The Jewish National Fund’s annual Tu B’Shvat schedule has been changed this year, because of the Shemittah. In ordinary years, Tu B’Shvat - i.e., today, the 15th of the month of Sh\'vat - which is a Jewish form of Arbor Day, is commemorated by the planting of trees by schoolchildren and others all around the country. In a Shemittah year such as this one, however, when planting is not permitted according to Jewish law, only “virtual” trees are being planted, largely via the internet, at 18 shekels ($4.4) per tree.
Tzvika Avni of the JNF gave Arutz-7 some statistics on Israel\'s trees: \"People talk about something like 200,000,000 JNF trees in Israel, but the truth is that as forests grow and mature, there is a thinning out, such that if there are 40 trees per dunam in a mature forest, and one million dunams of forest, this brings us to about 40 million trees in Israel. Most of them are pine... Israel’s southernmost forest is a bit south of Be’er Sheva; the climate further south is not hospitable to forests... Forestland in Israel continues to grow, but at a slower pace than before...\"
An annual day of lectures on the topic of Land of Israel-based mitzvot [Torah commandments] was held at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan today, on the topic of Shemittah.
Tzvika Avni of the JNF gave Arutz-7 some statistics on Israel\'s trees: \"People talk about something like 200,000,000 JNF trees in Israel, but the truth is that as forests grow and mature, there is a thinning out, such that if there are 40 trees per dunam in a mature forest, and one million dunams of forest, this brings us to about 40 million trees in Israel. Most of them are pine... Israel’s southernmost forest is a bit south of Be’er Sheva; the climate further south is not hospitable to forests... Forestland in Israel continues to grow, but at a slower pace than before...\"
An annual day of lectures on the topic of Land of Israel-based mitzvot [Torah commandments] was held at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan today, on the topic of Shemittah.