Tu Bishvat

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Pronunciations

Tu Bishvat (TOO bee-shvat) listen
Tu Bishvat (too bee-SHVAHT) listen

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Definitions

  • n. The New Year for Trees; a Jewish holiday on the 15th of Shvat on which trees are planted and the trees of Israel are celebrated.

Example Sentences

  • "Join Columbia/Barnard Hillel and New Yachad City for a multicultural, pluralistic Tu Bishvat seder. Connect with your spirituality through this kabbalistic based seder, eating yummy fruits and nuts, discussing the practices of Tu Bishvat from around the world, and learning about how Columbia and you can help maintain an earth live-able for the trees. End your spiritual seder experience with an optional drum circle to close out an informative and fun evening." (source)

  • "Which fruits did you have for your Tu bi-Shvat party? We even had carobs from Israel!" (Glinert)

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew

Etymology

  • ט"ו בשבט 'fifteenth of Shevat'

      • Who Uses This

      • Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education
      • Organizations: People involved in a professional or volunteer capacity with Jewish nonprofit organizations

      Regions

      • North America
      • Great Britain
      • South Africa
      • Australia / New Zealand

      Dictionaries

      • The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
      • The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).
      • Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Popular Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005).

      Alternative Spellings

      Tu b'shvat, Tu bi'shvat, Tu bee-shvat, Tu Bishevat, Tu bi-Shvat, Tu bi-Shevat, Tu b'Shevat

Notes

  • Hamishah Asar b’Shevat is an old-fashioned name for this holiday.

    There is some controversy - and strong feelings - about the spelling of this word. In this case, the Lexicon makes an exception to the general practice of listing the "most common spelling" using Google search results, because of this convincing blog post.

    As of 1/30/13, the results using Google Advanced Search in English sites only: Ever, Past month:

    tu b'shevat: 483,000, 25,900

    tu b'shvat: 345,000, 15,900

    tu bishvat: 306,000, 19,300

    tu bishevat: 17,100, 4,110

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