Tu B’Shvat
besieged
is man
a tree of the field
entreating for a future
mehudar heart
an esrog graced with life’s ridges and troughs
on this full moon
new year
Tu B’Shvat marks the New Year of the Trees. It is one of the four New Years mentioned in the Mishnah (Rosh HaShana 1:1). In Hasidic tradition, Tu B’Shvat is considered a propitious time to pray that one will find a beautiful etrog to use on the coming Sukkot. This year it falls on January 22.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
