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This year Tu Bishvat, the 15th day of the month of Shevat - also known as Rosh Hashanah La'ilanot, the New Year for Trees - falls on Shabbat, 6th/7th February. In recent years, in addition to planting trees, communities have also begun to celebrate a Tu Bishvat Seder, which involves eating the fruits of the Land of Israel - specifically, the seven species identified in Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 8: 'wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates… olive trees and [date-palm] honey.' Like the Pesach Seder, the order of the ritual on Tu Bishvat may also involve drinking four cups of wine - but in the case of Tu Bishvat, these cups, and the changing colour of the wine - from completely white to full red - represent the changes in the natural world from winter through to high summer. Each of the seven fruits is distinctive, with its own unique shape, colour, texture and taste. Together they represent the Land - a multi-faceted kaleidoscope of a place that cannot be reduced to singular mono-dimensional definitions. Interestingly, after the dramatic events of the Exodus and Sinai, which we shall be reading about during February, the Torah narrative is interrupted by instructions for the offerings required for the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). As we read the litany of precious materials, the vision of a dazzling array becomes increasingly palpable: 'gold, and silver, and brass; and blue and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goat's hair; and ram's skins dyed red, and sealskins and acacia wood; oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense; onyx stones and stones to be set for the cape, and for the breastplate.' (Parashat Terumah, Exodus 25: 3-7). Like the Land, the Mishkan, too, was multi-faceted and multi-dimensional - and that's because, like the Land it was the locus of myriad gifts. On the one hand, all these gifts - both the fruits and the precious materials - were simply God-given natural resources; on the other hand, each fruit, each treasure, represents the labour and generosity of human beings - the individuals who work the land and harvest its produce; the individuals who brought their offerings for the building of the Tabernacle. At Tu Bishvat when we sample the delicious fruits of the Land, it is important that we acknowledge all the people who cultivate it: the members of kibbutzim and moshavim, all the individuals, communities and families who have lived on the land and given their lives to it - including those Palestinians who have tended the olive groves around their homes for generations. The olive-branch is, of course, a symbol of peace. This Tu Bishvat, as we the savour the seven species, and, particularly, when we eat the olives, let us remember all the people who live on the land, and pray that they may yet share it in peace. © Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah |
