search
Sarede Rachel Switzer

A New Year for the Trees

A New Year for the Trees 

The Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shvat, AKA the New Year for the Trees, is right around the corner, falling out on February 12th and 13th this year (in Judaism, the day begins in the evening and ends at nightfall). This relatively minor holiday is actually fairly profound, as I hope to convey in this article. 

The first mention of Tu B’Shvat is in the Mishnah, the ancient codification of Jewish law. In the times of the Holy Temple, Tu b”Shvat served as an annual demarcation for the purpose of calculating the agricultural cycle of taking tithes from the produce of trees which were brought as first fruit offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem. 

The main custom of the day is to eat a variety of fruits, especially those for which the Land of Israel is praised, namely: grapes, olives, dates, figs and pomegranates.


Jewish mystics have historically felt a special affinity towards this holiday and secular zionists later adopted it as a way of establishing a connection to the Land of Israel devoid of anything too overtly religious. Many of us have fond recollections of participating in campaigns to plant trees for the Land of Israel when we were younger.  

The mental, emotional and even spiritual benefits of gardening have been well documented and likely experienced by many. Jewish mystical teachings explain that this is due to gardening’s close resemblance to creation ex nihilo (the uniquely G-dly ability to create something from nothing). 

While our perceived experience is that a tree sprouts naturally and causally from a seed planted in the ground, according to the mystics, this is not so. The Kabbalah teaches that Earth contains a spiritual power of growth, activated not when the seed is planted, but rather when it disintegrates into the ground. So in actuality, the tree sprouts from “nothingness”, via the power of growth within the earth. 

Jewish teachings describe the world as being made up of four “orders”: The Inanimate, Vegetative, Animal and The Human (or more literally, “The Speaker”.

These orders follow a hierarchy with each subsequent order possessing a certain attribute that the former one lacks. 

Vegetable life such as plants and trees grow, which inanimate objects like rocks and minerals cannot. 

Animals have the capacity to move autonomously, which vegetation does not. 

And finally we have the Human – an order more literally translated as “The Speaker” –  for we are unique in our ability to grasp and communicate with one another using complex language – a power which comes as a direct result of our capability to think critically and to be self aware. A capability which is termed in hebrew, Sechel (שכל lit. “Intellect”).

The Jewish mystics taught us that “Man is a Small World”, meaning, every person is a microcosm of the Earth, possessing elements of each the four orders of creation within.  

Interestingly, it is the vegetative order within man that talmudic scholars emphasise, as per the biblical quote “For man is a tree in the field” (“כי אדם עץ השדה”)(Deuteronomy 20:19). 

The reason for this is because, like trees, throughout our lives we “bear fruit”, in other words, our good deeds. And we also grow, developing as individuals as we continuously refine our character traits, ridding ourselves of our egos (not unlike the seed disintegrating into the ground). 

What is interesting about the above quoted verse “For man is a tree in the field,” Is that the word for man used in Hebrew here, is אדם (Adam). This is curious because there are actually four different terms that the Torah uses for man, namely: Adam (אדם) , Ish (איש), Gever (גבר) and Enosh (אנוש), paralleling the four orders of creation outlined above. And the type of man most associated with the Vegetative order is the  Ish (איש), as this is the term of man that is used when emphasizing man’s emotional nature, which like plants, grows and fluctuates over time. 

Why then does the Torah use the title Adam (אדם) in this verse, which is the moniker that is commonly associated with the intellectual aspect of a person (The Sechel (שכל)) which corresponds to the Human order of creation)? 

The reason for this is that while it’s true that what makes us humans unique amongst all of the other creations in the world is our superior intellect which allows us to think critically and be self aware, our ultimate purpose is to utilize this intellect to transform and refine our emotions, symbolized as the order of the Vegetative. 

In so doing, we become co-creators with G-d in bringing about the ultimate purpose of creation, namely to make this world into a suitable abode for Divinity to dwell.

We can now understand why G-d chose plant life of all things to serve as an apt analogy to help us understand how it is that he creates, as explained above.  

And finally, on a more concrete, macrocosmic level, Tu B’Shvat provides an opportunity to focus on environmentalism, and feel a sense of gratitude for trees and cultivating an awareness of how dependent we are upon them. 

I hope these ideas provide some food (no pun intended!) for thought as you enjoy celebrating this upcoming holiday. 

Happy Tu B’Shvat! 

Based in part on a discourse by the Lubavitcher Rebbe found in Toras menachem from the year 5722 (1962) 

About the Author
Sarede Rachel Switzer is a blogger and podcast host and is most well known for her daily Tanya podcast titled It Is Taught. Sarede is currently in the process of editing a book on the same topic and has written on a number of other Jewish subjects, with a focus on Chabad Chassidus, including co-authoring a blog devoted to de-mystifying the esoteric Sh'aar HaYichud of the Mittler Rebbe (https://shaarhayichudblog.wordpress.com/) Sarede is also a certified yoga instructor and runs a fitness recruiting agency based out of Crown Heights, Brooklyn (www.bringthegymtome.com). Sarede's Tanya podcast is available on Spotify, Itunes. Youtube and most other platforms.
Related Topics
Related Posts