Tu B'shvat

Happy New Year!

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Today is the Jewish New Year of the Trees. It coincides with the flowering of the almond trees in Israel.

The name is derived from the Hebrew date the holiday falls on. It is the 15th day of the month Shvat. The Tu part of the name is for the 15, which is represented by the numbers tet vav (9 and 6), since it is against Jewish tradition and rabbinic laws to use the letter numerals for 10 and 5 together. This rule is because these (yud for 10 and hey for 5) together from the abbreviation for the name of God, which is strictly forbidden. Instead, 9 and 6 are used to represent 15.

The customs for this date are to plant trees and eat dried fruit and nuts (especially figs, dates, raisins, carob, and almonds). In the Kabbalistic tradition, the order in which you eat the fruits and nuts is important. Eating them in the proper order is said to create a connection with the Tree of Life, and thereby closer to God. With each serving of fruit or nuts, you are supposed to drink white and red wines or grape juices, progressing from white to red with a drop of white in it.

The proper order is:

• Fruits and nuts with hard, inedible exteriors and soft edible insides, such as oranges, bananas, walnuts, and pistachios.
• Fruits and nuts with soft exteriors, but with a hard pit inside, such as dates, apricots, olives and persimmons.
• Fruit that is eaten whole, such as figs and berries.

So, the first holiday that I could in some way celebrate without much difficulty. I went to this site and ordered some supplies. Most of them were for later holidays, and will not be talked about until later in the year. One thing I got, however, was a fruit and nut tin. It was designated kosher, so that was good, and had some hazelnuts and a variety of fruit in it. I took this to my job and shared with coworkers, while explaining what the celebration was. I was not fortunate enough to get the right mix to eat the Kabbalistic seder, but that's a possibility for next year if I plan ahead better.

Also, I avoided eating pork, despite the fact that work was offering some really tasty looking pork chops. It seemed fitting.