Trees, Earth, and Torah

What did the tree do when the bank closed? It started its own branch.

How do trees get online? They just log in. 

How do you properly identify a dogwood tree? By the bark! 

How does a coniferous tree get ready for a date? They spruce themselves up.

 You want to hear a joke about trees? Nah, it’s too sappy. 

Which Canadian city is a tree's favorite? Montreeal! 

Would you ever try the acorn diet? No way! It sounds nuts! 

What is a pine tree’s favorite radio station? Anything that plays the poplar hits. 

Torah Reading for  Shabbat afternoon 

https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.13.17-22?lang=bi&aliyot=0

A Tu Bishvat Seder explained in under 4 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRHLw9jr9lY&t

FIVE SHORT  TEXTS FOR TU BISHVAT

Va'yikra(Leviticus) 19:23-25

Now when you enter the land, and plant any-kind of tree for eating,

you are to regard its fruit as orlah (not marked as part of the Brit)

For three years it is to be orlah for you—;

you are not to eat it.

And in the fourth year shall all its fruit be a holy-portion, for jubilation for Adonai;

In the fifth year may you eat its fruit, to add for you its produce;

I am Adonai your God!

Mishnah, Rosh Hashana 1:1

There are four new years. On the first of Nisan is New Year for kings and for festivals. On the first of Elul is New Year for the tithe of cattle. Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Shimon, however, place this on the first of Tishrei. On the first of Tishrei is New Year for years, for sabbatical and jubilee years, for 5 planting, and for [the tithe of] vegetables. On the first of Shevat is New Year for the tree, according to the ruling of Beit Shammai; Beit Hillel, however, place it on the fifteenth of that month.

 

Talmud Bavli,  Rosh HaShanah 15b : Tannu Rabbanan- Our Rabbis taught: If the fruit of a tree blossoms before the fifteenth of Shevat, it is tithed for the outgoing year; if after the fifteenth of Shevat, it is tithed for the incoming year

 

Midrash Rabbah, Vayikra 25: 3   Rabbi Yehudah, son of Rabbi Shimon, began (quoting from Deut. 13: 5), “After Adonai your God, you shall walk…and unto God shall you cling.” Is it possible for a human being, of flesh and blood, to rise up to the Heavens and to cling to the Divine Presence, about whom it is written (Deut. 4: 24), “For Adoani, your God, is a consuming fire”? ….Rather, just as from the beginning of the world, the Holy Blessed One, involved God' self  only in planting (Gen. 2: 8), “And the Lord God planted in the Garden of Eden…,” so too when you enter into the land, involve yourselves only in planting, as it is written (Lev. 19: 23), “When you come to the [promised]  land….”

Midrash Rabbah Kohelet (Ecclesiates) 7:13:1

“See the work of God, for who can mend what He has warped?” (Ecclesiastes 7:13)

 When the Holy Blessed One created Adam the first human, God took him and showed him all the trees in the Garden of Eden, and God said to him: ‘See My creations, how beautiful and exemplary they are. Everything I created, I created for you. Make certain that you do not ruin and destroy My world, as if you destroy it, there will be no one to mend it after you!"