Tu BiShvat (Hebrew: ט״ו בשבט; tú bish’vat) is a Jewish holiday happening on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Shevat. In 2021, Tu B’Shevat starts at sunset on January 27 and ends in the evening of January 28). It is additionally 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.
25 Fun Facts about Tu BiShvat
- Tu B’Shevat, otherwise called Tu B’Shevet or Tu Bishvat, is the day that trees grow up as indicated by Jewish law. Jewish individuals mark this day by eating a symbolic meal of fruit and nuts or planting trees.
- Tu B’Shevat is praised on the 15th of Shevat on the Hebrew calendar. “Tu” is Hebrew for 15.
- “Tu” signifies the number 15 in the Hebrew numerology system, where letters have numerical values. “Shevat” is a month in the lunar Hebrew calendar. So the holiday’s name simply implies the fifteenth of Shevat.
- Tu B’Shevat is the Jewish ‘New Year for Trees’. It is one of the four Jewish new years (Rosh Hashanah).
- Tu BiShvat falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat and starts a three-month series (in years without a leap year) of holidays that happen on the mid-month full moons that finish in Passover.
- Tu B’Shevat is the birthday for trees and was initially intended to assist farmers with deciding when the trees were mature enough for their fruits to be harvested.
- Tu B’Shevat was considered the birthday for all trees for tithing purposes: like the start of a fiscal year. It slowly acquired religious importance, with a Kabbalistic fruit-eating ceremony (like the Passover seder) being presented during the 1600s.
- The Rabbis picked the fifteenth of Shevat since they believed that the environment in Israel was appropriate for planting and harvesting trees.
- On Tu B’Shevat Jews frequently eat fruits related to the Holy Land, particularly the ones referenced in the Torah.
- Fruit trees are viewed as significant in the Torah due to their imagery symbolism for life, growth, and nourishment. (Have you read The Apple Tree’s Discovery by Peninnah Schram?)
- The Torah prohibits Jews to eat the fruit of new trees for three years after they are planted. The fourth year’s fruit was to be tithed to the Temple.
- Parsley is regularly planted in territories of the world where it is too cold to even think about planting trees during Tu B’Shevat. The parsley will frequently be utilized several months after the fact on the Passover seder plate.
- As part of the Tu B’shevat seder, it is customary to eat from shiv’at ha’minim (seven species endemic to the Land of Israel): wheat, grain, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, dates.
- Past that, there are numerous potential varieties for setting up a Tu B’shevat meal, frequently joining dried fruit and nuts, and one can be innovative in deciding how to plan the menu.
- Generally, a cedar tree would be planted for a baby boy and a cypress tree for a baby girl.
- There’s a boycott against cutting down fruit trees during a fighting attack in the Torah.
- At the point when a fruit tree turned four, its fruits were given to the Temple Priests as a tax.
- Tu BiShvat is the Israeli Arbor Day, and it is regularly referred to by that name in international media. Ecological associations in Israel and the diaspora have embraced the holiday to additional environmental-awareness programs. On Israeli kibbutzim, Tu BiShvat is celebrated as an agricultural holiday.
- The significance of Tu B’Shevat fell with the destruction of the second Temple (and there were no more Priests to get the tax), yet rose again with the Kabbalists during the fifteenth century.
- The Kabbalists made the Tu B’Shevat seder during the medieval period and demonstrated it after the Passover seder.
- Early Zionists planted trees in Israel to help restore Israel’s land and as a symbol of the development of the Jewish public.
- It’s standard to drink four glasses of wine on Tu B’Shevat.
- The most widely recognized fruits to eat during Tu B’Shevat are olives, dates, grapes, figs, and pomegranates.
- Jews eat a lot of fruit on Tu B’Shevat, especially the sorts related to Israel. The Torah acclaims seven ‘fruits’ specifically: wheat, grain, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates.
- Numerous Jews around the world observe Tu B’Shevat by donating cash to the Jewish National Fund that buys trees to reforest Israel.
