Hug a Tree

“It’s Tu B’Shvat.” announced our 3 year old grandson on Wednesday.  “It’s the birthday of the trees” he went on “and it’s Daddy’s birthday too because my Daddy’s like a tree.”  Now it is true that our son-in-law is tall and strong and straight like a tree but what was most important to my grandson at that moment, I think, was that his Daddy’s name is Alon – and Alon is the Hebrew word for an oak tree.

Tu B’Shvat, the Mishna tells us, is the New Year for trees.  It marks the time when most of the winter rain has fallen and the sap is rising in the trees.  It’s a sign that Spring is on its way - a time to celebrate the amazing variety of climates, habitats and species that are found in this small country.

The Land of Israel, says the Bible, is a land of plenty, “a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey”.  Even though 60% of Israel is desert we have here over 2,800 different species of plants and among them many beautiful trees.

The Lone Oak Gush Etzion
Photo Refa'el Danziger

The oak tree is mentioned many times in the Bible.  By the oak trees of Mamre, just north of Hebron, Abraham is visited by G-d and runs to greet three men who turn out to be angels.  Deborah, Rebecca’s nurse is buried under an oak tree near Bethel.  The prophet Isaiah describes the oak as a tree whose stump will regenerate even when it has been cut down.

When the kibbutzim of the Etzion Bloc south of Jerusalem were overrun and destroyed in 1948 the Jordanians uprooted most of the trees that had been planted there.  An ancient oak tree survived and came to symbolise the yearning to re-establish the kibbutzim and to resettle the Land of Israel.  The tree came to be known as the Lone Oak.  For 19 years people would come to the Israeli-Jordanian border to gaze at it.  It stands now by Alon Shvut.

Coin of Vespasian
Judea Capta

The honey that the Bible mentions as produce of the Land is date honey.  Dates have been domesticated for over 6,000 years.  A source of food, shelter and shade the date palm came to symbolise the kingdom of Judea.  When the Romans destroyed the Temple and put down the Great Revolt in the year 70 AD the emperor Vespasian minted coins inscribed with the words Judea Capta showing a woman sitting forlornly under a palm tree.  The lulav that we wave on Succot is the bud of a date palm leaf that has not yet opened.

Date palm grove, Kalia, Dead Sea
Photo: Sharon Shlomo

During excavations in the 1960’s at the Masada fortress by the Dead Sea date palm seeds were discovered in a jar in one of Herod’s palaces.  Carbon dating showed them to be some 2,000 years old.  In 2005 three of them were treated with fertiliser and hormones and later planted at Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava.  One of them germinated and by the summer of 2010 the sapling had grown to about 2 metres. It is thought to be the oldest seed ever germinated. 

Acacia tree in the Negev
Photo: Mark A Wilson

“They shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.”  The Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Showbread and the walls of the Tabernacle itself were all made of acacia wood.  In Israel the acacia can be found on the side of wadis, dry river beds.

Olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane
Photo: Chad Rosenthal

When a dove brought back an olive leaf to the Ark Noah knew that the waters of the Great Flood were receding.  Olive oil was used to anoint the kings of Israel.  It was used in sacrifices and to light the Menorah, the candelabrum in the Temple.  It is still used today to light Shabbat and Chanukah lights.  For centuries it has been a major ingredient of the economy and of the diet of people all around the Mediterranean. Olive leaves have a special beauty.  The trees are very hardy and can live to a great age.  It is claimed that some olive trees are as much as 2,000 years old.  Among these are the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem.

The Psalmist says: “How great are Your works O Lord.  You have made them all with wisdom; the earth is full of your creations.” 

The writer of the Tanya, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi wrote:
“All that we see –
The heaven, the Earth, and all that fills it –
All these things
Are the external garments of G-d.”

Like my grandson we should learn to celebrate the birthday of the trees and to understand what a wonderful gift they are.