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c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Growing up, I always pitied the “minor” holiday of Tu B’Shevat, the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat, which starts this year at sundown on Monday (Jan. 21) and lasts through sundown on Tuesday. “Tu” is the combination of the ninth and sixth letters of the Hebrew […]

c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Growing up, I always pitied the “minor” holiday of Tu B’Shevat, the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat, which starts this year at sundown on Monday (Jan. 21) and lasts through sundown on Tuesday.

“Tu” is the combination of the ninth and sixth letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and Shevat is the 11th month in the Jewish lunar calendar. Tu B’Shevat (pronounced too-bish-vat) is sometimes called “Jewish Arbor Day” or the “New Year of the Trees” because of its emphasis on nature’s tallest and longest living plants and the start of the early spring harvest in Israel.


Poor little Tu B’Shevat, I thought. It “only” celebrated the existence of nature, especially trees, fruits, and nuts. Unlike the “major” holidays, it did not focus on momentous events like the Exodus from Egypt or God’s gift of the Torah to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai.

Back then, on Tu B’Shevat we youngsters dutifully donated some of our precious allowance money to plant “personal” saplings in Israel, a land that desperately needed millions of new trees and forests. Worse still, there were no delicious special foods for Tu B’Shevat; the sole food we received was a kind of “biblical hardtack,” the thickly crusted fruit of the carob tree. Fortunately, my dentist father warned me about the dangers of crunching too hard on such food.

But that was then, and thankfully today, the once neglected Tu B’Shevat is no longer a “minor” festival.

The holiday, created by the rabbis 2,000 years ago, has at last come into its own with our society’s increased awareness of the environment, ecology, and the urgent need to save our planet from human despoliation and devastation.

The Hebrew Bible mentions “trees” some 180 times, beginning in Genesis with the Garden of Eden’s “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Scripture also describes more than 100 specific types of trees, shrubs, and plants, and the Torah is called a “Tree of Life” for those who hold fast to its teachings.

Many synagogues and families now conduct a Tu B’Shevat Seder dinner, which is somewhat similar to the more famous Passover meal. A Tu B’Shevat Seder is an annual teachable moment that stresses the importance of trees as sources of beauty, food, building material, and soil conservation. The holiday celebrates the glories of God’s creative power and the need for responsible stewardship of our precious natural resources.

At the Tu B’Shevat Seder, organic fruits and nuts are eaten, including the biblical foods of grapes, figs, olives, dates, pomegranates and honey. Four cups of wine (“fruit of the vine”) are also consumed. Vegetarians particularly enjoy a Tu B’Shevat Seder.


Decades before Tu B’Shevat’s increased observance, Avraham Yitzhak Kook (1865-1935), a chief rabbi of pre-independence Israel, spoke of the holiday and our need to respect nature and the infinite God who created our finite world: “If you are amazed at how it is possible to speak, hear, smell, touch, see, understand, and feel _ tell your soul that all living things collectively confer upon you the fullness of your experience. Not the least speck of existence is superfluous, everything is needed, and everything serves its purpose. `You’ (God) are present within everything … ”

A few years ago, I led a group of prominent black ministers and priests on an American Jewish Committee study mission to Israel that coincided with Tu B’Shevat and the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. The group planted saplings in the northern Israeli forest dedicated to King’s memory. As each of us tenderly placed “our” young tree in the soil, I recounted a famous story from Jewish tradition:

An elderly man was planting a carob tree in ancient Israel. A passerby mockingly asked, “How long will it take for your little tree to bear fruit?” The man replied, “About 70 years.” The passerby retorted, “Then why are you planting? Are you so healthy that you expect to live long enough to eat of your sapling’s fruit?”

The tree planter answered, “Probably not, but I found a fruitful world because my fathers and mothers planted for me before I was born, so, now it is my obligation to plant for my children and grand children.”

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

KRE/CM END RUDIN750 words

A photo of Rabbi Rudin is available via https://religionnews.com.

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