TuBishvat is in the soul

Date: 01/20/2019

Some holidays recruit our inner faith. In general, agriculture requires this inner work of faith. We decide that a piece of land will be designated for sowing or planting – and hope that the hard work of clearing the stones and turning the soil will pay off. We sow and plant, looking up at the sky, wiping a sweaty brow and wanting to believe that this year will be rainy at the right time, and not too cold and not too hot, and that everything will be all right, and the harvest will grow nicely. We choose not to use aggressive and harmful synthetic materials, and believe that this is proper, and worthy, and there will be someone who appreciates the extra work and the good that is within a delicious fruit, ripe and juicy, in the right size and at the right season (and without toxins). When we plant a tree, even here, in the private garden of the house – we believe and hope that we will be there to see it growing and getting taller, and that planting even one tree has a place and mark in the world.

Why is TuB'Shvat a holiday that requires inner faith? On Purim – everyone dresses up, dances and goes out to the streets. We can see the holiday. On Passover, the spring brings signs and scents declaring it is time to leave Egypt and allow the blossom and the first rays of sun to enter our heart. What does TuB'Shvat bring? The celebration of Rosh Hashana (the tithes) of the trees in the middle of winter: the nights are long and cold, the days are grey and the only one that raises the flame of the celebration is the almond tree, the Shkediya, which is already beginning to reveal timid flowers (this year it was early). Her neighbors stand veiled and hunched, their branches black and naked next to her, and she slowly covers herself with a macramé of flowers. For whatare you dressing up like that? They tell her. Wait, it's still winter. And if spring does not come? And if a strong wind comes and blows all the blossoms away? But the almond tree stands between them, quiet and steady in its faith. Its flowering is a blossom of faith, that soon the others will begin to bloom, that the process is already thriving inside the trunks and branches and roots of its neighbors to the grove, even if not yetseen.

In agriculture, the processes hidden from the eye are the important ones – the root begins to lengthen slightly before the first two leaves of the young seed open; The processes that take place inside the earth, which make it fertile and healthy, with all the arthropods and bacteria joining the celebration – are also invisible. The thickening of the roots, their filling with sugar, the ripening of the fruit – many times these processes take place behind the scenes, until one moment when we see their results.

TuBishvat is the declared holiday of dried fruits.

Here, too, what began with good thought became an unnecessary habit – the dried fruits were eaten because it was important to eat from the fruits of the Land of Israel, and in the Diaspora they did not have refrigerators and airplanes to bring the fresh produce, so they dried it. We are no longer in the Diaspora, so we can return the essence to the custom and eat the fruits fresh,without the unnecessary sugar additives.Anyone who still wants to seize the opportunity andnibble dried snacks should choose the organic ones, not only because they contain less sugar, but also because they don’t contain many substances that the body works better without, such as bromine and preservatives (because of this they are less pretty than the shiny and glowing dried fruits…)