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Washington Hebrew Congregation

Every Jewish child learns at an early age that being Jewish means having more festivals, even if some of them are a little confusing at first. It all begins with the realization that whereas all of your neighbors celebrate the arrival of the new year on January 1st (Happy 2008, everyone!), we get a head start when we celebrate the Jewish new year, Rosh HaShanah, as early as September! But it doesn’t end there: in Mishnah, the earliest Jewish code of Law written about 2000 years ago, we read:

“The Rabbis taught that there were four new years. The first of Nissan, in the spring, is the new year for kings and feasts – Passover is the first festival. The first of Elul, in late summer, is the new year for tithing animals born that year. The first of Tishri, our Rosh Hashanah, is the new year for counting the passage of years. The fifteenth of Sh’vat, Tu BiSh’vat, is the new year for tithing the first fruit of fruit trees.” (Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1.1)

It is not surprising that not every one of these four new years is still celebrated by the Jewish people – after all, for many centuries since the destruction of the Temple, the tithing of animals has not been part of our annual routine. But the new year of trees, the Tu BiSh’vat, got a new lease of life in the 16th century, when the Jewish mystics living in Tsfat (Safed) in the north of Israel had developed an entire tradition around it. The trees for the mystics were not just the source of greenery, or even oxygen – they were another metaphor for the Tree of Life – the Torah! And as such, they were to be given a proper attention, with the New Year of Trees even receiving a seder of it’s own – a Tu BiSh’vat Seder.

For Jews around the world Tu BiSh’vat is a festival when we try to re-connect to the land of Israel in various ways. Eating fruit and nuts native to Israel, planting trees in Israeli forests and perhaps finding ways to support the Israeli industries by buying fruit and wine from Israel – all of these can help us feel connected! On a religious or spiritual level, the holiday and the trees that

Did You Know? In 2010, the festival of Tu BiSh’vat falls on January 29-30. Tu BiSh’vat means “15th day of month Sh’vat”. Each Hebrew letter has a numerical equivalent: “tet” = 9 and “vav” = 6. The combination of these two letters gives us the date of the festival, the New Year of Trees.

are planted serve as a symbol of life and rebirth. The tree weathers all storms yet clings to the soil and tenaciously holds onto life. Similarly, the Jewish people have continued to endure and survive in the face of adversity.

Table Talk

One day Honi was walking along a road and saw a man planting a carob tree. Honi asked, “How long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?” The man answered,“70 years.” Honi then asked, “Do you expect to live that long and be able to eat the fruit?” The man said, “I found a world with fruit because my ancestors planted trees for me. So now I am planting trees for my children.” (Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 23a)

• What kinds of things are you able to enjoy because your parents and grandparents took care of them with you in mind?
• If you could leave a tree for your children and grandchildren to enjoy, what kind of tree would it be and why?
• What have you worked on or taken care of that will take many years before you can see the “fruit” or benefit of your contribution?

Family Activities

Like the story of the carob tree above, many fruits and trees in Israel have legends and teachings associated with them. For example, the pomegranate has the same name as the crowns that decorate the Torah scroll: rimonim. It also is said that the many seeds inside a pomegranate are equal to the number of mitzvot in the Torah: 613.
For your family activity, take a trip to the grocery store and buy as many different kinds of fruits as you can (remember, our magic number for this festival is 15! J). Pick a few you have never tried before. Before you eat the fruit, look at the characteristics of each one. Try dividing them into categories. Then make up a teaching to explain the similarities and differences.

• What does a fruit with a hard outside but soft inside symbolize to you?
• What can we learn from a nut that is bitter straight from the tree but tasty once it’s roasted?
• What can you say about the color or texture of the fruit?
  
  

Pearls of Wisdom

• A soothing tongue is a tree of life (Proverbs 15:4 )
• A righteous man like the palm tree shall flourish, Like the Cedar of Lebanon shall he grow (Psalms 92:13)
• For as the days of a tree shall be the days of My people (Isaiah 65:22)
• For wickedness.... kindles [fire] in the thickness of the woods (Isaiah 9:17)
• [The Torah] is a tree of life to those who hold fast to it! (Morning Prayer)
• It was an old Jewish custom to plant a cedar tree when a boy was born and a pine tree when a girl was born. When two people married, a wedding canopy (chupah) was made from the branches. (Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 57a).

 Tu BiSh’vat Seder

The Kabbalists of Tsfat accorded the festival with new meanings and inaugurated new rituals for the observance of "night ceremonies of rejoicing for trees," resembling, to some degree, the traditions of the Passover seder.

At the Tu BiSh’vat seder we drink wine or grape juice. Four cups of wine, in different combinations of white and red, represent the four seasons in Israel. The first cup is filled with white wine, symbolizing the winter. The second, white wine with a touch of red, for the awakening of nature. The third, bright rosé, with just a touch of white in it, for the explosion of color in the flowering fields. And the final, fourth cup, filled with red wine alone, for the splendor of the sun and summer. And we recite a blessing for each one of the cups:

In-between the four cups, we eat different kinds of fruit and nuts native to Israel. These may include the seven species referred to in Deuteronomy: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates (honey). There is an Ashkenazi (East-European Jewish) tradition of eating 15 (!) different types of fruit at the seder, to reflect that the festival falls of the 15th day of Sh’vat. The three categories of fruit are consumed in a particular order (seder): first is the fruit with outer shell/inedible peel, second is the fruit with the seed, and third is entirely edible. Each of these categories symbolizes mystical layers of our world. We recite the following blessing over each fruit:

Celebrating the New Year of Trees we use the opportunity to re-connect with nature and the land of Israel. We also remind ourselves of the wonderful world of God’s creations and our role in sustaining it.