The Feast of Tu B'shvat is another new year, this time the new year of the trees. This is the day when we determine the final tithes on the crops that were grown. All crops grown and harvested prior to this day are in one year and those harvested after this day are in another year. In modern times, increasingly, this day has become a Jewish arbor day, a day to remember growing plants and even animals.
In the Middle Ages, Tu Bishvat was celebrated with a feast of fruits in keeping with the Mishnaic description of the holiday as a "New Year." In the 1600s, the kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Safed and his disciples instituted a Tu Bishvat seder in which the fruits and trees of the Land of Israel were given symbolic meaning. The main idea was that eating ten specific fruits and drinking four cups of wine in a specific order while reciting the appropriate blessings would bring human beings, and the world, closer to spiritual perfection. [6]
In Israel, the kabbalistic Tu Bishvat seder has been revived, and is now celebrated by many Jews, religious and secular. Special haggadot have been written for this purpose.
Nasoreans join in this honoring of nature and remembering the tithes on plants. This is a day upon which we should be careful to give to the poor a fair share of what we have grown. This is a day to remember living things and remember our stewardship over those living things. This is a day upon which a Nasorean Jew will become conscious for one more year of our need to conserve and recycle.
The feast for Nasoreans will be tomorrow. Join with us in this celebration.
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