New Year of the Trees

I recently learned about the Jewish holiday the New Year of the Trees, Tu Bishvat. I put all the Jewish holidays in my google calendar and then I wonder what it all means. I read wikipedia articles or other informative resources online to study their meaning, because they are usually based on some Old Testament scripture and I found out random interesting things.

Tu Bishvat is based on the law stated in Leviticus: When you enter the [promised] land and plant any kind of fruit tree, don't eat the fruit for three years; consider it inedible. By the fourth year its fruit is holy, an offering of praise to God. Beginning in the fifth year you can eat its fruit; you'll have richer harvests this way. I am God, your God. (The Message) Leviticus 19:23-5

Customs include planting trees and eating dried fruits and nuts. The traditional Tu Bishvat seder features figs, dates, raisins, olives, pomegranates, carobs and almonds. The timing of the holiday coincides with the flowering of the almond tree in Israel. It isn't exclusively about the almond tree, but the almond does have special meaning in the Bible. The Hebrew name for almond shaqed means industrious or vigilant. It blossoms early, watching diligently for the opportunity to bloom. Aarons' Rod sprouted into an almond branch as evidence of the exclusive right to the priesthood of the tribe of Levi. Furthermore, the almond branch was the basis for the design of the menorah that was placed before the veil of the Holy of Holies. The Tu Bishvat seder ended with this prayer:

"May the Tree of Life be returned now to its original strength, and may the strength of the Righteous One's bow return, that we may see the rainbow, joyful and beautified with its colors; and from there may the flow of compassion and mercy flow over us, for forgiveness and for fixing our sins and errors. And may all the sparks and species scattered by our hands, or by the hands of our ancestors, be returned and included in the majestic might of the Tree of Life."

Celebrating the New Year of the Trees was revived about 500 years ago by the Kabbalistic Jews. Before that time, the holiday was more a marker for tithes than anything else. (from what I've read online anyway) They taught that Tu B'Shvat is an opportune time to rectify the transgression of Adam and Eve. I know that we can't rectify this transgression on our own, only Christ can do that, but I like exploring the symbolism and how the Old Testament has been interpreted over the years. I love this next passage about how we are called to experience God's goodness and pleasure. It is only the attempt to experience goodness and pleasure apart from Him which is impossible and also forbidden.


Excerpt from "Celebrating Pleasure" by David Aaron

The Torah teaches that G-d created the world so that we could experience goodness in general, and His goodness in particular. Experiencing His goodness—-bonding with G-d—-is the greatest joy imaginable. G-d empowers us to bond with Him by serving His purpose for creation....If we eat and enjoy the fruits of this world for G-d's sake-—because this is what He asks of us-—then we are actually serving G-d and bonding with Him. We serve G-d by acknowledging that the fruits of this world are His gifts to us and by willfully accepting and enjoying those gifts. The root of Jewish life is, in fact, enjoyment—-the pleasure of connecting to G-d. We connect to G-d by serving Him, and this means obeying His command to enjoy the fruits of this world. While in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve's entire obligation was to enjoy all the lush fruits-—with the notable exception of one forbidden fruit. Sure enough, they went after that one. This misdeed demonstrated their confused orientation to the real meaning of pleasure. Rather than seeing the fruits as pleasurable because they are G-d's gifts and enjoying them as part of their service to G-d, they wanted to partake of them independently of G-d-—in fact, contrary to His will.

Chabad.org has more information about how man is figuratively related to trees: "On this day we remember that "Man is a tree of the field" (Deuteronomy 20:19) and reflect on the lessons we can derive from our botanical analogue." A Tree's New Year Resolution shows how the goals of a tree symbolically are very similar to the things humans should seek to accomplish each year.

With this in mind, I thought it would be interesting to somehow commemorate the holiday at sunset on February 8th, because it officially begins at sunset. It's funny how things worked out that day. I was still in Grand Rapids with Stephanie and Joan on Sunday. We had planned on coming back right after the Mars Hill service (which was awesome because they gave everyone giant cupcakes to celebrate their 10 year anniversary). We would have been back in the afternoon at some point, but there was an unexpected turn of events which delayed our travels, so we didn't get back to Ann Arbor until about 5 or 5:30. Steph and I really needed to get out after sitting in the car for so long, so we went to Gallup park. Then, she showed me the secret passageway into the Arb (about 100 acres of forested land in Ann Arbor), which I didn't know about. I knew about The Arb, but not about the secret way in from Gallup, which probably isn't that secret after all. We walked through this icy meadow over to the woods to get there. I just thought it was interested how I ended up in the middle of the Arb with all the trees just at sunset. We didn't have the traditional seder, but it was a moment. I just was contemplating the trees and then I thought about the talking or dancing trees in C.S. Lewis' Prince Caspian and felt like Lucy for a minute. And then something interesting happened I think...though I'm not sure. No, the trees in the Arb did not perform any ballets.