THE CABALA OF THE TREE

Today, on the full moon of this month, celebrates the holiday of Tu BiShavat, New Year of the Trees; the New Year is a method to calculate the age of a tree. 

One of the 613 Commandments given to the Jewish People 3500 years ago is not to eat the fruit of a tree grown in Land of Israel before three years; called Orlah, this prohibition requires tracking the age of each tree – a task made easier by establishing a New Year for the trees.

There are actually four New Years, each in one of the four seasons corresponding to the four types of life found on earth: inanimate, growing, animal and human; these four unique variations of life are patterned after the YHVH, the four letter unpronounceable Name of God.

The New Year for the Trees happens on the full moon in the late winter when the sap first rises into the limbs. In the Land of Israel an ivory veneer blankets the countryside because almonds are the first fruit to blossom, awakening from winter slumber, percolating with life.

The human being, built on the rock of bone, streaming with liquid, covered by skin sprouted with hair – an animal encompassing the whole of creation, built in the image of the YHVH, who is able to articulate thoughts into words, celebrates by eating the fruit of the tree.