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Photo slideshow: Jewish youth celebrate New Year of the Trees

Originally, Tu B’Shevat—Hebrew for the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat was designated as the time when tree owners would offer tithes from the fruit trees of Israel. Its earliest source refers to it as the New Year of the Trees.
Photo slideshow: Jewish youth celebrate New Year of the Trees
Juniors and seniors dance in a circle after a Seder to study and celebrate Tu B'Shvat during a Hebrew class at Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy in Overland Park, Kan., on Wednesday (Jan. 15, 2014). RNS photo by Sally Morrow
Sally Morrow

Originally, Tu B’shvat — Hebrew for the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat — was designated as the time when tree owners would offer tithes from the fruit trees of Israel. Its earliest source refers to it as the New Year of the Trees.

Later mystics attributed spiritual significance to this phrase, and a special ceremony modeled after the Passover Seder evolved. Traditionally, the Tu B’shvat seder includes the seven biblical species that are connected with the land of Israel, and, like the Passover Seder, it is structured around four cups of wine. Each section deals with four different types of worlds exemplified by the seven species. There is the world of action, the world of formation, the world of creation, and the world of transcendence.

More recently, the Seders have included a particular sensitivity to the environment, and Tu B’shvat has often been referred to as an eco-Zionist holiday.


Introduction written for Religion News Service by Rabbi Avi Weinstein, Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, Overland Park, Kan.

Click on any photo below to view slideshow. Religion News Service photos by Sally Morrow

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