What is the New Year of the Trees? The Tanakh doesn’t list it anywhere, and Tu BiShvat is not mentioned. But the concept relates to a commandment in the Torah.
The Book of Vayikra includes instructions about planting: When planting a new fruit tree in the Land of Israel, for the first three years, the fruit is forbidden, the fourth year fruit has special sanctity and limitations, and the fifth year the restrictions are removed (Leviticus 19, 23-25). Why are these limits here? These posts about Noah the “man of the earth” (and Uzziya, the "lover of the earth"), reminds us that it is not wise to be wholly swept up in farming for farming’s sake- and that we need to think about the timing and order of our priorities and responsibilities.
Fruit-bearing trees are also forbidden from being cut down to construct a siege during times of war (Devarim 20, 19-20).
*When it comes to forbidden fruit from trees, the famous one comes to mind – the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. What is the Tree of Knowledge (Etz Ha-Daat)? Explore more about the Tree of Knowledge in this fascinating shiur.
Mishlei describes Wisdom (hokhma) as a “Tree of Life" (Proverbs 3, 18).
Some claim that the story of Creation in the Torah is to blame for humanity’s destructive waste of nature and the environment, and that God's commandments led to ecological disaster. Rabbi Elhanan Samet refutes this claim.
At the end of the devastation of the flood, the dove brings back an olive leaf – a sign that trees and fruit are growing again, and that the world can again experience being sustained by God.
Mizmor 104 in Tehillim, recited on Rosh Hodesh (the New Month), is a lyrical praise-filled depiction of creation wherein the Psalmist exults in the natural world around him and marvels at how God in His wisdom has created a system that can sustain humans and animals in harmony. Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot analyzes the psalm in an excellent Yemei Iyun audio shiur.
The idyllic picture in the Mizmor is reminiscent of the Garden of Eden. In this shiur, Dr. Yael Ziegler asks why there is no widespread attempt to find the Garden of Eden in the Torah, and answers that it is very much sought out, but under a different name and with one major difference: the Land of Israel, without a major irrigation source – facilitating a dependence on God.
A goal of the Torah is to return to the harmony of the Garden of Eden in the Land of Israel, where life of blossoming and blessing is dependent on cultivating a relationship with, and commitment to God.