Jewish Tree New Year

(Photo/image by Shannon Bergman)

Trees are so important in the Jewish religion that they have their own day, called the Tu B’Shvat, a new year’s day for trees. I heard and read about a Jewish tree-planting holiday and thought this would be a perfect blog topic. I found out quite a bit that I’d like to share. First of all, today the holiday is celebrated by planting trees, eating fresh fruit and drinking wine.

This year’s Tu B’Shvat at the Temple Emanu-el in Tucson was celebrated by songs, stories, a dinner and a wine tasting. The announcement said the stories and songs were for “celebrating our connection to God and the natural world…”

One way to do this is by learning from trees. Nesansel Yoel Safran wrote in his introduction to a kids’ story about Tu B’Shvat about the example of patience. In “Family Trees: A TuB’shvat Story for Kids,” an 11 year-old girl asks an old man why he bothers planting trees. As the man tends to his newly planted tree he tells her it’s for his children and grandchildren to enjoy. The girl gives up her impatience and learns the importance of “planting for the future.” She says to her mom “There’s no rush, after all. Don’t all good things and good times, take time – to bear fruit?”

I remember planting my own tree when I was little. It had no spiritual significance for me because I didn’t go to church back then. But it was a little black walnut tree that I would be able to nurture and watch grow and eventually have my very own large walnut tree. I think I still have one of its walnuts. My tree was not even two feet tall when it took its last breath. There was some kind of gardening accident, something about my dad not realizing it was a tree because it looked like the weeds surrounding it.
(Photo courtesy of Cirrusimage.com)

Today I planted my very own virtual tree. I went to the Knesset Birthday Web site for Tu B’Shvat and planted a carob tree. I found this as a link to kids’ activities for the trees’ New Year.

The New Year comes from Jewish scripture explaining when to give tithes. It instructs you to only use fruit that has flowered before the New Year for tithing.

Here are some scriptures from Judaism 101: Tu B’Shevat, which adds that Jewish children collect money on Tu B’Shvat to send to Israel for tree planting.

Leviticus 19:23-25 “When you come to the land and you plant any tree, you shall treat its fruit as forbidden; for three years it will be forbidden and not eaten. In the fourth year, all of its fruit shall be sanctified to praise the Lord. In the fifth year, you many eat its fruit”

Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1 “There are four new years… the first of Shevat is the new year for trees according to the ruling of Beit Shammai; Beit Hillel, however, places it on the fifteenth of that month.”

More scriptures where the Torah compares people to trees are given in “Man is a Tree” by Rabbi Shraga Simmons.

Deuteronomy 20:19 “A person is like the tree of a field…”

Isaiah 65:22 “For as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people.”

Jeremiah 17:8 “He will be like a tree planted near water…”