Minor date
Tu BiShvat
ט״ו בשבט
The New Year of the Trees. Dried fruit is eaten and saplings are planted — a calendar technicality that grew into an ecological holiday.
Until it begins
In 129 days
- Begins on the evening of
- Ends
- Length
- One day
- Minor date
- In the Hebrew calendar
- 15 Shevat
- 5787
About the holiday
A date out of the tax code: it fixed the year boundary for tithing fruit, so a harvest could be counted against the right year. Kabbalists in sixteenth-century Safed gave it a seder of fruit and wine, and modern Israel turned it into a tree-planting day. It falls when the almond trees flower, which is as close to spring as a Jerusalem January gets.
Dates for the coming years
The exact candle-lighting time depends on sunset where you are. Check with your local community.