[Avodah] Nature meant us to be men of the fields and flocks.

[Yitzchok Levine]

In his essay The Fifteenth of Shevat (Collected Writings, Volume II) 
RSRH writes the following about Tu B'Shevat

For us the fifteenth of Shevat is only another calendar injunction, 
and its only significance in our Galuth-life is that there are some 
faint  traces of festivity in its synagogue service, and it may have 
some  bearing on the reckoning of the "Orlah" years.

All the same we will dwell a little on this fixture because it gives 
us the opportunity of looking somewhat more deeply into the spirit 
of  Judaism. And every such opportunity is welcome. For we suffer 
from  nothing so much as the lack of a correct and true knowledge of 
our own Jewish faith.

Hunted like wild animals, herded into ghettoes, driven into our 
humble homes or into the four modest walls where we could devote 
ourselves to religious contemplation, we seemed to the 
superficial  observer to be leading a joyless and unsociable life. We 
stepped into the public eye and showed signs of activity only in the 
market place  and in business and industrial life. But people did not 
look among the  Jews for a fresh pulsating life drawing strength and 
joy from the
breasts of Nature. The truth was that the Jew had been forcibly 
driven into this painful condition, and the Jewish spirit and the 
spirit of Judaism were blamed for       what was nothing but the 
fictitious product of brutal repression.

How utterly different is the spirit of Judaism where it can unfold 
itself freely! It transports us into the open country, where the 
brooks trickle and the meadows        bloom, where the seeds ripen 
and the trees blossom and the herds pasture, where man exercises his 
powers in close contact with nature and places 
his            exertions immediately under the protection and 
blessing of God. Nature meant us to be men of the fields and flocks. 
The Galuth has made us into wandering      traders. Oh, that we could 
turn our backs on this occupation which has been artificially imposed 
on us, that with our children we might flee away to 
the         simplicity of a country life infused with the Divine 
Jewish spirit! Then would simplicity and peace, temperance and love, 
humanity and joy, enthusiasm and      happiness dwell with us; 
David's harp would sound again and Ruth would again find the ears of 
corn on the field of Boaz.

It is wonderful how the Jew'sh law continually invites us to the 
observation of the laws and ways of Nature, and how it is ever 
leading us from Nature to the life        of man and there teaching 
us to use the products of the soil for bringing to ripeness the still 
nobler blossoms and fruits to a free human life permeated with 
the      idea of God.

YL
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