Pink and white tissue and a 10 cent stamp

THE POWER OF TU ‘B’SHVAT

The great thing about being a child is the power of imagination. The same can be said of the Jewish people. How else can we describe the celebration of the New Year of the trees, Tu B’shvat ? Living in knee-deep depths of snow, with leafless snow covered trees as frigid Arctic winds blow and temperatures hover at minus degrees centigrade, how can we imagine the New Year of trees?.

At our small community day school Hebrew teachers, many of them imports from the nascent State of Israel, instructed us to bring in packages of pink and white tissues for an art project. Sketched on the classroom walls were large drawings of trees, to which the teachers told us to glue scrunched up pink and white tissues mimicking the pink and white blossoms of almond trees, the first trees to bloom in Israel. As we delved into our project, we sang that favorite Israeli song, “ Ha Shkeidiah Porachat…” It was hard to believe that trees of any sort might be blooming right now. We knew that we had three more months of snow and cold till the rivulets of melted snow would trickle down the streets, and for spring to finally show itself. It would be even more months until there would be blossoms on our crabapple trees.

Next to our tissue laden trees, other drawings had been tacked onto the classroom walls- large barren trees , at the bottom of which was written KKL- JNF- Israel. We had been told to each bring in at least ten cents, more if we wanted. For ten cents we would each receive a “Buul”, a stamp, with a picture of a leaf on it , which we licked and stuck on the tree. Eighteen of those stamps filled the tree with leaves and paid for the planting of one tree in Israel. The rich kids in our class came in with a dollar eighty, sat down to lick all their stamps till their mouth became pasty tasting, and had to request a glass of water to get that glue taste out of their mouths. But in the end, they proudly displayed their very own trees to be planted in Israel. For those of us whose parents could not afford to pay for the cost of a tree, we were both envious and,at the same time proud that we had been able to plant trees in our beautiful State of Israel, so very far away. At the end of the school day we received a small bag with a box of raisins, a few almonds and dried up dates to take home and celebrate the holiday. It was a modest one day holiday in a faraway place, where we could only dream that our ten cent saplings would now be planted in the warm earth of Israel.

Planting trees in Israel became an important and powerful symbol of our community’s commitment to building up Israel and reclaiming the land. I don’t think that a Bar Mitzvah passed in our town without every single Bar Mitzvah boy receiving at least one certificate of a tree planted in honor of his auspicious event.

Maybe it was the barrenness of our surroundings, where the snow filled land stretched in every direction, or the devotion of our teachers who filled us with dreams of planting trees in Eretz Yisrael, but , when terrorism struck Israel with the first intifada there I was, starting a campaign in an elementary school to replant trees in the destroyed forests.

More recently, TuB’shvat has taken on a mystical bent with the reenactment of the Tu B’shvat Seder which originated in the 16th century with the kabbalist, Rabbi Isaac Luria and his disciples. While this is a beautiful and meaningful way to appreciate the seven symbolic fruits of Israel, the planting of trees continues to resonate with me for its simplicity, its beauty, and the opportunity it presents to participate directly with the holy soil of Eretz Yisrael.

Living in Israel now, I can actually see the blossoming of the almond trees, and I can make the special blessings on the Shiv’at Haminim, of wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates, all grown in Eretz Yisrael. Historically, all Israeli school children planted saplings on this date, but it is not clear that this tradition continues today. If it doesn’t it is too bad. But for a little girl who grew up in a bitterly cold, snowy and faraway place, planting a tree in Eretz Yisrael on the New Year of Trees, was a dream, which I can now joyfully enact.

A happy and joyous TuB’shvat to all!