How Did Tu B’shvat Begin?

If you want to tell a wonderful ‘tree story’ to your children or students for Tu B’ Shvat (next Monday) I offer you the following story that my daughter Aviva (the organic farmer) told to her daughters and their classmates years ago.

HOW DID TU B’SHVAT BEGIN? by Aviva Maller O’Neil

A little boy, lived in a house next to a groove of old oak trees. He liked wanderings out in the woods, climbing the trees, looking at flowers etc. One spring he notices for the first time how many acorns each tree has. Hundreds if not thousands, and tons of acorns on the ground, some are sprouting little tender shoots reaching up in the air. He thinks how if each one of those acorns grew to be a tree it would be so crowded, he would not be able to walk or even crawl through his beloved forest. He wonders what happens to all the acorns.

Then he happens upon a group of animals all gathered together, they are having a party. There are squirrels, chipmunks and mice and they have a table set with many wonderful looking foods. They see him and say Shalom and invite him to their Tu b’shvat dinner of acorn porridge and acorn pancakes and acorn pudding.

They are Jewish animals celebrating the holiday of the trees, giving thanks to the great old oaks that provide them with so much food for the entire year and help them make it through the winter which is the roughest time. So the boy has fun at party and is glad to discover animals can be Jewish too.

Over the next months he watches to see how many acorns will grow into trees. Under his favorite big ole grandpa oak tree he only notices one seedling; he can’t imagine how so many acorns could produce only one seedling. He feels sad for the Saba (grandpa) tree.

One day he falls asleep under the tree and dreams he can talk to the tree. He asks it if it is sad that after working hard all year to produce so many acorns only one seedling has survived

The Saba (grandpa) tree smiles and says that that is the way of the natural world he is only one part of the system. He produces hundreds of acorns every year and feeds many many animals, which feed the coyotes and wolves; and luckily the squirrels are quite forgetful and often leave lots acorns buried in the ground to produce a nice planting of young seedlings.

But this year the rain did not come early and only one seedling survived. The Saba (grandpa) tree sighs and says that all he hopes for is that each year just one tree will survive and grew into an adult, then he feels fulfilled; the boy wakes and is overjoyed by his dream. He feels happy for the Saba (grandpa) tree, the seedling and for himself to understand the way of God’s natural world.

A few months later, he wakes to the sound of bulldozers. He dresses and goes out to see what the noise is about. He is dismayed to see bulldozers plowing down the woodlot next door.

Then he knows what to do. He grabs a shovel and a pot and runs to his favorite tree. He sees the bulldozers making their way towards him. He digs up the seedling oak with tears in his eyes, gives a prayer for the Saba tree and all the trees and animals in his woodlot and returns home to plant his tree.

He had saved one seedling and the old grandpa oak would now live through that seedling. But the boy now realized how hard it is for a tree to grow in the wild, and how much trees provide for us and all of nature; and how with a little help from us it makes a big difference.

So now he plants a tree every year on Tu b’shvat. He knows that one day he will have replanted as many trees as once lived in the woodlot and have given as much life as the old Saba tree would have liked to give.