USUALLY WE PLANT one or more trees in Israel on Tu b'Shvat (ט''ו בשבט). For the Israel National Fund, this is the busy season.
But not this year.
This year there will be no planting new trees, at least not religiously sanctioned planting of new trees in Israeli soil.
Why?
It's a shmita (שמיטה) year, when, once every seven years, the ground is supposed to lie fallow; unplanted and unplowed.
ONLY IN ISRAEL
Usually the expression "Only in Israel" means something crazy happened or some scientist developed a product that no one else could develop, or a researcher developed a medicine that cures a malady that predominately effects non-Jews with Middle Eastern origins - and Israel makes the formula available to "The World" for free. That's the usual "Only in Israel."
However, this year is a shmita year only in Israel and theoretically all planting, pruning, and harvesting is forbidden.
The poor in Israel - and unfortunately there are many - are allowed to collect what grows on its own for their own use, but farmers, even those who grow vegetables in a window box filled with Israeli soil, are forbidden for doing any agricultural work.
The shmita year allows Israelis and everyone else to eat Israeli produce produced before the advent of this shmita year which began on Rosh HaShana in 2014/5775.
From United with Israel:
In Exodus, the law is set forth through the following verses: “You may plant your land for six years and gather its crops. But during the seventh year, you must leave it alone and withdraw from it. The needy among you will then be able to eat just as you do, and whatever is left over can be eaten by wild animals. This also applies to your vineyard and your olive grove.” (Exodus 23:10-11).
In Leviticus (25:20-22), we are promised an abundant harvest if they adhere to these laws. Yet questions remain: how can an entire nation disregard their fields for an entire year? How can a country that is so dependent on income from its agricultural exports survive without earnings from these products? How can residents of Israel maintain a healthy lifestyle when fruits and vegetables are scarcely available?
The same source, United with Israel, goes on to explain the legal fiction of heter mechira. This ruling by Israel's first chief rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, allows Jewish farmers to sell their lands to non-Jews for the duration, similar to the way some Jews sell their hametz for the duration of Passover. (For a food processing company, that may be reasonable; for an individual, perhaps not.)
Akin to Passover, the rabbis who were uncomfortable with the heter mechira came up with A partial resolution to the controversy surrounding the heter mechira, Israel’s beit din (Jewish court system) instituted the Otzar Beit din system, through which the land becomes the property of the beit din. Farmers who work the land owned by the beit din are thus not working their “own” land during the sabbatical year. The beit din then sells all resulting produce at cost and uses the proceeds to pay the farmers. According to all rabbis, this produce still retains the holiness of the shmita year and must be disposed of properly
The shmita year restrictions apply only to the land within Israel's Biblical borders. Strawberries from Florida, as well as the Sunshine State's excellent citrus products are permitted.
There are a number of Internet sites that offer Tu b'Shvat recipes.
On that note I'll quit by wishing you a happy - and tasty - new year of trees.
From Jewfaq, the (non-edible) dates for Tu b'Shvat through 2017/5777 are:
- Jewish Year 5775: sunset February 3, 2015 - nightfall February 4, 2015
- Jewish Year 5776: sunset January 24, 2016 - nightfall January 25, 2016
- Jewish Year 5777: sunset February 10, 2017 - nightfall February 11, 2017
