Why do people eat pineapple, etc. on Tu B’Shevat?

amother

Candycane

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 9:22 am

LovesHashem wrote:

Peanuts and hazelnuts don't grow on trees olives grow on trees and I've never seen anyone eat them davka on tu bshvat....

So fascinating

Hazelnuts like almonds, chestnuts, pecans and walnuts, grow on trees.
Peanuts are a legume and don’t grow on a tree.

amother

Candycane

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 9:25 am

amother Pink wrote:

Yes, btw so are cranberries or craizins, huge misconception.

It would be nice if you could post a picture of a cranberry bog. That would show people once and for all that even though a craisin looks like a raisin and sounds like a raisin, it’s different.

scruffy

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 9:25 am

LovesHashem wrote:

I see here that the arizal reccomended fruits like blueberries.

https://aish.com/48965616/

I'd love to hear a shuir about this.

Blueberries are haeitz.

mamaleh

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 9:26 am

amother Raspberry wrote:

There are sources for the minhag to eat many fruits in general on tu bishvat, doesn't specify haeitz or haadama as long as it's botanically a fruit.

I’ve never seen Chazal use botanical definitions as a criteria (please correct me if I’m wrong). Are you saying you would eat a tomato l’kovod Tu B’Shevat?

I always learned that Tu B’Shevat is when the trees (or fruits of the trees) are judged for the year (Rosh Hashana L’Illanos). Fruits of the tree are Pri HaAitz. I don’t see how eating strawberries or pineapple is any different than eating cucumbers and lettuce, in this situation.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t eat it if you enjoy it. Have fun, eat whatever you want, but selling it (and buying it) because of Tu B’Shevat doesn’t make sense to me.

amother

Moccasin

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 9:29 am

amother Amethyst wrote:

We eat strawberries on tu b'shvat, along with other fruit. We do a chocolate fountain & chocolate dipped strawberries are delicious.

off topic, but how do you use chocolate in a chocolate fountain without adding tons and tons of oil to make it liquidy??? Please help me!!!

Reality

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 9:30 am

LovesHashem wrote:

Peanuts and hazelnuts don't grow on trees olives grow on trees and I've never seen anyone eat them davka on tu bshvat....

So fascinating

Many people eat olives on Tu B'shvat. They are one of the shivat haminim. I always try to serve as many of the shivat haminim as possible.

Last edited by Reality on Tue, Jan 23 2024, 9:30 am; edited 1 time in total

scruffy

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 9:30 am

LovesHashem wrote:

But they don't grow on trees...

If they're haeitz, then I'm sure that the bush is halachically considered a tree. Does orlah apply to a blueberry bush? Probably

mamaleh

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 9:30 am

LovesHashem wrote:

Peanuts and hazelnuts don't grow on trees olives grow on trees and I've never seen anyone eat them davka on tu bshvat....

So fascinating

We actually do put out olives for Tu B’Shevat (and that’s what we make the HaAitz bracha on). We also do an assortment of nuts, in addition to fruits (but not peanuts).

YounginBP

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 9:42 am

I was in the supermarket this Sunday and I started taking some of the dried fruit and nuts from the display, and it hit me! This is all marketing, dried fruit is full of sugar, I don't need this.

I ended up getting grapes, pomegranates, some nuts and one 'new' fruit.
We will also have esrog jelly and dried esrog.

LovesHashem

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 9:49 am

YounginBP wrote:

In Israel you can but dried fruit without added sugar. Also we only have seasonal fruit and some things like cherries or mango simply doesn't exist right now unless it's dried.

BadTichelDay

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 9:57 am

LovesHashem wrote:

But they don't grow on trees...

Blueberries grow on a small bush. Halachically, a tree is a plant with a wooden stem or trunk that stays alive for several years in a row at least. The size doesn't matter. By that definition, a blueberry bush is simply a very small tree.

Bananas grow on something that looks a lot like a palm tree, but the trunk isn't made of real wood, it's fibrous green stuff, and it regrows every year anew. Therefore bananas are ha-adama.

Papayas grow on another palm like plant, grow tall very fast, but they are very short lived. They've got most of their fruits in the first 2-3 years and then get weaker and weaker until they die. If one would count orlah on them, one would hardly get any fruits ever. However, the trunk can live for 4 or 5 years. So it is a machloket.

amother

Tomato

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 10:09 am

LovesHashem wrote:

In Israel you can but dried fruit without added sugar. Also we only have seasonal fruit and some things like cherries or mango simply doesn't exist right now unless it's dried.

It isn't about the added sugar, though. Dried fruit simply has a lot of sugar per serving, since it's so concentrated.

As far as seasonal fruit, that's okay. There is no need to eat every type of fruit for tu bishvat. I believe there is an inyan to eat the Shiva minim, so maybe davka dried fruits of the Shiva minim, if they aren't available fresh.

amother

Silver

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 10:49 am

I totally agree with the Pineapple & other ha'adoma "fruits" being marketed.

As a child growing up, we used to try to eat 15 different fruits on Tu bishvat (Tes vav = 15), but then we told there is a bigger inyan to try to eat 26 fruits - same gematria as Hashems name!
Nowadays I just buy what I can & make a nice fruit platter.

amother

Wine

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 11:22 am

Same reason my Chanuka cookies are dreidel, menorah, oil, doughnut, and snowflake shaped.
Is there an issue having snowflake shaped cookies on chanuka although it didn’t snow at the chanuka story?

Tu bishvat at is a holiday celebrating fruit trees. Can my fruit platter have fake plastic flowers on it?

amother

Wine

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 11:30 am

amother Moccasin wrote:

off topic, but how do you use chocolate in a chocolate fountain without adding tons and tons of oil to make it liquidy??? Please help me!!!

You should not be mixing chocolate with tu bishvat fruit as it is not ha’etz. You might be oiver on gebrochs mixing tu bishvat ha’etz fruit with chocolate that technically grows on a tree but isn’t ha’etz.

One of my “pet peeves” are when people eat anything on Tu bishvat that isn’t Ha’etz.

amother

Iris

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 11:36 am

amother Wine wrote:

What does gebrochs have to do with tu bishvat?

I'm not sure why you can't dip the fruit. There's no halacha that you can't have the fruit mixed with other items.

amother

Forestgreen

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 11:47 am

amother Iris wrote:

What does gebrochs have to do with tu bishvat?

I'm not sure why you can't dip the fruit. There's no halacha that you can't have the fruit mixed with other items.

I'm guessing it's meant to be a joke

mamaleh

Tue, Jan 23 2024, 12:15 pm

amother Wine wrote:

Btw there are poskim that say chocolate should be HaAitz.

I’ve been very clear that people should eat whatever they enjoy, and definitely things that enhance the fruit. My issue is with the marketing (and to a lesser extent the purchasing) of things that have no connection to Tu B’Shevat as part of a Tu B’Shevat platter/display.

For the record-we do not make snowflake cookies for Chanukah, but even if we did, there is no inyan to eat Chanukah cookies on Chanukah (at least I’ve never seen it brought down except in family lore), so defining any cookie as a ‘Chanukah cookie’ doesn’t really matter. There is an inyan to eat fruit (Pri HaAitz) on Tu B’Shevat.