Fruit & Nut Village planted 10 more fruit trees in Calthorpe Park Community Orchard on Sunday 9th February, with Birmingham Progressive Synagogue’s Tikkun Olam Group (Tikkun olam meaning "repairing the world," is a Jewish concept that emphasizes the responsibility to create a better and more just world through social action and positive change, encompassing various interpretations and actions), represented by Mandy Ross and her peers. FNV worked with friends of different faiths and none, the local community, asylum seekers, and more to plant more fruit trees in this community orchard, that was started at Tu B’Shvat the previous year.
Tu B’Shvat is New Year of the Trees in Jewish teaching: the birthday of the trees, towards the end of winter, when it’s time for planting. The trees have been sleeping through winter, before their sap starts rising for spring. 'Tu' means 15, 'B' is of, and 'Shvat' is the Hebrew name of the month.
Trees are important in all our faiths, throughout the history of humanity. The Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, many trees in the Bible, the Qur’an, the Bodhi tree in Buddhism... Trees live beside us all our lives, longer than our lives; a living and vital part of our ecosystem, our community, and our city. Tommer (a member of the Synagogue) named his recently born daughter Ilana, meaning tree in Hebrew, a name for a baby born during Tu B’Shvat.
This reading is from the Jewish prayer book: We ask the leaf, ‘Are you complete in yourself?’ And the leaf answers, ‘No, my life is in the branches.’ We ask the branch, and the branch answers, ‘No, my life is in the root.’ We ask the root, and it answers, ‘No, my life is in the trunk and the branches, and the leaves. Keep the branches stripped of leaves, and I shall die.’ So it is with the great tree of being. Nothing is completely and merely individual.
In Judaism, an act worthy of a blessing is called a mitzvah. Planting a tree is such a mitzvah, in fact, that nearly 2000 years ago Rabbi Natan the Babylonian wrote: If you hold a tree ready for planting in your hand, and they tell you, ‘The messiah has come!’, go ahead and plant your tree, and then go and greet the messiah.
To quote Kamran Shezad from Bahu Trust, who proudly represented the Islamic community during this interfaith planting event:
'The trees themselves are our rabbis and imams.'
Those taking part included Rabbi Dr Margaret Jacobi and Imam Qiyam of Adam Mosque. Read their article here: in a display of unity and community spirit, Jews, Muslims and Christians from Birmingham joined with the area’s asylum seekers to celebrate Tu Bishvat by planting 10 fruit trees in a local park. We have run three Tu B'Shvat events, and it's becoming quite significant in the interfaith world of Birmingham, so please come along next year to celebrate with us and a wonderful group of diverse people. Happy birthday to our trees!
Text edited from Mandy Ross' opening speech from the tree planting event.
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