Tu B’Shvat

The New Year for Trees

Happy New Year, Trees! In the Hebrew calendar there are four New Years. There’s Rosh Hashana, meaning Head of the Year, which most people know as the Jewish New Year. But Rosh Hashana is on the first day of the seventh month, Tishrei. The first month is Nisan, the month that coincides with the Exodus from Egypt and the celebration of Passover. Then, there’s the New Year for animals in Elul. But today we celebrate Tu B’Shvat, the New Year for trees. Translated, tu b’shvat simply means the 15th day of the month of Shvat.

Does that seem strange? It shouldn’t, when we think about our own calendar. We’ve got New Year’s Day on January 1st, but we also have the fiscal new year, the new school year, and other “new years” that are not coming to mind immediately. So, not so strange.

We’re celebrating trees and everything that they give to the world. Without them, neither human nor animal life could not exist. They feed us. They manage our atmosphere. They provide us with shade. Think of all the creatures who make their homes in and under trees. And they give up their wood, their very lives, so that we can build shelters for ourselves. But we humans tend to be egocentric. We think everything is about us, for us, but that’s not so. Trees don’t live for us; they live for themselves and each other, just like we do. The fact that they benefit us is incidental to them.

Trees are sentient beings. They think. They nurture their children. They make decisions, they learn, they remember things. They have a sense of smell and a sense of touch. They communicate with one another, share food among them, and care for their sick, particularly within an individual species. They form friendships and they love. They find significant others. Cut down one tree that’s part of a couple and the other usually dies of its own accord. If you’re as enthralled by this topic as I am, I point you towards the book, The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.

There’s also a practical purpose for this holiday. According to Torah law, In the land of Israel it’s forbidden to harvest fruit from a tree for its first three years, and in the fourth year the fruit belongs to God. In the fifth year, it’s permitted to harvest the fruit. So, In the land of Israel, it’s important to keep track of the age of the trees.

Celebrating Tu b’Shvat

But in Israel, spring is just beginning. The almond trees, the first to do so, are beginning to bloom. The promise of spring is in the air. In Israel, the day is celebrated as Earth Day, and tree planting ceremonies abound.

For me, living thousands of miles from Israel, knowing that the almond trees are blooming creates an aching in my soul. I’ve never been to Israel and I’ve been wanting to go since my grandparents went when I was a child. That desire feels particularly acute today. This is my home, but it’s not my soul’s home. Somewhere deep within me lives a longing to return to the land of my ancestors, and my breath catches at the thought of going HOME.

So go out and plant a tree, if you can. Or contact the Jewish National Fund to have a tree planted in Israel, in your name or in the name of a loved one. At the least, take a few minutes to meditate on just how spectacular trees are, on how glorious is the nature of our planet. Eat some fruit. Take the kids to the market and see how many different kinds of fruit you can find. Put on your puffy jacket and go out and hug a tree. Plan a Tu B’Shvat dinner if you like.

In the United States, where there are so many different climates, the timing of tu b’shvat can seem random and senseless. Perhaps where you live, the trees are leafless and covered in snow and ice. The earth, which may also be covered in snow, is frozen solid.  The idea of planting trees today is preposterous. Where I live in central Florida, the weather is cooler than in the summer months but there’s nothing remarkable to be aware of that would tell me, “Oh! It must be Tu B’Shvat!”

The Mystical Aspect

All this talk about trees makes me think of the primordial tree, the Tree of Life. I’m not alone in that. In the 16th century the great Kabbalist, Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Safed and his disciples created a Tu B’Shvat seder based upon the Passover seder. There are four glasses of wine, each one different from the others, and many ceremonial foods that consist primarily of fruits and nuts.

Participating in a Tu B’Shvat seder can be a deeply mystical experience, as well as a very delicious one.

I’ve created a Tu B’Shvat seder of my own, based on the ones that came before me, but with my own twist. During our seder, we climb the Tree of Life, striving to reach into the higher realms to commune with the angels. It’s considerably shorter than the Passover Seder, but hopefully just as moving, in a different way.

Example of a JNF certificate

many styles are available