Q: How the custom of eating St. John’s Bread on Tu Bi’Shvat originate?
A: During the second century of the Common Era, the emperor Hadrian vociferously pursued and condemned anyone caught promulgating Jewish practice. A student of Rabbi Akiva, Shimon bar Yohai, witnessed his master and colleagues slaughtered at the hands of the Romans in an effort to erase Judaism from the earth. Still, Shimon bar Yohai would not cease teaching his people.
Ultimately, a bounty on his head, the rabbi was forced to take refuge in a deep cavern. Throughout the years of Roman persecution Shimon bar Yohai, sage and mystic, hid in the cave with his son for 12 long years. He survived the prolonged assault on the Jewish intelligentsia as he lived off of carob tree which shielded the entrance to the cave. The carob (sometimes called bokser or St. John’s Bread) sustained the father and son throughout the long years of hiding. In recognition of that life-giving tree, we eat its fruit on Tu Bi'Shvat.
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