(Some credit: AI)
Tu Bishvat — we pile tables high
with pineapple, papaya, strawberries too,
cranberries, bananas, tropical sweets,
none of which have anything to do.
אחד בתשרי — the calendrical year,
of vegetables by halacha (and the picking, for esrog).
Now, Shevat 15 is Rosh Hashana for fruit,
not for “Ha’adama” or analog!
The main point is knowing how to tithe;
which fruits belong to which year’s harvest?
But we made it a buffet of both types of פרי,
from the custom’s intent, the farthest.
Dates and figs (wheat and barley a thing?!):
those are what used to count.
Not a colorful tray of every zing—
Am Ha’aretz aisles mount.
So much for a chain unbroken,
by post-Ravina grannies.
Twixt codex and checkout (yet again),
confusion fills the crannies
We mixed up categories,
lost the count we came to keep —
bananas and peanuts[*] on Tu Bishvat:
pretty, popular… and cheap.
[*] cf. Rambam Maaser Sheni 1:2