock and the Al
Aksa Mosque occupy the Temple site.
For most Jews in ancient times, Tu
b'Shevat was nothing more than a book-
keeping day. Through the generations,
however, the 15th
took on spiritual
characteristics.
Over the gen-
erations, rabbis
attached spiri-
tual significance to
the day, seeing new
fruit as symbolic
of new hope, new
beginnings and new
opportunities.
Tu b'Shevat
was especially embraced by
Sephardic Jews, and in the
16th century, by the Jewish mystics
of Tzefat (a town in northern Israel,
often transliterated as Safad), and the
authors of the Kabbalah. The mystics
developed many customs for the day,
including liturgical readings and a
moting Tu b'Shevat as the ideal time
to donate money for the acquisition of
land and the planting of trees in the
rocky soil of the ancient Jewish home-
land. The concept was eagerly embraced
by Jewish communities across the dias-
pora. Even now, Tu b'Shevat is also JNF
day. Blue-and-white JNF coin boxes are
distributed throughout Jewish schools,
and the money collected goes toward
various projects in Israel. Although
these days the JNF is most concerned
with finding ways of conserving Israel's
precious and feeble natural water
resources, it still sponsors a day of tree
planting.
For environmentalists, Tu b'Shevat is
an excellent opportunity to teach the
tremendous economic and environ-
mental values of trees. Many of earth's
ecosystems, and all of the atmosphere,
depend on trees. A renewable resource,
trees provide us with food, fuel, fiber,
paper, housewares, building materi-
als, chemicals and many other useful
products. Trees planted in urban areas
greatly reduce summer heat that builds
up in concrete-covered neighborhoods,
and trees put in the right spots around
your house can keep your air-condition-
ing bills to a minimum. Trees planted
in windbreaks help farmers conserve
their crops and topsoil; and trees along
rivers, streams and hillsides keep
soil in place, reducing siltage and
landslides. The beauty of natural
woodlands is unmatched, and
natural forests are home
to countless species
of animals and plants.
Humans and animals
breathe in oxygen
and breathe out
oolA carbon dioxide.
Trees breathe
in carbon dioxide and
breathe out oxygen.
Without trees, life would disappear.
ritual meal based on the Pesach seder,
complete with four cups of wine. For
most Sephardic Jews today, Tu b'Shevat
is a festive day. Among all Jews, however,
it is customary to eat fruit
from trees, especially fruit
imported from Israel,
or that by tradition, are
native to Israel. Based
on a verse in Parshat
Eykev (Deuteronomy
8:8), these are: wheat,
barley, grapes, figs,
pomegranates, olives,
dates. Since wheat,
barley and grapes do
not grow on trees, it has
become the practice to enjoy any fruit
produced on trees, such as apples, pears,
oranges (all of the standard fruits and
• Rules and regulations: Tachnun, the
many exotic fruits are grown in modern penitential daily prayer, is not recited.
Israel).
Some recite Psalm 104 (Borchi Nafshi) and
In the early 1900s, the Jewish National also the 15 psalms that begin Shir Ha-
Fund, which was buying and developing Maalot ("Song of Ascent"): 120-134. Li.
land in Palestine for Jewish settlement,
seized upon Tu b'Shevat for its market-
The Web site Jewish Education and
ing potential. Because the JNF improved Entertainment (www.j.co.il) provides
land by planting trees, it began pro-
several holiday features.
elir
February 5 • 2009
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