"Trees of Life"
By Keren Alpert, Rabbinic Associate

Deep in the midst of the coldest Michigan winter, an improbable Jewish holiday pops up: Tu B’Shevat, the birthday of the trees.

Believe it or not, the ground is already ripe in Israel for tree planting and in just a few weeks, the hashkedia, or almond tree, will begin to bloom, the signal that spring has arrived in the land.

But, here in Michigan, we can’t even remember what the flowers look like. We have been looking at white skies and white grounds, with bare tree branches up above. We would never consider planting trees here on Tu B’Shevat.

Tu B’Shevat, then, became a holiday where what we do in the Diaspora (especially the Midwest) differs greatly from the practices in our beloved Israel. So, the way we remember to keep Israel central in our thoughts on this day is through the consumption of tree products (yummy fruits and some like carob that you have to develop a taste for) and through symbolic planting through purchases of trees in Israel.

We should never downplay our status in the Diaspora, for it was through our tree purchases that the land of Israel was made ready to become a state. Prior to 1948, the Jewish National Fund encouraged Jews to purchase lands all throughout what they hoped would be the borders of the new nation, targeting areas that needed to develop a Jewish population and areas that needed greater defensive protection. Immediately after these purchases, we Jews needed to show that we were not absentee landlords (like many of the previous owners), but that we were actually making improvements. The easiest way to make an improvement was planting a tree! (It was akin to putting a house on your square on Monopoly.)

We are months away from planting and miles away from the land of Israel, but our divergent practices on Tu B’Shevat remind us of our close relationship and how each Jew’s actions reverberate around the world.