Tu
B’Shvat, 5772 /
2012
Sarah Yehudit
Schneider
People who are accustomed to follow
the kabbalistic Seder of fruits
and wine on Tu B’Shvat organize their (thirty) fruits according to certain
criteria. There are three intersecting (and somewhat conflicting) scales of
measure.
(The Intrinsic)
Scale of
Klipa
This scale measures an innate
feature of the fruit itself—the amount, placement, and intensity of its klipah (the inedible skins and pits
attached to the fruit). In mystical texts, klipa is the skin or shell that surrounds
each sliver of soul (be it human, animal, plant or mineral) and marks it out
from every other, producing the illusion of multiplicity when really there is
only One. We’ll call this the Scale of Klipa. At its lowest end are fruits with
inedible skins or shells that must be removed to access the fruit. The
next rung up are those with inedible pits or seeds hidden within. And finally at
the top of the scale are fruits that are edible through and through. This
hierarchy is a rich subject for observation, contemplation and meditation but it
does not have halachic import at
the Seder.
(The Objective)
Scale of Yichus [i.e.,
Pedigree]
Next is a Scale of Yichus (you might say), which begins with
the seven special fruits indigenous to Israel and continues with the
fruits that are mentioned explicitly in the Bible and then, finally those named
in the Mishna and Talmud. Status on the Scale of Yichus comes from association with holy
writ. And since these texts have varying authority, so do the fruits
mentioned therein.
When HaShem promised the land of Israel to the Jewish people, He mentioned
seven local edibles by name to prove that this was His most prized real estate.
G‑d is bringing you to a good land—a
land with flowing streams, and underground springs gushing out in valley and
mountain. It is a land of
wheat, barley, grapes, figs and pomegranates—a land of oil-olives and
honey-. It is land where you will not eat
rationed bread, and you will not lack anything…(Deut.
7:6-8).
The rabbis teach that when it comes
to raw produce these seven are the most distinguished of all foods. Two are
grains and five are fruits. Yet even among them a hierarchy exists. The
word land occurs twice in this
verse, and the closer a fruit appears to the word, land, the higher its
status, and there are real privileges
associated with its rank.
According to Jewish law a pecking order exists among
foodstuffs and we human beings must give honor where it is due.
Looking only at the five fruits,
grapes are already 3rd in line from the first mention of land, whereas olives appear immediately
after the Holyland’s second
mention. Consequently the hierarchy of status with regard to fruits is: 1)
olives, 2) dates, 3) grapes, 4) figs, 5)
pomegranates.
Everyone knows that Jewish law
forbids a person from eating before thanking G-d for the specific food that he
or she is about to consume. When a person, with fruit in hand, before partaking,
thanks G-d for the produce from fruit-bearing trees, all the other fruits at the
table are covered by that blessing though only one was the actual focus of the
brocha.
Every fruit hopes to be the one that
inspires a blessing and gets tasted first. The spark that is its soul, has
slowly made its way up through the ranks, enlivening minerals, now plants,
soon animals, then humans and eventually (joyfully) tsadikim. It has, and will, spend painful
years, centuries and perhaps even millennia in each kingdom. Yet now it has the
chance to ascend many rungs in a single leap, boosted by the merit of
instigating a blessing and being the one that gets eaten first. This is a
privilege the Code of Jewish Law assigns to fruits based on their rank in the
Scale of Yichus.1
So now, at a Tu b’Shvat seder,
surrounded by thirty delectable fruits: How do you decide which to make the
focus of your brocha, for only
one out of all those thirty gets the privilege? One opinion is that the five
fruits mentioned in the verse above are the elite of the fruit kingdom and must
be accorded the honor that is their due. Hashem, Himself has set them apart
which makes their superior status uncontestable.
Consequently, when faced with an
array of fruits, the honor of being the focus of blessing goes to these five
distinguished species, and if there are several present, it goes to the one of
highest rank. So if olives are present, the blessing is always said on
them.1
(The
Subjective) Scale of Desirability
But the Code of Jewish Law brings a
second opinion which gives primacy to the person’s genuine
preference.2 The eater should say the blessing over the fruit that he
likes best—the one that she honestly wants to eat first. In the Scale of
Desirability the fruit’s rank is in the eyes of its beholder. It rises and falls
according to the palette of the one who is about to eat
it.
From this perspective, eating is an
intimate encounter between a person and his food. It doesn’t make sense to force
a person to eat olives first, when really he prefers an apple. This opinion
weighs the person’s (subjective) wishes over the fruit’s (objective) yichus. The human’s right of
self-determination overrides the aristocratic privileges of the
fruit.
The Solution of
the Pri Eytz Hadar (Guidebook for Tu B’Shvat
Sedarim)3
For those who follow the first
opinion, everyone at the table would say their
blessing-of-gratitude-for-fruit-bearing trees over an olive, and then partake of
all the other fruits which were covered by that blessing. Fortunate are
the olives that land at such a table on Tu B’Shvat.
For those who follow the second
opinion, everyone chooses the fruit that they prefer. Yet even here there
is some confusion: Does this mean that they should choose their all-time
favorite fruit, or the one that in this moment catches their eye? There are
opinions in both directions.
The Pri Eytz Hadar suggests the following
practice which honors both values. Each person should pick the fruit that is
their favorite, the one that they want to honor with their blessing. Then
the Seder proceeds according to the Scale of
Yichus. Meaning, in terms of
fruit, the olives are distributed and verses are read where olives are
mentioned. Then, the person who chose olives as their favorite, says a
blessing and eats their olive. But no one else eats olives yet. Then
dates are distributed, verses are read, the one who chose dates recites the
blessing, and that person can now eat not only dates, but all that came before
(in this case, olives). Next the grapes are distributed, verses are read,
the one who chose grapes recites the blessing and he or she can now eat all that
came before. Everyone else has all these previously blessed fruits on their
plate but they have not yet tasted them, for they are waiting till their
favorite fruit comes up in the Scale of Yichus which proceeds as
follows:
1) Olives 2) Dates 3) Grapes 4) Figs
5) Pomegranate 6) Etrog 7) Apple 8) Walnut 9) Almond 9) Carob 10) Pear 11)
Quince 12) Peach 13) Etc.
Not all of these fruits have to be
claimed as the favorite by someone at the seder since those who choose fruits later
on the list may have to wait quite a while before they partake. It is also
fine for more than one person to choose each fruit.
Tu B’Shvat is New
Year’s Day for fruit-bearing trees. May it be a year of abundant rain,
nutritious soil, conscious pruning, right temperatures, successful pollination,
disease and pest resistance, and bountiful harvest for the ilanot of the world. And may our Tu
B’Shvat fruit-fest remind us that HaShem loves variety, color, vitality,
sweetness and savor. And may we take that truth to heart. And may it
change us in ways that serve only good.
----------------------
1SA 211:1 and MB there (based on TB Brochot 40b, opinion
of R. Yehuda in Mishna).
2SA 211:2 and MB there (based on TB Brochot 40b, opinion
of Sages in Mishna).
3Pri Eytz Hadar, , Seder Tu B’Shvat
(Mansour).
)