One of my teachers, R. Raz Hartman gave over the following in a class several years ago.   I hope I do it justice, and that you enjoy it.

Before I start, I want to share a few basics.  For those of you who know this already, please bear with me.  According to our family tradition, our man Moshe (Moses) went up on Mt. Sinai and received the Torah.  What he received was not just the written Torah, but also an oral tradition that explains and provides understanding of the Torah.  This tradition was handed down orally (hence its name) over the years and centuries, until about 1800 years ago, shortly after the second temple was destroyed.  After the destruction of the second temple, the leading sages of the time, decided that it was better to commit our oral tradition to writing so as not to lose it completely when we went into exile.  What they wrote down is called the Mishna.

Now, during the time of the sages of the second temple, differences of understanding started to appear.  The first differences are attributed to the sages Shammai and Hillel (and their schools of thought) who lived over 2000 years ago.

The sages of around 1500 years ago decided to add their commentaries to the Mishna because people were no longer understanding the Mishna without these commentaries.  These commentaries provided not just an understanding of the Mishna, but also an understanding of the Jewish world view.  I am afraid I do not know how to explain what that world view is – it has to be experienced.  These commentaries, along with the Mishna are called the Gemorah.

Around 1000 years ago lived a French Jew who is known by Rashi.  His commentaries (along with a group of sages called the Baal Tosa-phot) surround the Gemorah, providing a play-by-play account of what is happening in the Gemorah.  Why is he there?  Because, again people were losing an understanding of what the Gemorah was trying to say.  All together, this is called the Talmud.

Now in the Mishna, it says that there are 4 Jewish new years.  The first is the month of Nissan and it is for the kings and the holidays.  The first of the month of Elul is the new year for tithes of animals.  The first of the month of Tishrie is the new year for years, for the sabbatical years and the Yoval (jubilee) years, and for planting and for vegetables.  The first of the month of Shvat is the new year for trees, like the words of school of Shammai.  The school of Hillel says that it is the 15th.

Now the first thing R. Raz pointed out is that the first three new years all seem to be talking about man-related things:  holidays, tithing, and sabbatical years.  The last one is different:  it is for trees – for something not man-based, but nature-based.  That is it.  Now I realize that we have tithing based on this, but the Mishna chooses not to talk about it.  The question is:  why?

When we look at the Gemorah on this (forgive me, if I am not completely accurate on this, I do not have the Gemorah on Rosh Hashanah in front of me), it says some strange things.  The school of Shammai says that the reason for the new year for trees to be on the first of Shvat is because most of the rains have happened, but most of the winter is still ahead (Shvat is the second of the three months of winter).  The school of Hillel seems to think that we should have this new year for trees in the exact center of winter.  Now we are only talking about a two week difference, so what are they arguing about?  If we look to Rashi, he seems to make things even more confusing.  He says that Shammai’s comments about the rain have a sexual connotation.

Rashi, however, is giving us the key to understanding the disagreement.  What Shammai is doing is comparing the rainfall to a man providing his seed into the womb of the female, which is the earth.  Conception happens when most of the rain/seed is gone into the womb/earth.  And even though, most of the gestation period still remains (most of winter), and even though we might not even be aware of any changes due to conception, we still must celebrate.  Hillel says a little different.  Yes, conception has happened.  But let us wait until we start to see some change; wait until the winter starts receding and spring, the time of budding and blooming starts approaching before we start to celebrate.  Their argument is:  do we celebrate the beginning a new cycle of life when it occurs and before we are aware of it (Shammai), or do we celebrate it when we first become aware of the new cycle of life beginning (Hillel)?

Without going into the reasons, we go by Hillel, which is why we celebrate the new year for trees on tu (the letters that add up to 15) b’Shavt (which is the full moon, btw) and not on the first of Shvat (the new moon).  However, we also acknowledge Shammai because we can’t celebrate the 15th until we know the first (and we always celebrate the first of a month, which is the day the new moon is first seen).

May this year be the year all your dreams come to fruition.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.