Page 52 - HaMizrachi #26 Tu Bishvat USA 2021

TU BISHVAT READING

Rabbi Berel Wein

More Than

Just a Date

hroughout the years of the Jewish In 1882, Baron Edmond de Rothschild’s California, etc. over Israeli wines.
exile, the day of Tu BiShvat falling Carmel (East) Wine Company pro- They just don’t get it. The lesson of the
Tin the midst of the winter season duced its first bottles of wine in Rishon “boksar” of Tu BiShvat has apparently
served as a heartening reminder of our LeTzion. At that time, Rabbi Naftali Zvi not yet taken hold in their souls and
unbreakable connection to our Land, Yehuda Berlin (Netziv) was the rav and psyches.
and eating its fruits confirmed the holi- head of the famed yeshiva in Volozhin
ness of Israel: the people and the Land. I in then Lithuania. He was also the titular So Tu BiShvat is not just a date (no
remember as a child in the freezing Chi- chairman of the Chovevei Tzion – The pun intended) in the Jewish calendar. It
cago winters, my parents would insist on Lovers of Zion – the organization that represents our undying and never-fail-
my eating a piece of “boksar” – carob encouraged Jewish immigration to the ing attachment to the Land of Israel. It
– to commemorate Tu BiShvat. The Land of Israel and helped support the connects us to the 2,000-year-old entry
“boksar” was as hard as a rock and as nascent but growing population of the in the Mishna that called the day of 15
tasteless as wood. Yet I noticed that my Yishuv HaYashan – the pre-Zionist set- Shevat the New Year for Trees in the
parents – Jews of an earlier generation tlers in the Land of Israel of the 19th Land of Israel. The day is a slight holiday
born before there was a State of Israel century. His nephew, Rabbi Baruch in Jewish ritual and synagogue service. I
or a time when free and open worship HaLevi Epstein (the author of Torah still plan to eat “boksar” this year, even
was allowed at the Western Wall without Temima, a popular commentary to the though its taste has likely not improved
Arab or government interference – ate Torah), lived with his uncle and aunt one iota. Yet I will enjoy every bite and
their pieces of “boksar” slowly and with in their home while being a very young again I will see my parents eating it with
great affection. Only later in life did I student at the yeshiva. In his writings, me. There will be many other tastier and
realize that eating that piece of “boksar” he recorded that the Carmel Wine Com- more delicious Israeli-produced fruits
validated their hope and belief that the pany sent a bottle of wine from its first on the table before me. But none carry
Land of Israel would yet flourish and production efforts to Rabbi Berlin, in
grow under Jewish sovereignty and the recognition of his efforts on behalf of the emotional message in my heart like
vineyards and orchards of the Land the Jewish settlers in the Land of Israel. the “boksar.”
promised to us by our prophets would When that bottle of Israeli wine finally So to me, the message of Tu BiShvat
become abundant reality. reached the small village of Volozhin and does not end with the passing of the day.
Every society needs physical symbols to was delivered to Rabbi Berlin, the great Rather, it serves every day to strengthen
validate its faiths and aspirations. That is Rabbi entered his bedroom and changed our claim to this piece of holy ground
why countries have flags and seals. The into his Shabbat garments, in honor of and to look forward to the great times
fruits of the Land of Israel became the a bottle of wine produced by Jews from – each person under his vine and fig
flag and seal of the Jewish people vis- the grapes of the Holy Land and upon tree in security and happiness – that our
a-vis its beloved homeland, even when which all of the agricultural mitzvot of prophets promised us.
there was little Jewish population and the Torah had been fulfilled.
no Jewish sovereignty present there. The
pieces of fruit served to remind Jews I have often thought about this vignette
of who they were and where they came when I hear observant Jews say they Rabbi Berel Wein is Senior Rabbi of Beit
from and most importantly, where they prefer wines from France, Argen- Knesset HaNassi in Jerusalem and Director
really were heading. tina, Chile, Australia, South Africa, of the Destiny Foundation.

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