Judah's Glory

Tu B'Shevat

THE NEW YEAR FOR TREES

Customs

  • Planting new trees in Israel
  • Eating three kinds of fruits and nuts:
    1. Outside inedible, inside edible
    2. Outside edible, inside inedible
    3. Outside and Inside Edible
  • Children collect money for tree planting in Israel.
  • Readings in Scripture regarding trees.

  • Eating new fruit
  • Kabbalists may celebrate a Seder with 4 cups of wine of varying %, and readings on trees

    Scriptures

  • Tree readings favored but not required

    Rules

  • No Eulogies for souls of the dead
  • Use of the Mahzorim [Prayer Book for the services]
  • Leviticus 19:23-25
  • Devarim [Dt] 8

    • Lev 19:23-4:

    "And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of. Lev 19:24 But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the LORD [withal]."

    The Fruitfulness of Holiness

    While many know of the major holidays or festivals, fewer know of Tu B'shevat, or the Celebration of the 15th of the month of Shevat. It is like B ag Omer, a celebration regarding trees, in a scriptural sense, and carries with it the celebration of new life, fruitfulness, and the command regarding the tithe of harvests..

    The feast itself comes from the admonition in Leviticus and again in Deuteronomy [Devarim] regarding the planting, tending and tithing of trees and vines, or more general crops. The first three years, trees are not to be harvested for food: the fruit is not to be eaten. The fruit of the fourth year may be eaten and provides a proper tithe. This is the "New Year" for trees, and just as we have 'years' which begin at different times [fiscal year vs calendar], this springtime feast is at the beginning of a new year as trees are reckoned, and at the culmination of the fourth part of the year of the Rosh Chodesh: in other words, in the Holy Year Calendar, the celebration of ripe, abundant and fit fruit comes after 3 seasons of waiting, patience, and tending the vine or tree. For Messianic Christians, it is of note that the culmination of holiness based upon seasons and waiting is much in line with the holiday: Jesus is spoken of looking for fruit on the fig tree at the appointed time, but when he finds none, he curses it, and it withers and dies.

    The day is traditionally celebrated on the 15th day of Shevet, the letters 'tu' standing for teth and vav in the Hebrew alephbet or 6 + 9 which equals 15. According to one source, Shammai indicated the day should be the first of Shevat, but Hillel declared the 15th which has held ever since. While the admonition of tithing the trees/fruit and vines is scriptural, the designation as a new head of the year is found only in the Mishnah, or commentary on rules and commands.

    The Liturgy and Celebration

    Tu B'Shevat is a lesser holiday in the Congregation, but still important as it is also used as a time of praise, thankfulness and appreciation for the abundance and goodness of life and the love of God. Says one author it is

    rejoicing in fruit of tree and vine, celebrating the splendid, abundant gifts of the natural world which give our senses delgith and our bodies life."1
    In Israel it is practiced at the beginning of Spring and trees are often planted.

    Unlike the High Holy Days, work is permitted, and there are no particular prayers which are required, although prayers regarding trees and the likening of the worshipper and Israel to trees are often read. The Tachanun is not said, and eulogies are not read. 3

    The Torah refers to the day as "The Day of the Blowing of the Shofar" (Yom Terua, Leviticus 23:24), and rabbinic literature and the liturgy itself describe Rosh Hashanah as "The Day of Judgment" (Yom ha-Din) and "The Day of Rememberance" (Yom ha-Zikkaron). Some midrashic descriptions depict God as sitting upon a throne, while books containing the deeds of all humanity are opened for review, and each person passing in front of Him for evaluation of his or her deeds.

    This is the head of the holiday period referred to as "Yamim Noraim" or "Days of Awe, preceded by the month of Elul in which in traditional orthodox communities, the trumpet is sounded at dawn. Jews refer to Rosh Hashanah as the marking of the new Calendar year, but other 'calendar' years are noted, particular the first month around Passover.

    Trees & Israel

    xulon, elaiaSome may find it disconcerting to celebrate holidays centering on trees. Some Christians who adhere closely to the Word, know that many pagan holidays are centered around trees, and the heart of pagan worship focused on trees particularly evergreens. But the days which Scripture designates as feasts or celebrations which regard trees in Judaism, have to do with among other things, the tithing of harvests, first fruits, renewal, fruitfulness, and the idea of growth beside or of living waters. In Psalms the following passage gives an example:

    Psa 1:3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
    Trees are mentioned in the Garden of Eden, and the center of Man's Life and Fall are both the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, and the Tree of Life, and it is from a tree that the Serpent tempts Eve. Trees and orchards and trees in gardens are mentioned constantly through scripture, and the admonition in Leviticus 19 mentioned above refers to the year of tithing and counting the age of trees and a celebration of Spring and renewal and fruitfulness. Trees with fruit are mentioned in Psalms and Song of Solomon, David loses a son to one in a forest, and the Cross of Christ is occasionally referred to as a tree.
    Act 10:39 And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews , and in Jerusalem ; whom they slew and hanged on a tree :
    It is a fig tree which Jesus seeks one of His first disciples under, and it is the fig tree representing the leadership of Israel which had become non-levitical and corrupt which Jesus curses and it withers and dies, for not yielding fruit in the given season. In Romans, it is made clear that we who believe who are not Jews naturally are grafted into the branch:
    And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, [take heed] lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in [his] goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural [branches], be graffed into their own olive tree? Rms 11:17-28
    Finally, in the end of time, as Heaven opens, we see in the New Jerusalem 12 kinds of trees with twelve fruits, with the Tree of Life in the middle, in Paradise restored as in the beginning, only even more wondrous. This remembrance centered on trees, is not the worship 'of' trees, but a focusing on the newness of life, the fruitfulness in growing in God's Grace, and a pointing to stalwart flora of the tree which stands throughout scripture and history reminding us of the Sovereign plan and commands of God.

    References

  • Orthodox Union [Online]:http://www.ou.org; Tu Shevat under "Jewish Holidays", and "Rosh Chodesh"
  • Judaism 101; http://www.ou.org/about/judaism2.htm
  • Judaism 101: jewfaq.org