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Tu B'Shevat Tu B'Shevat 15 Shevat This article was written by Stephen Butterfass for Religious Living on the Web. "She is a Tree of Life to those who hold to her" Proverbs 3.18 Etz Chayim, a tree of life. Our sacred writings contain many metaphors with tree imagery. The righteous are compared to a tree planted by a stream, always fruitful and with well-watered roots, whose foliage will never wither (Psalm 1; Jeremiah 17.8).They are also said to thrive like a palm and to grow tall as a cedar in Lebanon, full of sap and richness, (Psalm 92) or like a leafy olive tree (Psalm 51). The presence or absence of grapes on their vines or figs on their trees often denotes safety and prosperity, or desolation. The Prophet Micah envisioned a time of world peace, where everyone shall "sit under his vine and fig tree and none make them afraid" (Micah 4.4). Furthermore, the Torah specifically forbids the destruction of fruit-bearing trees during a war, asking, "is a tree man, that you should besiege it?" (Deuteronomy 20.19). It is not surprising to find a New Year for trees in the Jewish cycle of seasons, given these rich images. The Mishna referred to this day as Rosh HaShanah L'Elon, and reports that it was observed on the 1st or 15th of the month of Shevat, depending on which school of rabbinic thought, Hillel or Shammai, one followed. Originally a time for the tithing of the fruit crop, the tradition held that God decided which plants would die and which survive during the coming year. Trees and plants also being living organisms worthy of God's favor. Since the Talmud generally favored the decisions of the School of Hillel, the 15th day of Shevat now celebrates the early spring rebirth, the time in Israel when the rains of winter are supposed to slacken off and life reawaken. Hebrew uses the letters of its alphabet as numbers. The letter for "10" is Yod, and for "5", Hey. Normally, the number 15 would be written as Yod-Hey. However, Yod-Hey is one of the names of God and also one-half of the most sacred of the Divine Names, the four letter Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey. 9 and 6, or Tet and Vav, pronounced "Tu", are substituted, hence Tu B'Shevat. Observance of this holiday included the chanting of psalms, particularly Psalm 104, which celebrates the life-giving rain. It was also the custom to eat many different kinds of fruits and foods associated with the Land of Israel: carob, olives, dates, grapes, and figs. In the 16th century of our era, a community of Jewish mystics dwelled in the town of Safed, which is just north of the Galilee. One of their images of the aspects of God, called S'phirot, was a tree: a Tree of Life, through whose roots, trunk, and branches coursed the life of the universe. The mystics saw the 15th of Shevat as more than a minor festival. According to Arthur Waskow (Seasons of Our Joy, a wonderful book about the Jewish Festivals), they took this day as the date the Tree of Life actually renewed the flow of life. They celebrated by eating the fruits of trees in a way they considered to be holy, by the saying of blessings and with kavannah, the direction of proper intention. The human action of eating the fruit and saying blessings over them was intended to maintain and encourage this mystical life-flow in partnership with God.. They also developed a Seder for the 15th of Shevat that included drinking the traditional four cups of wine with which we are so familiar . Here, though, the first cup is white, then a blush wine is made of the second cup by mixing some red wine with the white. The third cup is darker still, half white, half red, until the fourth cup contains only a drop of white wine. The banquet of the Seder included a number of courses made up of different kinds of fruit and nuts: fruit without shells, (figs, grapes, apples); fruit with pits that are not edible (olives, dates); and fruit with an outer shell that was discarded before eating (coconut. pomegranate, almonds). The people attending would study biblical passages, tractates of the Talmud, mystical writings, and rabbinic commentaries that dealt with fruits, plants, trees, or similar relevant subjects, and would then continue their celebration by dancing in the fields. For at least the past dozen or so years, Temple Israel has included a Tu B'Shevat Seder among its ritual observances, based on this model. We have endeavored, by a shared pot-luck supper, with songs and prayer, to capture some of this sense of partnership with the Divine in honoring trees and their importance to all life on the planet, enjoying their fruits in thanksgiving. Each cup of wine we drink is preceded by the blessing over wine, and each fruit course by the blessing "Baruch atah Adonai, eloheynu melech ha-olam, bo-ray p'ri ha-etz". "Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who creates the fruit of the tree". Observance of Tu B'Shevat also has a secular aspect, as the holiday is sometimes referred to as Chag Hanetiot (Holiday of Planting). The restoration of the Land of Israel by the planting of trees is well known to all of us. Tu B'Shevat in Israel is traditionally a tree planting day for young and old. For decades now, Jews throughout the world have contributed money to the Jewish National Fund (Keren K'yemet L'Yisrael) to share in the planting of trees. This brings us back to the Torah's prohibition against cutting down fruit-bearing trees during wartime. The rabbis extended this prohibition to forbid the wanton destruction of anything of value.(The halakhic concept is called Bal Tashchit-The Steinsaltz Edition of the Talmud-Reference Guide- Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz ).Since our tradition mandates the protection of the environment it would be fitting to expand the celebration of Tu B'Shevat to include activities promoting environmental issues.
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