Laws and Meaning of Tu B'Shvat - Rabbi Shaul Silam shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to the “Lema’an Yishme’u” podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:10 Speaker 2 Hello. With Hashem’s help, we’re going to talk about the fifteenth of Shvat. The first Mishnah in tractate Rosh Hashanah speaks about four new years, and then we come to Shvat: “On the first of Shvat is the New Year for the tree, according to Beis Shammai.” The Mishnah continues: “Beis Hillel say, on the fifteenth of the month.” We know that the halacha follows Beis Hillel, so it was ruled that the New Year for the tree—yes, for the tree, not for the trees, as the Mishnah says—is on the fifteenth of Shvat. The Gemara explains: What happens in Shvat that makes it the New Year for the tree? By the time Shvat arrives, most of the year’s rains have already fallen, the sap has risen in the trees, and the fruit begins to form. That is what makes this month the month of the New Year for the tree. This has halachic implications in several areas: the laws of orlah, the laws of terumos and maasros, the laws of bikkurim when the Beis Hamikdash stood, and also the laws of Shemitah. We won’t go into all the details, but here’s one example concerning orlah. As is well known, during the first three years after a tree is planted, its fruit may not be eaten or even used for benefit. In the fourth year, the fruit has a certain sanctity. When the Beis Hamikdash stood, it was eaten in Jerusalem in a state of ritual purity. Today we redeem it onto coins, and we don’t eat that fruit either. It’s called neta revai. Only in the fifth year can we eat the fruit. Now, there is a way of calculating when the first year begins, but what role does the fifteenth of Shvat play in the fifth year? Only fruit that began to form after the fifteenth of Shvat is permitted. The same applies to orlah. In the fourth year,

02:31 Speaker 2 only fruit that began to form after the fifteenth of Shvat is neta revai rather than orlah. So the date really does matter in halacha, even if these aren’t things we encounter every day. Let’s mention a few things connected with the fifteenth of Shvat in the Rebbe’s teachings. First, the Rebbe never says “Tu BiShvat.” We’re used to saying “Tu BiShvat” and “Tu B’Av,” but the Rebbe would correct anyone who said that. “The fifteenth of Shvat,” “the fifteenth of Av”—that’s what one should say. You can see several instances during dollar distributions when the Rebbe corrects people. Another point the Rebbe makes is that the fifteenth of Shvat is connected with plants and with growth. And Yosef—as explained in the Torah, in Parshas Vayigash—the theme of Yosef is increase, growth. There is Yosef and there is Yehudah: in Yosef’s territory, the Mishkan was in Shiloh, and the Mishkan was made from plant materials. Plants are something that grows, right? With Yehudah, by contrast, the theme is bittul, self-nullification. It is stone; it is the theme of Jerusalem. So the whole month of Shvat is connected with Yosef Hatzaddik, the Rebbe says. And that also connects, the Rebbe says, with the Frierdiker Rebbe, whose first name was Yosef and who is connected with the month of Shvat—Yud Shvat being the day of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s passing. Another point the Rebbe makes in several places concerns the phrase “man is a tree of the field.” It’s interesting, because when the phrase appears in the context of besieging a non-Jewish city, “For is the tree of the field a man?” is a question: Are we going to destroy the trees? “For is the tree of the field a man, to come before you in a siege?” When you lay siege to a city, are you going to destroy the trees too? No, don’t destroy them. That is where the entire prohibition of bal tashchis, needless destruction, is derived from. So

04:32 Speaker 2 “man is a tree of the field” is phrased as a question. But since it can also be read as a statement—the Torah could have said, “Man is not a tree of the field,” but instead it says, “For man is a tree of the field,” in that wording—the tractate Taanis expounds it to mean that man indeed is a tree of the field. It applies this to two kinds of Torah scholars: those who truly are like a tree of the field, and those who are not. So that’s where we get the idea that man is a tree of the field. Man is a tree—but in what way? Chassidus explains this, but even before we explain why, the fact that man is a tree means, as the Rebbe says at several farbrengens, that in a sense the fifteenth of Shvat is a bit like our birthday. If it’s the birthday of the tree, and we too are trees, then yes, it is also our New Year. That is why there is reason to hold a farbrengen and make good resolutions, as the Rebbe writes. But why is man really like a tree? The Rebbe says something wonderful. If we look at the intellect and the character traits, the intellect is connected with the animal kingdom, right? Just as an animal moves and runs from place to place, our thoughts can move from one subject to another. Suddenly the phone rings, and we’re talking about something else entirely. The intellect is very fluid and constantly in motion. Character traits, on the other hand, develop, but their basic nature does not change in an essential way. Of course, we need to change our traits from bad traits to good ones—that, as we’ll see, is the whole point. The Frierdiker Rebbe quotes the Baal Shem Tov, who quotes Rav Saadia Gaon, as saying that we came into this world to change the nature of our character traits. Yes, that’s the whole point. And Chassidus explains that a person is defined

06:35 Speaker 2 specifically by their character traits. That is why man is a tree of the field. What distinguishes a tree from an animal? We said that animals move from place to place. A tree is always planted in the same spot; as it grows, it gets bigger. The same is true of character traits. A person has a particular type of character. Someone whose nature is joyful, for example, may be less inclined toward calm deliberation. Of course, a person needs all the traits, but their basic type is one of joy. They need to make sure their joy is genuine joy and not frivolity. But their basic character is deeply bound up with who they are and does not change over a lifetime. It can change for the better, as we’ll see, but it doesn’t change from one basic type to another. A person who is somewhat introverted needs to be serious rather than sad, but not to become a different type of person. In terms of character traits, a person is deeply connected to the traits they were given, the traits they have in their soul—so much so that a person is their character traits. Although the Tanya says that the character traits are born from the intellect, it isn’t exactly that they are born from it. The intellect reveals them, but they are much more deeply rooted in the person than the intellect itself, as Chassidus explains. So we understand why man is a tree of the field: what makes a person human is expressed most of all in their character traits. And certainly, the fifteenth of Shvat is a day when we should make a very particular accounting of ourselves in this regard—as trees of the field, whose task is to change the nature of our character traits. As we said, that is the whole point of our being here in this world. One last thing to mention: the Rebbe speaks at farbrengens—there is a farbrengen from the fifteenth of Shvat

08:55 Speaker 2 5748, and one from Parshas Beshalach 5751. At the first, and probably in several other places, the Rebbe mentions the custom of eating fruit on the fifteenth of Shvat. The Rebbe even says that observance of this custom had somewhat weakened, especially with regard to eating the fruits for which the Land of Israel is praised. And in the second sicha I mentioned, from Parshas Beshalach 5751, the Rebbe also speaks about the custom of eating carobs on the fifteenth of Shvat. So we’ll mark the fifteenth of Shvat with a farbrengen, by making good resolutions—especially about changing our character traits, because that is the whole point—and by observing the custom of eating fruit, particularly the fruits for which the Land of Israel is praised, and carobs.