Tu B’Shvat and Our One-Year Anniversary!

Nuts & Bolts Nursery Co-Op is coming up on one year as an official business. WOW! We’re so amazed and grateful for all of your support and words of encouragement on our journey so far; we couldn’t have gotten here without you! 

In the Gregorian Calendar, our one-year anniversary will be on January 29th. However, January 29th, 2021, was a very special day in the Hebrew Calendar: it was Tu B’Shvat!

Tubish what!? 

Tu B’Shvat! (Too Bih Sheh vaht) Tu B’Shvat is the New Year for the Trees! You may be surprised to know that the Hebrew Calendar actually has not one, but FOUR new years, and Tu B’Shvat is the New Year for the Trees. How fitting that we should have begun our official business activities as a tree nursery on this very special day for the trees.

This year, Tu B’Shvat falls on the 16-17th of January (days in the Hebrew Calendar start at sundown), so we will be celebrating our anniversary then. Tu B’Shvat literally means “the 15th of the month of Shvat”, so the name is just a date, but the holiday also goes by “Rosh HaShana L’Ilanot” or “New Year for the Trees” (literally it means “head of the year”, but it’s an expression).

But why should the Trees need a New Year in the first place? Well, in the Jewish tradition, it is forbidden to eat the fruit of a tree that is younger than three years old. So only fruit that ripens after Tu B’Shvat on the third year can be eaten. But more importantly, the holiday is used to determine in which year the produce should be counted for the purpose of Tithes. Tithes are like taxes- of one-tenth of a year's produce -that were given to the religious institutions, the poor, or brought to Jerusalem for a giant community festival on alternating years in a seven-year cycle. This year (5782) is the seventh year, known as Shmita, or the sabbatical year, where debt is forgiven and land is redistributed. No tithes are collected during the Shmita year. Tu B’Shvat acts as the cutoff date for when produce is given to one tithe or another. 

As such, it is important to take time on this holiday to think about how we are going to give back to and support our communities over the next six years. Maybe we don’t give to religious institutions, but how can we support other organizations that are offering supportive services to our communities? In what ways can we give to support the poor and other marginalized communities? How can we foster stronger community bonds through events that bring people together and build relationships of trust and reciprocity? These are the intentions of the Tithes, to build and support strong communities, and Tu B’Shvat is a time to think about and set intentions for this work.

Being a holiday for the Trees, Tu B’Shvat is traditionally celebrated with four types of symbolic foods that come from trees. The order of their consumption parallels a spiritual journey from the Earthly realms into the Divine Reality. 

The first are the Asiya. These are edible on the inside, but hard and inedible on the outside. They symbolize Earth, dormancy, potential waiting to emerge. They are the most external, physical manifestation of reality, the material world that we inhabit. Shelled nuts like pistachios, walnuts, and almonds, and fruits with hard outer skins like pomegranates or bananas fall into the category of Asiya.

Next are the Yetzirah. Moving to a slightly more inward and abstract realm, these are edible on the outside, but hard and inedible on the inside. They symbolize water, womb, transition, new life beginning to bud and flow. Fruits with pits like olives, dates, peaches, and cherries are in this category.

After that are the Beriyah. Symbolized by fruits that are wholly edible like figs, grapes, and berries, the Beriyah are a deeper, inner, and more abstract realm of reality. The Beriyah represent air, abundance, ripening, thoughts coming to fruition, realization. 

Finally, at the deepest, most abstract, spiritual level of reality, we have the Atzilut. The Atzilut represent fire, vision, dreaming, completion, ethereality. These are no longer even foods, in the traditional sense. Think of smells, essences, smokes; food for the soul. 

Our sacred journey through these foods takes us from our outermost physical reality all the way into the deep, Sacred, abstract realm of the Spiritual. The Tree of Life. 

Counter-Clockwise from Top: Black Walnuts and Almonds (Asiya), Dried Apricots (Yetzirah), Raisins (Beriyah), Sage and Lavender (Atzilut)

You might be surprised to learn that this Tree of Life has some surprising history behind her. Yes, Her.

Jews are known for being monotheistic, but this was not always true. Long ago, the ancient Hebrews acknowledged the existence of, and even paid tribute to, many Gods, but Yaweh was their God. And according to the ancient Hebrews, he had a Wife.

Her name was Asherah, and she was the Goddess of Fertility. The Sacred Feminine. She was worshiped alongside Yaweh, and she was symbolized by- you guessed it- a Tree!

The Bible refers to these “Asherah Trees” multiple times as places of worship, though it’s clear that the writers of the Bible in the 6th century BCE were trying to bury and suppress worship of the Sacred Feminine Asherah that had been the norm for centuries. For those curious about this seemingly lost practice, I would refer you to Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince’s book “When God Had a Wife”.

Tu B’Shvat likely originated as a celebration of the Goddess Asherah. Taking place in late winter as the sap starts to flow and cause buds to swell and flowers to bloom (in the Land of Israel, at least), it is clearly a time of fertility and rebirth; the hallmarks of Asherah. 

By celebrating Tu B’Shvat, we can honor the long-suppressed Sacred Feminine and reconnect with some of the most ancient Jewish traditions! And what better way to pay homage to this lost Goddess than by planting your very own Asherah tree! While here in Rhode Island the ground is too frozen to plant on Tu B’Shvat, you can still pre-order trees to plant in the spring for future Tu B’Shvat celebrations and homage to the Goddess Asherah!

Is this your first time learning about Tu B’Shvat? If not, what are some of your customs for celebrating the holiday? Was Asherah part of them? If not, maybe consider learning more about her and incorporating her into your celebrations!

From all of us here at Nuts & Bolts, we wish you a warm Shanah Tovah La’Ilanot! (translation: Happy New Year of the Trees!)