This coming Shabbat we commemorate Tu B’Shevat, the 15th day of the month of Shevat. Tu B’Shevat is actually an important “semi-festival.” The opening teaching in the Tractate of Rosh Hashana describes that there are four dates of significance which our Sages referred to as a Rosh Hashana, a “new year”, each marking new cycle of significance on the Jewish calendar. According to the sage Hillel, the 15th of Shevat is the Rosh Hashana la’Ilanot- the New Year for the trees.
As a child, I never really understood this idea of a new year for the trees. I recall eating fruits including that very peculiar looking and even more peculiar tasting piece of carob, and remember receiving those certificates saying that my parents had planted a tree in Israel in my honor on Tu B’Shevat, but that was about the extent of my Tu B’Shevat commemoration. As I grew older, I came to learn that in Israel today, Tu B’Shevat has become a Jewish “Arbor Day”, when schools schedule trips to plant saplings. Of course there is also practical legal reasoning behind a new year for the trees. There are many laws regarding farming, planting and harvesting outlined in the Torah for produce grown in Israel, for example the Shnat Shemita, the sabbatical year when the fields and orchards of Eretz Yisrael are not to be harvested.
The Torah refers to the Land of Israel as “Eretz zavat chalav u’dvash- a land flowing with milk and honey.” no less than eleven times (and an additional three times in the Prophets and Sacred Writings). Many commentators have explained that this is a reference to the many species indigenous to the Land of Israel as mentioned in the verse in Parshat Eikev (Devarim 8:7): “Eretz chita useora, vegefen ute’ena verimon; eretz zeit shemen u’dvash-a land of wheat and barley, vines (grapes) and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey.” The honey mentioned in each verse is speaking of the sweet honey of the tamar, date honey. According to several commentators, the milk refers to milk-like substances and pastes that can be made from the almonds and other nuts native to the Land of Israel. Seemingly in describing the unique goodness of the Land of Israel, the Torah focused on the produce of the Land of Israel. Indeed the Sifre (a first century collection of midrashim, biblical commentary and Rabbinic teachings) explains:
“Peirot eretz yisrael, kalim l’echol mikol ha’Aratzot- the fruits of the Land of Israel, are easier (more pleasant) to consume than that of all other lands...”What is so significant about the produce of the Land of Israel? Why does the Bible repeatedly uses this phraseology of ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ in depicting the unique goodness of the Land of Israel? Finally, what message and inspiration are we to experience on this annual ‘New Year for the Trees?’
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner in his collection of Torah essays, Tal Orot, points out an interesting phrase in the blessing recited following the consumption of any of those seven species mentioned in the verse from Parshat Eikev cited above.
The blessing includes the phrase:
‘Uvenai yerushalayim ir HaKodesh bimheira v’yameinu, vehaAleinu betocha, v’samcheinu bevinyana, v’nochol mipiria, vinisba metuva...’Rav Aviner posits a question which was raised originally in the 14th Century legal codex known as the Arba Turim. Do we really long to dwell in the Land of Israel for the sake of eating its sweet fruits? What about the simple fulfillment of the biblical precept to dwell in Eretz Yisrael?‘ And rebuild the holy city of Jerusalem, speedily in our days, bring us up into it so we may rejoice in its rebuilding, and let us eat from its fruit and be satisfied with its goodness...”
Rav Aviner asks the tongue and cheek question “can it be that our purpose was to return to the Land in order that we eat bananas and oranges?”
He cites the words of the 16th Century commentary to the Arba Turim, known as the Bayit Chadash, to clarify this phrase.
“Certainly we need to understand the essence of the fruits of our Land. We must know that G-d’s presence is innate within these fruits. The Shechina permeates the Land of Israel, and that is absorbed by the fruits and species which grow therein, and when we eat these fruits, we symbolically, mystically bring that sanctity within ourselves.”So perhaps Tu B’Shevat, like our more familiar Rosh Hashana, is a real opportunity for reflection and transformation. On Tu B’Shevat we eat those indigenous fruits in order to remind us of our intrinsic connection to the sweetness of our cherished homeland , to the sanctity and spark of divinity which permeates the Land of Israel, and is absorbed within its fruits.
Wishing you a Shana Tova Umetuka- A New
Year full
of sweetness and goodness.
...Rabbi Sam
Shor