Tu Bishvat

Originally Tu Bishvat simply served to decide to which year of a tree's life the harvest belonged: eating the first three harvests of a new tree was forbidden, the fourth was to be taken to the Temple; farmers had to wait for the fifth harvest for their own use. A piece of fruit that ripened after Tu Bishvat belonged to next year's harvest.

But trees are important in judaism and in Israel. They symbolise growth, renewal and continuity of life. The Tora itself has been compared to the Tree of Life, a mystical symbol in Kabbala to understand God and his creation, and a popular theme in Jewish art. (for a bigger view of the tree of life prints by Laura Bolter above and right, please click the picture.)

The great kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (1534-1572) was the first to start celebrating a Tu Bishvat seider, and Sefardi Jews around the world still keep this custom. The seider includes drinking four glasses of wine, as in the Pesach seider, and many fruits are eaten, particularly the 'seven species' that charactarise Israel in the Tora: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranate , olives and dates (Dewarim 8:8).

To some, the fruits and the wine are symbols of renewal and spring, others use them to celebrate their bonds with the earth, creation. The meaning of Tu Bishvat has thus become more universal, speaking equally to lovers of new age, ecologists and non-Jewish kabbalists. Israel meanwhile plants trees on this day to celebrate the fact that the land is green again, as a symbol for the blossoming Jewish state.
Whatever it may mean to you, Tu Bishvat is a meaningfull day to celebrate by eating lots of fruit. To make it extra special and good, eat the fruit with honey as on Rosh Hashana (after all, Israel is the land of milk and honey) - preferably from a beautiful honeypot .