Firmly Planted, Reaching High

Reprinted from SocialAction.com, a member of the Jewz.com network.

It was on a wooded hill in northwestern Connecticut, near the Appalachian Trail, that I first understood why trees were the Jewish touchstone for environmental consciousness. The high school group I was accompanying had paused, maybe halfway to the top of the hill--to breathe easily, put our hands on the trees, and engage in some spiritual reflection. Leaning against a tree, I looked up through the canopy of leaves, straight through to the sky--and my feet suddenly seemed more firmly planted on the ground. And it struck me, that as the tree sinks its roots and grabs hold of earth, its branches reach toward the heavens, and I wished I too could be that planted, and reach that high.

Tu B'Shevat originated as "the new year for trees" in a rather technical sense. Fruit picked after the 15th day of the month Shevat could not be used to fulfill overdue tithing obligations on fruit picked before that date. The Rosh Hashanah new year familiar to us is also relevant for trees. In Leviticus 19:23-25, the Torah prescribes that the fruit of new fruit trees planted in the Land of Israel may not be eaten for three years. During the fourth year, the fruit is brought as an offering to God. Only in the fifth does the fruit become "everyday" or "available."

This cluster of laws goes by the name

, literally "foreskin." A fruit tree, like a person, goes through a ritual in order to become part of a covenant among the land, its inhabitants, and God. Rosh Hashanah became the standardized "birthday" for the purposes of the laws of

--a tree is considered a year older each Rosh Hashanah, even if was planted in late summer.

We could say that symbolically,

is about restraint, about limitations on the use of nature for our own commercial purposes. Trees are also the origin of the major environmental principle of Judaism,

--the prohibition against needless destruction of nature. In Deuteronomy 20:19-20, we are commanded not to cut down fruit trees as part of the siege of a city.

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