Tu B'Shevat

Last Updated: 01/09/2012 03:40 | | |

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Tu B’Shevat, the 15th day of the Jewish month of Shevat, is a holiday also known as the New Year for Trees. The word “Tu” is not really a word; it is the number 15 in Hebrew, as if you were to call the Fourth of July “Iv July” (IV being 4 in Roman numerals). See Hebrew Alphabet for more information about using letters as numbers and why the number 15 is written this way.

Leviticus 19:23-25
When you come to the land and you plant any tree, you shall treat its fruit as forbidden; for three years it will be forbidden and not eaten. In the fourth year, all of its fruit shall be sanctified to praise the L-RD. In the fifth year, you may eat its fruit.

Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1
There are four new years... the first of Shevat is the new year for trees according to the ruling of Beit Shammai; Beit Hillel, however, places it on the fifteenth of that month.

As I mentioned in Rosh Hashanah, Judaism has several different “new years.” This is not as strange a concept as it sounds at first blush; in America, we have the calendar year (January-December), the school year (September-June), and many businesses have fiscal years. It’s basically the same idea with the various Jewish new years.

Tu B’Shevat is the new year for the purpose of calculating the age of trees for tithing. See Leviticus 19:23-25, which states that fruit from trees may not be eaten during the first three years; the fourth year’s fruit is for God, and after that, you can eat the fruit. Each tree is considered to have aged one year as of Tu B’Shevat, so if you planted a tree on Shevat 14, it begins it second year the next day, but if you plant a tree two days later, on Shevat 16, it does not reach its second year until the next Tu B’Shevat.

Tu B’Shevat is not mentioned in the Torah. I have found only one reference to it in the Mishnah, and the only thing said there is that it is the new year for trees, and there is a dispute as to the proper date for the holiday (Beit Shammai said the proper day was the first of Shevat; Beit Hillel said the proper day was the 15th of Shevat. As usual, we follow Beit Hillel. For more on Hillel and Shammai, see Sages and Scholars).

There are few customs or observances related to this holiday. One custom is to eat a new fruit on this day. Some people plant trees on this day. A lot of Jewish children go around collecting money for trees for Israel at this time of year. That’s about all there is to it.

List of Dates: Tu B’Shevat will occur on the following days of the Gregorian calendar:

Jewish Year 5766 : sunset February 12, 2006 - nightfall February 13, 2006
Jewish Year 5767 : sunset February 2, 2007 - nightfall February 3, 2007
Jewish Year 5768 : sunset January 21, 2008 - nightfall January 22, 2008
Jewish Year 5769 : sunset February 8, 2009 - nightfall February 9, 2009
Jewish Year 5770 : sunset January 29, 2010 - nightfall January 30, 2010

What I noticed that was interesting is that February 9, 2009 falls just before the timeline placing the abomination of desolation on February 16, 2009. Also, on February 9, 2009 there will be a lunar eclipse. It probably isn’t anything, but I don’t bypass anything in case I come upon something further in the future. This should hardly be taken as any kind of proof for anything, just interesting side note.

“Tu B’Shevat is the new year for the purpose of calculating the age of trees for tithing. See Leviticus 19:23-25, which states that fruit from trees may not be eaten during the first three years; the fourth year’s fruit is for God, and after that, you can eat the fruit.”

Revelation 12:14
And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

That time period is 3½ years. It is after that time, during the fourth year, that Israel will be in the millennium. Israel comes to accept Christ corporately in that fourth year.