Tu BiShvat (Ti BiShavat, Tu B’shevat, Tu B’Shevat, Tu Bishvat) is the Jewish new year for trees. It occurs on the 15th day of the Shvat month in the Jewish calendar. This is a lunar solar calendar, which means that the months are based on the lunar cycle, but years are based on solar years. This keeps Jewish holidays around the same time of year, but since the months are based on the lunar cycle, the date of the holiday each year. In Judaism, the age of a tree is important in determining whether you can eat the fruit from it. The fruit from a tree cannot be eaten for the first three years, and the fourth year’s fruit is only for G-d. After the four years, you can eat the fruit from a tree. Tu BiShvat is the day that each tree ages a year for the purposes of determining if one can eat from it.
This holiday is a minor Jewish holiday, while not a biblically mandated holiday, and is filled with opportunities to connect to the richness of our faith and God’s life-giving word. and the spiritual harvest to come for Israel and the Jewish people.
It is not mentioned in the Torah. Scholars believe that this holiday started originally as an agricultural festival celebrating spring in Israel. However, after the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70 C.E. many Jews were exiled and the agricultural celebration stopped. Over time, some Jews felt a need to symbolically bind themselves to their homeland, and Tu BiShvat was a way to fill that need. They introduced a new ritual, the Tu BiShvat Seder. This Seder (a ceremonial dinner) is similar to the Seder at Passover. The Seder involves eating biblical foods native to the holy land. As a part of this, people eat fruit and the seven spices of Israel. The fruit is typically grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, or dates, as they are mentioned in the Torah as food from the Holy Land. Some families would have a 15-course meal, and each course would be one of the foods associated with the land.
Nowadays, Tu BiShvat is an environmental holiday. Jews consider this day as a way to remind themselves of their duty to care for the natural world. Many Jews take part in a tree-planting ceremony, or collect and send money to Israel for them to plant a tree there. Here in Boston, this time of year is not a good time to plant trees, so many people send money through the Jewish National Fund Tree Planting Center to plant a tree in Israel. Some families also hold a Seder, similar to the one they will hold for Passover, and consume traditional foods for this meal.