JCC Association's Early Childhood Curriculum Project 'This New Month'

Tu B'Shevat (January 22, 2008; Shevat 15, 5768)

The celebration of Tu b'Shevat continues to take on new characteristics as more and more Jews discover their own meaning in this holiday. For some, their celebration will include a Tu b'Shevat Seder with prayers of peace for the people and land of Israel. For others, it will include a focus on the environment and an opportunity to make earth stewardship a part of Jewish life. Some people will plant trees and others will participate in a neighborhood cleanup. One year, a group of Jews gathered in a redwood forest of the north to protest its destruction. There is no one "right" way to celebrate Tu b'Shevat. This is what makes this holiday so exciting and open to teaching opportunities.

When is the actual date of Tu b'Shevat?

There seems to have been some disagreement about the actual date of the New Year of Trees. Nothing is found in the Torah about the holiday and at least two different traditions about when to observe the date were put forward. Not surprising is to find out the disagreement was between the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel. Though these two great rabbis lived at the same time, they disagreed about many aspects of Jewish life. In Mishnah Rosh Hashanah (1:1), we learn that the School of Shammai wanted an earlier date than Rabbi Hillel:

"On the first of Shevat is the New Year for a tree, according to the words of the School of Shammai. The School of Hillel say, 'On the fifteenth day."

Their disagreement was over which fruit to count as part of the tithing. (A tithe is 10% of a person's annual produce, which the person had to give to the Temple as a tax. Tithing was the process by which the tithe was calculated.) Fruit that budded before Tu b'Shevat is not tithed as part of the fruit that budded after Tu b'Shevat. It sounds to me that Rabbi Hillel's ruling made it possible for the average person to have more produce to use at home and a smaller amount to have to take to the Temple. In general, when there is a disagreement between the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel, Jewish tradition embraces Hillel. Hillel's teachings are almost always less strict than that of Rabbi Shammai.

When the date of Tu b'Shevat was used for tithing, a difference of few weeks made a considerable difference. Today, however, it does not really matter whether we use the first or the fifteenth of the month to renew our appreciation of nature, to remember our connection with the "good land" of Israel and to feel the joy of being earth conscious Jews. We set aside a portion of the day to celebrate by eating carobs, dates, figs and other produce of Israel. Many schools and organizations conduct their own Tu b'Shevat Seder with special readings, poems, songs and prayers.