This article will explore, how the footprint of Tu B’Shvat has expanded greatly in the past few decades. If the lack of customs and commandments passed down diminishes the position of Tu B’Shvat among other holidays, this same absence will also permit and perhaps encourage the creation of new liturgies and rituals to satisfy its relevance to many contemporary Jews.

By Matthew LaGrone

By Kate Palley

Many people talk of Tu B’Shvat as a way of connecting to the environment, of connecting to Israel, of connecting to our community through environmental awareness. Is there a way to understand Tu B’Shvat as a holiday in which we connect to G-d? Is there an inherent holiness to trees?

by Kate Palley

By Muki Jankelowitz

"If you have a sapling in your hand and are told that the Messiah has arrived - plant the sapling and then go to greet him.”(Avoth DeRabbi Nathan' b' ch.31)

Tu B’Shvat gives us the opportunity to connect with some of the big contemporary themes, such as Environment and Zionism.

The holiday of Tu B’Shvat is far more than ‘just’ a holiday. The holiday embraces, promotes, and encourages a love of the environment, a love of nature, and an appreciation of what G-d gave the Jewish people, and all people, to enjoy. At such a time when mother earth is slowly deteriorating, fires are destroying what little nature reserves we have left, floods overtaking cities and hurricanes devastating entire states, it is nice to know that at least in Judaism there is one holiday that remembers the trees.

By Shlomit Benartzy