Educating Children for Tu B'Shvat - Rabbi Yosef Avraham Pizam shlita

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

00:09 Speaker 2 15 Shvat. What does it mean for us educationally? Of course, we can’t separate it from the broader picture. We can point to a few practical things connected with it, as we’ll do shortly, but they’re part of that broader picture. We need to know that 15 Shvat is the New Year for trees, and since “man is a tree of the field,” in a certain sense it is also a New Year for a person. That makes it a very important day. Our conduct on that day should include an even greater increase in all matters of Torah, prayer, and tzedakah, because you yourself are judged on such a day. On 15 Shvat, the custom is to eat many kinds of tree fruit. Although this is only the time when the fruit begins to develop, we eat ripe fruit, even the finest fruit, and make a point of eating enough to recite an after-blessing. That is because the fruit’s completion and ultimate purpose are already contained in its beginning, and we regard them as though they were already manifest. In particular, we eat and recite blessings over the fruits for which the Land of Israel is praised: grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives for oil, and honey—date honey. We also have the custom of eating carobs, which have a special connection to miracles, as in the Gemara’s account of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, who was content with a kav of carobs from one Shabbos eve to the next. The account goes on to describe several miracles shown to him, since he was accustomed to miracles. In the Rebbe’s sichos, he explains that wheat is human food, meaning that we should strengthen ourselves in matters of the G-dly soul. Barley is animal food, meaning that we should strengthen ourselves in refining and rectifying the animal soul. Grapes—“wine gladdens the heart of man”—represent joy: strengthening ourselves and others in joy. The fig represents clothing. It says that after the sin of Adam and Chava, Hakadosh Boruch Hu made garments for them; but first, they themselves covered up with a leaf

02:41 Speaker 2 of a fig tree. So the fig represents clothing, pointing to the three garments of every Jew’s soul: thought, which should always be pure and good; speech, always saying good things, speaking well of every Jew; and action, doing good deeds. These are the garments of the soul. Wheat, barley, grapes, figs, and pomegranates: “Even the empty ones among you are full of mitzvos like a pomegranate.” From this we should strengthen ourselves in doing more mitzvos, seizing opportunities for mitzvos, and doing more to refine the world. With every mitzvah we perform, we refine the world through it. “A land of olives for oil and honey”—the word “land” appears again here, marking a new aspect. It points to our service during exile. Olives for oil: when an olive is crushed, its oil comes out. We are pressed; effort is required. When we toil in Torah, that is a positive kind of pressing. By studying and engaging with the oil of Torah—Chassidus, the inner dimension of Torah—we will merit the harp of Moshiach, with its eight strings, and Moshiach, who is anointed with oil, in the true and complete Geulah. After olives for oil, we have honey—date honey. The Zohar says that it takes seventy years for a date to grow from a seed into a fruit-bearing tree. This points not only to effort, which we already learned from the olive that is crushed, but also to staying focused on the goal, to consistency, patience, and perseverance. Seventy years, seventy years—but in the end you attain that wonderful honey. In the same way, we study and study and study a great deal during exile. We study a great deal of the inner dimension of Torah during exile. Through this, we will merit the wonderful sweetness of the revelation of the Torah’s secrets in the true and complete Geulah. The Rebbe asks us to review these ideas, study them, and teach them on 15 Shvat. That is certainly possible even with young children, especially when we adapt them or add Chassidic stories. That is important.

05:07 Speaker 2 Now, regarding gatherings—children’s gatherings. The head brings all the limbs together. Since all four New Years are connected, there is a special reason to gather Jews on the New Year for trees, so that, as on the general Rosh Hashanah, they are united as one. This is especially true of gatherings of Jewish children before bar or bas mitzvah—the children of Tzivos Hashem—because growth and development are particularly evident in children. You can see an adult after five or ten years, and he may not have changed much, apart from perhaps a little more gray hair here and there. But if you haven’t seen a child for two months, the child has already changed. They’re growing all the time. So the New Year for trees, and “man is a tree of the field,” are connected with growth and development. Well, positive development—in Torah, in mitzvos, in health, in preparing for the Geulah—is especially connected with children. Therefore, we should make a particular effort to hold gatherings of Jewish children on 15 Shvat. If they can be held on 15 Shvat itself, that’s best; if not, then the day before or the day after. The main thing is that they be connected with the 15 Shvat celebration. More generally, the Rebbe’s approach is that anything that needs to be made up can and should be made up through Shabbos, inclusive. And what should be done at such a 15 Shvat farbrengen? We should increase in tzedakah, Ahavas Yisroel, and Jewish unity. This can even be done on Shabbos, because we can resolve to do so then, and on Shabbos we can also give spiritual tzedakah: good advice, learning Torah with another person, and doing more for children’s education. We need to encourage children to keep mitzvos in general, and especially the custom of eating fruit on this day—to eat fruit, particularly fruits

07:21 Speaker 2 for which the Land of Israel is praised. We should explain to them what the day means and the lesson in serving Hashem that we learn from each fruit. At the 15 Shvat 5741 farbrengen, the Rebbe declared: “Now is the time to conquer the world through toil and an even greater increase in Torah study.” One year, the Rebbe actually wept with longing. I remember I was riding public transportation then; I think I was a teenager in yeshiva ketanah. Suddenly, in the middle of the news, I heard them playing the Rebbe of Lubavitch, weeping over how it was 15 Shvat and how, in exile, Jews had always longed so much for a fruit from the Land of Israel. But now we long for the fruits of the Land of Israel in the true and complete Geulah, when all the Jewish people will merit going up to the Land of Israel. The Rebbe said it with tremendous emotion, in tears. So on 15 Shvat, we should instill in our students and children an anticipation not only of the wonderful, good fruit we have today, but of the extraordinary fruits of the Geulah, which will be rich and succulent both physically and spiritually. We should especially study the laws of the mitzvos connected with the Land of Israel on such a day, as well as before and after it: the laws of terumos and maasros, and the laws of shemittah. This year is a shemittah year, so we should study its laws—everything connected with the mitzvos of the Land of Israel. As for those who tried to introduce a custom of planting trees for 15 Shvat, there is nothing wrong with planting trees—just not specifically on this day. There is no source in Jewish history, halacha, or the teachings of our Sages for a requirement to plant trees on 15 Shvat. So the Rebbe says that the custom of planting on 15 Shvat did not originate in the community of Torah-observant Jews; rather, it was a custom that well-meaning Jews tried to introduce with good intentions. We do plant trees. It is important to plant trees in the Land of Israel, but not specifically on this day—not on this day. On other days. And may we truly merit

09:36 Speaker 2 to be planted there. “Bring us and plant us”—may Hakadosh Boruch Hu plant us in the Land of Israel in the fullest realization of the true and complete Geulah for which we hope. Long live our master, teacher, and Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever.