Tu BiShvat explained

Holiday Name:Tu BiShvat
Type:Jewish
Longtype:Jewish religious, cultural
Date:15th of Shevat
Observances:Tu BiShvat seder
Significance:The fruits that ripened from Tu BiShvat on were counted for the following year's tithes.

Tu BiShvat (Hebrew: {{Script/Hebrew|ט״ו בִּשְׁבָט) is a Jewish holiday occurring on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat (in 2024, Tu BiShvat begins at sunset on January 24 and ends in the evening of January 25). It is also called Rosh HaShanah La'Ilanot, literally "New Year of the Trees". In contemporary Israel, the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day, and trees are planted in celebration.

Etymology

The name Tu BiShvat is originally from the Hebrew date of the holiday, which occurs on the fifteenth day of Shevat. "Tu" stands for the Hebrew letters Tet and Vav, which together have the numerical value of 9 and 6, adding up to 15.[1] The date may also be called "Ḥamisha Asar BiShvat" ('Fifteenth of Shevat').[2]

Talmud

Tu BiShvat appears in the Mishnah in Tractate Rosh Hashanah as one of the four new years in the Jewish calendar. The discussion of when the New Year occurs was a source of debate among the rabbis, who argued:[3] [4]

The rabbis ruled in favor of Hillel on this issue and the 15th of Shevat became the date for calculating the beginning of the agricultural cycle for the purpose of biblical tithes.[5] [6]

Biblical tithes

Of the talmudic requirements for fruit trees which used Tu BiShvat as the cut-off date in the Hebrew calendar for calculating the age of a fruit-bearing tree, the orlah remains to this day in essentially the same form it had in talmudic times. In the Orthodox Jewish world, these practices are still observed today as part of Halakha, Jewish law. Fruit that ripened on a three-year-old tree before Tu BiShvat is considered orlah and is forbidden to eat, while fruit ripening on or after Tu BiShvat of the tree's third year is permitted. In the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th years of the Shmita cycle, the second tithe is observed today by a ceremony redeeming tithing obligations with a coin; in the 3rd and 6th years, the poor tithe is substituted, and no coin is needed for redeeming it. Tu BiShvat is the cut-off date for determining to which year the tithes belong.

Tu BiShvat falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat and begins a three-month series (in years without a leap year) of holidays that occur on the mid-month full moons that culminate in Passover.[9]

Traditional customs

See main article: Tu BiShvat seder. In the Middle Ages, Tu BiShvat was celebrated with a feast of fruits in keeping with the Mishnaic description of the holiday as a "New Year." In the 16th century, the kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Safed and his disciples instituted a Tu BiShvat seder in which the fruits and trees of the Land of Israel, especially of the Seven Species, were given symbolic meaning. The main idea was that eating ten specific fruits and drinking four cups of wine in a specific order while reciting the appropriate blessings would bring human beings, and the world, closer to spiritual perfection.[10]

In Israel, the kabbalistic Tu BiShvat seder has been revived, and is now celebrated by many Jews, religious and secular. Special haggadot have been written for this purpose.

In the Hasidic community, some Jews pickle or candy the etrog (citron) from Sukkot and eat it on Tu BiShvat. Some pray that they will be worthy of a beautiful etrog on the following Sukkot.[11]

Sephardic Jews prepare a dessert made of grains, dried fruits, and nuts, known as Ashure or trigo koço, to celebrate the holiday.[12] [13]

Modern customs

Tu BiShvat is the Israeli Arbor Day,[14] [15] and it is often referred to by that name in international media.[16] Ecological organizations in Israel and the diaspora have adopted the holiday to further environmental-awareness programs.[17] [18] On Israeli kibbutzim, Tu BiShvat is celebrated as an agricultural holiday.[19] On Tu BiShvat 1890, Rabbi Ze'ev Yavetz, one of the founders of the Mizrachi religious Zionist movement,[20] took his students to plant trees in the agricultural town of Zikhron Ya'akov. This custom was adopted in 1908 by the Jewish Teachers Union and later by the Jewish National Fund, established in 1901 to oversee land reclamation and afforestation of the Land of Israel. In the early 20th century, the Jewish National Fund devoted the day to planting eucalyptus trees to stop the plague of malaria in the Hula Valley;[21] today the Fund schedules major tree-planting events in large forests every Tu BiShvat. Over a million Israelis take part in the Jewish National Fund's Tu BiShvat tree-planting activities.[22]

In keeping with the idea of Tu BiShvat marking the revival of nature, many of Israel's major institutions have chosen this day for their inauguration. The cornerstone-laying of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem took place on Tu BiShvat 1918; the Technion in Haifa, on Tu BiShvat 1925; and the Knesset, on Tu BiShvat 1949.[23]

In the diaspora, starting especially in North America in the 1980s, Tu BiShvat became treated as the Jewish "Earth Day" – with contemporary communities emphasizing all kinds of actions and activism related to the environment and the natural world.[24]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. When representing the number using letters, rabbinic rules forbid using the letter-numerals that represent 10 (Yud) and 5 (Hei) together because they form the abbreviation of the "ineffable name of God", YHVH . Therefore, the number 15 is represented by the letters (Tet) and (Vav), or 9 and 6 = 15.
  2. Tractate Rosh Hashannah Mishnah 1:1
  3. Web site: Translation:Talmud/Seder Moed/Tractate Rosh Hashanah/2a . . January 23, 2019 . December 14, 2015.
  4. Web site: Jewish Agency for Israel . Department for Jewish Zionist Education Pedagogic Center . Jewish Agency for Israel . May 15, 2005 . Tu Bishvat . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20050114162228/http://www.jafi.org.il/education/FESTIVLS/tubish/rtub01.html . January 14, 2005 . January 20, 2011 . Jewish Agency for Israel.
  5. Web site: Kariv . Gilad . Gilad Kariv . January 21, 2008 . Tu Bishvat / The Festival of Love – the Celebration of Nature . subscription . live . https://archive.today/20240121195844/https://www.haaretz.com/2008-01-21/ty-article/tu-bishvat-the-festival-of-love-the-celebration-of-nature/0000017f-e1b3-df7c-a5ff-e3fbcb080000 . January 21, 2024 . January 22, 2019 . Haaretz.
  6. Web site: Silberstein . Eli . Chabad Rosh Hashanah ch.1 Mishnah 1 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20201022185151/https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/audio_cdo/aid/3752355/jewish/Rosh-Hashanah-ch1-Mishnah-1.htm . October 22, 2020 . February 9, 2020 . Chabad.org.
  7. Web site: Silberberg . Naftali . What is Orlah . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20200819075756/http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/258,2079807/What-is-orlah.html . August 19, 2020 . January 20, 2011 . AskMoses.com.
  8. Web site: Schneersohn . Sholom DovBer . Sholom Dovber Schneersohn . Schneersohn . Yosef Yitzchak . Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn . Translated by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger & Uri Kaploun, edited by Uri Kaploun . With Light and With Might: Two Chassidic Discourses with an Appendix: Glossary . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101128215243/http://sichosinenglish.org/books/with-light-and-with-might/11.htm . November 28, 2010 . January 20, 2011 . Sichos in English.
  9. Web site: Tu BiShvat Seder! . January 21, 2024 . Sefaria.
  10. Web site: Themes And Customs – Tu B'Shvat Around The World . virtualjerusalem.com . March 23, 2020 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20091005030750/http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/jewish_holidays/tubshvat/customs.htm . October 5, 2009.
  11. Web site: 'A Thing or Tu 'bout Shvat' . Torah.org . January 20, 2011.
  12. Aylin Öney Tan, ‘Be Merry, Around a Wheat Berry!’, p. 352.
  13. Isin . Mary . 2021 . Adam and Eve's Wheat Porridge . . 119 . 72–85. 10.1558/ppc.28050 .
  14. Web site: Rinat . Zafrir . January 20, 2011 . Israelis Go Green For Tu Bishvat . subscription . https://web.archive.org/web/20220805070848/https://www.haaretz.com/2011-01-20/ty-article/israelis-go-green-for-tu-bishvat/0000017f-ef55-dc28-a17f-ff773e190000 . August 5, 2022 . January 20, 2011 . Haaretz.
  15. Web site: Tu B'Shevat (Arbor Day) in United States . 2011 . January 20, 2011 . Operational Home Front . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120428061953/http://www.operationhomefront.net/dcmetro/events.aspx?id=7760 . April 28, 2012 .
  16. Web site: Arbor Day Around the World . Arbor Day Foundation . January 20, 2011.
  17. Web site: Kibbutz Lotan – Tu B'shvat Campaign . 2005 . January 20, 2011 . Kibbutz Lotan . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110713145426/http://www.kibbutzlotan.com/community/friendsLotan/tuBshvat.html . July 13, 2011 .
  18. Web site: Tu B'Shvat – The Jewish Earth Day . Jewish Woman Magazine . January 20, 2011 . July 18, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110718093911/http://www.jwi.org/Page.aspx?pid=2668 . dead .
  19. Web site: Yael Zisling . Tu Bishvat traditions . Gemsinisrael.com . January 20, 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110711081819/http://www.gemsinisrael.com/TuBShevat.html . July 11, 2011 .
  20. Web site: Zionist Philosophies . Mfa.gov.il . October 19, 1999 . January 20, 2011.
  21. Web site: Just a Jewish Arbor Day? . Zuroff . Rabbi Avraham . 2011 . January 20, 2011 . Ohr Somayach International.
  22. Web site: Paz . Shelly . Tu Bishvat gets 'shmita' treatment | Israel | Jerusalem Post . Fr.jpost.com . January 19, 2008 . November 6, 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110713122930/http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1200572492889&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull . July 13, 2011 .
  23. Web site: The Knesset's Early years . Knesset.gov.il . January 20, 2011.
  24. See "Jewish Environmentalism in North America", David Seidenberg, Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature

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