YOU LED IN YOUR FAITHFULNESS YOUR PEOPLE REDEEMED, GUIDED THEM IN YOUR FIERCE MIGHT TO YOUR HOLY PASTURE. THE PEOPLES HEARD, THEY SHUDDERED; WRITHING SEIZED PHILISTIA'S SETTLERS.
(Shemot 15:13-15)
Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon
opened his discourse (Devarim
32): "He said: I
will conceal my face from thee" - [This may be compared to] the
son of a king who would go out to the marketplace, strike - but not be struck,
put to shame - but not be shamed, and he would stand arrogantly before his
father. Said his father to him: What do you think, that you are honored because
of your high position? You are honored because of my high position!
What did his father do? He
ignored him, and no one paid him any attention. So it was when the Children of
Israel left Egypt, all the nations feared them, as is written (Shemot 15) "The peoples heard, they
shuddered; writhing seized Philistia's settlers, and then, terrified, Edom's
chieftains, Moav's 'rams' - trembling did seize them; then melted away all
Canaan's settlers. There fell upon them dread and anguish". But
when they began to sin and do evil acts, The Holy One, Blessed Be He, said to
them: What do you think, that you are honored because of your high position? You
are honored only because of My high position!. What did The Holy One,
Blessed Be He, do? He ignored them briefly, and the Amalekites came and
attacked them, as is written: "And Amalek came and fought with Israel
at Refidim". And Caananites came and attacked Israel as is written, "And
the Caananite heard..." Said The Holy One, Blessed Be He: You
have no true faith, you do not believe, you are fickle, as is written: "Indeed,
a generation of overturning are they, children in whom one cannot trust."
[The Hebrew for 'trust' - emoon, - is spelled in this verse without
the usual 'oo' sounding vowel; this makes possible the reading of the word as 'amen'].
When the prophets blessed the people, not one used the word 'amen' before
Jeremiah, as is written (Jeremiah
11) "And I
responded, "Amen, Lord." At
that moment, The Holy One, Blessed Be He, said: They are fickle, they are
vexing, they are recalcitrant - [but] it is impossible to annihilate them, they
cannot be returned to Egypt, they cannot be exchanged for another people, etc.
(Ruth
Rabba, P'tichtot)
AS A FESTIVAL IN THE JEWISH CALENDAR
"Master
of the Universe, how many days, how many weeks, how many parshiyot in the Torah
separate between Chanukah and Purim - yet the author of the siddur places Purim
in juxtaposition to Chanukah. Anyone else, in my place, would remonstrate at
the exclusion of the Fifteenth of Shevat, when we eat of the fruits for which
Eretz Yisrael is praised. I do not complain, for I know that, because of his love
for children, the author of the siddur did not mention the Fifteenth of Shevat,
because then the children have no holiday from school." (S. Y. Agnon, "A Pleasant Story
About My Siddur", Elu V'Elu, p. 238)
Tu
BiShevat is the victim of discrimination in the Prayer Book. Except for "Birchat
HaIlanot" (the blessing over the trees) - which is unrelated to any
specific date, and is found only in some of the Prayer Books featuring the
liturgy of the Oriental Jews - most siddurim make no mention whatever of
the "The New Year for the Trees". S. Y. Agnon's few remarks call our
attention to two customs related to Tu BiShevat: "We eat of the fruits for
which Eretz Yisrael is praised", and "children have no holiday from
school." Thus the renowned author gives expression to the picture of the
holiday as it was shaped and observed in the Golah, when the Jewish people was
cut off from its land and birthplace. On Chanukah we eat dishes saturated with
oil - donuts and potato pancakes; on Purim we eat symbols - "Haman
taschen" and 'kreplach"; on the festival falling between
the two, we return to nature, and eat fruits of the tree, their uniqueness
lying in the fact that Eretz Yisrael was praised because of them. In a short
story (still in the author's manuscript) the poet and author Yitchak Shalev
writes about "Tu BiShevat of Childhood in Yerushalayim." The period,
the second decade of the 20th century, the days of the Zionist
renaissance (approximately seventy five years ago):
"The
first signs of the approach of Rosh Hashana LaIlanot appeared in the
stories which our teacher began to tell about Israel's love for its land,
unforgotten in the lands of the Exile. At one point the teacher took from his
pocket a few dried carob pods and asked: "Do you recognize this fruit?"
When we answered in the affirmative, he continued and asked: "Do your
mothers buy a lot of these in the market?" - "No," we answered, "She
does not." "Why?" "Because it's hard to eat." Someone
remarked that carobs were intended to be food for goats, not for people. Our
teacher shook his head and said: "Our parents in the Golah thought
otherwise. You have no idea how much they loved the carob, only because it
grows in Eretz Yisrael. A carob from Eretz Yisrael was dear in their eyes and
sweet to their palate more than all the apples and cherries they grew on
foreign soil... and such was the case with raisins, with dried figs and dates."
Then the teacher would give us pieces of carob and we would take a bite and
chew with great pleasure, finding in them a special taste from another world..."
Is this, then, a festival for children in
the Diaspora, who learn in the 'heder' and eat dried fruits which are a
source of praise of Eretz Yisrael?
The
historical development of Tu BiShevat reveals three circles, three layers in
which are bound up the subjects of the day, which is a sort of minor holiday.
The source of the festival - Halakhic; its shaping - Kabalistic;
it's crystallization - nationalistic.
In
the Mishna, Tractate Rosh Hashana (1:1) we read:
"There
are four New Years: On the First of Nissan - the New Year for kings and
festivals; on the First of Elul - The New Year for the tithing of animals; on
the First of Tishrei - the New Year for Shemitot and Jubilees, for
planting and for vegetables; on the First of Shevat - the New Year for the
trees, according to the House of Shammai. The House of Hillel says on the
Fifteenth."
The
Mishnah clearly indicates no intention to establish the date of a holiday, but
rather a signpost, a date on the agricultural calendar. This is
similar, for instance, to the First of Elul, which is not a holiday, but rather
just a date for tithing animals; according to the Halakha animals born
this year cannot be used to fulfill tithing obligations of previous years.
Similarly, we cannot say that Tu BiShevat
is the arboreal equivalent of Rosh Hashana, the Day of Judgement for humans. We
read in the next Mishnah (1:2):
"At four times is the world judged. On Pesach, for the
grain; on Atseret [Shavuot] for fruits of the tree; on Rosh Hashana all
those who have entered the world pass before Him, one by one... and on the
Festival [of Sukkot] the world is judged for water."
We
see clearly that Judgement Day for fruits of the tree is the Shavuot festival -
Atseret - the period when fruits begin to ripen. Thus we have three
dates pertaining to fruits of the tree: The First of Tishrei - Rosh
Hashanah for plantings. This is not the day on which we plant trees; it is the
date from which we begin to reckon the years of the tree. The Fifteenth of
Shevat - the New Year for the trees, as Maimonides writes (Yad Hachazaka, Zeraim,
Laws of Teruma, 5:1): "And
Tu BiShevat is the New Year for the tithing of the tree", in other words,
not a day of judgement, but a date relating to tithing. The Fifth of
Sivan - the Day of Judgement for the fruits of the tree.
The
dispute in the Mishna between Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel raises a basic
question: What is the source of the tradition establishing Tu BiShevat as New
Year for the tree? The question receives additional weight in light of the
question which is raised in the Talmud (Rosh Hashana 14a): "What is the meaning of a New Year
for the tree?" This is to say that, in the times of the Talmud, the reason
for this special date on the calendar was not known.
In
an exhibit displayed a few years ago in the Bible Lands Museum in Yerushalayim,
a partial answer was given. In the exhibit "Festivals of the Month of Shevat
in the Period of the Patriarchs" (see catalogue, p. 17) it is emphasized that the Fifteenth of
Shevat-Shabatu was "a very important date, for this was the night
of the full moon... the Fifteenth of Shabatu was the date on the which the
decision regarding the intercalation of the year was taken." We find that
the ancient Babylonian calendar, too, celebrated four New Years marking the
four seasonal changes of the sun.
The
reason offered by the Yerushalmi (Rosh Hashana 1:2) for Tu BiShevat being chosen as the New
Year of the tree is that then the tree begins to drink of the waters of the new
year; the Bavli (14a)
reads "Since most of
the year's rains have fallen." Rav Hai Gaon (d. 1038, Babylon) adopts this view which is tied to the
rainy season and the rising of the level of the underground waters. Rav Hai
buttresses this view as he cites contemporary Arab legend (Geonim Responsa, A. A.
Harkavi, Chap. 243, pp. 118-121):
"And
these words are reasonable, for this is the time which is called in the language
of Ishmael Algemera al thaniya ("the second ember"), and then
the trees receive moisture and they begin to drink and to revive...
this is close to Tu BiShevat of the season, and it is reasonable that it be the
Rosh Hashana for the trees."
The
crystallization of folk traditions and various customs relating to Tu BiShevat
occurred during the period when the nation was exiled from its land. The spirit
of the times was expressed by the Eretz Yisrael poet (10th cent.) Rabbi Yehuda Halevi ben Rabbi Hillel, in
a liturgical poem, a poetic version of the Amida (From. M. Zulai, An
Anthology of Songs and Poems, pp. 14-20):
"With
the halo of his candle He lights the way for the followers /
The
glistening cypress shines for the redeemed/
With
the rains of rebirth bless the land of the living/
For
he who finds me finds life (Proverbs 9:35)/
On
this day, it gives life/"
(Stanza one of eighteen)
The separation of the people from their land and their longing for their birthplace gave rise to the custom of eating fruits of the land on Tu BiShevat. If fresh fruits were unavailable, in the middle of he European winter, we ate dried fruits grown in Eretz Yisrael. In "The Travels of Binyamin the Third", Mendele Mocher Sefarim relates:
"A
carob taken for the sake of a beracha on the Fifteenth of Shevat, is considered
by them to be the consummate of the fruits of the Land, beyond all comparison.
Immediately upon seeing it, they conjure up memories of the Eretz Yisrael. They
look at it, stare at it, and sigh, their eyes upon it, saying: Oy, lead us,
merciful Father, upright - 'upright' in all its meanings and connotations - to
our Land... and visions of Eretz Yisrael glitter before them... behold! They
are crossing the Jordan! Here is the Cave of Machpela! Here is the Tomb of our
mother Rachel! We are climbing the Mount of Olives, eating carobs and dates
without end, and filling our vessels with the soil of the Land! Oy, oy! They
would groan, and their eyes well up with tears."
The
Kabalistic strata of Tu BiShevat was added on in the 16th
century with the immigration of the Mekubbalim, refugees from Spain and
Portugal, to Eretz Yisrael. A concentration of the mystics developed
in Tsefat, which, according to Rabbi Yosef Karo (Avkat Rochel Chap. 1) resembled "the vineyard of the Lord
of Hosts." The Ari ('the Lion' - Rabbi Yitzchak Luria Ashkenazi) and his 'whelps'
established a "Day of Eating Fruit", as a symbol of man's
participation in the joy of the trees. "The Order for TuBishvat" (Tikkun
TuBishvat) flows from the need to give the holiday in Eretz Yisrael renewed
or additional meaning, differentiating between it and the Tu BiShevat which was
based on "memories and longing for Eretz Yisrael" and took shape in
the Golah. The 'Tikkun', which evolved into the 'Seder', struck root in the
Sephardic communities of the Mediterranean Basin, and from there spread to
Ashkenazic lands.
The
tikkun received wide publicity with publication of the book "Chemdat
Yamim" (author unknown), providing it with a format similar to that of
the Pesach Seder. Eventually the section dealing with Tu BiShevat was extracted
from the book, and published as a separate pamphlet titled "Pri Etz
Hadar." In a copy in my possession (Livorno, Italy, approx. 130 years
ago), the title reads "The Book of Pri Etz Hadar, Which Is The Seder of Tu
BiShevat". It seems that the custom and its title were handed down from
generation to generation, our current period being one not of crystallization,
but of renewal.
The
"Tikkun-Seder" introduced by the mystics was based on group study and
the reading of historical sources combined with the eating of fruits and the
drinking of wine. The mekuballim gathered in the Bet Midrash around
tables covered with white clothes and decorated with fragrant plants. On the tables
stood pitchers of wine - white wine and red wine. The white symbolized
the slumber and the falling of leaves which begin on the Tu B'Av (the Fifteenth
of Av), and the red symbolized the awakening of nature, flowering and
growth.
After
reading different selections from the Bible, the Oral Law, and portions of the
Zohar which deal with the Land - its fruits, its beauty, its crops and its
flora - a special prayer was recited, followed by the drinking of white wine.
They then proceeded with the eating of various fruits, interspersed with the
drinking of wine, which became progressively redder with each glass, until the
fourth glass was pure red.
In
his book "Etz Chayim", Rabbi Chayim Vitale improved
upon the 'Tikkun' by dividing the fruits of the land into groups
corresponding to three worlds. By eating thirty kinds of fruit, one ascends the
levels of the different worlds. The first world "Olam Ha-asiyah"
(the World of Doing) - ten shelled fruits - the internal part eaten,
the shell thrown away (almonds, nuts, oranges). The second world - Olam
HaYetsira (The World of Creation) - ten fruits, the external portion
eaten, and the inside discarded (plum, peach, apricot, etc.). Ascension to the
third and highest world, the highest Olam HaBeriyah (The
World of The Creation) is symbolized by the eating of fruits which are eaten in
their entirety (strawberries, figs). The drinking of four cups of wine,
progressing from pure white to pure red, integrated with the eating of the fruits,
symbolizes the passages between seasons and the ascent to the different worlds.
During
recent years, the custom has been revived, and new, modern, haggadot
have been prepared - their origins in the past, their content contemporary. A
significant turn occurred in the days of the national renaissance, as the
nationalistic stratum was added. The pioneers of the "Second Aliya" who
came to redeem the land, found it desolate and bare. The challenge of "the
conquest of the wilderness" called for the planting of different kinds of
trees: fruit trees for consumption, others for ornament, shade, and
forestation.
On
the Fifteenth of Shevat 5644 (1884), the children of the moshava Yesud Hamaalah
set out to plant fifteen hundred trees. The idea of establishing the Fifteenth
of Shevat as a festival of planting was first raised by the author and
historian Zeev Yaavetz in a letter to the father of the settlements, Baron
Rothchild. Yaavetz, principal of a school in Zichron Yaakov, went out with his
students of Tu BiShevat 5652 (1892) to plant trees in the moshava. Sixteen
years later, in 1908, the Teachers' Union together with the Jewish National
Fund, formalized the practice, and granted it an educational-national
dimension. The custom became tradition, and was received enthusiastically. The
J.N.F. diligently oversees its implementation even today, a century after its
inception.
Contemporary significance was given the
festival soon after the establishment of the State. Israel's Knesset was opened
in Yerushalayim on the Fifteenth of Shevat 5709 (1949), and in his opening
remarks, the president, Prof. Chayim Weitzman connected the date to the event: "We
hope and pray that the ingathering of the exiles... who will strike root here
and will bend their shoulders with all of us towards the building of the State
of Israel and the reclamation of its wildernesses."
The
national holiday received additional meaning when it was placed at the center
of "The Week of Nature Preservation", which is intended to publicize
that enterprise so worthy of development, the preservation of nature and
improvement of the quality of the environment. Tu BiShevat, the Rosh Hashanah
of the Trees, has become the day of Protection of the tree from Man. Thus
we return to the correct meaning of "For man is the tree of the field."
Yoel
Rappel, editor of the Hagaddah for the Seder of Tu BiShevat Eve, researches
Judaism and the land of Israel. His latest book is "Moreshet - Am
Va-Etz"
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