Tu Bishvat: Perek Shirah – The Fig Tree

The fig sings, “The guardian of the fig shall eat her fruit.” (Proverbs 27:18) According to one opinion, (Berachot 40a) the Tree of Knowledge was a fig tree. Rashi quotes this opinion when he explains why Adam and Eve used the leaves of a fig tree to cover their nakedness, “Let them used the tree with which they sinned to cover themselves because of the sin.”

This is why the fig tree sings,  “Only those, who unlike Adam and Eve, guard the tree, shall merit to eat of its fruit.