Tu B'Shevat, the New Year of Trees, is celebrated when the very first signs of spring in Eretz Yisrael are appearing. Just as the sap is beginning to rise deep within the trees and the almond trees are beginning to blossom, we pause and reflect on the beauty and purpose of trees in our lives.

In almost every culture trees are powerful metaphors, and Judaism is no exception. For us, trees are symbolic of the Torah, human beings and the righteous. Every Shabbat, in the Psalm for the day, we recite The Tzadik--the
righteous-- will flower like a date palm. (Psalms 92:18) The significance of
this Psalm is heightened during the month of Shevat, because the Hebrew letter
for this month is the letter Tzadik. Therefore we want to look
more closely at what we can learn from this phrase alone that is relevant for the month of Shevat and for Tu B'Shevat.

To Flower - Pei, Reish, Chet

To understand what the flowering of the righteous means, we can look at the
word to flower. The root to flower (Peh-Reish-Chet) has a gematria of 288 which
hints at the mystical teaching of the 288 fallen sparks that are redeemed and elevated by the service of the Tzadik in his/her Divine conciousness while involved in the act
of eating. Because the Tzadik perceives the full potential and purpose of this
seemingly mundane act of eating, and uses food and eating to serve G-d, the holy
sparks hidden in the act of eating and in the food itself are elevated.
Interestingly, the spiritual sense for the month of Shevat is Eating.

Winter - Chet, Reish, Pei

We gain further insight into the unique quality of the Tzadik
when we reverse the letters of the word to flower. Putting the letters in the
opposite order yields the word Choref, winter. Tu B'Shevat, which is celebrated
almost at the cusp of winter and spring, is on the surface an unusual time to
focus on trees, many of which are still bare, and on eating
fruit, which is certainly not yet in season. Wouldn't this holiday make more sense in the
summer when fruit is plentiful and fully ripened?

Yet, the Tzadik celebrates the fruit, the fruition of potential, while it is yet winter. A
Tzadik has the faith that the potential is there even in the dead of winter and can already taste the fruit. Just as we sit in our Sukkahs during the fall, when most people have moved inside as an expression of faith in G-d, so too do we eat fruit in the
winter as an expression of faith in G-d that all of the potential of creation will be realized.

Digging (la-Chpor)

If we arrange the letters of flowering and winter in yet another way, we find the word
for digging (Chet-Peh-Reish). This is the job of the Tzadik -- to dig deeply, undeterred by superficial circumstances, to find the hidden sparks embedded in all of the physical world. The tree that stands bare in the winter is the same one that will be full-leafed
and heavy with fruit in the summer. The Tzadik digs for the hidden potential and
searches for the fruit even when there are no external signs.

The well known parable of Choni the Circle Maker, who inquired of a man planting a carob tree, "When will this tree bear fruit?" (knowing it was not to bear fruit in the man's lifetime) was met with the response, "My granchildren will pick its fruit as I
have picked the fruit of the trees planted by my ancestors." The Circle Maker
learned yet another lesson about the cycle of life. The hidden sparks are there
if one can envision the potential that lies in wait.

In days to come Yaakov shall take root; Yisrael shall blossom and bud, and the face of
the world shall be filled with fruit. (Isaiah 27:6)