The Meaning Of The Tu B’Shevat Holiday

Question: What is the meaning of the Tu B’Shevat holiday?

Answer: The meaning of the holiday is goodwill before a tree.

Immediately the question arises: how is it possible to worship a tree, after all isn’t it like idolatry? No. A tree symbolizes life relative to the earth, which we bless and welcome.

After inanimate nature filled the entire cosmos, the vegetative nature began to develop on Earth, which is a completely new form of life because there is a spark of the Creator inside it. Therefore the vegetative life attracts us.

Then gradually animate life developed from it. The transitional stage between the still and vegetative levels are coral: between vegetative and animate life, a creature called “the dog of the field” that feeds from the ground, but its body behaves like an animal; and between the animate state and human, the monkey. This is mentioned in ancient Kabbalistic books.

The new year of the trees marks their awakening to life and symbolizes the awakening of a person to achieve the purpose of his life.

It is written in the Torah, “a man is like a tree in the field,” because a tree has a special internal structure that feeds from the ground and stretches upward toward the sun. But the most important part are its fruit. In general, any plant, everything that comes from the earth, feeds us and is the basis of the material life of humans.

Our spiritual development occurs according to the principle that in all sorts of human actions, one works with them as a tree. It is not an accident that the most important fundamental work of the great Kabbalist the Ari is titled the Tree of Life.

My teacher Rabash celebrated this day in a special way. A lot of people gathered together, tables were covered with sweets, not just with the fruits of the trees, but also with the fruits of the earth itself. The fruits represent a person who has reached his purpose, which is to become similar to the Creator, to reach His level. We want to achieve this. In principle, everyone would wish this if they understood how sweet this fruit is, this eternal, perfect existence in absolute attainment without any restrictions and problems.

Whether we want this or not, we nevertheless get closer to it. However, Kabbalah can accelerate our path if we use it correctly. Otherwise we’ll have to advance the way we do now, with the help of unpleasant blows from nature that push us forward.

In principle there is a beautiful future ahead of us and I hope that the same sweetness we feel from the good fruits of the earth and plants, we will feel from the fulfilling of our soul.

You are invited to try out this special state, to taste the real fruit of life, which the wisdom of Kabbalah offers to us.

Good luck and all the best!
[201822]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/6/17