Tu B'Shvat

Back in the early '70s, I heard a very amusing radio commercial. I think it was for a chewinggum company. In the ad, a very zealous worker runs into his employer's office, shouting "Boss! I found a location for our new ad campaign., there's a place in the Fiji Islands that looks just like Columbus, Ohio!" The boss asks "then why not just go to Columbus, Ohio?" The employee says "Oh..." and walks out sheepishly.
Tonight is Tu B'shvat, the New Year of the Trees. Why is there a New Year of the trees? There are many laws in the Torah relating to trees, tithes and produce that are determined by the age of the tree, or the year of the produce having been planted. Just as in our day, every race horse's age is measured from January 1st (a horse born a day earlier, or 364 days earlier will be considered one year old on January 1st), trees are considered a year older on Tu B'shvat, which is when the sap begins flowing towards the end of the Mediterranean winter, and the almond trees begin to blossom. It is a holiday that is technical, rather than festive or commemorative. There is no traditional ceremony marking Tu B'Shvat. The early Israeli pioneers made it a tree-planting holiday, but this was new. Moreover, agrarians have pointed out that trees need to be planted in the Israeli environment at the beginning of Winter, so as to have the benefits of an entire season of rain. 
However, the followers of the sinister Shabbatean heresy of the 17th century saw a parallel between eating fruit, and the descent into evil that was at the center of their cult. Some fruits are eaten in their entirety. Some are eaten and an inside pit is left behind. But some (especially nuts) are eaten by penetrating their shell. This fit with the bizarre Shabbatean concept of Sacred Sin. Man had gone as far as he could by avoiding sin. Now it was time to go into sin to find G-d! They devised a Tu B'Shvat "seder" to celebrate this concept. They first ate fruits entirely edible, then with pits inside, then various kinds of nuts. Forty-nine species in all! With the decline of Shabbateanism, this ceremony nevertheless continued in certain Middle Eastern Jewish communities. Some rabbis opposed it because of its origins. Some felt that since no one is thinking about its sectarian content, there was no harm in a fruit celebration. In the 1970s, "New Age" Jewish groups popularized this ceremony, and it is now a staple in many Jewish communities. It is seen as the holiday to celebrate the Earth, and to consider the meaning of ecology from a Jewish perspective.
But does Judaism lack such a holiday? The Biblical Sukkot holiday comes just before Israel's rainy season. We leave our homes and live in huts called "sukkot", covered with vegetation. This symbolizes our wandering in the wilderness, under divine protection. It also shows that the world is a temporary dwelling. We pray for rain, waving four species of vegetation symbolizing different types of people, and the dependence of all on the G-d sent rain. The Prophets speak of all nations coming to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot. Here we have it all! Ecology, the connection of Man and the Earth, the eventual unity of all men. Yet, in most non-Orthodox communities, Sukkot is little more than a children's festival. In the Bible and Talmud, it is often simply called "Chag" "Holiday". it is THE holiday! At the end of Sukkot we complete our annual cycle of Torah reading and begin again. The cyclical nature of life is acknowledged and celebrated. The relegating of Sukkot to a back burner, and trying to find its message in a heretical ceremony is an exercise in futility. it's looking for Columbus, Ohio in the Fiji Islands. Judaism contains everything for all people. Let's open our eyes, rather than groping in the dark