Tu B'Shvat: The ancient Jewish roots of Israel’s Arbor Day

Israel’s Arbor day, Tu B'Shvat, was established by the rabbinic Sages. “Tu” means the 15th and “Shevat” is the month, so “Tu B'Shvat” means the 15th of Shevat, and is the date on which all things tree-related are celebrated. However, the reason those rabbis were wrangling over setting a specific date was due to an attempt to follow God’s instructions about trees:

“When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten” (Leviticus 19:23).

Around the time of Jesus, in the Tannaic era of Jewish history, the house of Hillel and the house of Shammai debated many matters of the law in order to decide how biblical commands pertaining to planting and agriculture should be implemented practically. In one of these discussions, the matter of the New Year came up – an important matter since laws about fruit-picking, tithing, and the shmita year depend on counting years. Here is their discussion around the dilemma:

“They are four days in the year that serve as the New Year, each for a different purpose: the first of Nisan is… the New Year for the order of the Festivals… the first of Tishrei is the New Year for counting years… for calculating Sabbatical Years and Jubilee Years, i.e., from the first of Tishrei there is a biblical prohibition to work the land during these years; for planting, for determining the years of orla, the three-year period from when a tree has been planted during which time its fruit is forbidden; and for tithing vegetables, as vegetables picked prior to that date cannot be tithed together with vegetables picked after that date. On the first of Shevat is the New Year for the tree; the fruit of a tree that was formed prior to that date belong to the previous tithe year and cannot be tithed together with fruit that was formed after that date; this ruling is in accordance with the statement of Beit Shammai. But Beit Hillel say: The New Year for trees is on the fifteenth of Shevat.” (Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1)

On the basis of this rabbinic discourse, Tu B'Shvat was fixed as the date from which the agricultural cycle began for the calculation of tithes. The late Rabbi Sacks suggested that the date arose due to the early blooming of the almond tree which happens in January, the first to bloom in Israel. 

With restrictions on harvesting, learning to preserve produce was a necessary part of following God’s commands, which is why dried fruit and nuts are an important feature of Tu B'Shvat celebrations today. 

Tu B'Shvat now has a Jewish holiday attached to it, due to the New Kabbalist rabbis of Safed in the 16th century. Not long after Isaac Luria established the “Tu B'Shvat seder”, Spain also began their own arbor day in 1594, leading to other countries following suit. In short, it looks like God set this global trend of planting and celebrating trees. No wonder - they were his invention, and a very good one!

“The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:12).

It’s customary to plant trees in Israel on Tu B'Shvat, but the tree-planting enterprise continues in earnest all year round. In fact, according to the Jewish National Fund’s information on Forestry and Green Innovations, Israel is one of only a few countries in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees.

When visiting what was then Palestine in the late nineteenth century, Mark Twain famously gave his opinion of the landscape saying, “There was hardly a tree or a shrub any where. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country”. (The Innocents Abroad. London: 1881) 

Since then, the JNF has planted 250 million trees in Israel from the time of its founding in 1901, covering over 250,000 acres. Focusing on trees native and beneficial to the land, trees such as the Terebinth, Tamarisk, Atlantic Terebinth, Strawberry Tree, Mount Tabor Oak, Bay Laurel, Common Fig, Holly Oak, Aleppo Oak, Hackberry, Black Mulberry, Syrian Ash, Carob, Almond, Cypress Oak, Judas Tree, Twisted Acacia, Pomegranate, Syrian Maple, White Mulberry, Common Oak, and Stone Pine have all been planted with the help of donors and nature lovers. 

With so much tragedy, disaster and upheaval in the world, it might be tempting to take a cavalier attitude to the environment, assuming all is lost. However, the idea of planting trees as an act of generosity and hope is embedded in Jewish thought. One ancient rabbi even said,

“If you have a sapling in your hand, and someone should say to you that the Messiah has come, stay and complete the planting, and then go to greet the Messiah.” (Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, Avot de Rabbi Nathan, 31b). 

The idea is that investing in the future and in the wellbeing of others is an important thing to do, and not contradictory to welcoming the Messiah. In Midrash Kohelet Rabba 2:20 the story is told of an old man planting trees even though he won’t get to eat the fruit, as a parable about acting for the sake of others rather than just for our own benefit. 

Added to this Jewish concept of the virtue of planting trees, we also see tree-planting as a way of memorializing people who have passed away, as a symbol of continuing life. Many trees have also been planted in Israel especially around the Nova Site to memorialize those who were killed on Oct. 7. The JNF/KKL also offers the opportunity to have a tree planted in Israel in memory of loved ones even from outside the country. 

With so many trees covering Israel today, what would Mark Twain make of the landscape now?