Tu Bishvat—The Beginning Of A Man

We see that without connection with truth, with the spiritual root, special dates in our world turn into children’s holidays. Tu Bishvatis also limited to planting trees in a garden or city. Which of course is wonderful in itself, but it is far from its true meaning.

Tu Bishvat, the new year of trees, is a very serious date, which according to its spiritual root means the beginning of man. It is written “Man is the tree of the field.” Therefore, it is correct to plant trees on this day, but it is also necessary to take care of educating a man in order to grow “a fruit bearing tree” out of him. This means raising a person who is similar to the Creator.

It is interesting that all the work we perform in the care of trees must also be performed on a person. Otherwise, one’s tree will not bear fruits, or they will be bitter, not fit for human food. We need to perform 39 types of work to care for the growth of a person’s soul, as if growing a tree. This is not just a tree in the field, but a fruit-bearing tree growing in the Garden of Eden because it produces our soul: corrected desires to receive and to bestow that are joined together in one fruit. This is possible through education, environment, and habitat, without which a tree does not grow to be good and fruit-bearing.

Therefore a person is compared to a tree in the field. This is not just any field, but the field that is blessed by the Creator. The Creator blesses this field according to the efforts invested into tending to the tree, according to the investment in the environment.

We do not interfere with the inside of the tree, but influence it from the outside. Thanks to the external care, it begins to produce beautiful, sweet fruits. All this depends on the environment, on the group, on the ten. We must try to build such an environment that will become the field blessed by the Creator. The relationship between friends should be such that each one can confidently grow in the correct, good form, connect together, and bear one common fruit—an apple from the Garden of Eden, the corrected soul.

Therefore, the holiday of Tu Bishvat symbolizes the entire spiritual work of a person at the initial stage. A tree is something that grows from the inanimate soil. If we arrange the correct environment, the external conditions, then we get a live sprout that turns into a tree bearing fruits suitable for human food.¹
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/19, “Tu BiShvat (15th of Shevat)”