This is an archive of prayers, prayer-poems, and songs for יוֹם הַנְּטִיעוֹת Yom haNətiōt (Day of Planting) in the State of Israel and the territories under its jurisdiction in Erets Yisrael. The festival is similar to civic Arbor Day holidays in other countries with the exception that it presents a Zionist gloss over the annual New Year’s Day for Trees (Rosh haShanah la-Ilanot) in the Jewish religious calendar popularly known as Tu biShvat (the 15th day of the month of Shəvat). Tree planting on Tu biShvat is a custom particular to Zionism. From the National Library of Israel:

The tradition of planting trees slowly developed, not as a halakhic ritual, but as a Zionist, nationalistic one. In 1884 the pioneers of the village of Yesud Hama’alah planted 1,500 fruit trees on Tu biShvat, and in 1890 Rabbi Ze’ev Yaavitz planted seeds with his students in Zikhron Yaakov….The Jerusalem Teachers’ Union was founded in 1903 with the goal of teaching in Hebrew and bestowing Jewish and Zionist values. At the Union’s meeting in 1906, the educator Ḥaim Zuta suggested that Tu biShvat should be celebrated as a day of planting in the schools. In 1908, the teachers union in Jerusalem adopted this new tradition and made Tu biShvat the “Festival of Planting” (Ḥag haNətiōt) that was later adopted by the JNF/קקל.

Click here to contribute a prayer you have written, or a transcription and/or translation of a prayer for planting on this day (or to decry the uprooting and destruction of trees in general).

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Looking for something else?

For prayers composed for the praxis of planting vegetation (in general), go here.

For prayers composed for Tu biShvat anywhere in the world, go here.

For Tu biShvat seder haggadot, please visit here.

For prayers composed for National Arbor Day in the United States, go here.