The Bnei Yissachar brings down that one should begin davening for a kosher and beautiful etrog on Tu B’Shvat, hinted at by the first Mishna in Masechet Rosh Hashana which says (according to Beit Hillel) that Tu B’Shvat is Rosh Hashana L’Ilan (tree), referring to the only tree mentioned in Torah for use in a mitzvah. To understand the depth of this statement, we must explore the essence of Tu B’Shvat in relation to time.
The Bnei Yissachar brings the Gemara (Taanit 26b) which states that there are no holidays for Israel like Tu B’Av and Yom HaKippurim, for on those days the daughters of Jerusalem would go out and dance in circles in the vineyards to entice the unmarried men. The Bnei Yissachar explains that the beginning of creation of the world was on the 25th of Elul and our sages say (Sotah 2a) that forty days before the conception of a child it is announced in the heavens that so and so will be brought into the world by so and so. Of course, forty days before the 25th of Elul is the fifteenth of Elul, when it was announced that Knesset Yisrael would marry the King of Kings. And so, on Tu Be’Av the daughters of Jerusalem would take advantage of the positive vibrations and go out to dance to find their soulmates.
However, the day of the world’s creation is a disagreement in Masechet Rosh HaShana (11a). According to Rav Eliezer the world’s creation was completed in Tishrei, but according to Rav Yehoshua, creation was actually completed in Nissan. And of course, forty days before the 25th of Adar (the beginning of creation) is Tu Be’Shvat.
The Godly Reb Yitzhak Luria comments that both Rav Eliezer and Rav Yehoshua speak the Truth as Tishrei is the Rosh HaShana of the world in Thought, and Nissan is the Rosh HaShana of the world in Action. And now, the Torah of the Bnei Yissachar becomes quite spectacular.
The Passuk brought in the Gemara as a source for Rav Eliezer’s opinion that creation was completed in Tishrei is “God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation: herbage yielding seed, fruit trees yielding fruit each after its kind, containing its own seed on the earth (Breishit 1:11).’” This passuk expresses Hashem’s Ultimate Vision, that the fruit and the tree should taste the same, where the inside is like the outside. Rashi quotes the Midrash which says that something went wrong and the earth sinned, as it says “and the earth brought forth herbage yielding seed, and trees yielding fruit (1:12).” Now, the taste of the tree is not like the taste of the fruit. And of course, this is the passuk brought as the source for Rav Yehoshua’s opinion that the world was created in Action in Nissan. The perceived reality is that there is a discrepancy between Hashem’s Vision of the how the world should be and the way it is.
The Gemara (Kiddushin) relates that there are two trees whose fruit and tree taste the same—the pepper and the etrog. This tempts the Ramban to suggest that the Etz Ha’Daat is the etrog—the ideal tree placed in the middle of Gan Eden. The existence of the perfect but forbidden fruit was too much for Adam to handle and he sinned against God.
My father, Rav Meir Sendor, teaches that in the World of Tikkun, we must rectify both the sin of man and the sin of the earth. Therefore, on Sukkot we take the three minim that represent the shattered and illusory existence of plant life. The lulav represents the trunk, the hadasim represent the leafy greens and the aravot resemble the water seeking roots of a tree. We combine these minim and bind them together with the ideal fruit, the etrog, to signify our avoda to find the True Unity and consistency between the inner essence of thought behind reality and its external expression.
So on Tu’Bshvat, forty days before the completion this world as we know it, we daven with all our heart for that perfect etrog. We daven for the ability to reconnect or marry this world with God’s initial Thought. We daven for the ability to rectify our consciousness that was shattered as a result of Adam’s sin. Therefore, the Avodah of Sukkot is to achieve that rectified Da’at. According to the custom of the Arizal, we shake the four minim in the Sukkah which represents Gan Eden where we are surrounded by the reality of Hashem’s Providence, thus bringing closure to the sins of both man and the earth. May it be the Will of Hashem that we may all receive those beautiful and kosher vessels that enable us to purify our thought and bring it into enlightened action and see the world filled with the consciousness of Hashem like water fills the sea.
Noam Sendor
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Noam Sendor grew up in Sharon, Massachusetts. Before coming to Bat Ayin he was a madrich at Yeshivat Yesodei HaTorah. He is currently a student at Yeshivat Bat Ayin and editor of the Bat Ayin monthly Daff. |