The fifteenth day of the lunar month of Shvat (in Hebrew, Tu b’Shvat), which falls today, has been reinvented in recent decades as a celebration of nature and even of environmentalism. Arguing that this is a misinterpretation of the day’s meaning, Meir Soloveichik explains its original significance for the tithing of fruit and how 16th- and 17th-century rabbis transformed it into a celebration of the fruit of the land of Israel. (Interview by Eric Cohen. Video, 8 minutes.)
Read more on Tikvah: https://tikvahfund.org/library/zionist-meaning-tu-bshvat/