Religious Affairs Office

Tu BiShvat (ט"ו בשבט in Hebrew) is a minor holiday in the Jewish calendar. Its name literally means “the fifteenth day of Shevat (שבט)”, with Shevat being the name of a month. Tu refers to the Hebrew letters Teth (ט) and Vav (ו) whose numerical values of 9 and 6 combine to make 15. It marks the midpoint of winter: a period when the cold temperatures and rainfall ease off and leaves start to grow on trees. It also coincides with the beginning of the agricultural cycle.

The holiday is also referred to as Rosh HaShanah La'Ilanot (ראש השנה לאילנות in Hebrew), meaning “New Year of the Trees”. This is mentioned in the Mishnah, the first significant written compilation of Jewish oral traditions, known as the Oral Torah.

At this time of year, Jewish people come together to celebrate and honour their sacred connection with nature. Many sections of the Torah, such as Deuteronomy 20:19, state that nature must be respected. On the day of the Tu BiShvat celebration, special blessings are recited and the fruits of different trees are eaten. 

The Tu BiShvat seder

During the Middle Ages, Jewish people held a fruit banquet to celebrate Tu BiShvat. This followed the teachings of the Mishnah, in which the occasion was referred to as “New Year”. In the 16th century, the Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria of Safed and his disciples instituted a Tu BiShvat seder (meaning ‘order’ or ‘ritual’), in which symbolic meaning was given to Israel’s fruits and trees. The Tu BiShvat seder traditionally includes the tasting of at least 26* different fruits, accompanied by four glasses of wine prepared in different ways: the first glass contains only white wine; the second contains mainly white wine with a dash of red wine; the third contains mainly red wine with a dash of white wine; and the fourth and final glass contains only red wine. The different preparations reflect the changing of the seasons, with the first glass representing winter. Most of the fruits are accompanied by readings from the Torah. During the celebration, it is also customary to eat the ‘seven species’. These are seven agricultural products—two types of grains and five fruits—that are mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:8, where Israel is described as “a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey.”

On the day of Tu BiShvat, in addition to the more liturgical and communal aspects of the celebration, it is also customary for Jewish people to plant trees to reinforce their link with the agricultural world and the ecological movement. In 1908, in fact, the Union of Jewish Teachers established the tradition of tree planting to mark this holiday.
 

* 26 is the numerical value of the Tetragrammaton: a four-letter Hebrew theonym meaning ‘God’.