“Chamishah Asar Bishvot”, the New Year of the trees, according to the Jewish calendar on the fifteenth day of the month of Shvot, is celebrated today by eating various kinds of fruit and by a special liturgy arranged for the day. The festival, which is not mentioned as obligatory in the Jewish law, is observed as a traditional custom which goes back to the ancient Jewish kingdoms in Palestine.
Originally the day seems to have been set aside for paying the tithes of fruit which the Jewish farmers, who made up the vast bulk of the Jewish population, owed the Temple. But it was also used to plant trees. In Jerusalem the custom was to plant a cedar tree for every newborn male and a cypress tree for every new-born female.
The custom of eating fruits instead of planting trees began with the Cabalists who settled in Palestine in the sixteenth century, led by Isaac Luria, noted Jewish mystic. The number of fruits to be eaten the night before the holiday are enumerated in a book by Nathan Benjamin of Gaza, who collected the material from the Bible, Talmud and Zohar. Seventeen fruits are enumerated, including dates, grapes, figs, pomegranates, citrons, apples, pears, berries and others.
Diaspora Jewry celebrates the day with services in the synagogues and the eating of fruits, particularly such as come from Palestine. Carobs are particularly preferred for that day. In Palestine the ancient Jewish custom of planting trees is followed.
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