Seven Species

Tu Bishvat is an important date in Israel’s agricultural calendar. Knowing when the agricultural year begins enabled the farmers to correctly observe the sabbatical laws of the land! Like everything in Israel, there are rules and laws to follow! In agriculture, we observe the laws of Shmitta. We follow an agricultural cycle of seven years, the last of which is called the Shmitta year (sabbatical) in which are instructed to leave our fields and let the land rest, unworked, for the entire year. During Temple times, in the first, second, fourth, and fifth years of the cycle, farmers were required...

​ Wheat is one of the world’s oldest cultivated grains – and in Israel, it grows across rolling hills and valleys, just as it did in biblical times. It is the grain of sustenance and structure – used in the Temple offerings, baked into matzah at Passover, and braided into challah for Shabbat. It represents abundance, but also the human role in refining the raw gifts of nature. Wheat reminds us: we harvest with our hands, but we nourish with our hearts. ​ Barley matures earlier than wheat and was traditionally seen as the grain of the poor, used in...