Jewish Optimism and the Holiday of the Trees

Here is a Dry Bones cartoon about Tu B'Shvat, the holiday of the Trees, from 1997. It falls on February 2nd this year. 

 I am going to post the whole blog post that Yaakov made about it from January 2014, but I am updating the date of the holiday. There is alink at the bottom to Amazon, where you can look at the book, and his other books, and perhaps buy. It comes in both a kindle and a paperback edition.

 Also, many have been asking after my health. So here is a bit of an update about that and the situation in Israel.  I am thankful everyday that I didn't break anything when I fell, and for all of my blessings. It still hurts to move because of my rib injury, but it is much much better. The real aftereffect at the moment is that it feels like it knocked a lot of the "life force" and enthusiasm and energy out of me. But that also is getting much better. My doctor says it is normal with a hard hit at my age and that it just takes a long time.

Here in Israel the last hostage body was recovered and is being buried today. It feels very symbolically significant. We now take off and put away all of our yellow ribbon pins and dog-tag necklaces. We are waiting to see whatever the next stage will bring, and if we will again have missiles flying from Iran soon. The government has made lots of preparations, so hopefully we will be safe. I wish all the best for you. May you have happiness, health and prosperity.  And I am wishing us all a very happy holiday of the trees and a soon to be spring.

Tu B'Shvat is the Jewish "New Year" of the trees. On Tu B'Shvat we plant trees For future generations. Tu is the number 15 in the biblical numbering system (which uses the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet). B' is Hebrew for "in". Shvat is the current month in the Hebrew calendar. So Tu B'Shvat simply means the "15th of Shvat".
This year Tu B'Shvat falls on February 2, this coming Monday.
I chose this "golden oldie" because it illustrates what I believe is a basic Jewish attitude. The blending of short-term pessimism and long-term optimism . . . packaged with a Judaic compulsion to heal the planet.

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This would be a good time to check out my book: Trees ...the Green Testament, the front page story it made.

You can go to my Amazon author's page to see Trees, the Green Testament.
There you can "Look Inside" and if you like it (And why wouldn't you?) you can buy it and/or any of a book-shelf of other Dry Bones books at amazon.com/author/kirschen
In the UK it's www.bit.ly/drybonesbooks

*     *     *For a complete rundown on Tu B'Shvat (sometimes written in English as Tu BeShvat or Tu Bishvat or...) check out Jacob Richman's awesome Tu B'Shvat site.