A Lesson from Trees – Tu B’Shevat

Question

Dear Rabbi,

I heard that this week is a Jewish holiday called “Tu B’Shevat – New Year for the Trees.” Would you explain the message of this holiday for us today? Thanks.

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    There is story of a Jewish person who went to speak to the Rabbi, who was considered as the teacher and spiritual advisor. As they were talking, the Rabbi asked for a pause while he made a blessing over a piece of fruit. As the Rabbi began eating, the person wondered aloud: “You know, I eat fruit just like you do. I wonder if there’s any real difference between us. After all, you are a human being just like me. With all respect, maybe I’m wasting my time here. What wisdom for living can you offer me that I can’t get elsewhere?”
    The Rabbi looked at the person and said to him, “Do you want me to tell you the real difference between us? I eat in order to be able to make blessings – you make blessings in order to eat!”
    The beauty and the depth of the story is clear. Unlike the inquisitive, potential student, the Rabbi had managed to elevate the mundane and turn it into something very special. Eating a piece of fruit was an intensely spiritual and “nourishing” experience. This is the meaning of Tu b’Shevat.

    The month called Shevat, on the face of it, is a pretty bleak month. It comes in the winter, it’s cold and wet, the daylight is short and the darkness is long. But, it is also a time of incredible potential. Underneath the surface, things are beginning to move. Come springtime, they will begin to sprout and blossom and reveal their wondrous splendor for all who care to look. All that beauty, all that magnificence, is being nourished from the month of Shevat. Tu b’Shevat is the time to elevate the fruit from its physical properties to something that is spiritual.

    In the Mishna, Tu b’Shevat has a classification as a Rosh Hashana. It is the “New Year for the Trees.” The same way that Rosh Hashana is “stock taking” time, a moment to stop and evaluate one’s relationship with God, so too Tu b’Shevat offers us an opportunity to reflect on the wonders of the Creation and to ponder if we are really utilizing the incredible gifts the Creator has given us in the natural world to get closer to Him.

    I wish you a delicious and happy Tu B’Shevat in every sense.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team