Tu B’Shvat’s hope for an early spring

This coming Wednesday, Feb. 4, we celebrate Tu B’Shvat, the beginning of spring on the Jewish calendar. The very thought of spring, especially given recent climatic events, is a bit of a stretch. Yet, spring is here, albeit a spiritual spring.

This week I will present several literary pieces drawn from varied sources that will hopefully give you a better appreciation of this unique holiday, and hopefully add extra warmth to our frigid lives.

First, we have an interview with Knesset member Rabbi Dov Lipman. Rabbi Lipman made some interesting observations that I will share without comment:

“Trees are often a metaphor for humans. Many of us have heard the injunction that during war one may lay siege to a town, but one may not cut down the trees. The entire verse, Devarim 20:19, reads, ‘When you lay siege to a city for many days to capture it by making war against it, you shall not destroy its tree, wielding an axe against it; for you shall eat of it but not cut it down; for a man is a tree of the field.’

“I should hasten to point out that halachically-speaking, one is only prohibited from cutting down trees that bear fruit. Others consider the fruit of one’s tree as the mitzvot that we do. And, indeed, trees are often a metaphor for Torah. The most famous expression of this is in Mishlei 3:18, ‘It is a tree of life for those who hold fast to it’.”

We learn from Rabbi Lipman the following:

“We see that the 15th of Shevat is an important growth period for trees. We also see that trees, in our tradition, are related to both Torah and to mankind, and that the 15th of Shevat was a time when there was major spiritual growth among Jews. So, Tu B’Shevat is a time for Jews to focus on ‘the tree’ — the Tree of Torah and the tree of our own spiritual growth, and our potential for growth.” (Based on an interview with Eric Simon, Torah.org).