Minor Jewish holiday
Tu BiShvat
|
---|
Almond
tree in blossom on Tu BiShvat
|
Official name
| ??? ????
|
---|
Type
| Jewish religious
, cultural
|
---|
Significance
| The fruits that ripened from Tu BiShvat on were counted for the following year's
tithes
.
|
---|
Observances
| Tu BiShvat seder
|
---|
Date
| 15th of
Shevat
|
---|
2023 date
| Sunset, 5 February ?
nightfall, 6 February
[1]
|
---|
2024 date
| Sunset, 24 January ?
nightfall, 25 January
[1]
|
---|
2025 date
| Sunset, 12 February ?
nightfall, 13 February
[1]
|
---|
2026 date
| Sunset, 1 February ?
nightfall, 2 February
[1]
|
---|
Related to
| Sukkot
|
---|
Tu BiShvat
(
Hebrew
:
??? ?????????
,
romanized
:
?? b??v??
,
lit.
'15th of Shevat') is a
Jewish holiday
occurring on the 15th day of the
Hebrew month
of
Shevat
(in 2024, Tu BiShvat begins at sunset on January 24 and ends in the evening of January 25). It is also called
Rosh HaShanah La'Ilanot
(
??? ???? ???????
), literally "New Year of the Trees". In contemporary
Israel
, the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day, and trees are planted in celebration.
Etymology
[
edit
]
The name
Tu BiShvat
is originally from the Hebrew date of the holiday, which occurs on the fifteenth day of
Shevat
. "Tu" stands for the
Hebrew letters
Tet
and
Vav
, which together have the
numerical value
of 9 and 6, adding up to 15.
[2]
The date may also be called "?amisha Asar BiShvat" (
????-??? ????
, 'Fifteenth of Shevat').
[3]
Talmud
[
edit
]
Tu BiShvat appears in the
Mishnah
in
Tractate Rosh Hashanah
as one of the four new years in the Jewish calendar. The discussion of when the New Year occurs was a source of debate among the rabbis, who argued:
[4]
[5]
[6]
The rabbis ruled in favor of
Hillel
on this issue and the 15th of Shevat became the date for calculating the beginning of the agricultural cycle for the purpose of biblical tithes.
[7]
[8]
Biblical tithes
[
edit
]
- Orlah
refers to a biblical prohibition (
Leviticus
19:23) on eating the fruit of trees produced during the first three years after they are planted.
[9]
- Neta Reva'i
refers to the biblical commandment (Leviticus 19:24) to bring fourth-year fruit crops to Jerusalem as a tithe.
[10]
- The
second tithe
was a tithe which was collected in Jerusalem and the
poor tithe
was a tithe given to the poor (
Deuteronomy
14:22?29), which were also calculated by whether the fruit ripened before or after Tu BiShvat.
Of the talmudic requirements for fruit trees which used Tu BiShvat as the cut-off date in the Hebrew calendar for calculating the age of a fruit-bearing tree, the
orlah
remains to this day in essentially the same form it had in talmudic times. In the
Orthodox Jewish
world, these practices are still observed today as part of
Halakha
, Jewish law. Fruit that ripened on a three-year-old tree before Tu BiShvat is considered
orlah
and is forbidden to eat, while fruit ripening on or after Tu BiShvat of the tree's third year is permitted. In the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th years of the
Shmita
cycle, the second tithe is observed today by a ceremony redeeming tithing obligations with a coin; in the 3rd and 6th years, the poor tithe is substituted, and no coin is needed for redeeming it. Tu BiShvat is the cut-off date for determining to which year the tithes belong.
[
citation needed
]
Tu BiShvat falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat and begins a three-month series (in years without a leap year) of holidays that occur on the mid-month full moons that culminate in
Passover
.
[11]
Traditional customs
[
edit
]
In the Middle Ages, Tu BiShvat was celebrated with a feast of fruits in keeping with the Mishnaic description of the holiday as a "New Year." In the 16th century, the kabbalist Rabbi
Yitzchak Luria
of
Safed
and his disciples instituted a
Tu BiShvat seder
in which the fruits and trees of the
Land of Israel
, especially of the
Seven Species
, were given symbolic meaning. The main idea was that eating ten specific fruits and drinking four cups of wine in a specific order while reciting the appropriate blessings would bring human beings, and the world, closer to spiritual perfection.
[12]
In Israel, the kabbalistic
Tu BiShvat seder
has been revived, and is now celebrated by many Jews, religious and secular. Special
haggadot
have been written for this purpose.
[
citation needed
]
In the
Hasidic
community, some Jews pickle or candy the
etrog
(
citron
) from
Sukkot
and eat it on Tu BiShvat. Some pray that they will be worthy of a beautiful etrog on the following Sukkot.
[13]
Sephardic Jews prepare a dessert made of grains, dried fruits, and nuts, known as
Ashure
or trigo koco, to celebrate the holiday.
[14]
[15]
Modern customs
[
edit
]
Tu BiShvat is the Israeli
Arbor Day
,
[16]
[17]
and it is often referred to by that name in international media.
[18]
Ecological organizations in Israel and the diaspora have adopted the holiday to further environmental-awareness programs.
[19]
[20]
On Israeli
kibbutzim
, Tu BiShvat is celebrated as an agricultural holiday.
[21]
On Tu BiShvat 1890, Rabbi
Ze'ev Yavetz
, one of the founders of the
Mizrachi religious Zionist movement
,
[22]
took his students to plant trees in the agricultural town of
Zikhron Ya'akov
. This custom was adopted in 1908 by the Jewish Teachers Union and later by the
Jewish National Fund
, established in 1901 to oversee
land reclamation
and
afforestation
of the
Land of Israel
. In the early 20th century, the Jewish National Fund devoted the day to planting
eucalyptus
trees to stop the plague of
malaria
in the
Hula Valley
;
[23]
today the Fund schedules major tree-planting events in large forests every Tu BiShvat.
[16]
Over a million Israelis take part in the Jewish National Fund's Tu BiShvat tree-planting activities.
[24]
In keeping with the idea of Tu BiShvat marking the revival of nature, many of Israel's major institutions have chosen this day for their inauguration. The cornerstone-laying of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
took place on Tu BiShvat 1918; the
Technion
in Haifa, on Tu BiShvat 1925; and the
Knesset
, on Tu BiShvat 1949.
[25]
In the diaspora, starting especially in North America in the 1980s, Tu BiShvat became treated as the Jewish "
Earth Day
" ? with contemporary communities emphasizing all kinds of actions and activism related to the environment and the natural world.
[26]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Dates for Tu BiShvat"
. Hebcal.com by Danny Sadinoff and Michael J. Radwin (CC-BY-3.0)
. Retrieved
August 26,
2018
.
- ^
When representing the number using letters, rabbinic rules forbid using the letter-numerals that represent 10 (
?
Yud
) and 5 (
?
Hei
) together because they form the abbreviation of the "ineffable name of God",
YHVH
????
. Therefore, the number 15 is represented by the letters
?
(Tet) and
?
(Vav), or 9 and 6 = 15.
- ^
Tractate Rosh Hashannah Mishnah 1:1
- ^
Talmud
,
b.
Rosh Hashanah 2a
- ^
"Translation:Talmud/Seder Moed/Tractate Rosh Hashanah/2a"
.
Wikisource
. December 14, 2015
. Retrieved
January 23,
2019
.
- ^
Jewish Agency for Israel, Department for Jewish Zionist Education Pedagogic Center
(May 15, 2005).
"Tu Bishvat"
.
Jewish Agency for Israel
. Archived from
the original
on January 14, 2005
. Retrieved
January 20,
2011
.
- ^
Kariv, Gilad
(January 21, 2008).
"Tu Bishvat / The Festival of Love ? the Celebration of Nature"
.
Haaretz
.
Archived
from the original on January 21, 2024
. Retrieved
January 22,
2019
.
- ^
Silberstein, Eli.
"Chabad Rosh Hashanah ch.1 Mishnah 1"
.
Chabad.org
.
Archived
from the original on October 22, 2020
. Retrieved
February 9,
2020
.
- ^
Silberberg, Naftali.
"What is Orlah"
.
AskMoses.com
. Archived from
the original
on August 19, 2020
. Retrieved
January 20,
2011
.
- ^
Schneersohn, Sholom DovBer
;
Schneersohn, Yosef Yitzchak
.
"With Light and With Might: Two Chassidic Discourses with an Appendix: Glossary"
.
Sichos in English
. Translated by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger & Uri Kaploun, edited by Uri Kaploun. Archived from
the original
on November 28, 2010
. Retrieved
January 20,
2011
.
- ^
"Tu BiShvat Seder!"
.
Sefaria
. Retrieved
January 21,
2024
.
- ^
"Themes And Customs ? Tu B'Shvat Around The World"
.
virtualjerusalem.com
. Archived from
the original
on October 5, 2009
. Retrieved
March 23,
2020
.
- ^
"
'A Thing or Tu 'bout Shvat'
"
. Torah.org
. Retrieved
January 20,
2011
.
- ^
Aylin Oney Tan, ‘
Be Merry, Around a Wheat Berry!
’, p. 352.
- ^
Isin, Mary (2021). "Adam and Eve's Wheat Porridge".
Petits Propos Culinaires
(119): 72?85.
- ^
a
b
Rinat, Zafrir (January 20, 2011).
"Israelis Go Green For Tu Bishvat"
.
Haaretz
. Archived from
the original
on August 5, 2022
. Retrieved
January 20,
2011
.
- ^
"Tu B'Shevat (Arbor Day) in United States"
. Operational Home Front. 2011. Archived from
the original
on April 28, 2012
. Retrieved
January 20,
2011
.
- ^
"Arbor Day Around the World"
. Arbor Day Foundation
. Retrieved
January 20,
2011
.
- ^
"Kibbutz Lotan ? Tu B'shvat Campaign"
. Kibbutz Lotan. 2005. Archived from
the original
on July 13, 2011
. Retrieved
January 20,
2011
.
- ^
"Tu B'Shvat ? The Jewish Earth Day"
. Jewish Woman Magazine. Archived from
the original
on July 18, 2011
. Retrieved
January 20,
2011
.
- ^
Yael Zisling.
"Tu Bishvat traditions"
. Gemsinisrael.com. Archived from
the original
on July 11, 2011
. Retrieved
January 20,
2011
.
- ^
"Zionist Philosophies"
. Mfa.gov.il. October 19, 1999
. Retrieved
January 20,
2011
.
- ^
Zuroff, Rabbi Avraham (2011).
"Just a Jewish Arbor Day?"
.
Ohr Somayach International
. Retrieved
January 20,
2011
.
- ^
Paz, Shelly (January 19, 2008).
"Tu Bishvat gets 'shmita' treatment | Israel | Jerusalem Post"
. Fr.jpost.com. Archived from
the original
on July 13, 2011
. Retrieved
November 6,
2011
.
- ^
"The Knesset's Early years"
. Knesset.gov.il
. Retrieved
January 20,
2011
.
- ^
See
"Jewish Environmentalism in North America"
, David Seidenberg, Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Tu Bishvat
.