{"id":1510,"date":"2022-01-10T12:07:22","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T11:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/?p=1510"},"modified":"2025-06-11T11:02:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T09:02:29","slug":"the-almond-tree-begins-the-new-year-for-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/the-almond-tree-begins-the-new-year-for-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"The almond tree begins the New year for Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The almond tree begins the New year for Trees<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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On the 15th of the month of Shvat, which this year falls on January 17, the Jewish holiday Tu Bishvat, the New Year for Trees, is celebrated. After this, the fruit trees begin blossoming, and first of them all is the almond tree.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The almond tree blooms first of all trees in Israel. Photo: Pixabay<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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T<\/span>u BiShvat, along with Chanukkah, are the only festivals not celebrated in the synagogue. During the holiday, it is common to eat some fruit or crop of the biblical \u2018seven varieties\u2019 listed in Deuteronomy 8:8: wheat, barley, grape, fig, pomegranate, olive and date. The almond tree is the tree that blooms first after the New Year for Trees. First come the almond blossoms, directly on the branches after which the leaves sprout. The almond tree also has a central place in the Bible. Aaron\u2019s rod was taken from the almond tree and simultaneously produced buds and ripe almonds as a confirmation of his election by God, after a rod representing each of the tribes of Israel had been placed in the tabernacle. God\u2019s instruction was, \u201c\u2026the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom.\u201d Images of almond tree flowers were also to adorn the seven-branched candlestick, the Menorah, which illuminated the part of the tabernacle called the \u201cHoly Place.\u201d The candlestick was decorated with 22 almond flowers, three on each of the six branches extending from the trunk of the candlestick and four on the trunk itself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Vigilance and hope<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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\u2018Almond\u2019 in Hebrew comes from a word meaning \u201cto be awake\u201d and the Hebrew meaning for almond tree literally means \u201che who awakens, is alert and vigilant\u201d, referring to the almond tree blossoming first of all the trees in Israel. The tree brings hope that spring will soon arrive, and that winter will soon be over. The almond is thus also a symbol of vigilance. On the same theme, the prophet Jeremiah saw an almond tree and noted in the opening chapter of his book: The word of the Lord came to me. He said, \u2018What do you see, Jeremiah? \u201cI answered, \u2018I see a branch of an almond tree.\u2019 The Lord said to me \u2018You have seen right.\u2019 I will watch over my word to fulfill it.\u201d Jer. 1:11\u201312.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The almond tree begins the New year for Trees On the 15th of the month of Shvat, which this year falls on January 17, the Jewish holiday Tu Bishvat, the New Year for Trees, is celebrated. After this, the fruit trees begin blossoming, and first of them all is the almond tree. The almond tree […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jewish-holidays"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1510"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3682,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510\/revisions\/3682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}