Tu B’Shvat — New Year of the Trees
Hebrew: ט״ו בשבט | When: 15 Shvat
The Halacha
Tu B’Shvat is the Rosh Hashanah LaIlanot — the New Year of the Trees — established by the Mishna (Rosh Hashanah 1:1) for purposes of ma’aser (tithing of fruit). After this date, fruit that blossoms is counted toward the following year’s tithe. Though it carries no biblical prohibition of melacha, it is a day of distinction in the Jewish calendar, and Kabbalists and Chassidim have always found in it a deeper world.
The Kabbalistic Seder
The Lurianic tradition instituted a Tu B’Shvat Seder — a ritual meal modeled in form on the Pesach Seder, moving through four cups of wine (white to red, parallel to the four worlds: Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, Asiyah) and fifteen fruits arranged in three groups corresponding to those fruits with: (1) an inedible outer shell, (2) an inner pit, (3) entirely edible. This was first published in Pri Etz Hadar and became widely observed in Kabbalistic and Sephardic communities.
The Chassidic Dimension: Sparks in the Vegetable Kingdom
In Chassidic thought, every created thing contains nitzotzos — sparks of divine holiness that fell during the Shevirat HaKeilim (shattering of the vessels) and are embedded in the material world waiting to be elevated.
The human being elevates sparks primarily through eating — when food is eaten with proper kavanah (intention), the spark within it is released and returns to its source. Tu B’Shvat is the renewal moment of the vegetable kingdom’s sparks. Just as the tree’s sap begins to rise in Shvat — hidden, underground — so too the divine vitality that animates all plant life is renewed. It is a day particularly suited to elevating sparks through the eating of fruit with mindfulness and blessing.
The Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 131) notes that Tachanun is not recited on Tu B’Shvat — a marker of its semi-festive character.
The Human Being as Tree
“For man is the tree of the field” (Devarim 20:19). This verse, used in the context of the laws of siege warfare, becomes in Chassidus a fundamental metaphor for the human condition. The roots are emunah (faith) — hidden, underground, invisible but essential. The trunk is the body of Torah observance — the visible structure. The branches are the ramifying effects of one’s actions on others. The fruit is the actual spiritual output — Torah taught, mitzvos done, Jews inspired.
Tu B’Shvat asks: what is the quality of my fruit? Are my roots deep enough to sustain real growth?
In Chabad Practice
The Rebbe encouraged eating the shivas haminim — the seven species (wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, dates) — on Tu B’Shvat and reciting the blessings carefully and joyfully. The Rebbe emphasized the agricultural connection: the land of Israel is renewed, and our relationship to Eretz Yisrael is renewed.