[Avodah] Interesting Aspects of Tu B'Shvat

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 09:55:02AM -0500, Rich Wolberg wrote:
: year for maaser of trees. Also, I never understood why [Beis] Shammai said
: the date is the first of Shevat but we follow [Beis] Hillel who says it is on
: the fifteenth. All of the other three New Years are on the first of the
: month, so perhaps that is the reason Shammai said it should be the first
: of Shevat.

A couple of weeks ago (Jan 5th), I wrote the following in two posts
to scjm. The second two last paragraph is relevent, the rest I thought
might just be interesting.

I noticed something about years and days:

The Jewish year begins in Tishrei, the beginning of the fall. Just as
things are going dark. And our day begins at sunset. A second definition
of day is used WRT sacrifices, sunrise to sunrise. And we also have
a second definition of year used for counting months -- from spring to
spring. Both start with the start of light. (Perhaps: usually we rest
in order to produce, so the sleep cycle or farmer's slow season is before
the active part of the day. In the sanctuary, we aren't looking at prep,
only the work itself???)

"April Fools" were originally those pagans who celebrated the New Year at
the Spring Equinox, who the Christians felt were fair game for trickery.
Before the slippage, the equinox was on April 1. No idea when their day
started.

The Chinese New Year is always within a day of either Rosh Chodesh
Adar or Adar II. Their calendar has the same 19 year leap-month cycle,
although they aren't in the same place in the rotation. Their New Year
is always in the spring, and the calendar day changes at dawn.

The Gregorian New Year is around the shortest day (was once actually on
the shortest day) and it changes date at midnight.

A pattern.

[Post #2.]

I don't have a more full theory than that. Thus the "Perhaps: ...???"

The first mishnah in Tractate Rosh haShanah:
    There are four New Years:

    On 1 Nisan is the New Year for Kings and for festivals.

    On 1 Elul is the New Year for the tithe of animals. Rabbi Eliezer
    and Rabbi Shimon say, "on 1 Tishrei."

    On 1 Tishrei is the New Year for years, for Sabbatical years, for
    Jubilee years, for planting, and for vegetables.

    On 1 Shevat is the New Year for trees according to Beis Shammai. Beis
    Hillel say on the 15th of it.

I just commented on the more used two -- 1 Tishrei and 1 Nissan, because
that's the only two definitions of day. 1 Tishrei is how we count years,
both Anno Mondi and when dating contracts by non-Jewish ruler. 1 Nissan
is how we count months and date constracts when using years of rule of
Jewish kings. They mean something calendrical.

The other two are also more functionally defined, which may explain why
they're the subject of debate. 1 Elul (or 1 Tishrei) was the end of the
birthing season, 15 Shevat (or 1 Shevat) the beginning of the emergence
of crops. Both chosen to define when nature finished producing that year's
material, for the sake of knowing how to assess donations.

But really, this is just excusemaking. I simply don't have a more full
explanation. Just our two definitions of day, the Chinese day, and
the Gregorian day.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A pious Jew is not one who worries about his fellow
micha at aishdas.org        man's soul and his own stomach; a pious Jew worries
http://www.aishdas.org   about his own soul and his fellow man's stomach.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                       - Rav Yisrael Salanter