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Trees, Shabbat, And Israel's Ecology Texts
by Jonathan Wolf

SOME TEXTS ABOUT TU B’SHVAT, SHABBAT, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND THE LAND OF ISRAEL

Tu B’Shvat: The first day of the month of Nissan is Rosh Hashana (the beginning of the year) concerning [counting the length of the reign of] kings and [the order of the] Festivals [since Passover, in Nissan, is counted as the first]. The first day of Elul is Rosh Hashana for the tithing of animals. The first of Tishrei is Rosh Hashana for [marking the beginning of] years, for shmitta (sabbatical) and yovel (jubilee) years, and for plants and vegetables. The first of Shvat is Rosh Hashana for trees. So says the house of Shammai; the house of Hillel says, the fifteenth of that month.
          -Mishna Rosh Hashana 1:1

Any tree which puts forth its fruit before Tu B’shvat has its fruit counted in the past year; if afterward, then in the coming year
           -Tosefta Shvi’it 4:20

Environmentalism in Torah: When you besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to conquer it, you shall not destroy [lo tash’hit] the trees thereof by wielding an ax against them. You may eat of them but you shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field a person, that it should be besieged by you? [Alternative translations: For a person is like a tree of the field, to come before you in the siege. Or: For a person (stays alive by) the tree of the field…]. Only the trees which you know that they are not trees for food, those you may destroy and cut down, in order to build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it fall.
           -Deuteronomy 20:19-20

The purpose of the mitzva [above, of bal tash’hit] is to teach us to love that which is good and worthwhile and to cling to it, so that good becomes a part of us and we avoid all that is evil and destructive. This is the way of the righteous and those who improve society, who love peace and rejoice in the good in people and bring them closer to Torah: that nothing, not even a grain of mustard, should be lost to the world, that they should regret any loss or destruction that they see, and if possible to prevent any destruction that they can. Not so are the wicked, who are like demons, who rejoice in the destruction of the world, and they thus destroy themselves.
           -Sefer HaHinukh, mitzva #529

Shabbat: Remember the day of Shabbat to sanctify it. Seven days you should work and do all your labor, but the seventh day is for your God: you shall not do any labor, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servant and your animals and your foreigner in your gates. For in seven days Adonai made the heaven and earth and the sea and everything in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore Adonai blessed the Shabbat day and sanctified it.
           -Exodus 20:8-11

When you come to the Land which I am giving to you, the land shall observe a Shabbat to Adonai. Six years you will plant your fields and six years you will prune your vineyards, and you will gather its produce. But on the seventh year is a great Shabbat for the land, a Shabbat to Adonai; you shall not plant your field not prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows by itself of your harvest, and you shall not gather the grapes of your undressed vine; it shall be a great Shabbat for the land. The Shabbat-year fruits of the land will be yours to eat, for you and your male and female servant and for your hired workers and the settlers who dwell with you. And for your animals and for the beasts in your land, all the produce will be food.
           -Leviticus 25: 2-7

Technical civilization…begins when man, dissatisfied with what is available in nature, becomes engaged in a struggle with the forces of nature in order to enhance his safety and to increase his comfort…. [But] the Sabbath is a day of harmony and peace, peace between man and man, peace within man, and peace with all things. On the seventh day man has no right to tamper with God’s world, to change the state of physical things….The Sabbath, thus, is more than an armistice, more than an interlude; it is a profound conscious harmony of man and the world, a sympathy for all things… Creation, we are taught, us not an act that happened once upon a time, once and for ever. The act of bringing the world into existence is a continuous process….Every instant is an act of creation.
           -A. J. Heschel, The Sabbath

Laws of the Land: And when you come into the Land you shall plant every kind of fruit tree, and you shall consider its fruit orlah (uncircumcised) for three years; you shall not eat it. But in the fourth year all of its fruits shall be holy for a celebration to Adonai. And on the fifth year, eat its fruit to increase your harvest; I am Adonai your God.
           -Leviticus 19: 23-25

You shall definitely tithe all the increase of your seeds which come forth from your fields, year by year. And you shall eat before Adonai your God in the place which He shall choose to rest His name the tithe of your grain and of your wine and of your oil and the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, in order that you may learn to revere Adonai your God all of your days.
           -Deuteronomy 14:22-23

Bounty of the Land: The fruits of the Land of Israel are easier to eat than those of any other land.
           -Sifrei, Ekev

In the future all the non-fruit-bearing trees in Eretz Yisrael will put forth fruits.
           -Talmud, Ketubot 112b

Rav Chisda said: ‘And I have given you a precious land, an inheritance like a deer (eretz tzvi) [Jeremiah 3:19]’: Why is the Land of Israel compared to a deer? Just a deer’s skin can barely contain its flesh, likewise is Eretz Yisrael unable to contain all its fruit.
           -Talmud, Ketubot 112b

In the creation of the world, the Holy One began with the act of planting, as it says: ‘And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden [Genesis 2:8].’ So too when you enter the Land of Israel, you should engage yourselves first in planting [Leviticus 19:23, above].
           -Midrash Vayikra Rabba 25