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Friday. January 27, 1950
TILE UUTHERN ISRAELITE
Pagfe Seven
Hamishah Asar Bishvat Curiosities
BY PHILIP GOODMAN
Director of Jewish Education of JWB's Jewish
Center Division
This collection of odd, quaint and unfamiliar side-lights
on Hamishah Asar Bishvat (literally the 15th of Shebat
—this year Feb. 2, has been assembled bv Mr. Goodman
as part of the program service rendered by the National
Jewish Welfare Board to its affiliated Jewish Community
Centers and other Jewish groups. The increasingly popu
lar festival, whose name is often abbreviated to Tu Bish
vat, is the Jewish New Year for Trees or Arbor Dav . . .
THE EDITOR
Hamishah Asar Bishvat is
one of the four “New Year”
days recorded in the Talmud.
The others are: the first of Tis-
hri, observed today as Roth
Hashanah; the first of Nisan,
from which date the reigns of
the Kings of Israel were reck
oned: and the first of Elul, used
to calculate the tithing of cat
tle.
The most popular of the
fruits of Israel that is eaten on
Hamishah Asar Bishvat is bok-
ser—also known as carob and
St. John’s bread. The reason
for this is quite logical. Cen
turies ago it was the desire of
Jews outside of Palestine to
eat fruits actually grown in the
Holy Land. This was only pos
sible with dried fruits for there
was no cold storage of other
means of keeping fruit fresh.
Therefore, well-to-do Jews
would obtain dates and figs of
Palestine while the masses
would obtain dates and figs of
Palestine while the masses
would secure bokser, which
grew in great abundance.
Hassidic Jews considered it a
duty to eat many kinds of
fruit on Hamishar Asar Bish
vat. Some maintained that fif
teen different fruits should be
eaten in honor of the fifteen
days of the month of Shebat,
while others would eat as many
as fifty to a hundred fresh,
dried and cooked fruits.
Just as it is customary to
give the poor “Maot Hitim”
(money for wheat) before
Passover, so it was a tradition
in some Jewish communities to
provide *the poor with “Maot
Perot” (money for fruit) be
fore Tu Bishvat.
The Bene Israel of India,
who consider themselves the
remnant of the Lost Ten Tribes
observe Tu Bishvat in a special
way. They offer a symbolic
sacrifice of fruits in honor of
the prophet Elijah, whom, they
believe, reveals himself on this
day. (.Tikkun Hamishah Asar
Bishvat by Yom-Tob Lewinski,
Hadoar.)
Nathan Benjamin of Gaya is
the author of a special service
for Hamishah Asar Bishvat
which is printed in a small book
entitled “Pri Etz Hadar,” (Fruit
of Goodly Trees). Sephardic
Jews read this book on the eve
of the festival. It includes per
tinent selections from the
Bible, Talmud and Zohar about
fruits and trees. There are also
dealing with a different type
of fruit grown in Palestine. At
the conclusion of the reading
of each of these chapters, the
particular fruit described
therein was eaten. The service
was also interspersed with the
drinking of four cups of wine,
following the reading of ap
propriate passages.
Students of Kabbalah (mys
ticism) maintain that the eat
ing of fruit expiates tor the
sin of Eve in eating the forbid
den fruit of the Tree of Knowl
edge.
*****
Arabs call the eucalyptus
tree the “Jewish Tree” for Jews
introduced it into Palestine to
dry the swamps. As the almond
tree is the first tree to bloom
in Israel it is called “Snaked.”
meaning diligent.
According to the Bible,
(Deuteronomy 20.19) It is for
bidden to cut down trees that
bear fruit even while waging
a war.
*****
Morris Rothenberg in his
capacity then as President of
the Zionist Organization of
America designated Sunday,
Jan. 20, 1935, the day follow
ing Hamishah Asar pishvat,
which fell on the Sabbath, as
Palestine Day “to mark this
occasion in a manner worthy of
the great traditions and the
magnificent achievements of
present-day Palestine. Palestine
Day, which we hope to observe
annually in the future, is in
tended to symbolize the hopes
of the Jewish people for a re
built center in their ancestral
WHY HIM
The life of the new settler in
Israel is not all milk and hon
ey. Milk in fact, on account of
the austerity program, is per
mitted only for the sick and
for children. And there’s not
too much honey otherwise, ex
cept in the hopes that more
normal conditions may yet en
sue.
There are shortages of all
kind. To be sure, these are to
be expected. Israel has received
some three hundred thousand
immigrants in one year’s time.
In the space of one year, it has
increased its population by
about a third.
Suppose America were to in
crease its population by one
third in a year. We can readily
see what difficult problems
homeland and to memorialize
the great service rendered to
that aim by Christian states
men and public opinion in the
United States and other lands
...” Palestine Day was sub
sequently observed for a num
ber of years on Hamishah Asar
Bishvat.
*****
It was a custom of the Hasi-
riim. that they would pray on
Tu Bishvat that God grant
them a beautiful Etrog for the
festival of Sukkot. After Suk-
kot they w«*Uld make preserves
of the Etrog and eat it on the
following Tu Bishvat.
*****
Dr. Walter C. Lowdermilk,
Chief of Research, Soil Con
servation Service of the U. S.
Department of Agriculture,
estimates that about three feet
of soil have been eroded from
Palestine’s hillslopes since the
land was overrun by its Mos
lem conquerors. Afforestation
is one of the methods of check
ing soil erosion.
*****
On the fifteenth of Shebat
1949, the traditional “New
Year of Trees,” the first to be
celebrated in the State of Is
rael, multitudes gathered on
the Hills of Jerusalem, in the
Galilean Highlands and in the
wastes of Negev, to do honor to
those who had fallen in the
War of Liberation and to pay
tribute to the courage of the
Israel Defense Army. These
memorials, not of stone or
marble but of trees, are called
Defenders’ Forests. On that
day loved ones planted trees in
the very ground where their
sons, husbands, fathers or
brothers died.The largest crowd
assembled at Sha’ar Hagai, Bab
el Wad, famed pivot point in
the battle for Jerusalem. An
everlasting verdant memorial
was established—The Forest of
the Defenders. The Israel De
fense Army and the Jewish
National Fund joined hands to
bring this noble project to
fruition. On the fifteenth of
Shebat the first saplings were
No, it’s not easy for the Is
raelis now and its particularly
hard on those immigrants liv
ing in tents.
When it’s cold, you freeze
and when it rains, you get wet.
Recently during the torrential
rains, which visited Israel, one
new settler was discovered sit
ting on his bed and talking to
himself.
He was heard saying to him
self. “For two thousand years
the Jews lived in Galuth. Why
did the liberation have to hap
pen to me."
IN AN AIRPLANE
They say that Dr N Joseph, the
official in charge of the auster
ity program in Israel, and
Eleazar Kaplan, the Minister
of Finance who also has charge
of the income tax business,
were taking an airplane ride
over Tel Aviv.
“Just think,” said Kaplan to
Joseph, “how happy the people
would be if you dropped down
ration cards from this air
plane.”
“Just think," replied Dr.
Joseph to Kaplan, “how happy
the people would be, if you
dropped down Israel «pounds
from this plane."
“Just think," interjected the
pilot, “how happy the people
would be, if I tossed both of
you down from this plane.”
seventeen short chapters, each would arise.
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I. Saac’s JEST for FUN
As this drawing Indicates, children in the Jewish Community Centers
affiliated wth the Natonal Jewsh Welfare Board wll actively observe
Hamishah Asar Bishvat on Feb. 2 as part of the Centers’ year-round
program of informal educational and recretional ctivities.
planted in the forest, which
will take years to complete and
which will be the largest forest
in Israel. The Forest will con
tain six million trees, and the
four blocs it will comprise
will cover an aggregate of 30,-
000 dunams. Upon completion
timber in this shady-hungry
timber in our shade-hungry
country.
The first experiment in
planting olive trees in Pales
tine was proposed in 1908 by
Otto Warburg, once President
of the World Zionist Organiza
tion, as a memorial to Theodor
Herzl. The donations td the
tree fund of the Jewish Na
tional Fund were used for this
project which unfortunately
did not prove successful. Sub-
, sequently Herzl Forest was
planted near Jerusalem, where
pilgrimages are made twice a
year—on Hamishah Asar Bish
vat for the purpose of planting
additional trees and on the 20th
of Tamuz in commemoration of
the anniversary of Herzl’s
death. With the reburial of the
remains of Herzl on Aug. 10,
1949, in Israel, a new garden of
cedars of Labanon and pine
trees is being planted.This park
will be known as Cedars of
Herzl (Arzei Herzl).
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