Jewish New Year for Trees

On the evening of February 2 through the evening of February 3, Jewish people celebrate the holiday of Tu B'Shevat. Tu B'Shevat, the 15th day of the Jewish month of Shevat, is a holiday also known as the New Year for Trees. The word "Tu" is not really a word; it is the number 15 in Hebrew, as if you were to call the Fourth of July "IV July" (IV being 4 in Roman numerals).

Tu B'Shevat is a minor Jewish holiday, which means work is allowed and there is not a specific service in synagogue. Tu B'Shevat is the new year for the purpose of calculating the age of trees for tithing. In the Bible portion Lev. 19:23-25 it states that fruit from trees may not be eaten during the first three years; the fourth year's fruit is for G-d, and after that, you can eat the fruit. Each tree is considered to have aged one year as of Tu B'Shevat, so if you planted a tree on Shevat 14, it begins it second year the next day, but if you plant a tree two days later, on Shevat 16, it does not reach its second year until the next Tu B'Shevat.

The holiday of Tu B'Shevat is not mentioned in the Torah. There are few customs or observances related to this holiday. One custom is to eat a new fruit on this day. Some people plant trees on this day. A lot of Jewish children go around collecting money for trees for Israel at this time of year.

During the Middle Ages or possibly a little before that, this day started to be celebrated with a minor ceremony of eating fruits, since the Mishnah called it "Rosh Hashanah" ("New Year"), and that was later understood as being a time appropriate for celebration.

During the 1600s in the Land of Israel, Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Safed and his disciples created a short Tu Bishvat seder, somewhat like the Passover seder, that evokes the holiday's Kabbalistic themes. There is a Hasidic and Sefardic tradition that on this day a devout Jew should pray for a kosher etrog (the citron) that is part of the four species of trees used on the major festival of Sukkot.

In modern times Tu Bishvat has become popular with many Jews, and is celebrated with much enthusiasm in Jewish schools, synagogues and communities. The main activity is planting trees in open places in Israel.

The tradition to plant trees started in 1890 when the teacher and writer Zeev Yabetz went out with his students in a school in Zichron Yaakov for a festive planting. This iniative was adopted in 1908 by the Israeli Teachers trade union and later on by the Land Development Authority (Hakeren Hakayemet L’Israel).

It is customary to eat different types of fruit on this holiday and to recite the appropriate blessings. Many people also eat all kinds of dried fruit as well, such as raisins and nuts,

Traditionally, these types of fruit are:

Foremost are the Seven Species associated with the Land of Israel in the Torah, according to Deuteronomy 8:8 :

1. Wheat
2. Barley
3. Grapes
4. Figs
5. Pomegranates
6. Olives
7. Dates

Fruits and nuts with hard, inedible exteriors and soft edible insides, such as oranges, bananas, walnuts, and pistachios.

Fruits and nuts with soft exteriors, but with a hard pit inside, such as dates, apricots, olives and persimmons

Fruit that is eaten whole, such as figs and berries.

Many have the custom of eating candied etrog.

In addition, Kabbalistic tradition teaches that eating these fruits somehow creates a connection with the more abstract Tree of Life that God placed in the Garden of Eden as mentioned in the Book of Genesis where Adam and Eve had been placed after their creation.

Judaism has several different "new years." This is not as strange a concept as it sounds at first blush; in America, we have the calendar year (January-December), the school year (September-June), and many businesses have fiscal years. It's basically the same idea with the various Jewish new years.

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