Tu Bishvat and other topics.

I can safely assume that you are well informed about the catastrophic earthquake in Turkey. So, I’ll only add an item or two that you might have missed.

The epicentre of the earthquake along the East Anatolian fault line in the south of Turkey is 1,000km from Istanbul, but only 800km from Jerusalem. As a result, some people in Israel felt mild tremors emanating from Turkey, while people living in Istanbul, along Turkey’s Mediterranean coast and other places, hardly felt anything at all.

Rescue teams from the IDF Home Front Command have been working round the clock in Turkey searching for survivors of the earthquake. An emergency aid mission made up of units from the IDF’s Medical Corps, its Technology and Logistics Division and other special Israeli aid units has set up a field hospital adjacent to the Israeli teams working in the earthquake-stricken region. The hospital is expected to operate for about ten days. In addition, the delegation will assist the Home Front Command teams locating survivors and rescuing them. However, it’s not clear yet if medical aid offered by Israel to Syria will be accepted by the Assad regime.

 On Saturday thousands of Israelis gathered in the main urban centres throughout Israel for the fifth consecutive week to demonstrate against controversial legal reforms about to be enacted by our new rightwing government.

Eliav Lieblich and Adam Shinar writing for Foreign Policy Magazine questioned whether the reforms will bring about the end of Israeli democracy. Lieblich and Shinar are well known legal experts who teach at law schools in Israel and the US.

“The coalition government’s ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox members don’t agree on everything, but they are united on one objective, namely weakening Israel’s judiciary and strengthening government control over both the courts and the civil service.” They said…….

“For now, the reforms seem likely to pass. Netanyahu enjoys a stable majority in the Knesset, and his coalition has fast-tracked its assault on the judiciary in a blizzard of legislation that the opposition has criticised for flouting accepted procedures. There is a chance the Supreme Court could invalidate the reforms once they are approved, which would plunge the country into a full-fledged constitutional crisis. But either way, Netanyahu’s government will have deepened Israel’s divisions and weakened its democracy.”.....       

“Eliminating restraints on government power will appease religious fundamentalists and enable Netanyahu to keep his promises to his governing partners. In his coalition agreements he pledged to amend the country’s anti-discrimination laws, allowing business owners to refuse service based on religious beliefs, which will affect the LGBTQ community and other minorities.

Netanyahu’s government has also announced plans to reform the media. Shlomo Karhi, the minister of communications, has declared his intention to privatise Israeli state-funded television and radio stations. The move is seen by most observers as an attempt to clamp down on critical press coverage and independent reporting. Indeed, Galit Distel-Atbaryan, the minister of public diplomacy, wants to go further. Distel-Atbaryan has expressed support for shutting down state-funded media altogether instead of privatising. “Whenever you privatise, the left seeps in.” She said.

Meanwhile, Culture Minister Miki Zohar has announced his own plans to limit government spending on the arts, denying funding for works that “harm the image of the state.” This two-stage programme of policy changes has a clear purpose: stifling expression by removing critical content from the public sphere and strengthening the government’s grip on power.”

Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara issued an official opinion against the judicial reforms last week. The A.G warned that each of the provisions itemised in the proposed judicial reforms would damage Israel’s system of checks and balances on its own and more so cumulatively. “There are no checks in the proposed system to ensure the protection of human rights and proper administration.

     Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara 

Acceptance of the proposed arrangement will lead to a regime structure in which the executive and legislative authorities have broad and practically unlimited authority, which has no built-in response to possible fear of misuse of legislation or Basic Laws for the purpose of circumventing judicial review, or of harming the core characteristics of the state as a Jewish and democratic state,”

Instead of the proposed reforms, Baharav-Miara suggested that Justice Minister Yariv Levin work together with relevant parties to pursue the formulation of the Basic Law. This Basic Law would establish the relationship and boundaries of the Knesset and the judiciary and is considered a missing piece of vital constitutional legislation.

 If you recall, last week I noted that various Israeli elite security units operate in the Jenin area almost every night in an ongoing effort to thwart Palestinian terrorist activity.

These routine pre-dawn raids usually warrant no more than a brief mention. Moreover, they are not restricted to Jenin and its environs.

The Guardian quoted a statement issued by an IDF spokesman relating to an incursion in the   Aqabat Jaber refugee camp near Jericho on Monday. “A number of armed assailants were killed after firing at IDF soldiers who were operating in the area,” The spokesman added that there were no Israeli casualties in the incursion.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed that five men aged between 21 and 28 had been killed and another man was severely wounded.  A Hamas spokesman said that its fighters were among the dead.

The IDF said the targets of Monday’s raid were suspected of an attempted attack on a restaurant in Vered Yeriho (The Rose of Jericho) a nearby Israeli settlement, last week. Two armed Palestinians with suspected links to Hamas tried to shoot diners in the restaurant, but fled after one of their weapons malfunctioned.

Rereading this text, I find most of it quite depressing.

Wיhat better can I do to compensate for this cheerless post than recycle something about Tu Bishvat, celebrated at the beginning of the week.

On Tu Bishvat in 1890, Rabbi Zeev Yavetz, one of the founders of the Mizrachi movement, took his students to plant trees near Zichron Yaakov. In1908 the custom was adopted by the Jewish Teachers Union and later by the Jewish National Fund.

Since the founding of the JNF in 1901 it has planted over 250 million trees, created and built over 240 reservoirs and dams, developed over 250,000 acres of land, and established more than 2,000 parks.   

Rightly so the festival has become our renewed arbour day.

Tu Bishvat is a relatively late addition to the Jewish calendar. Although it was probably observed earlier, the final date of its celebration was fixed in the Talmudic period.

It seems that like the start of our fiscal year the festival originated for tax collecting purposes. Fruit tithes sent by farmers to the Temple were fixed on this day. Today two thousand years after the destruction of the Temple the tithe system has no significance. Nevertheless, like most people in Israel, farmers pay income tax.

In mediaeval times Tu Bishvat served as a tangible link to the Land of Israel. Jews in many communities in the Diaspora celebrated the festival with a feast of fruits in keeping with the description in the Mishna defining the holiday as a "New Year." Nuts and dried fruits, especially figs, dates, raisins and carob pods were brought from the Holy Land or somewhere in the Middle East to be eaten during the Tu Bishvat celebration.

In the 17th century, the cabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Safed (Tsfat) and his disciples instituted a Tu Bishvat Seder similar to the format of the Passover Seder. According to one source, at least ten types of nuts and fruits were eaten at the Seder. Other authorities claim that as many as fifteen and even thirty different varieties of nuts and fruits were served on the Tu Bishvat table. In addition, four cups of wine were drunk. Both white and red wine were on the table. White wine was drunk first, and then the second glass was filled mostly with white wine together with some red wine. The third glass contained mostly red wine with a little red wine. Finally, the last glass was filled with red wine only.

The cabbalists of Tsfat were in harmony with nature. The four cups of wine symbolised the changing colours of the seasons, especially the wild flowers. Over the winter months the light-coloured crocuses blossom, then the pink cyclamens and the brightly coloured anemones, buttercups and poppies appear in the spring.

Other countries in the Middle East celebrate a local arbour day.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Republic of Malta, celebrate Arbour Day on the 15th of January every year.

 

Have a good weekend.

 

Beni,            9th of January,2023.