Today is Tu Bishvat, the Jewish “New Year of the Trees.” Originally a quasi-economic date, used to calculate the ages of fruit trees (and thus their suitability for tithing), the day was turned by Kabbalists into a celebration of the cosmic “tree of life,” and later, in the twentieth century, into the Jewish eco-holiday.
These days, while not well known outside the Jewish world, Tu Bishvat (the name is simply the date, the 15th day of the month of Shevat—it’s also sometimes spelled Tu B’Shevat) is widely observed by hipster Jews, spiritual Jews, eco-Jews, and the other subcultures of American Jewry that are renewing the Jewish tradition. It’s too early to tell whether such renewers (of which I am one) will have enough of an impact to staunch the tide of Jews leaving their Judaism behind, or whether we are just interesting subcurrents. But this is one of our big days.
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