The 15 of Shevat, Tu B'Shevat, determines the new year of the
fruit trees in Eretz Yisroel. If of the first, second,
fourth, or fifth year they are ma'aser sheini; if of
the third or sixth year they are ma'aser oni. If they
are of the seventh year they are peiros Shmittah. The
minhag among Jews throughout the world is to eat a
variety of fruit on that day in order to thank and praise the
Creator Who provides us with fruit.
Our non-religious brethren are totally ignorant of the land-
dependent mitzvos of Eretz Yisroel and of the true
significance of Tu B'Shevat as the "Rosh Hashanah for Trees."
But they also celebrate this day. Nationalists have taken
sacred concepts and used them in a perverted fashion to serve
their political needs. They have transformed this date into a
mundane "agricultural holiday" commemorating the settlement
of the land of Israel and the agricultural development of the
State and in so doing have thoroughly changed its essence.
Secular groups who audaciously transformed Chanukah, which
symbolizes our emunah in the Creator of miracles, Who
gave over "the mighty in the hands of the weak, the
reshoim in the hands of the tzaddikim," into a
festival of physical might, have also uprooted the nature of
Tu B'Shevat. In place of a day of spiritual elevation, to
serve as an incentive for strengthening in Torah study and
observance of the land-dependent mitzvos, on Tu B'Shevat the
Zionist Movement glorifies settling in Eretz Yisroel while rebelling against Torah and mitzvos. Secular
settlements "celebrate" Tu B'Shevat by planting trees whose
fruit will be eaten even when they are tevel, orlah,
and shevi'is, Rachmono litzlan. Can there be
anything more absurd, more offensive than this?
Any Torah-observant Jew with emunah is aware that
ahavas ho'oretz, our love for Eretz Yisroel, is
different from the love of the nations for their land. For
us, the Holy Land is not a "territory" intended for political
shelter. It is the inheritance of Hashem and the King's
castle. The land was given to am Yisroel to fulfill its
spiritual destiny and not only as a "residence."
"The land shall not be sold forever: for the land is mine;
for you are strangers and sojourners with Me" (Vayikra
25:23). The Seforno writes: "`For the land is mine'—the
region is the land of Hashem. `For you are strangers and
sojourners with Me'—in that region, since it is not included
in `He has given the earth to men' (Tehillim 115:15)."
The Or HaChaim explains the posuk in the same
parsha "I am Hashem your Elokim Who brought you out of
the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be
your Elokim" (Vayikra 25:38) that, "although I am
telling you that I `brought you out of the land of Egypt to
give you the land of Canaan' the aim in doing so was not `to
eat from its fruit and be satisfied with its goodness'
(Bircas Me'ein Sholosh) but `to be your Elokim.' This
is our main objective. Chazal have written in Toras
Cohanim (Behar, parsha 5) `Anyone who lives in Eretz
Yisroel accepts upon himself the yoke of Heaven's kingdom.'"
Our entire right to exist in Eretz Yisroel is on condition we
observe the Torah. We should realize this principle even when
we eat its fruits, as the Bach teaches us. The Bach (Orach
Chaim, 208) in his explanation of the text in the brochoh
me'ein sholosh "to eat from its fruit and be satisfied
with its goodness" writes that we should not desire the land
because of its fruits and goodness but to fulfill in it the
land-dependent mitzvos. "The land receives its kedushoh
from the kedushoh of the "higher" land. Its fruit too,
benefits from the kedushoh of the Shechinah that
dwells within the land. For this reason Hashem warns at the
end of parshas Mas'ei, `You shall not defile the land
which you shall inhabit in which I dwell for I am Hashem Who
dwells among bnei Yisroel' (Bamidbar 35:34). If
you become tomei the tumah extends to its fruit.
The Shechinah removes itself from the land in which I
dwell within it because of the tumah. The result is
that the Shechinah is removed from among bnei
Yisroel. Bnei Yisroel were the heichal of
Hashem since the Shechinoh would dwell among them.
Since they have now eaten from the fruit sullied by the
tumah from the land, the Shechinoh disappears. As
the tumah enters bnei Yisroel, the kedushoh
leaves. Now we can understand why this brochoh reads,
`to eat from its fruit and be sated with its goodness,' since
by eating the fruit of the land we are nourished from the
kedushoh of the Shechinah and its tohor oh
and will be sated with its goodness."
*
The Zionist Movement used this
empty ahavas Eretz Yisroel as a central theme to permeate
the minds of
innocent Jews who were without correct hashkofos and
had forgotten the emunah of their fathers.
Zionism succeeded in planting specious nationalist ideologies
even among religious Jews. They disseminated the dangerous
approach that settling Eretz Yisroel is more important than
pikuach nefesh, which any intelligent Jew knows is
diametrically contrary to halochoh and has no source in
the Torah. Such a contrary hashkofoh could only
materialize through a mixture of nationalism and religion. It
is a shatnez composed of the mitzvah of settling Eretz Yisroel
whose source is in the Torah together with secular
territorial aspirations emanating from foreign culture.
Maran HaRav Shach zt"l on many occasions reiterated
that non-Jewish rulers led multitudes of their nation to the
battlefield to capture new land declaring, "We can replace
people but not land." This is an anti-Jewish and anti-Torah
perspective. Anyone whose love of Eretz Yisroel originates
purely from the Torah, from a true recognition of its
kedushoh and lofty spiritual level, knows that the same
Torah that commanded to settle the land, also commanded, "He
shall live in them" (Vayikra 17:5) about which Chazal
(Yoma 85b) deduce "`He shall live in them'—and not die
in them."
The Jewish and Torah-orientated love of Eretz Yisroel that
prompts us to settle it, to fulfill its special mitzvos and
to elevate ourselves while living in Eretz Yisroel with Torah
study and yirah, is what truly prompts us to fulfill
also the psak of Chazal that "pikuach nefesh
takes preference over the whole Torah" as Maran ruled to us
concerning our vote for the Peace Agreement with Egypt more
than 30 years ago.
We have one Torah and it alone guides us. The Torah does not
accept "nationalist mitzvos." We observe carefully the
halochos in our Shulchan Oruch and disregard
those warped theories based on a false attitude of
ahavoh for Eretz Yisroel. (We do not intend in these
lines to take any stand on the topical subject of various
peace treaties. We all know that a few years ago Maran
directed us to vote against the Oslo agreements because of
certain considerations. In any event, the
approach that settling the land overrides pikuach
nefesh is contrary to daas Torah as we learned from
our rabbis.)
Those who raise
the banner of "Not One Inch!" would better concern themselves with the
kedushoh of Eretz Yisroel. They should be concerned
with "You shall not defile the land which you shall inhabit
in which I dwell for I am Hashem Who dwells among bnei
Yisroel" as the Bach explains, "If you become tomei
the tumah is absorbed by its fruit. The Shechinah
removes itself from the land in which I dwell because of the
tumah. The result is that the Shechinah is
removed from among bnei Yisroel who were the
heichal of Hashem since the Shechinoh would dwell
among them. Now that they have eaten from the fruit that
absorbs the tumah of the land, the Shechinah
disappears."
*
On this day the anti-religious attempt to idolize "nature"
and inculcate the heretical weltanschauung that sees
all miracles of creation and growth of trees in particular
merely as a "natural processes." All secular literature and
song dedicated to this day indicate the blooming of the trees
and blossoming of fruit buds, as if it happened by itself
without any heavenly guidance. In reference to this we will
cite rabbenu the Chasam Sofer zt'l, which applies to a
year like this one when there are two months of Adar and
Shevat is relatively earlier than usual.
Chazal (Rosh Hashanah 14a) write that the Rosh Hashanah
for Trees is set during Shevat since during this period of
winter the trees have sap and fruit are then ripening (see
Rashi, ibid.). Nonetheless, in a year with two months of
Adar, a shonoh me'uberes, we do not say that the Rosh
Hashanah for Trees falls on the first Adar, which is in place
of Shevat, but we continue as every year and Shevat remains
the Rosh Hashanah for Trees (ibid., 15a, and Rashi, ibid.).
This actually needs to be explained. The seasons of the year
and therefore also the dates when fruit ripens are according
to the sun, as is written, "For the precious fruits brought
forth by the sun" (Devorim 33:14). Why does the date of
the ripening of the fruits not change in a year when there
are two months of Adar?
Tosafos (ibid.) answers that the year of the fruit is
according to Shevat since we count our months according to
the moon. Teshuvos Chasam Sofer (Orach Chaim, 14)
asks why the fruit ripen in Shevat since it falls earlier
than on other years. "What is the connection of one thing to
another? If there is no sap in the trees how can they ripen?"
The Chasam Sofer cites a gemora (Sanhedrin 18b)
that, "The year is dependent upon the moon." The seasons of
the year are dependent upon the months of regular years. In a
year with two Adars the seasons and the climate is not set by
the month in effect because of the ibur, but according
to the parallel month that would have been in effect during a
regular year. Rashi writes: "`The year is dependent upon the
moon'—The cold and heat of the year is dependent upon the
months had there been no ibur . . .."
Accordingly, the Chasam Sofer asks why in a year of an
ibur the ripening of the fruit happens in Shevat. "What
difference does it make if during most years the month's name
is Shevat? Since the chill of Teves is during Shevat there is
no sap in the trees and they will not ripen. Ma'aser is
set according to ripening. Why should we, therefore, make the
Rosh Hashanah in Shevat?"
The Chasam Sofer cites the Yerushalmi referring to
halochos of the Torah that are dependent upon nature,
that nature changes according to the ibur. "Nature is
subjugated to the Holy Torah." The nature of the world
according to the seasons set by the sun refers only to
instances irrelevant to halochos of the Torah. "Since
it is not relevant to the Torah, the world continues
naturally in reference to cold and heat."
We might think that in an ibur year the trees will not
ripen on Tu B'Shevat of the moon, but at the time that should
have been Tu B'Shevat according to the sun, but "since that
has a relevance to our Torah, nature is subjugated to the
Torah and its halochos, and the trees ripen as on most
years during Shevat that is near to Teves. `He who said that
oil burns, will say that vinegar burns' (Taanis 25a),
and the cold weather at that time will not damage its
ripening. This is what Tosafos wrote that `Yisroel count
according to the moon'—that nature is subjugated to it."
Naturally these enlightening principles that inspire the
hearts to pure emunah regarding the Creation being
guided according to the Torah are unknown to our brethren who
have gone astray from the Torah. They have, unfortunately,
absorbed heretical theories and were not privileged to the
true light of the Torah. They mark this day by worshiping
nature, not realizing that the ripening of the fruit reveals
the Divine wisdom hidden in the Creation that in an
ibur year the fruit ripen contrary to the rules of
nature. The Creator's wisdom has decreed that nature will be
entirely subjugated to the Holy Torah.
