Many attempts at explaining the non-halachik significance of Tu B’Shvat focus around Devarim 20:19 “a man is the tree of the field.” The verse is rhetorical in its pshat, but Taanis 7a suggests we can learn the verse as a statement, comparing people to trees. While there are plenty of beautiful trees in the world, this comparison doesn’t seem very flattering, so what are we to learn from the trees, and why would we want to be compared to them?
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson (Shaarei Ha’Moadim Chodesh Shevat) suggests that the advantage (maalah) of the trees (tzomech) is that they never stop growing. Even after a tree has stopped getting taller it continues to get wider, to sprout new branches, and to produce leaves until it dies. As long as a tree is still alive, it is always growing.
Next week we mark the new year for the trees, and we can be like them, growing everyday!
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