Efrat, Israel – It was February 1981, and we had just celebrated the laying of the cornerstone for the first buildings - a mikveh (ritualarium) and Yeshiva building (Neveh Shmuel High School for boys) on the empty hill of land slated to be the newly emerging city of Efrat. The area was verdant with trees and grapevines, and as the brilliant winter sun spread its golden hue over the majestic hill, I truly felt as though we were being warmly embraced by the loving Shekhina above.

That day we planted trees — and with the planting, there were blessings. It was the 15th of Shvat (Tu b’Shvat), the one day of the Jewish year when almost every school child in Israel gets down on his or her hands and knees and plants. It was, for us, an extremely moving moment: taking a young sapling by the hand, clearing some earth and freeing the roots of the young plant to make sure that when we placed it into the soil it would merge with the very soil which hid in its recesses Jewish memories which were thousands of years old.

But why should Tu b’Shvat have become almost syn¬onymous with planting? The first Mishna in Rosh HaShana speaks of four different “NewYears,” with the First of Tishrei being the New Year for the reckoning of years and for the planting of trees! The New Year for fruit trees, which according to the Academy of Hillel is the 15th of Shvat (Tu b’Shvat), is the cut-off date for the giving of tithes for that year, in effect, the Jewish Dec. 31st for the purposes of paying taxes, as it were, on our fruits. But this has nothing to do with planting trees?! And what was originally thought to have been the significance of the fifteenth of Shvat?

According to R. Eleazar ben Oshaia, by the time Shvat arrives, the majority of the rains have already fallen, and from an Israeli agricultural perspective the essence of winter is rain. (B.T. Rosh Hashanah 14a). Hence Tu B’Shvat signals the end of the major part of the winter when we can begin to look forward to the next season of spring. And since the love song between G-d and Israel, Song of Songs, is replete with references to the spring as symbolizing the beginning of our redemption, our engagement to the Divine, it is no wonder that we find in a collection of Ashkenazic customs, published in 1590 by Simon ben Yehuda Halevi Ginsberg, an early record that special fruits associated with the land of Israel were eaten on Tu B’Shvat in order to strengthen the relationship between the Jews in the Exile and the land of their eventual redemption.

Similarly, in the 16th century work of Safed Kabbalists, Pri Etz Hadar, we find recorded a unique ceremony centered around the drinking of four goblets of wine on Tu b’Shvat — an end of winter seder. First, a cup of white wine; then a mixture of mostly white and some red wine; third, a cup of mostly red and a little white and, finally, a cup of only red wine. This custom of creating a rainbow from white to red was intended to evoke the unique spring in the land of Israel, where the first flowers that blossom are almond buds, a vast spread of white loveliness always appearing very close to the 15th of Shvat. Soon, other flowers blossom and the colors change, but the final splash in the fields belongs to the brilliant red anemones, kalaniyot in Hebrew, dotting the landscape wherever the hills and valleys are wild and free.
And, in order to strengthen the tie with Israel to an even greater degree, a custom emerged of eating the different fruits with which the land of Israel is blessed within the Tu B’Shvat seder between the cups of wine: grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates (Deut.8:8).

During the years of the Second Aliyah, the religious lovers of Zion realized that yearning from a distance was not enough. More needed to be done, a kinyan (purchase) had to be made. We dare not be satisfied with praying (or distance eating) alone; if we truly care about Israel, we must acquire a real relationship with the land. And what better way can this be done than by the planting of trees?

How fitting it is that this week’s portion, Beshalach – the Biblical reading which deals with the splitting of the Reed Sea – generally corresponds to the week in which we celebrate Tu B’Shvat.

Moses cried out to the people: “Stand firm and you will see what G-d will do to rescue you today .... G-d will fight for you, but you must remain silent.” G-d, on the other hand, disagreed. “Why do you cry out before me? Speak to the Israelites that they start moving” (Exodus 14:13-15) Rashi (ad loc) even goes so far as to say, “This is not the time to pray extensively; this is the time to act,” to ‘start moving’.”

Hence, our way of celebrating the dream of Jewish redemption is by planting trees in the soil of our homeland” And when the Bible tells us that our Patriarch Isaac, the one patriarch who never left the land of Israel and therefore is most identified with the land, “went out la’suah in the fields” (Gen 24:63) when he was anticipating his first meeting with Rebecca, his betrothed. The Hebrew word “siah” can mean conversation, and therefore most commentaries explain that he was praying with G-d in the fields (Rashi, ad loc), or it can mean shrub, and so the s’forno suggests that he was planting in the fields. Perhaps both are correct: planting in the land of Israel is the best expression of prayer to bring about our redemption!