The Holiday of the Land and its Fruit

There are four new years … the first of Shvat is new year for trees, in the opinion of the House of Shamai, the House of Hillel says: the fifteenth of the month.     Mishnah Rosh haShana 1:1    

Rashi [Babylonian Talmud, Rosh haShana 14a] explains that the month of Shvat was chosen as the new year for trees because it is the period by which most trees blossom. Thus, strictly speaking, Tu biShvat is not a holiday of the fruit of the Land, which will ripen only months later. Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed notes that, of all the holidays in the Jewish calendar, Tu biShvat is unique in being forward-looking rather than looking back to Israel’s history. Further, it has been pointed out that Tu biShvat conveys a message of faith that God will bless the fruit trees of His Land and the blossoms will produce their fruit.

            Rabbi Eliyahu KiTov writes of Tu biShvat: this New Year carries with it praise of the Land. This is the day on which the Land renews its potential to yield its fruit and to demonstrate its praise (which is primarily of its produce [Deuteronomy 8:8]). The day on which the Land of Israel renews its power to bring forth its richness and fullness is indeed a day of joy for Israel, who settle her and love and yearn for the Land.    

            Thus, Tu biShvat has become connected not only to the fruit of the Land, but to the Land itself.