Translated by David Strauss
Two New Years
The Mishna at the beginning of tractate Rosh Ha-shana states:
On the first of Tishrei is the new year for… a sapling (neti'a) …
On the first of Shevat is the new year for trees (ilan), according to Beit Shammai; Beit Hillel say: On the fifteenth of that month.
The Mishna mentions two new years that relate to trees. The first of Tishrei – which is also the "general" new year, the day on which "all creatures pass before [God] like children of Maron [i.e., one by one]" – is the new year for saplings. Trees also have a special new year of their own, in addition to the new year for saplings – namely, the first of Shevat according to Beit Shammai, and the fifteenth of that month according to Beit Hillel.
There is a practical halakhic difference between these two new years:
If one plants [a tree, or]… in the year before the sabbatical year, thirty days before Rosh Hashana – [then, when Rosh Hashana arrives,] a year is counted for him and he is allowed to preserve [the tree] during the seventh year [because it is not considered a new growth]… [But] the fruit of such a sapling is forbidden until the fifteenth of Shevat [of its fourth year], whether as orla in [the year of] orla, or as fourth-year fruit in the fourth year [of the sabbatical cycle, which must be eaten in Jerusalem or redeemed]. (Rosh Hashana 9b-10a)
Rashi comments:
Even though we said "a year is counted for him," if the fruits were formed after Rosh Hashana of the third year [of the next shemitta cycle, which is the fourth year since it was planted], immediately [i.e., before Tu Bishvat], they are still forever because of orla. For even though Tishrei is the new year for saplings, Tu Bishvat is the new year for the tree, and this has already become a tree; therefore, its year does not renew itself to come out of orla until Tu Bishvat, but from then on, if fruits were formed on it, they have the status of fourth-year produce which must be eaten in Jerusalem. (Rashi, ad loc.)
That is to say, when the sapling enters its fourth year on the first of Tishrei, it becomes a tree, but nevertheless its fruits are still forbidden, even if they have already been formed, because now it is a tree whose year is counted from Tu Bishvat.
The difference between a sapling and a tree is not merely with regard to Rosh Hashana, but for example, with regard to the number of individual plants that must be found in a beit se'a (a measure of land) in order to be considered as filling it: with trees, three are required, while with saplings, ten are needed (Shevi'it 1:1, 6).
In light of the above, we must inquire what constitutes a sapling and what constitutes a tree, why there are differences between a sapling and a tree, and why a tree has a new year of its own.
The Difference Between a Sapling and a Tree
The Mishna teaches:
Until when are they called saplings? Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya says: Until they are permitted for common use. Rabbi Yehoshua says: Until they are seven years old. Rabbi Akiva says: "Sapling" is in accordance with its name. (Mishna Shevi'it 1:8).
Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya maintains that a plant is considered a sapling until the fruits can be treated as ordinary fruit that is permitted for consumption (whether by way of redemption in the fourth year, or of their own accord in the fifth year). Until the fruits become permitted, the tree is in the category of "eating but not producing," i.e., not earning its keep; it requires care and investment not for its present but for its future. But when it bears fruit that is permitted to be eaten, it becomes a "food tree" – transforming from a recipient to a giver, with inherent significance of its own.
Turning next to the position of Rabbi Akiva – the Rishonim disagree. The Rash mi-Shantz maintains that, in Rabbi Akiva's view, the definition depends on "completion of a year," while according to the Rambam, as long as people call it a sapling, it is a sapling.
Regarding the Rash's position, it may be suggested that the idea is similar to that of a tereifa. In tractate Chullin (57b), Rav Huna says that the sign of a tereifa is the inability to live for twelve months after acquiring its blemish. The Gemara goes on to explain that the reason an entire year must pass in order to ascertain whether the animal is a tereifa is so we can see how it fares in both the heat of summer and the cold of winter; then we know it is capable of withstanding the world in all conditions, as a healthy animal.
It may be that this is also the reason for a sapling. Until it is capable of withstanding the heat of summer and the cold of winter, it requires constant care and supervision and is not self-sustaining. Once a year has passed, it is proven that this sapling has taken its place in the world and become a tree.
Even according to the Rambam's interpretation of Rabbi Akiva's opinion, which depends on what people call an ilan, a "tree," it seems that people assign the term ilan to a plant that is stable and permanent.
Rabbi Yehoshua says a plant is called an ilan after seven years, meaning, once it has undergone a complete cycle of seven years – a complete agricultural cycle of shemitta. Only if the tree has undergone the entire chain of agricultural situations, and the legal ramifications thereof, is it considered to have independent existence and to become worthy of being called an ilan.
All agree, then, that the transition from sapling to tree depends on the plant's strength and stability and its importance as an independent entity.
This also accounts for the difference between the new years of a sapling and of a tree. The first of Tishrei is the new year and the day of judgment for all inhabitants of the world, the time when the Divine will for creation is renewed, and creation renews itself. The new year for a sapling is of its own accord, because the plant has no independent existence and is in the category of recipient only. But when we consider the tree in its special existence, we assign it a new year of its own that falls out in the middle of the winter, when the sap begins to rise in the trees, which represents the tree's standing in the winter and its self-awakening to renewed life and blossoming.
We can now also understand what was mentioned above regarding the number of plants that must be found in a beit se'a in order to be considered as filling it. Since a sapling is not considered an independent entity, it is of significance only in the context of a group. Therefore, apart from the agricultural reason, which relates to the distance to which the roots extend, there is also a fundamental reason for this halakha that was given to Moshe at Sinai, that ten saplings to a beit se'a is considered as conforming to the standard – for, as is well known in our sources, a group is a collection of ten. A tree, on the other hand, has significance already in its own right. (The need for three is only to connect the ground between the trees and give it the status of a field of trees, as is explained in the Gemara [Bava Batra 81b].)
"As the days of a tree shall be the days of my people"
The Benei Yissaschar connects the new year for trees to a member of Israel, following on what is said in the Torah: "for the tree of the field is man" (Devarim 20:19), in light of the dispute over the date of the creation. According to Rabbi Yehoshua, who maintains that the world was created in Nisan, creation began on the twenty-fifth of Adar. The earliest thought of creation rose in God's mind forty days earlier, that is, on Tu Bishvat.
As is well known, from the perspective of the Jewish people, the world was created in Nisan – Nisan marks their creation as a people; it is the first month of their redemption. The beginning of this creation, as stated, the time of its conception in God's mind, is connected to Tu Bishvat. It is, therefore, not surprising to find special characteristics that reflect similarity between a tree and the people of Israel:
"The Lord called your name a leafy olive tree, fair with goodly fruit" (Yirmeyahu 11:16). Is the olive the only tree after which Israel were called? Was it not called after all sorts of fine and excellent trees? [Israel was called] a grapevine and a fig tree, as it is stated: "You transported a grapevine from Egypt" (Tehillim 80:9); a fig tree, as it is stated: "Like the first fruit to ripen on a fig tree" (Hoshea 9:10); a date palm, as it is stated: "This, your stature, is like a date palm" (Shir Ha-Shirim 7:8)… And Yirmeyahu came to say: "The Lord called your name a leafy olive tree, fair with goodly fruit." Rather, just as the olive, while it is on the tree one picks it, then one takes it down from the tree and it is beaten, and after it is beaten, it is taken up to the olive press and placed into the mill where one grinds it, then they surround it with ropes and bring stones, and then they [the olives] produce their oil – so too, Israel: idolaters come and beat them from place to place, incarcerate them, bind them in chains, and surround them with fences. Then they repent and the Holy One, blessed be He, answers them… (Shemot Rabba, beginning of Parashat Tetzaveh)
The primary praise of Israel is expressed in terms of similarities to the olive tree. Just as the primary goodness and uniqueness of the olive tree is actualized after struggle and pressure, so Israel express their love and closeness to God from the struggles and pressures to which they are subjected. It follows, therefore, that the comparison of Israel to the olive tree most aptly expresses the essence of their similarity to a tree, which expresses their uniqueness.
Tu Bishvat usually falls out during the week that we read Parashat Beshalach. Thus we find in a midrash at the beginning of the parasha:
"It was when Pharaoh sent (be-shalach) the people" – This is what is written: "Your branches (shelachayikh) are an orchard of pomegranates" (Shir Ha-Shirim 4:13). Rabbi Levi said: This is analogous to one who had a field in which there was a pile of pebbles. He arose and sold it to another. The person who bought it arose and removed the pile from it and found spring water beneath it. He planted grapevines in rows… The person who sold it passed by it and saw that it was filled with everything good; he said: "Woe is me that I sold it that way…" So, too, Israel in Egypt was like a pile of pebbles… Once they departed, they became a pomegranate orchard… Pharaoh saw them… He began screaming and said: "Woe is that man who let such [a great nation] out from his auspices."
Already at the time that Israel left Egypt, which was by the grace of God, the independent significance of Israel began to shine forth. It was already a tangible phenomenon that Pharaoh could feel. The splitting of the sea was no longer by grace, as the previous miracles had been, but by right and by merit; the sea did not split until Israel was ready to risk their lives and enter the water. Here was a deliverance by right, by virtue of their distinctiveness and their merit. It was during this period of innovation and renewal that Israel sang a song of praise.
This is, as stated, the significance of Tu Bishvat – a time of renewal for the tree that has independent existence in the world, as a fruit-bearing tree. This power of renewal is awakened in the collective and in the individual, in the desire to be distinctive and independent, when this distinctiveness finds expression in the ability to withstand various struggles and hardships and to give and bestow.
(Edited by Sarah Rudolph)
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