Tu BiShvat

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Tu BiShvat

Almond tree in blossom on Tu BiShvat

Official name Hebrew: ‫ט״ו בשבט‬

Observed by Jews in Israel and the Jewish diaspora

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

2021 date Sunset, January 27 –

nightfall, January 28[1]

2022 date Sunset, January 16 –

nightfall, January 17[1]

2023 date Sunset, February 5 –

 nightfall, February 6[1]

Related to Sukkot

Tu BiShvat (Hebrew: ‫;ט״ו בשבט‬ tú bish'vat) is a Jewish holiday occurring on the 15th

day of the Hebrew month of Shevat (in 2021, Tu BiShvat begins at sunset on January
27 and ends in the evening of January 28). It is also called Rosh HaShanah
La'Ilanot (Hebrew: ‫)ראש השנה לאילנות‬, literally 'New Year of the Trees'. In
contemporary Israel, the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day, and trees
are planted in celebration.

Contents

 1Etymology
 2Talmud
 3Biblical tithes
 4Kabbalistic and Hasidic customs
 5Modern customs
 6See also
 7References
 8External links

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 "Ḥamisha Asar BiShvat" (‫עשר בשבט‬-‫חמשה‬, "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 first of Nisan is the "new year for kings and festivals".
 The first of Elul is the "new year for the tithe of cattle"; Rabbi
Eleazar and Rabbi Shimon, however, place this on the first of Tishrei.
 The first of Tishrei is the "new year for years" (calculation of the calendar),
"for release years" (sabbatical years[citation needed]), jubilees, planting, and for the
tithe of vegetables.
 The first of Shevat is the "new year for trees" according to the school of
Shammai; the school of Hillel, however, place this on the fifteenth of Shevat.
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]
 Maaser Sheni was a tithe which was collected in Jerusalem and Maaser
Ani was a tithe given to the poor (Deuteronomy 14:22–29) that 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, 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 Halacha, 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 Maaser Sheni is observed today by a
ceremony redeeming tithing obligations with a coin; in the 3rd and 6th years, Maaser
Ani 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]

Kabbalistic and Hasidic customs[edit]

Dried fruit and almonds traditionally eaten on Tu BiShvat

Main article: Tu BiShvat seder

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 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]

Modern customs[edit]
Tu BiShvat is the Israeli Arbor Day,[14][15] and it is often referred to by that name in
international media.[16] Ecological organizations in Israel and the diaspora have adopted
the holiday to further environmental-awareness programs. [17][18] On Israeli kibbutzim, Tu
BiShvat is celebrated as an agricultural holiday. [19]
Planting trees for Tu BiShvat, 1945. Photographer: Zoltan Kluger

On Tu BiShvat 1890, Rabbi Ze'ev Yavetz, one of the founders of

the Mizrachi movement,[20] took his students to plant trees in the agricultural colony
of Zichron Yaakov. This custom was adopted in 1908 by the Jewish Teachers Union
and later by the Jewish National Fund (Keren HaKayemet L’Israel), 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;[21] today the Fund schedules major tree-planting
events in large forests every Tu BiShvat. [14] Over a million Israelis take part in the Jewish
National Fund's Tu BiShvat tree-planting activities. [22]
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.[23]
In the diaspora, starting especially in North America in the 1980's, 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. [24] The
modern Tu BiShvat seder, which often combines the Kabbalistic structure of the seder
with ecological themes, also has its origins in the United States in the early 1980s. [citation
needed]

See also[edit]
 Tu BiShvat seder
 Hebrew numerals
 List of Jewish prayers and blessings
 Judaism and ecology
 Judaism and environmentalism
 Arbor Day
 Israel