I hope the ideas contained below, will provide you with some topics for discussion, at your Shabbos table.

A Story for TuBishvat, The New Year for Trees

A Rav once passed by an old man who was planting a tree. He said to him, do you really think you will live long enough to see this tree bear fruit? The man replied, when I came in to this world, I found a fully grown tree ready for use, just as my fathers planted a tree for me, so I will plant a tree for my son.(Talmud, Taanis 23a)
Symbolically, this means, we should try and pass on to our children, what we learnt from our parents. It is a wonderful thing if one can remember a good deed, however small, or a good saying, from a parent or a member of a previous generation, and pass it on to the next generation.(Without boring them.)

The splitting of the Red Sea, is described in Hallel as “The sea saw and it fled” The Medrash says it saw the box carrying the remains of Joseph. This means, because of the merit of bringing out that box, the Jewish people deserved to be saved. Many generations earlier, Joseph had made his children make an oath that they would bring his bones with them out of Egypt. When the Jewish people were about to leave Egypt, and all the people were busy borrowing gold and silver, Moshe remembered that oath; he went and fetched the box containing Joseph`s remains, and took them with him out of Egypt. When the people were threatened with destruction on the banks of the Red Sea, it was the merit of that deed not the gold and silver, which caused the sea to be split, and the people to be saved for the future. Moshe remembered the promise of the past and saved the people for the future. Sometimes, honouring the wishes of past generations spoken or unspoken, is the greatest gift we can give to our children.
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QuestionFor the Week;

We are told in the Mishnah (Rosh Hashonoh Chap 1 Mishnah2) that Hashem decides on Shavous, how much fruit of the trees we are going to have in the following twelve months, so what is Tu Bishvat “the New Year For The Trees”, all about?

Answer;

Every year the farmer had to give a tenth of the the year`s newly grown fruit, to the levi. He was not allowed to give more from the next year to serve as a tithe for both years. The tithe had to be given from that year`s produce. The dividing point between the years was tubishvat. It was also the dividing point for various other tithes. A little like having “Lehavdil”, your accounts done by the 29th Jan.

SOURCES; Mishnah Rosh Hashonoh Chap.1 Mishnah 1.