The Trees Teach Us Their Torah

Tekufat Tevet, the winter solstice, occurred so recently, but already there are hints of the renewal of springtime. As we observe new growth in nature, we recognize new growth within ourselves. The Torah's teachings are everywhere, all around us and in our own hearts.

The two quotes below, and the commentary that follows them, are from Jill Hammer’s The Jewish Book of Days:

It was the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, that Moses addressed the Israelites in accordance with the instruction that the Eternal had given him for them. – Deuteronomy 1:3

The new moon of Shevat is the new year of the trees: these are the words of Beit Shammai. Beit Hillil says: the fifteenth of Shevat. – Babylonian Talmud, Rosh HaShanah 2a

On this day, in the final year of wandering in the wilderness, Moses began to teach the people a new book of the Torah: Devarim, or Deuteronomy. This is also the day, according to Shammai, that trees become a year older: it is the new year of the trees. Although, according to the majority opinion, Jews will not celebrate the trees' new year until the 15th of the month, the new moon of Shevat represent the first moment when we might consider the trees to be renewed after the winter.

Like the budding trees, Deuteronomy is a new flowering of the divine will. On the 1st of Shevat, as the people prepare to enter the land without him, Moses offers them the best of his wisdom to sustain them. So too the branches that have survived the winter sustain this new life, and the tree waits to burst into new buds. Indeed, in Israel and similar climates, trees may already be budding at this time.

Shevat is a month of renewed growth and vigor, and this first day of Shevat begins that renewal. As Moses begins to teach new Torah, the trees teach us their Torah by shaking off their slumber and awakening to growth. Deuteronomy (20:19) teaches that "a person is like a tree of the field." This is the message of Shevat as well.