The carob tree

There’s a carob tree at the top of the path that provides shade in the hot summer months and shelter on rainy winter days. The path of course is the path I take on my way to work in the morning. The carob tree is one of many in a grove planted on the hill above my home in the early 1950's.

I'm told the carob trees were planted to provide a fodder supplement for our sheep.

Fifteen years later when the trees were yielding appreciable quantities of fruit animal husbandry nutritionists decided not to include carob pods in our sheep flock's ration. So the carob pods remain unwanted, but the trees still provide shade and shelter.

Earlier this week I stopped under the carob tree at the top of path to shelter from the rain. The carob tree is associated with Tu Bishvat the minor festival we are celebrating this week. Tu Bishvat is also known as the new year of the trees.

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 started by Rabbi Yavetz was adopted by the Jewish Teachers Union in this country and later by the Jewish National Fund.

Since the founding of the JNF in 1901 it has been involved in extensive land reclamation and afforestation. Every year on Tu Bishvat more than a million Israelis participate in the tree-planting activities organised by the JNF. Rightly so the festival has become our arbor day

At this juncture it's appropriate to include an anecdote concerning Honi the Circle Drawer, the much - mentioned rainmaker. Once, Honi met an old man planting a carob tree. He asked the man why he was planting a tree that wouldn't bear fruit for another seventy years (an exaggeration of course) "You won’t live to eat its fruit," said Honi. The old man explained that when he entered this world he found trees planted by his forefathers and now he was planting trees so that when he left it his descendents would also find trees.

Unlike the old man's private tree-renewal project the JNF's afforestation programme was started in the bare denuded landscape of Ottoman Palestine. It created its own legacy.

Likewise, in keeping with the renewal concept embodied in Tu Bishvat some of Israel's major institutions have chosen this day for their inauguration. The Hebrew University's cornerstone-laying took place on Tu Bishvat in 1918; the Haifa Technion's founding ceremony was held on Tu Bishvat in 1925; and the Knesset was inaugurated on Tu Bishvat in 1949.

The festival 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.

This week Christians affiliated to the eastern churches celebrated the Feast of Epiphany marking the baptism of Jesus. Pilgrims and religious leaders flocked to Qasr al-Yahud by the Jordan River, claimed by some authorities as the site where the Israelites crossed into the promised land ( others claim the crossing was further north). Qasr al-Yahud is also thought to be the place where John the Baptist baptised Jesus.

John the Baptist , famed as a recluse is said to have lived on a diet of wild honey and carob fruit. So it's not surprising that in some places the carob pods are called St.John's fruit. Other recluses and fugitives included carob pods in their diet.

When Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and his son fled from the Romans they hid in a cave and lived on carob pods for thirteen years. During the Second World War the besieged people of Malta supplemented their meagre rations with carob pods.

I wish I could just write about carob trees and recount old anecdotes, but the Middle East has a dynamism of its own. Two momentous events occurred in the region this week , the outcome of both of them is unpredictable.

The explosive situation in Tunisia, albeit worrying, presents no foreseeable threat to Israel's security. Nevertheless the flare-up there could have a domino effect throughout the Maghreb and elsewhere in the Middle East.

On the other hand we are watching what is happening in Lebanon very closely. Hezbollah's toppling of the Lebanese government bodes no good.

The outcome of this desperate attempt to prevent the United Nations-backed tribunal indicting Hezbollah members involved in the assassination of former prime minister, Rafik Hariri is difficult to predict. The Economist’s correspondent summed up the situation as follows:

“This chronically troubled little country looks set to plunge into yet another swirl of turbulence. These often end in violence, drawing in outside powers and shaking the wider region.”

Israel, is another chronically troubled little country. It certainly has no interest in exploiting the current situation to even the score with Hezbollah. Likewise Hezbollah knows that its arsenal of 50,000 rockets threatens Israel’s home front but is not an effective deterrent against its army. I don’t believe Hezbollah really wants to take on the IDF.

Nasrallah knows that Israel’s army is better prepared and is ready for any contingency. A confrontation would be disastrous for Hezbollah and Lebanon.

An editorial in the New York Times this week didn’t mince words in criticising Hezbollah pointing to Syria as the responsible reining-in party in the Lebanese equation. “The Syrian government needs to press Hezbollah to end its political extortion and rejoin a national unity government. Hezbollah’s huge Lebanese-Shiite electoral constituency makes it hard to ignore. But impunity for assassination is too high a price to pay for its support.

Hezbollah depends on Syrian money and arms and responds to pressure from Damascus. Enlisting Syrian cooperation will be the first challenge facing Robert Ford, the new United States ambassador, who arrives in Damascus next week.” I doubt if the US administration concurs with the editor’s opinion.

Accepting this advice is tantamount to recognizing Hezbollah as a legitimate political player. Up to the moment Hezbollah resigned from the government it maintained its political power sharing while operating as a terrorist organisation engaged in an uncompromising armed struggle against Israel.

However it’s reasonable to expect that ambassador Ford will try to persuade President Assad to stop Syrian financial support for Hezbollah. It will take time and there is no guarantee that the wily Assad will really sever the tie with Hezbollah.

Today our kindergarten children took part in the traditional tree planting that takes place every year on Tu Bishvat. Maybe it’s a minor festival but it has a great message.

Chag Sameach

Beni 20^th of January, 2011.