January, 2021
See separate post regarding the sources for a Tu B’shvat ‘seder‘, new fruits, and more.
Rav Yaakov Teitelbaum (d. 1968), the beloved mara d’asra of Kahal Adas Yereim for twenty years, held his shul’s grand annual seudah on, of all days, Tu BiShvat.
Rabbi Paysach Krohn, who grew up in this shul and under the tutelage of Rav Teitelbum, recently shared with me:
“This [seudah] was his ‘State of the Union. Even the counselors at Camp Agudah -where Rav Teitelbaum served as the rav in the summers-shlepped all the way to Queens on Tu BiShvat to hear this important drashah.”
The date chosen for this “State of the Union” address might have seemed odd to some, but I have a theory about why he chose it.
Allow me to give some quick background first.
Rav Teitelbaum was a tremendous talmid chacham.
Rav Heschel Greenberg, who has served as a rav and shaliach in Buffalo for the past 45 years, shared his has fond memories of Rav Yaakov coming often to Crown Heights from Queens to farher the Lubavitch bachurim. This was a major event, and a stressful one, for the bachurim.
In fact, when I recently spoke to Rav Yosef Teitelbaum, one of Rav Yaakov’s sons, he shared how the Lubavitcher Rebbe chose his father to test the boys because he wanted an outsider – an unbiased participant- to best, and honestly, gauge how the bachurim were doing in learning.
Many readers may be more familiar with Rav Yaakov Teitelbaum’s other son, Rav Eli Teitelbaum (d. 2008), an early developer of technology l’maan haTorah (among his many projects was Dial-A-Daf; today his organization is still active as ‘Torah Communications’).
Their father, Rav Yaakov, was born in 1897 in Husyatin, Galicia. When World War I broke out, he was only seventeen. His family, along with many others, fled to Vienna, where he became a student of the illustrious posek Rav Meir Arik (d. 1925), from whom he received semichah.
Rav Yaakov published a sefer titled Kol Yaakov. It was in this sefer where I discovered a story that may explain his enchantment with Tu BiShvat.
He shares a story that he heard from his rebbe, Rav Arik.
We are aware that communal custom was sacrosanct throughout Europe. For example, the great tzaddik and gaon Rav Nosson Adler was famously put in cherem when, whilst in Frankfurt, he adopted a nusach sephard siddur, sephardi pronunciation, and other sundry anomalous practices.
Rav Arik shared how something similar occurred to the Baal Shem Tov.
When the Baal Shem Tov was about twenty years old, he moved to the city of Brody, where he became a melamed.
One year in Brody, he longed to have new fruit for Tu BiShvat (see Magen Avraham 131:16, or the post where I discuss the sources behind this minhag in detail).
Before refrigeration, as well as our ease of shipping, fresh fruit on which to make a shehecheyanu during the winter was rare.
The Baal Shem Tov was unable to attain any such ‘new’ fruit.
At that time, the kloiz of Brody, headed by the gaon Rav Chaim Rappaport, heard rumors about this new melamed, how he was teaching unique concepts and, generally, who had his own way of doing things.
Rav Rappaport demanded that the melamed come to the beis din of Brody to explain his actions.
The day the Baal Shem Tov was supposed to meet with the beis din was…Tu BiShvat.
Rav Rappaport’s brother-in-law, the esteemed Rav Zev Volf Kitzem, came upon the Baal Shem Tov on his way to the beis din and watched as he took a circuitous route through a snowy forest.
He decided to follow him.
He watched as the young Baal Shem Tov stopped by a barren tree and cried out words from the Yom Kippur davening:
“V’yeida kal pa’ul ki Atah pe’alto, v’yavin kal yatzur ki Atah yetzarto—All of Your offshoots know that You are their Maker, and all of Your creations know that You are their Creator.”
Suddenly, and to Rav Kitzem’s astonishment, dates appeared on the tree, as if out of nowhere!
The Baal Shem Tov, he observed, was giddy with joy. He watched as he made a shehecheyanu with great intent.
- (The question of whether birchas ha’eitz or shehecheyanu should be recited first is a serous debate in halachah, and one must speak to his rav about what to do – See Be’er Heitev 225:6; Pri Megadim, #7; Magen Avraham, 225:9;shu”t Kesav Sofer, ohch, siman 25;shu”t Avnei Nezer, 250:6.)
- (The question of if ‘miracle’ items have the same status as the item they are intending to imitate is deep, yet it is a subject well beyond our brief sharing of this story. This question touches upon issues such as the beracha on mann, or un-kosher intent on it, as well as the view that klal yisroel had ‘miracle’ grain in the desert, etc. See Shalal Rav, Chanukah in the name of the Brisker Rav [regarding if miracle oil would even satisfy the menorah’s mitzvah requirement], and see as well as Rav Yosef Engle’s notes, as collected recently in Asifas Yosef, sefer shemos)
As soon as the Baal Shem Tov was out of sight, Rav Kitzem gathered some of these ‘miracle’ dates in his basket and ran to the beis din so that he could offer clear proof that the young melamed was a person of remarkable holiness and should be left alone.
As he breathlessly entered the beis din, they were already in the midst of interviewing the melamed, the Baal Shem Tov. Rav Volf Kitzem interjected, “You won’t believe this! This man should be left alone as he is a real baal mofes—a miracle worker!”
He opened his basket to show the members of the beis din the miraculous fruits that had appeared on the tree; but alas, all that he found inside was snow!
The Baal Shem Tov turned to him and said, “One should not try to gain victory in a beis din through miracles. Even in shomayim they do not desire such an outcome. There are other ways to triumph.”1
I shared with Rav Yosef Teitelbaum, Rav Yaakov’s son, my hypothesis for why his father had chosen Tu BiShvat for the shul’s main dinner each year—that he wanted to celebrate his rebbe’s story about how the Baal Shem Tov was matzliach on this day.
Rav Yosef considered it but was not entirely convinced.
“Perhaps,” he responded. “But there is another explanation. In my father’s sefer, in his drashah for the 1951 Tu BiShvat shul event, he spoke about the significance of this date. He mentioned that twenty years earlier, on February 2, 1931 (15 Shevat 5691), the very first Siyum HaShas for the Daf Yomi took place. My father may have felt that Tu BiShvat was special due to this more recent event.”
That Tu BiShvat, some 89 years ago, was indeed special. The major venue for the Siyum HaShas was the newly opened Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin, and Rav Meir Shapiro opened the siyum by having his yeshivah choir sing his newly composed (and now famous) song “Kad Yasvin Yisrael.” (There is still some debate who composed this niggun and its lyrics, and if it predated this event)
In America, there were smaller celebrations that took place in Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Either explanation for Rav Yaakov Teitelbaum’s minhag is fascinating!
Let us hope that this Tu Bishvat we can see the realization of both of these theories: a growth in the klal’s learning, and, our own vindication in the beis din shel maaleh.
- The story is told how the Baal HaTanya was on a boat and, in his desire to recite kiddush levanah, requested the captain to row toward its visibility.
The captain refused this request, however the ship, as if becoming animated, began to head on its own in the needed direction, only stopping when in perfect view of the moon. The captain and his shipmates were in awe of the miracle they had just witnessed.
They were therefore shocked when the Baal HaTanya requested they row/sail just a bit more.
“Why? Hasn’t Gd already brought you to a most pristine area at which to witness the moon!”
The Baal HaTanya explained that Gd desires human effort, rather than mitzvos fulfilled through nissim (miracles).
[Heard in the drasha from the shliach at Chabad of Diana Beach, near Hollywood, Florida, parshas Bo, 5786] ↩︎
Rabbi Moshe Taub is the rabbi of Young Israel of Holliswood and rabbinic editor and weekly contributor for Ami Magazine. He is the author of Jews in the World (Mosaica Press) and writes on Jewish law, history, and thought at ShulChronicles.com.
Leave a Reply