Tu b’Shevat Torah by Rabbi Dennis Beck-Berman
 

It’s Rosh HaShanah today!  Actually, Rosh HaShanah LaElan, the Tree’s New Year.  Celebrated on the fifteenth of the Hebrew month of Shevat, Tu b'Shevat is one of the least appreciated holidays in the Jewish calendar.  Yet it, too, is a time for taking account of one’s life. 

The Jewish mystics of 16th-century Safed breathed new life into this somewhat neglected holiday by creating a Tu b'Shevat Seder.  Sephardic Jews traditionally try to eat many (some strive for 50 or 100!) exotic fruits and nuts.  Underlying the kabbalistic seder is a statement in the PalestinianTalmud:  R. Hezekiah and R. Kohen said in the name of Rav:  “A person is destined to give strict account for every [good] thing that they saw but did not partake.”  R. Elazar heeded that teaching, and would save up small coins and with them [purchase and] partake of every [good] thing once a year  (end Tractate Qiddushin).

 What an amazing idea!  On Judgment Day, God will take  strict account of us for all of life’s legitimate pleasures that we neglected to enjoy.  For it is by experiencing and appreciating these delights that we remember the God who created them.  As the Talmud points out:  Whoever partakes of any pleasure in this world without making a blessing is [almost like] a thief   (Berakhot 35a). Since ultimately everything we enjoy is a gift from God, we are expected to say “Thank You” with a blessing. 

 If we do not uplift our spirit through a life of joyous holiness and appreciation for all the delights God provides on this earth, then we may easily become dispirited and sink into sadness. Perhaps that is why the Hebrew word oneg, “delight” — as in Oneg Shabbat — shares the same three root letters as ogen, “anchor.”  Either we fill our lives with oneg   and appreciate pleasure, or else we become ogen  — weighed down and depressed.

 Eighteen weeks have now passed since we took stock of our successes and failures during the Ten Days of Repentance.  In Hebrew eighteen is written chai,  meaning “life.”  Once again we are reminded to take account of our lives.  Have we enriched our lives with joyous worship, apples dipped in honey, delicious desserts on Shabbat, walks in the woods, trips to the zoo?  Have we partaken of the religious heritage, cultural treasures, and natural wonders that beckon us?  And have we worked to strengthen and preserve them?  Have we been truly living, or merely alive?

          Long ago in Israel, when farmers tithed their fruits, Tu b’Shevat  was the cut-off date.  They could not offer fruit that ripened before Tu b’Shevat  as tithe for fruit that ripened later.  It is odd, though, that this New Year is celebrated on Shevat 15, at the full moon, rather than on Shevat 1, the new moon. There was a disagreement between the first-century academies of Shammai and Hillel.  The former fixed the new year on the new moon, while the latter fixed it on the full moon, Shevat 15 — Tu b’Shevat.    The choice of this cut-off date may be similar to our April 15  deadline for tax filing.

     On Tu b’Shevat  God decides how bountiful the fruits of trees will be in the coming year.  Children customarily plant trees, especially in Israel, where the Jewish National Fund has planted entire forests!  For centuries Jews have celebrated this holiday with a ritual seder meal.  The special liturgy prescribes study, songs, four cups of wine, and a plethora of fruits and nuts.  The focus is on tikkun olam  — spiritually and physically repairing the world. 

    Perhaps the disagreement between Shammai and Hillel is really philosophical.  For Shammai the new moon may symbolize potential, while for Hillel, whose ruling  we  follow, the full moon may symbolize the actual.  Typically, Judaism emphasizes the actual — real deeds — over the potential — mere intentions. 

    Hence, when it comes to tikkun olam — the renewal of God’s world — we must go beyond mere intentions to actual deeds.  To repair the world we must appreciate the real impact of our words and deeds on others around us every moment of each day, whether family, friend, acquaintance or stranger.  To repair the world we must translate our concern for the planet’s ecology into action by recycling,  conserving energy, reducing waste and pollution, and a myriad of other actions. To repair the world we must nurture a deeper connection to nature itself, as Rabbi Abraham son of Maimonides said: Enjoyment of the beauties of nature, . . . flower-decorated meadows, majestic mountains, flowing rivers — all these are essential to the spiritual development of even the holiest of people.

   If you made a New Year’s resolution to better yourself and your world, then act on your promises.  And if you haven’t yet, then do so now.  Remember the words of  Arthur Warwick: 

As it is never too soon to be good,

So it is never too late to amend;

I will, therefore,

Neither neglect the time present,

Nor despair the time past.

If I had been sooner good,

I might perhaps have been better;

If I am longer bad,

I shall, I am sure, be worse.

 
2003  Congregation Brith Achim, Petersburg, VA