Today is Tu Bshvat and instead of seeing shkeydia porachating, instead of seeing the almonds trees blossoming, we are seeing trees around the country being ripped up by the intense winds as the storm called Barbara approaches..

Hamechadesh is reporting on an interesting psak from Rav Dov Kook of Tiberias.

I somehow missed this story until today, and I am having a hard time finding good and reliable information about it.

Tu B'Shvat is coming (this Shabbos, which also happens to be Shabbos Shira), and the stores are busy selling all sorts of dried fruits that people, for whatever reason, love to consume on this holiday. I never really understood what's so great about dried fruits, as the fresh ones taste so much better. Some fruits just aren't accessible fresh, and some might taste better dried, so I get eating those dried - but most fruits are better fresh. I also don't get what dried fruit has to do with Tu B'Shvat. Just because 150 years ago in cold Europe they could only get dried fruit doesn't seem to be a good enough reason, to me, to rpefer it for Tu bShvat today when we have an abundance of fresh fruit available.

Anyways, there are some people who prefer you don't eat the dried fruit, or not much of it, at least. The classic reason some people oppose most of the dried fruit is due to infestation of bugs in many of the various types of dried fruit. Some you can check for and consume, but some are just too infested or too difficult to check and they say you cannot eat these types of dried fruits.

The Ministry of Agriculture is now calling on the public to avoid dried fruits, but for a different reason. The MoA is saying that the dried fruits in the market have less nutrition than fresh fruit and contain artificial food colorings, sugar and empty calories.  

The MoA is saying that instead of eating dried fruits for Tu bShvat, you should be eating fresh fruits.  source: Globes

Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchak Yosef has come out against the "bug rabbi", once again.

This is not the first time Rav Yosef has opposed, very strongly, the big rabbi. In the past Rav Yosef argued regarding the kashrut of corn on the cob, and put him down very strongly for his extreme approach in prohibiting a variety of foods that are really permitted to eat.

Now, in a shiur regarding the halachic issues of Tu b'Shvat, Rav Yosef said people should learn more the halachot of dried fruits, so that people should not prohibit things that are actually allowed.

Rav Yosef said that there is a rav in Yerushalayim who put out a book about bugs, and he took pictures of a bug in a sunflower seed, magnified it, and paskened that people must open and check every single sunflower seed before eating it. Rav Yosef said this is incorrect and is tremendous bittul torah. Rav Yosef said this is wrong, he does not know halacha and poskim, as according to halacha it is perfectly fine to eat sunflower seeds and if one comes across a ruined seed, he should take it out of his mouth...
source: Srugim

That is some pretty strong opposition and wording to what has become fairly standard in the Haredi community...

Sometimes I find my opinions very much in line with the Chief Rabbinate, and sometimes not so in line...

is the "shkeydia porachat" - the blossoming almond tree symbolic of Tu B'Shvat - the Jewish version of Groundhog Day?

Prof. Albert Einstein started a Technion-Nobel tradition in 1923 when he planted a palm tree at Technion's original campus. Since 2007, all visiting Nobel laureates are invited to plant a tree in Technion's Lokey Park. The most recent Nobel Laureate to do so is Israel's President Shimon Peres a 1994 Nobel Peace Laureate who planted his tree on Jan. 8, 2014 on his visit to Technion.

this video is a look at the Land of Israel in the time of the students of the Gra who made aliyah - in the 1770s... and what it was like in the Land of Israel at the time.. as experienced by Rav Yisrael MiShklov and Rav Yisrael Beck..

this video will only be available [for free viewing] through the end of Tu bShvat..

With Tu b'Shvat upon us one can see the wide array of seasonal fruits, mostly dried fruits, in the markets. Of course one can only look at them and not eat them because they are too infested with insects of various sizes and shapes... (humor, friends, humor)..

A lot of those dried fruits have nothing to do with the land of Israel. Many of them are imported from other countries, including from countries expressing hostility to us, such as Turkey.

While Tu b'Shvat is the new year for trees in general, the ramifications of the day revolve around the species of fruit connected to the land of Israel. The "official" customs of eating fruit also refer to the 7 species of fruit connected to Eretz Yisrael.

I sometimes wonder how it became popular to eat dried pineapple (much better fresh or canned), cranberries (which I love), papaya, various nuts, dried banana, apricot, carob (buxer) etc. They have nothing to do with the 7 species, and their connection to Eretz Yisrael is at best minor.

That's ok, because eating fruit is healthy (minus the bugs) and there is nothing really to complain about if someone wants to eat fruit, even if it is dried.

An organization called Machon Kete"r l'calcala al pi torah (I am not familiar with them) has issued a psak saying that one should buy fruits that are Israeli-grown produce rather than imported fruit. They considered the issue from 3 perspectives; am, eretz and torah:

1. preference to buying from Jews
2. strengthening settlement of the land
3. holiness of the fruits and the necessity for fulfilling the various mtivos connected to the Land of Israel.