Concerning Sefardic Tu B’Shevat minhagim, Rabbi Yosef Grossman writes as follows in his Otzar Erchei HaYahadut (p.180): “There is an age-old custom in Sefardic communities to uniquely mark Tu B’Shevat with a ‘Seder Leil Simchat Ha’Ilanot,’ replete with arba kosot and the serving and eating of [new] fruit. The mekubalim in Safed, principle amongst them the Ari, would mark Tu B’Shevat by eating many fruits. This custom soon spread to Ashkenazic communities – to set a table of many fruit together with those of the seven species indigenous to the Land of Israel and say shehecheyanu on any new fruits. Among chassidim there is a custom to eat etrog jelly from the etrogim that were used on Sukkot.”
The Torah (Deuteronomy 20:19) contains an admonition not to destroy fruit-bearing trees when we lay siege to a city. Why? Because “ki ha’adam etz hasadeh.” Trees do not attack us as people do. An alternative explanation of these words is that man depends on the tree for his sustenance. The tree is considered a source of life and we should be anxious to preserve it.
The Talmud (Ta’anit 7a) relates that when R. Zera was not feeling well enough to teach halacha, R. Jeremiah asked him to expound something of an aggadic character. He replied by quoting R. Yochanan on the verse, “But is man a tree of the field?” Since the Torah states: “from it you shall eat,” and “it you shall not destroy,” but also states in the following verse, “It [an ornamental tree] you may destroy,” we derive that if a scholar (who is compared to a fruit-bearing tree) is worthy, we should eat (i.e., learn) from him.
On a Tu B’Shevat that falls on Shabbat we do not say Av HaRachamim, Kel Malei, or Tzidkosecha.
