Borei peri ha'etz
For fruit of a tree. If several fruits are in front of you, bless over one of the seven species first, in the order of the verse: olive, date, grape, fig, pomegranate.
Holidays15 Shevat · The New Year for Trees
Las Frutas: a table of the fruits of the Land of Israel and the seder of the Kabbalists of Safed.
NextBegins at sundown Friday, January 22 · ends at nightfall Saturday, January 23, 2027
The Mishnah lists four new years; "the first of Shevat is the new year for the tree, according to Beit Shammai; Beit Hillel say, the fifteenth" (Rosh Hashana 1:1). It set the year for the tithes of fruit: by mid-winter the rains have mostly fallen and the sap rises in the trees of the Land of Israel.
In the 16th and 17th centuries the Kabbalists of Safed turned the day into a feast of blessings, with a seder of fruits and four cups of wine. Sephardic communities from Salonika to Baghdad embraced it; in Ladino it is called Las Frutas, or Frutikas.
Today it is also a day of planting trees in Israel and of caring for the earth.
Peri Etz Hadar
The seder printed in the book Peri Etz Hadar (from Hemdat Yamim) arranges fruits in three kinds, each a step closer to the spiritual, with four cups of wine that move from white to red.
Walnuts, almonds, pomegranates: the hard outside protects what is inside. The first cup is white wine.
Olives, dates, apricots: soft outside, hard within. The second cup is white with a little red.
Figs, grapes, carob: nothing to discard. The third cup is half red.
Red wine, with a little white, for the world that is wholly spiritual. Between the fruits, verses of the Torah, the Zohar and the Mishnah are read.
Before we eat
For fruit of a tree. If several fruits are in front of you, bless over one of the seven species first, in the order of the verse: olive, date, grape, fig, pomegranate.
For fruit of the ground, such as bananas or melons.
Over a new fruit you have not eaten this season. Many Sephardic families make a point of having one.
The short blessing after eating fruits of the seven species; for other fruits, Borei Nefashot.
Deuteronomy 8:8
"A land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and date honey." Many tables put these at the center.
Often in the form of a cake or bread.
In soups and breads.
Fresh, dried, or as wine for the seder.
Usually dried in winter.
Full of seeds, like the mitzvot.
The first in blessing order among fruits.
The "honey" of the verse.
Across the Sephardic world
"Las Frutas": tables piled with dried and fresh fruits, sweets of quince and almonds, and Ladino songs. Children received fruit bags.
Sweets of dates and nuts, and family gatherings over many kinds of fruit.
A festive table of fruits and nuts, and in some communities the reading of the seder of the Kabbalists.
The birthplace of the seder, and since the early Zionist settlement, a day of planting trees.
Keep learning
Questions
The fifteenth of Shevat, the new year for trees in the Mishnah, which set the year for tithing fruit. Today it is celebrated with fruits of the Land of Israel and a seder.
In Ladino, "Las Frutas" or "Frutikas," the festival of fruits.
A seder of fruits and four cups of wine created by the Kabbalists of Safed, printed in the book Peri Etz Hadar.
Over tree fruits, bless first over one of the seven species, preferring olives, then dates, grapes, figs and pomegranates.