Did you know that today was Tu BiShvat? I had never heard of this holiday before and greatly enjoyed reading about it.

What?

Tu BiShvat is a Jewish holiday, also known as Rosh HaShanah La’Ilanot (“New Year of the Trees”) or Israeli Arbor Day. According to the Talmud, Tu BiShvat is the beginning of the agricultural year for the calculation of tithes, specifically “the cut-off date for levying the tithe on the produce of fruit trees.”

Why?

This “birthday for trees” was decided by rabbis to simplify following the command in Leviticus 19:23-25: “When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten. And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. But in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit, to increase its yield for you: I am the Lord your God.”

When?

Tu BiShvat means “fifteenth of Shevat” since the holiday is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Shevat. Tu BiShvat falls in either January or February. In 2022 it began at sundown on January 16th. Tu BiShvat “is first referred to in the late Second Temple period (515 BCE to 20 CE).”

How?

In the Middle Ages Tu BiShvat was celebrated as a feast of fruits. In the 16th century the kabbalistic Rabbi Isaac Luria established the Tu BiShvat seder, which is ten symbolic fruits and four cups of wine consumed in a specific order. As early as 1890 planting trees became part of the Tu BiShvat celebrations. Today it is celebrated as a sort of “Earth Day.”

Where?

Tu BiShvat is celebrated in Israel and the diaspora.

Who?

“While relatively few Jews continue to observe the kabbalistic Tu Bishvat seder, many American and European Jews observe Tu Bishvat by contributing money to the Jewish National Fund, an organization devoted to reforesting Israel.”

Did you learn something new? 🙂