This is an archive of special readings for, or relevant to, the Jewish New Year’s Day for Trees, Rosh haShanah la-Ilanot, popularly referred to by the day it falls on the Jewish religious calendar, ט״וּ בִּשְׁבָט (Tu biShvat), the 15th day of the month of Shəvat. The day is perhaps best known as a demarcation for the tithe of budding first fruits during the Second Temple period, an event that reflects the seasonal agricultural significance of the approach of the Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, the warming of the soil, and the fertility of fruit-bearing trees. The significance of the date was also crucial to the determination of ancient calendars based on astronomical observations. From the display, “Shabaṭu XV / Ṭu Bishvaṭ: Is Venus Visible?” exhibited at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem:

In the evening of the fifteenth day of the month of Shabatu, the priests went up to the roof of the temple to observe the planet Venus in the western evening sky. They set out their offerings of animal sacrifices and meal cakes on a table, intoned prayers and observed the movements of the heavenly bodies.

The Sumerians personified the planet Venus as Ninsianna, the daughter of the moon god. The name means “red lady of heaven,” perhaps referring to the hue of the evening sky over the western horizon. As she appeared in the sky, her worshippers imagined her looking down on mankind and judging the just and unjust; at the new moon, she was believed to hold a divine court to hear mortals’ petitions.

In the lunar calendar, the fifteenth day of the month was the day of the full moon — the turning point of the month and an important astronomical date. The fifteenth of Shabatu was the date of decision concerning the addition of an extra Adar — a thirteenth month — to the normal year of twelve months. If Venus was visible this evening, the priests knew that the lunar calendar was synchronized with the progression of the heavenly bodies; if Venus was not visible, the extra month had to be added! in order to realign the lunar year with the solar year. Since the barley harvest was two months away in Nisan, the decision was of crucial importance to the agricultural cycle. We are thus able to explain why all observations of Venus begin on the fifteenth of Shabatu.

A note on the romanization of the Hebrew for ט״וּ בִּשְׁבָט. In Hebrew grammar, a word cannot start with two shəvas in a row. When the prefix בְּ- is added to a word that already starts with a shəva (as with the month of Shəvat), the shəva in the בּ- prefix becomes a ḥiriq. So it’s always בִּשְׁבָט (Bishvat), and never בְּשְׁבָט (B’Shvat or B’Shevat). (This, derived from a concise explanation offered by Ben Dreyfus.)

Click here to contribute a prayer you have written, or a transcription and/or translation of a historic Tu biShvat prayer or song in any language.