Chasidut para sa Deuteronomio 20:19

And so it is with Tu b'Shvat which is celebrated as a festival. It is the new year for the trees, and notice how it is also forty days before the 25th of Adar, as hinted by the verse, “For the person is a tree of the field” (Deut. 20:19).

Consider and reflect the teachings on Sivan (1:6 and 1:7) about the would-be convert who approached Shammai (Shabbat 31a), who embodies the quality of Severity and Awe (Zohar 3:245a). The would-be convert said, “Teach me the entire Torah [while I stand] on one leg” and Shammai pushed him away with the measuring stick he was holding. Shammai embodies Severity and Awe, and was holding a measuring stick that a builder uses at the start, to depict the entire building as one entity in their thoughts. And this plan does not endure. Afterwards, they build according to various [necessary] constrictions. In truth, the building changes from one day to the next, until it is finished, and then that is what endures. Understand. And Hillel comes close to this would be convert, because Hillel is the embodiment of Kindness and Love. He teaches him about love, “What is hateful to you, [do not do to others]” which is the mitzvah of “Love your fellow as yourself...” (Lev. 19:18). See the above-mentioned teachings, and understand for I grew tired from repeating the matter at length. See, when the moon is renewed in her monthly renewal, she is a tiny point which increases and grows each day until she stands at her fullness on the fifteenth [day]. And increasing every day resembles the Torah, which a person adds to every day to their mind's understanding, until the understanding of their soul is brought out from potential to manifestation. And the fullness of the moon resembles the Torah that a person reflects on [in the womb] before they are born into the air of this world, when they are taught the entire Torah (Niddah 30b). See the above-mentioned teaching about the Torah of Kindness and the Torah from the “Mouth of Severity” [i.e. G!d] and see what I wrote above about the constellation of the Bucket (Aquarius) being the constellation of Israel. And the bucket serves the water, which is Torah, therefore [this month contains] the New Year for the Trees for “a person is a tree of the field” (Deut. 20:19). And now you may understand that the first of Shevat is the [New Year for Trees] according to Beit Shammai, who come from the side of Severity. And the Fifteenth of the month is the [New Year for Trees] according to Beit Hillel, who come from the side of Kindness and Love. Therefore [for Beit Shammai] the Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 1:1) says “like the House of Shammai” using a Chaf to mean “like.” Understand these allusions.

We should contemplate about the idea of TuBiShevat, why we do not say the supplicational prayers (Tachanun). Is not its being the new year of trees something natural? That most of the year’s rains have fallen, such that the sap has risen in the trees; and from then on, the fruits emerge! If so, what is the idea of not saying the supplicational prayers on it? For it has no holiness and no commandment; no miracle happened on it, nor anything [else] that relates to the Jewish people. About the 15th of Av, [the Sages,] may their memory be blessed, spoke at the end of Taanit in the Talmud about some of the reasons [for it], that there were things that occurred on it that related to the Jewish people. But what is the novelty of Tu BiShevat? And it appears [to me as follows]: That behold it is written (Isaiah 55:10-11), "For as the rain or snow drops from heaven and returns not there, but soaks the earth and makes it bring forth vegetation, etc. So is the word that issues from My mouth, etc." Behold the prophet compared the word of God to the rains that bring things forth [produce]. So it appears that the idea of a tree is something that connects the fruit to the ground; and it is what is in the middle between the fruit and the ground and has the power of connection. And it appears that it carries a hint in its numerical equivalent (gematria). Ilan (tree) is 91, the numerical equivalent of the names of the Existence and Lordship of God, to which the Heavens and Earth relate. So it is the connection of the Heavens and the Earth. And we can learn from the essence of the physical about the spiritual; and this is why man is compared to [a tree], as it is written (Deuteronomy 20:19), "for are the trees of the field human beings." For the form of man is to connect the upper realm and the lower realm, in that he has a soul from the upper realm and a body, which bears the soul, from the lower realm. And [the Sages,] may their memory be blessed, said about the reason for the beheaded calf (being killed in its prime, is that it is symbolic), that he (the man murdered) was not allowed to make fruits. What are fruits [here? The fulfillment of] commandments. For the commandments are comparable to the fruit that grows on trees. As in the fruit, it has the spiritual power to sustain and give life to man. This is as per the explanation of the Ari, may his memory be blessed, to the verse (Deuteronomy 8:3), "not by bread alone does man live, but rather by all that issues from the mouth of the Lord does man live" - meaning by that which issues from the mouth of the Lord that is in the bread. And the body of the fruit is what bears the spirituality that is in it. So too are commandments the 248 limbs of the King. and the body of the commandments are what bears the spirituality in the commandment. And when a person does a commandment - since he has the power to connect the higher realm and the lower realm, it therefore comes out that there is the power in the act of the commandment that he does to connect and attach the higher realm and the lower realm, the act of the commandment from the lower realm and the spirituality in it from the higher realm. This is comparable to a tree that has the power to connect, and issues fruit that connects, as mentioned above. And this is so even though there are fruits of the ground (that grow straight from the ground and not from trees) and they have spirituality and that which issues from the mouth of the Lord in them, and it is nevertheless not made by way of an intermediary. And that is like there is also, among places in the world, the place of the Temple, that was always a connection for the upper realm and the lower realm, as per the Midrash, even without man as an intermediary. However the holiness in the commandments is [always] with man as an intermediary.