It is said that the first of Shevat, with just a bit of the radiance from the moon, is the new year for the trees – according to Beit Shammai. Beit Hillel says – on the fifteenth of the month, when the moon is at its fullest. [3]

To follow their reasoning in a different argument: “Shammai would eat in honor of Shabbat…” [4] In other words, Shammai, according to his spiritual stature of “the Fear of Yitzhak,” did not believe that he could direct his intention in his eating to heaven, and he so wanted to infuse enough holiness in his eating for the mitzvah of honoring Shabbat, such that if he found a better food than the first, he’d eat the first and save the second for Shabbat (but in any event, he would never eat meat). 

But Hillel the Elder had a different quality, that “all his actions were for the sake of heaven.” [5] Moreover, as it says: “‘The man of kindness does good for himself,’ this is Hillel the Elder, who would go ‘to perform an act of kindness for the guest inside the house.’ [They said to him: ‘Every day you have a guest?’] He said to them: ‘And is this wretched soul not a guest inside the body; [one day it is here, the next day it is not here].” [6] In other words, that he never thought of any bodily pleasure [in eating]; only that it is like feeding a guest, that it was for the physical existence that comes from eating, just like with our forefather Jacob who wasn’t familiar with the sensation of bodily pleasure, and like with Adam before the Fall, [7] and that’s why he (Jacob) said something [about sex] that even the simplest of people wouldn’t say. [8]

The month of Shevat, which was created under the auspices of the letter Tzadi, [9] is for taste. Its task is to redeem eating that it should be for holiness, as it says, “The righteous man eats to his heart’s content” [10] – like Hillel who performs kindness, a man of kindness who performs kindness for his wretched soul, and when his eating is redeemed that it should be in holiness, it is saved from every prosecutor of the evil inclination that reigns over eating, as I taught in my writings, as well as in in the holy Zohar.

In this month [of Shevat] it is the time to redeem one’s eating that it should be just from the Good Side, and there is no Good like the Tzadik, as it says “Hail the righteous, they are good.” [11] 

Another beraita: “Beit Shammai say: From the first day of the week, start preparing already for your Shabbat.” [12] Therefore, they say that the first of Shevat is the new year for the tree, that you have only a little radiance from the moon – that you need to yearn and toil to redeem eating that it should have holiness. And this is the reason for Shammai’s counsel for Shabbat, aligned with the quality of Fear and Awe and not believing in himself. 

And Beit Hillel [celebrate Tu B’Shvat] on the fifteenth of Shevat, that the moon is in its fullest: that in this month the redemption is in its entirety, that eating will be filled with holiness, the righteous who eat to satiety, to perform kindness with this body, and this is “Blessed is Hashem each and every day” – just as it was at Matan Torah, when the Evil Inclination was uprooted from their hearts and everything became from the Good Side; and like Jacob, who was like Adam before the Fall. The essence of Holy Eating is on Shabbat, as is written in the Gemara and the Zohar, that through the observance of Shabbat we are redeemed immediately, that everything is redeemed that it should be like it was before the Fall and the wound of the Snake, and like Jacob who did not die. This is what it means to be immediately redeemed. 

And the Shabbat eating is transferred to all acts of eating that they should be in holiness. As we have said, that it is like the example of how the holiday of Pesach transfers to all that they are eating like the Priests, [13] and through this commanded eating it is redeemed that every act of eating is in holiness. 

And therefore, Israel has the custom to taste all types of fruits on this day – and we know that through the customs of Israel, which are Torah, we infuse eating with holiness. 

And as we saw with the Arava: that it is a “custom of the prophets to wave the Arava without a blessing [when necessary, to fulfill the mitzvah of Lulav].” [14] And though they weren’t commanded to do so, they had the custom of doing so, so that the rest of Israel would know and then do it. 

That helped redeem even the Arava, which has no taste and no smell, which is compared to one who has no Torah and no good deeds, [15] and when all four species are in one bundle they appease for one another. [16] But here the Arava is redeemed by itself, by way of a custom. And Israel’s customs are Torah, since if they are not prophets themselves they are children of prophets, and it will be a custom of prophets. [17] 

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And through Israel’s customs we can infuse holiness in all kinds of fruits, that their eating is only from the side of the Tree of Life, and thus redeem all one’s eatings, that they should be in holiness – the righteous eat to satiety, to perform kindness to their wretched bodies – and then we will be fully redeemed in Nissan.