Tu Bi-Shvat: Growth from Roots Below the Ground
Why was the new year for trees established in the month of Shvat and not Tishrei, when Rosh Hashana is observed, marking the turning of the calendar for years, Shemita and Jubilee years, planting, and vegetables (Mishna, Rosh Hashana 1:1)?
The Bavli and Yerushalmi both address this question. According to the Bavli (Rosh Hashana 14a):
The first of Shvat is the new year for trees. Why? R. Elazar said in R. Oshaya’s name: Because most of the year’s rain has fallen, and most of the season is gone.
Rashi explains:
“Because most of the year’s rain has fallen” – most rainy days, which is the rainy season and the rising of sap in trees, have already passed, and not the fruits will develop.
According to Rashi, the date of the new year for trees is different because it was determined based on the rainy season in Eretz Yisrael. Once most of the season has passed, the fruit of the new year has begun to grow.
Thus, the new year for trees marks the beginning of growth and depends on the ground, rainfall, and Eretz Yisrael’s subterranean water economy.
The Talmud of Eretz Yisrael, the Yerushalmi, cites two opinions:[1]
- R. Zeira, R. Ila, R. Lezer in the name of R. Hoshaya: One says: most of the entire year’s rainfall, and most of the season has elapsed.
The other says: until now, they have lived off last year’s water. From now on, they live off of the new year’s water.
The first opinion in the Yerushalmi corresponds to the rationale offered in the Bavli. The second opinion is explained in the commentary Pnei Moshe (ad loc.):
“The other says” – this is the reason offered by R. Elazar – that the trees had been living off of last year’s waters, but from now on the moisture of last year has been spent and they need rain. They live off of this year’s waters.
Beginning in Shvat, the trees no longer draw nourishment from the waters of the outgoing year, which are gone. They are sustained by the rainwater of the new year. Thus, the new year for trees does not necessarily mark the beginning of new growth (during this season there is still growth from last year’s rainwater). It is designed to distinguish and differentiate between two agricultural years. This distinction stems from separation of last year’s rains with this year’s, and the corresponding differentiation of last year’s fruit, which were nourished by last year’s rains, and this year’s fruit.
The two explanations cited in the Bavli and Yerushalmi share a common denominator: they link the beginning of the new year for trees to rain and its impact on growth. The world generally tends to discern processes based on their visible components and ignore the concealed roots from which everything stems. The Torah examines the growth process from its origins, even those not visible to the naked eye. Presumably, it would have been easy to establish the beginning of the new year for trees based on exterior changes like the trees or fruits beginning to grow anew, above ground. Yet the Torah averred that the year’s renewal is link specifically to hidden, subterranean changes in the subterranean waters that nourish the tree’s roots – which are also below ground.
[1] Yerushalmi Rosh Hashana 1:2. The Talmud clarifies who said what in the ensuing discussion.