There are numerous new years in Israel and Judaism.  This isn’t as strange as one might think when you consider that in the United States there is typically the calendar year, the school year, and the fiscal year for many businesses. 

This festival/feast is in recognition of the new year for trees.  That’s right the trees have a new year date.  It is based upon the need to tithe from your harvest as well as taking no produce from the tree for the first years as specified in scripture.  See Lev. 19:23-25, which states that fruit from trees may not be eaten during the first three years; the fourth year's fruit is for G-d and after that, you can eat the fruit.

The question has to be asked when do you start the count of the year for each tree in your orchard, or grove?  Do you start counting from the time the seed germinates, from the time it breaks the surface of the ground, or the time of planting in the grove with the other trees?.  If you planted in the season after bearing fruit for that year, does that year count?  This would be impossible to keep track of if you had several plantings in the same year.  It all could become very confusing. 

Tu B’Shevat takes all the confusion away. 

Legally, the "New Year for Trees" relates to the various tithes that must be separated from produce grown in the Holy Land. These tithes differ from year to year in the seven-year Shemittah cycle; the point at which a budding fruit is considered to belong to the next year of the cycle is the 15th of Shevat. Each tree is considered to have aged one year as of Tu B'Shevat, so if you planted a tree on Shevat 14, it begins it second year the next day, but if you plant a tree two days later, on Shevat 16, it does not reach its second year until the next Tu B'Shevat.

 

The 15th of Shevat on the Jewish calendar is the day that marks the beginning of a "New Year for Trees." This is the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle.

 

Tu B'Shevat is not mentioned in the Torah. In the Mishnah, and the only thing said there is that it is the new year for trees, is that there is a dispute as to the proper date for the holiday (Beit Shammai said the proper day was the first of Shevat; Beit Hillel said the proper day was the 15th of Shevat. Hillel’s viewpoint won out and the date set is the 15th of Shevat.)

 

There are few customs or observances related to this holiday. Some mark the day of Tu B'Shevat by eating fruit, particularly from the kinds that are singled out by the Torah in its praise of the bounty of the Holy Land: grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. Some eat from the fruits within the seven species. I like to have a pomegranate, and even had an insight to a Torah portion while following this custom. See Parasha When he let go. Some people plant trees on this day. Lisa noticed the malls in Jerusalem had tables laden with the above fruits, including the dried versions.

 

 

That's about all there is to it.

 

 

Standing Strong

A Messianic Jewish Congregation with an outreach to Believers in Israel

One of the first trees to blossom each year is the Almond tree

Tu B’Shevat