Shevat D'var Torah

By Rabbi Paul Resnick
Camp Ramah in the Berkshires

"The Warmest Winter in 130 Years” screams one headline. "Global Warming Melts The Caps” announces another. "The Polar Bear Club Doesn't Swim – Too Warm” proclaims yet another.

What is happening to our earth? We learn from the Book of Psalms that 'The heavens above are God's and the Earth below was given to humanity.” Have we altered the God driven plan for the earth? Aren't we just temporary residents of it? Have we "conquered” the earth and subdued it to such a point that we are destroying it?

Are the cars we drive too big? Do we leave lights on without awareness that we are burning irreplaceable fossil fuels? Do we not recycle? The list of questions could go on and on of how, as societies, both here in North America and in Israel, we are causing damage to God's world.

Have you ever driven by, or over, the Yarkon River in Israel? [I know, what river?! There really is one – small but there is one!] Have you every stared down towards Los Angeles and seen the smog that engulfs the area?

In just two short weeks from now we will mark on the Jewish calendar, the holiday of Tu B'Shevat. [The words we use for the holiday mean the 15th of month of Shevat.] The last holiday we celebrated goes back to the month of Kislev and we just finished the month of Tevet with no joyous holiday. Of course, as Jews we like to celebrate! And so here in the dead of winter [some winter, huh!], we're thinking about trees! [Tu B'Shevat is celebrated from the night of February 2nd – Erev Shabbat - through Shabbat.]

Why, one might ask, is there a day that was ordained by the Talmud as Rosh Hashanah La'Ilanot? Don't we associate Rosh Hashanah with going to the synagogue, long services, thinking a lot about who we are and about our relationship with God? Isn't Rosh Hashanah a pensive, serious day on the Jewish calendar? Well, that Rosh Hashanah just might be [the one in the Fall].

This one is not. This is a day established to remind us of the first buds of the tress which start to blossom after the winter. [I have a wonderful memory of driving into Jerusalem on a day which certainly was cold enough to still be winter and seeing on the side of the road groves of blossoming trees. What a sight!]

There are several things we can think about and do on Tu B'Shevat:

• We can remember the coming spring in Israel. For almost 2,000 years, we did not see the blossoms of trees surrounding Jerusalem. And so we marked the day by eating fruit that grows in the Land. This tradition dates back to the dispersion of Jews to Babylonia and elsewhere.
• For decades in America it was a day when Jews focused on giving money to the Jewish National Fund. [I do not know if you remember the little blue and white boxes which were collected by JNF at this time of the year too.] It was a day that Jews bought trees to be planted in Israel. Many Jewish organizations and schools have a drive for tree purchases around the day. We can plant a tree with the JNF.
• In more recent years here in America, and for a longer period of time in Israel [for the small remnant of Jews who lived in Safed or Jerusalem], a "seder” was presented. Four cups of wine from the purest of white [the winter snow] to a rose [marking the blossoms] to a fuller red [full blossoms of the trees and flowers] to a paler color [marking the arrival of Fall] are drunk. Traditionally, one eats several kinds of fruit known to grow in Israel. In the Kabbalistic tradition, one consumes ten kinds of fruit to represent the different sefirot (kabbalistic spheres) so important to the Kabbalists. Hey why not plan a seder at school!?
• On my brother's kibbutz a tree is planted for every child on the Tu B'Shevat following the birth of the child. When the tree grows, its branches are used to create the huppah [marriage canopy]. What a great tradition to start even within your own family!

But on this day I think about our environment. I think that Tu B'Shevat is the first Earth Day. It is a day that we are taught to think about the world in which we live. It is a day to be a little pensive, like any new year, and think about our relationship with the earth, the trees and the skies above. It is a day on which we ought to take on one more mitzvah to preserve the precious beauty of the world. Turn off the lights. Recycle or reuse something. Use a mug and not a Styrofoam cup. Start one more act that shows kindness to and respect for the world.

Perhaps, one day we will not need to ask the questions above because God's world will be back to a state of pristine waters and clean blue skies. The Yarkon River will be flowing again, Los Angeles will have bright skies and the crazy members of the polar bear club can go swimming when it is freezing outside!

[Posted 01/19/07]