Today is Tu B’Shvat

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Happy New Year.

What, you ask?

Today is the New Year for trees.  One of the four new years that exist in the Hebrew calendar.   (The others are the first day of Nisan, right

Tu B'Shvat Infographic
http://media.aish.com/documents/TBSH(English).pdf

before Passover, which is the new year for kings and festivals; the first day of Elul, the new year for tithing; and the first of Tishrei, which we all know as Rosh Hashana.)   Tu B’Shvat, today’s new year is when the earliest blooming trees in the State of Israel begin their next fruit-bearing cycle.

This new year is an ecological one.  While it’s officially the new year for trees, the holiday celebrates the forces of nature and the environment in and upon the world.  (Consider it the first- the real first- Earth Day.)

It’s been traditional to devour the seven species that are denoted in the Tora. Grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates (from which the biblical honey is derived) are the fruits.  The other two species are wheat and barley.  (Many “spiritualists” [those folks who study the Kaballa in depth] match these seven species to the seven attributes of our human existence.)

A more recent tradition has been to participate in what is called a Tu B’Shvat Seder. (Seder means order or arrangement of events).   In the late 1500s, Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (Tzfat, Israel), who was among the revivalists of the Kaballist tradition, created this event.  Its goal was to restore Hashem’s blessings upon us by strengthening and repairing the Tree of Life.

So, if it’s a celebration, what do else we do on this day?   One of the more traditional things in recent history was to donate money to Keren Kayemet LYisrael, the Jewish National Fund.  So, that trees could be planted in the land of Israel.

This, over the years, has been among the primary methods by which Israel was able to reclaim the land from the desert.  It made it possible for Israel to become one of the prime agricultural regions in the Middle East.

Plant A Tree Today

Tu B'Shvat Infographic
http://media.aish.com/documents/TBSH(English).pdf

 

 

 

 

 

Whatever your tradition or religion, today is a great time to consider the role of nature in our lives- and what climate change may yet provide.   I’m not sure a trillion new trees are the answer for climate change- but, they certainly can help.  None of those magical theories ever pan out.  (And, we would certainly need a variety of different trees to make a real difference.)

 

Happy New Year!

By the way, Tu BShvat (Hebrew: טו בשבט‎) is just the Hebrew letters to the left sounded out.  Tu is the sound the number 15 (Tet and Vav) make, and it’s the 15th of Shvat.  (B’ means within or of.)

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6 thoughts on “Today is Tu B’Shvat”

  1. This is fascinating. I have never heard of this form of New Year but it makes sense. Here in Bakersfield, our Spring is starting. I mark it by blooming Tulip Magnolia trees. My neighborhood trees haven’t started flowering yet, but video from three years ago shows them on this same date blossoming – so my eyes and heart are open to this HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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