Page 46 - HaMizrachi TuBiShvat 5784 North America

Tu BiShvat:

History, Horticulture, Minhag, and Halacha

Hechaver Yossi Aron OAM

here are four dates known as In that context, in the Diaspora where such through an agricultural lense. Pesach is
Rosh Hashanah… on the first laws (other than orla) hardly applied, and the time of the barley harvest and the
of Shevat is the new year for where agriculture was no longer the basis omer ceremony, Shavuot is the time of
“Ttrees, these are the words of Beit of most people’s livelihoods, minhag came the wheat harvest and the shtei haLechem
Shammai; Beit Hillel says on the fifteenth” to supplant halacha. To preserve the date’s (two loaves) ceremony, and Sukkot, the
(Mishnah, Rosh Hashanah 1:1). significance, the custom of eating fruit, Chag HaAsif, is the festival of ingathering
and particularly the fruit of Israel, was at summer’s end.
“Tu BiShvat higia, chag la’ilanot, Tu BiShvat adopted. Emphasis was placed on fruits
has arrived, the festival of the trees” (a of Israel like figs, grapes, pomegranates, There is more to it than that. This year is a
popular Hebrew folk song dating back to olives and dates, and Jews made a point of leap year, when we will have two months
the pre-State of Israel era). of Adar. Today, a leap year is part of the
making their Sukkot etrog into preserves fixed calendric cycle, but it was originally
Those who received their earliest Jewish that would be eaten on Tu BiShvat. Where up to the Sanhedrin to decide if a given
education in Australia in the late 1940s and fresh fruit was not available, dried figs, year was to be a leap year. And if such
1950s might well recall the many Israeli dates and raisins filled the gap. That is the was the case, Pesach was delayed by a
(or should one say Palestinian, for such origin of the custom widely adopted even month. Think about it! Pesach is the strict-
was their nationality on their passports) today to eat dried fruits, even when fresh est festival in our calendar, with severe
Hebrew-speaking kindergarten teachers fruits are now available. sanctions for consumption of chametz, to
whose Zionist background led them to More recently, the significance of Tu the extent that many people who are not
treat Tu BiShvat as one of the most signifi- BiShvat has expanded beyond its halachic careful about keeping kashrut during the
cant of our holidays. We all received a good implications and ceremonies associated rest of the year do so during Pesach. Yet
grounding regarding kibbutz and moshav with eating fruit, becoming the festival the actual date of Pesach is at the mercy of
life and the agricultural elements of the of nature lovers and environmentalists – the Sanhedrin. If they saw that as a result
fledgling Israeli economy – especially whose philosophies also have a place in of the lunar/solar year discrepancy it was
oranges. We sang Tu BiShvat songs and our religious thought and practice. Inter- falling too close to winter and the barley
together with those teachers or madrichim estingly, even the sages of the Talmud saw would not be ripe in time for offering the
of the Zionist youth movements, some vis- a connection between Tu BiShvat and the omer, they delayed Pesach by a month!
ited the hachshara farm in outer suburban annual rainfall cycle; referring to Tu BiSh- This decision would also determine when
Melbourne. And of course we planted trees vat being set at the time when “rov gishmei the other festivals would fall out in the
in school and shul grounds – few of which, hashanah, most of the rainfall of the year” coming year. Whether we realize it or not,
sadly, survived. In fact it would be some (that in Israel falls only in winter) has agriculture is the key to our calendar and
years before Yom HaAtzmaut overtook Tu actually occurred. so many of our laws and customs.
BiShvat as the primary holiday for cele- Tu BiShvat plays a critical role in another The Mishnah cited above tells us that the
brating Israel. way as well. As indicated above, its origins actual date of the new year for trees is
But of course, Tu BiShvat, as per the above relate to the agricultural halachot which the subject of a debate between Hillel and
cited Mishnah, is essentially for halachic comprise one sixth of the Mishnah – the Shammai. In this case – as in the case of
purposes the new year for trees. Given Order of “Zera’im.” In modern times, we the order of lighting Chanukah lights – the
that it falls in the midst of the Northern tend to forget the extent of the relation- halacha follows the ruling of Beit Hillel.
winter when deciduous fruit-bearing trees ship between agriculture, the agricultural The ruling that the halacha almost always
are bare, it serves as an appropriate date cycle and halacha. But this cycle is more follows rulings of Beit Hillel has wide-
for the division of seasons for halachic significant than we realize. spread ramifications that go far beyond
purposes, particularly those relating to In our time, we tend to emphasize the his- the holiday of Tu BiShvat.
tithing and the law of orla, the prohibition torical aspects of the shalosh regalim, the Despite the ancient significance of agri-
of eating the produce of a fruit tree during biblical pilgrimage festivals. But in fact culture to Jewish life – a significance
the first three years of its growth. the Torah primarily views these holidays reflected in the first of the six sections

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