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I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Rabbi and Doctor of Cybernetics Michael Laitman, who is also a spiritual leader and above all one of the world’s most renowned kabbalists. He is the founder of the Bnei Baruch Institute and ARI, has written 30 books and has been interviewed by Larry King, among other things.
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Tu Bishvat is the Jewish new year for trees. Some celebrate the day with a Tu Bishvat seder or by planting trees. But there’s a lot more to it than that! Here are nine things you maybe didn’t know about Tu Bishvat.
1. Some Jews eat the dried carob fruit on this day.
All tree fruits are especially appropriate on Tu Bishvat. But the carob fruit, in particular, is associated with the holiday because of the story of the sage Honi who wandered the land planting carob seeds. Carob trees take decades to produce fruit so God put Honi to sleep to allow him to see his own saplings create edible fruits. There is also a famous talmudic story about a sage named Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai who was forced to hide from Roman persecution with his son in a cave. They survived off a carob tree and stream of water for 13 years (Talmud Shabbat 33b).