Traditionally, Tu Bishvat was not a Jewish festival. Rather, it marked an important date for Jewish farmers in ancient times. The Torah states, “When you enter the land [of Israel] and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten” (Leviticus 19:23). Only the fruit of older trees could be eaten. This law raised the question of how farmers were to mark the “birthday” of a tree. The rabbis therefore established the 15th of the month of Shevat as a general “birthday” for all trees, regardless of when they were actually planted.

Fruit trees were awarded special status in the Torah because of their importance in sustaining life and as a symbol of God’s divine favor. Even during times of war, God warns the Israelites, “When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees… Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city? Only trees that you know do not yield food may be destroyed” (Deuteronomy 20:19-20).

At a later time, the rabbis of the Talmud established four “new years” throughout the Jewish calendar–Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish new year for the calendar date; a new year for establishing the reign of kings; a new year for tithing animals of Jewish farmers to be given to the Temple; and finally, Tu Bishvat, the new year for the trees (Mishnah, Rosh Hashanah 1:1). The rabbis discussed why this date was chosen; saying that Tu Bishvat falls after mid-winter (usually in February), they concluded that the majority of the annual rainfall has usually already fallen by this time in the land of Israel, thus yielding a healthy, water-logged soil in which to plant new trees (Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 14a).

In medieval times, kabbalists (Jewish mystics) gave Tu Bishvat greater spiritual significance. Seeing in Tu Bishvat a vehicle for mystical ideas, the kabbalists imbued Tu Bishvat with new religious significance as well as created elaborate new symbolic rituals. According to Lurianic Kabbalah (which is a form of mysticism studied by the students of Isaac Luria), all physical forms–including human beings–hide within them a spark of the Divine Presence. This is similar to some kinds of fruits or nuts, which hide within them seeds of new life and potential growth. In Jewish mysticism, human actions can release these sparks and help increase God’s presence in the world. On Tu Bishvat, the kabbalists would eat certain fruits associated with the land of Israel as a symbolic way of releasing these divine sparks.

In modern times, Tu Bishvat has become a symbol of both Zionist attachment to the land of Israel as well as an example of Jewish sensitivity to the environment. Early Zionist settlers to Israel began planting new trees not only to restore the ecology of ancient Israel, but as a symbol of renewed growth of the Jewish people returning to their ancestral homeland. While relatively few Jews continue to observe the kabbalistic Tu Bishvat seder, many American and European Jews observe Tu Bishvat by contributing money to the Jewish National Fund, an organization devoted to reforesting Israel.

For environmentalists, Tu Bishvat is an ancient and authentic Jewish “Earth Day” that educates Jews about the Jewish tradition’s advocacy of responsible stewardship of God’s creation as manifested in ecological activism. Among them, contemporary versions of the Tu Bishvat seder, emphasizing environmentalist concerns, are gaining popularity.

The post Tu Bishvat 101 appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

In the Torah, blessings are seen as a conduit for spiritual and physical potential. God blesses Adam and Eve to fill the world, Abraham is called a blessing for all his descendants, Jacob steals the first-born blessing and alters his future, the high priests bless the nation with an ever-expanding relationship with peace. The list goes on and on.

Indeed, the Talmud (Ta’anit 8b) teaches: “A blessing is found only in an object that is hidden [samui] from the eye,” suggesting that the power of blessings are found in that which is not seen, in meta-reality behind what is readily observable.

The Hebrew word for blessing, bracha, shares the same letters as the word for pool (b’raycha), hinting that when one offers a blessing, we are actually gathering energy and unlocking a life-source. It also shares a root with the word for kneel (nivrachah), intimating that blessings help us lean into that which we are blessing, focusing our gravity in one place so we can gather our energy for what has arrived and what has yet to come.

The melodies and rhythms of Jewish blessings have served as the cultural glue for Jewish daily practice for thousands of years. There are blessings over food and drink, upon leaving the bathroom, before going to sleep and during life cycle events. Jews who pray three times a day recite dozens of blessings.

The Talmud (Menachot 43b) states that each person is obligated to recite 100 blessings each day, suggesting that the way to live connected to the Divine is through living a life immersed in blessings, in gratitude. This is so important to the Jewish tradition that the sages wrote (Brachot 35a) that it is forbidden to benefit from the world without making a blessing. It could be said that the value placed on blessings is central to all of Jewish life.

And yet, with the human condition tending toward forgetfulness, it’s easy for the recitation of blessings to become rote. How then can we make blessings transformative rather than transactional? One idea is to take three seconds before making a blessing to meditate on our own voice within the blessing, to find within it that which is meaningful to us — in essence, to become the blessing.

The holiday of Tu Bishvat is a time when this kind of spiritual consciousness around blessings becomes much more accessible. The Tu Bishvat seder, a mystical practice still observed today, is replete with blessings for the Jewish new year of trees, a time when we make many blessings on the Divine creations of the world and connect to the destiny of trees, food and nature in our lives.

The seder originated in Tzfat, in northern Israel, on a mountain of mystics who pined to deepen and innovate the way we approach blessings and prayer. It makes sense that they would compile a series of blessings reflecting the unlocked spiritual potential of vines, trees, fruits and plants.

Given the holiday’s emphasis on the power of blessings, it is apropos to close with a blessing:

May it be the will of the Universe that we are able to harness the opportunity to contemplate the power and purpose of Jewish blessings and the role our voice plays within the blessing itself, improving our ability to focus while unlocking the unknown potential of that which is within and around us.

Isaiah Rothstein is the rabbi in residence at the Jewish environmental organization Hazon and the founder of the Union Street Sanctuary in Brooklyn. He is the co-author of Hazon’s Tu Bishvat Haggadah, available for download here.

The post The Power of Jewish Blessings appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

In the medieval period, Jewish kabbalists imbued the Jewish birthday of the trees with mystical significance. They recognized trees, like humans and all other living things, as vessels containing sparks of the divine which could be released in order to strengthen God’s presence in the world. They also pioneered a special ritual for the celebration of trees: the Tu Bishvat seder, which is modeled on the Passover seder.

In the 20th century, Tu Bishvat took on other significance in Jewish circles, primarily as a celebration of the land of Israel and as an expression of Jewish environmentalism. The practice of holding a Tu Bishvat seder spread far beyond the Jewish mystical community and is popular in Jewish homes and synagogues worldwide.

There is no single template for a Tu Bishvat seder. Some are infused with mystical insights, others are Zionist leaning, and still others focus on the environmental interpretation of the holiday. Most are structured around four cups of wine and the consumption of tree fruits.

My Jewish Learning has a sample Tu Bishvat ceremony and there are a number of Tu Bishvat haggadahs available for free online, most as downloadable PDFs. We’ve collected several below.

Tu Bishvat Haggadahs Online

RitualWell
A variety of full Tu Bishvat seder texts, along with individual Tu Bishvat readings and suggested activities. Hosted by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, RitualWell is a clearinghouse for creative Jewish rituals and liturgy.

Hazon Tu Bishvat Haggadah: Seder and Sourcebook
Hazon is a Jewish environmental organization.

Long Island CSA Fair Trade Tu Bishvat Seder
CSA stands for community-supported agriculture, programs in which members pay a farm at the beginning of the season to receive regular (usually weekly) shares of produce from that farm.

PJ Library Child-Friendly Tu Bishvat Haggadah
PJ Library is an organization that distributes free Jewish children’s books.

Velveteen Rabbi Tu Bishvat Haggadah for Adults
Velveteen Rabbi is Rachel Barenblat, a Renewal rabbi.

Pri Etz Hadar, the Original Tu Bishvat Haggadah
Hebrew text and English translation of the first-ever Tu Bishvat Haggadah, first published in 1728. The text is available through the Open Siddur Project.

Rabbi Amy Scheinerman’s Tu Bishvat Haggadah
A printable text geared toward families.

Juliette Hirt’s Mystical Tu Bishvat Haggadah
This meditative haggadah is designed to guide readers toward forming individual intentions. You can download this haggadah and print it out or purchase a professionally printed and bound copy at cost of production on Amazon.

Know of a great Tu Bishvat haggadah that we missed? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Where to Find a Tu Bishvat Haggadah appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Savory

Vegan Walnut Pesto
Orange and Maple Baked Tofu
Fruit Soup
Mollie Katzen’s Grilled Bread and Kale Salad with Red Onions, Walnuts and Figs
Goat Cheese Silan and Olive Galette

Find more savory Tu Bishvat recipes here.

Sweet

The Ultimate Babka for Tu Bishvat
Chocolate Fondue
Banana Cake
Lemon Lavender Cake
Lemon and Almond Semolina Cake
Lemon Tart
Persimmon and Pistachio Cupcakes
Healthy Granola

Find more sweet Tu Bishvat recipes here.

The post Tu Bishvat Foods appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Some was a response to scientists who attacked Judaism and Christianity as the bearers of a destructive teaching that human beings alone of all creation bear the Image of God and that they should subdue the earth — a teaching that, the scientists argued, led philosophically to contempt for nature and practically to pollution and degradation of nature.

Two somewhat distinct Jewish approaches emerged, both interested in exploring Jewish responsibility for the whole of the planet, not only for the Land of Israel, where Jews had again become historically responsible. Both approaches led to another burst of energy in the celebration of Tu Bishvat.

Increasingly, the festival was seen to fuse the mystical with the eco-planetary, and so to include the trees of all countries as aspects of the Sacred Tree Above. One of these new approaches we might call “Rabbinic Stewardship.” Its proponents asserted that true Judaism was protective of the environment, bore no responsibility for the despoliation of nature that Western techno-industrialism was imposing, and should indeed be drawn on to protect the environment.

This approach emerged just about simultaneously with another kind of Jewish approach to the earth. It saw Rabbinic Judaism as an important source of Jewish concern for the earth, but one that was in itself insufficient to deal with the growing threats to the natural world posed by human technology.

In response to this sense of insufficiency, several Jewish philosophies were put before the public that bespoke a love of the earth that went beyond most rabbinic teachings, drawing deeply on Hasidic thought and on some kindred Western ideas. Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua Heschel, each in his own way, spoke out of these roots. Their work, along with some earth-focused elements of Zionism, fed into an emerging exploration of new approaches to Judaism as the havurot [small, informal Jewish prayer communities] and early Jewish renewal energies, including feminist Judaism, grew in the United States in the early 1970s.

The proponents of Rabbinic Stewardship and the proponents of Jewish renewal were both attracted to recovering and renewing Tu Bishvat, for somewhat different but overlapping reasons. Participants in the loose-knit Jewish renewal movement were drawn to the drama, the depth, the beauty, and the intellectual power of the kabbalistic [mystical] and Zionist ceremonial patterns embodied in Tu Bishvat ritual and ceremony as well as to its hints of celebrating an earth in danger. The Jews attracted to Rabbinic Stewardship also responded to the possibility of drawing on Tu Bishvat to focus on Jewish concerns for the earth.

Reprinted with permission from Trees, Earth, and Torah: A Tu B’Shvat Anthology, edited by Ari Elon, Naomi Mara Hyman, and Arthur Waskow (Jewish Publication Society).

<!–Ari Elon has served as the director of the Rabbinic Texts Program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Naomi Mara Hyman is the editor of Biblical Women in the Midrash. Rabbi Arthur Waskow is the director of the Shalom Center and author of numerous books, including Seasons of Our Joy.

Copyright (c) 1999 by Ari Elon, Naomi Mara Hyman, and Arthur Waskow. Published by the Jewish Publication Society.

–>

The post Eco-Judaism: Renewing Tu Bishvat appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Find more Tu Bishvat seder rituals and blessings here.

Hand Washing

Fill a large bowl with flower-scented water and float a small cup in it. Carry the bowl from person to person or set up a washing station in a corner. Feel how nice it is to place your hands over the bowl and have someone pour warm water over your fingers. Have towels ready.

Say this blessing [though some may choose to forego this blessing, since it is traditionally recited upon washing the hands before eating bread, which is not eaten here]:

Barukh ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav, v’tzivanu al netilat yadayim.

Blessed are You, Source of all life, Who commands us to ritually wash our hands.

Reader: And God said: Let the earth put forth grass, herb-yielding seed, and fruit-tree-bearing fruit after its own kind, wherein is the seed thereof, on the earth. (Genesis 1:11)

Reader: In the 16th century in northern Israel, in the spiritual town of Tzfat (Safed), the Jewish mystics created the Tu Bishvat seder. They recognized the many and varied dimensions of God’s creation and used the fruits of Israel to symbolize their existence.

The First Cup of Wine

This cup of white wine or grape juice symbolizes winter and the mystical dimension of atzilut, or emanation, at which God’s energy infused the creation process with initial life.

Barukh ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam borei peri ha-gafen.

Blessed are you, Source of all life, Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Reader: For Adonai your God is bringing you into a good land. A land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths springing forth in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land wherein you shall eat without scarceness, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you may dig brass. And you shall eat and be satisfied, and bless God for the good land, which is being given unto you (Deuteronomy 8:7-10).

The First Fruit

Fruit that is hard on the outside and soft on the inside, such as walnuts, coconuts or almonds. The hard shell symbolizes the protection that the earth gives us and reminds us to nourish the strength and healing power of our own bodies.

Barukh ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, borei peri ha-etz.

Blessed are You, Source of all life, Creator of the fruit of the tree.

The Second Cup of Wine

This cup of wine or grape juice is mostly white, with a little red mixed in, to symbolize the passing of the seasons and the mystical concept of formation and birth, often associated with water.

Barukh ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, borei peri ha-gafen.

Blessed are You, Source of all life, Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Reader: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall you be in the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your land, and the fruit of your cattle, and the young of your flock. Blessed shall you be in your basket and your kneading trough. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out (Deuteronomy 28:36).

The Second Fruit

This fruit is soft with a pit in the center — olives or dates [or peaches, apricots, etc.] — and symbolizes the life-sustaining power that emanates from the earth. It reminds us of the spiritual and emotional strength that is within each of us.

Barukh ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, borei peri ha-etz.

Blessed are You, Source of all life, Creator of the fruit of the tree.

The Third Cup of Wine

This cup of wine is mostly red with a little of white mixed in and symbolizes once again the change of seasons and the mystical concept of beriah, or creation.

Barukh ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, borei peri ha-gafen.

Blessed are You, Source of all life, Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Reader: Then God formed the human from the dust of the ground, and breathed into the nostrils the breath of life; and the human became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).

The Third Fruit

This fruit is soft throughout and is completely edible, such as figs, grapes, and raisins. This type symbolizes God’s omnipresence and our own inextricable ties with the earth.

Barukh ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, borei peri ha-etz.

Blessed are You, Source of all life, Creator of the fruit of the tree.

Serve a Vegetarian Dinner

A favorite is vegetarian lasagna and noodle kugel with fruit. Eat other exotic fruits that are placed around the table.

Find vegetarian recipes here.

Find Tu Bishvat recipes here.

The Fourth Cup of Wine

This cup is all red, symbolizing the mystical concept of fire and the idea that within all living things dwells a spark of God.

Reader: And the angel of God appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and Moses looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed (Exodus 3:2).

The Fourth Fruit

This has a tough skin on the outside but sweet fruit within–mangos, bananas, avocados, or sabra, a desert pear–and symbolizes the mystery of the world and our study of Torah. We are constantly seeking to uncover her secrets, and are continually nourished by her fruits.

Reprinted with permission of the authors from Jewish Family and Life: Traditions, Holidays, and Values for Today’s Parents and Children, published by Golden Books.

The post How to Lead a Tu Bishvat Seder appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

The Tree of Life, which God placed at the heart of the Garden of Eden, became a symbol of Jewish existence, a core value of individual and communal living: continuity.

The Talmud sages held wonderfully imaginative discussions about trees in life and legend. They believed that mankind, which they often compared to trees, owes its existence to them and should treat them with special recognition. Serious consequences would result from destroying a tree. The Torah (itself called a Tree of Life in Proverbs 3:18) prohibits the destruction of fruit trees, even in times of war (Deuteronomy 20:19-20), and to prevent the loss of Israel’s natural forests, the sages prohibited the Jews from allowing goats to graze freely. Today in Israel, anyone who wants to destroy a tree must apply for a license, even if the tree is on his or her own property.

Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, who lived in Jerusalem when it was being sacked by the Romans, cleverly taught the priority of planting. “If you should be holding a sapling in your hand when they tell you the Messiah has arrived,” he advised, “first plant the sapling, then go out and greet him.”

Planting a tree — a concrete, practical act — has represented hope since ancient times. On Tu Bishvat in Palestine, trees were planted for children born during the previous year: for a boy, a cedar, with the wish that the child would grow to be tall and upright, for a girl, a cypress, which was graceful and fragrant. Later, branches from the cypress and cedar of a bride and groom were used to make the chuppah (canopy) for their wedding ceremony. The planting was associated with two of the most important times in an individual’s life, birth and marriage, two occasions when we concentrate on the possibilities for the future. So powerful is this connection that even in the Theriesenstadt (also called Terezin) concentration camp, children planted a tree.

Planting was also considered a way to create eternity. As the Talmud relates, the righteous man Honi once encountered a man planting a carob tree. “How long will it take to bear fruit?” he inquired. “About 70 years,” the man replied. “So you think you will live long enough to taste its fruits?” The man explained, “I have found ready-grown carob trees in the world. As my forefathers planted them for me, so I plant for my children.”

As a result of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) reforestation projects in Israel, the land once desert now supports successful farming endeavors, and millions of trees cover the hills. Visitors to Israel, on Tu Bishvat or at other times, can participate in the Plant a Tree with Your Own Hands Program. A popular alternative is to purchase tree certificates, through local and national JNF and Hadassah offices.

Each inexpensive certificate represents one tree planted in Israel in memory or honor of an individual or on a special occasion. (Only large plantings, not individual trees, are actually designated on site.) Outside Israel, symbolic plantings are often done for the holiday, with trees planted in one’s yard or community, or houseplants started from seeds, particularly parsley, which will sprout in time for Passover.

Reprinted with permission from Celebrate! The Complete Jewish Holidays Handbook (Jason Aronson).

The post Planting Trees for Tu Bishvat appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

For the kabbalists [mystics], this symbolic gesture has tremendous spiritual ramifications. According to their explanation, every piece of fruit–which can be considered the parent generation–holds the seed of the next generation, in other words, the potential for new life. If, when we eat the fruit, which releases the seed, we do so in a holy way–with proper blessing and gratitude–then we are helping God to renew nature, and the flow of life continues.

Today, with Israel’s agricultural richness and exports, we have many choices for Tu Bishvat feasting, in addition to the dried figs, dates, raisins, and carob of previous generations. Oranges, avocados, bananas, pomegranates, olives and almonds are wonderful staples for Tu Bishvat meals, either in their natural forms or as recipe ingredients.

Creativity in connection with Tu Bishvat did not stop with the kabbalists’ seder [a ritual modeled on that of Passover]. Colorful practices for eating, distributing, collecting, and even trying to influence fate with fruit developed, largely in Sephardic [Mediterranean Jewish] communities.

Fruit Superstitions

Hoping to affect nature, the Kurdistani Jews placed sweet fruits like raisins in rings around trees, then prayed for an abundant fruit season. Some barren women, similarly believing in the power of sympathetic magic, would plant raisins and candy near trees or embrace trees at night, praying for fertility and many children.

Young girls eligible for marriage were “wedded” to trees in a mock wedding ceremony [a custom based on pagan roots]. If, shortly after, buds were found on the tree to which one girl was “married,” she knew her turn would soon arrive. (In Salonica, it was believed that the trees themselves embrace on Tu Bishvat, and anyone seeing them do so would have his/her wish fulfilled.)

Fruit Feasts

Persian Jews climbed onto their neighbors’ roofs and lowered empty baskets into the houses through the chimneys. The baskets would be sent back laden with fruit. Some designed rituals that were even more elaborate than the seder. One custom of the day was to give children bags of fruit to be worn as pendants around their necks. Although in Bucharia and Kurdistan the holiday was known as “the day of eating the seven species,” the Jews there actually ate 30 different types of fruit (the Indian Jews counted 50!).

The wealthy of villages of some countries, like Morocco, hosted lavish feasts for all the residents at which as many as 100 different kinds of fruit, nuts, and vegetables were eaten, or they would invite all the townspeople into their homes and fill their hats with fruit. In Morocco, this home feast was often preceded by a banquet in the synagogue after Maariv [the evening service]. During the day on the 15th, the children would visit relatives to fill their sacks with gifts of fruit.

The Ashkenazi Jews [European Jews], much less colorful by comparison, recognized the day primarily by eating fruits that gave them a connection with Israel (perhaps from an ornamental dish, such as the 19th-century Austrian hand-painted ceramic Tu Bishvat plate now in the collection of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem). The wealthy would eat dates, raisins, figs, and occasionally, a costly orange — a splurge even for them. Others would have bokser (Yiddish for” carob”), which grew in great abundance and was therefore less expensive. (When fresh, it is chewy and tastes faintly like the date. After it’s been off the tree for awhile — which is how the Diaspora Jews eat it — it loses much of its appeal.)

After their Hebrew lessons in the cheder [religious school], the children would give up bags of fruit brought from home, the contents of which would all be mixed and re-divided, so that rich and poor alike would share the same sweets. American Hebrew schools distributed bags of the same types of fruits to their students, an observance that continues today.

According to the tradition of the Hasidic Jews, God decides the fate of trees and their fruits on Tu Bishvat. Therefore, they pray that God will grant a beautiful etrog [citron fruit] for the next Sukkot, and following the fall festival, they make preserves of the citrus fruit to eat on Tu Bishvat.

Reprinted with permission from Celebrate! The Complete Jewish Holiday Handbook (Jason Aronson).

The post Eating Fruit on Tu Bishvat appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

When God led Adam around the Garden of Eden, God said, ‘Look at My works. See how beautiful they are, how excellent! For your sake I created them all. See to it that you do not spoil or destroy My world–for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you.” (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13)

Tu Bishvat in Ancient Times

But it was not always this way. In ancient times, it was merely a date on the calendar that helped Jewish farmers establish exactly when they should bring their fourth-year produce of fruit from recently planted trees to the Temple as first-fruit offerings. After this, all subsequent fruit produced from these trees could be eaten or sold as desired.

Origins of the Tu Bishvat Seder

Tu Bishvat could easily have faded away after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, since there was no longer a system of fruit offerings or Temple priests to receive them. However, the kabbalists (mystics) of Tzfat (the city of Safed) in the Land of Israel in the 16th century created a new ritual to celebrate Tu Bishvat called the Feast of Fruits.

Modeled on the Passover seder, participants would read selections from the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic literature, and would eat fruits and nuts traditionally associated with the land of Israel. According to Deuteronomy 8:8, there are five fruits and two grains associated with Israel as a “land of wheat and barley, of vines [grapes], figs and pomegranates, a land of olive trees, and [date] honey.” The kabbalists also gave a prominent place to almonds in the Tu Bishvat seder, since the almond trees were believed to be the first of all trees in Israel to blossom. Carob, also known as bokser or St. John’s bread, became another popular fruit to eat on Tu Bishvat, since it could survive the long trip from Israel to Jewish communities in Europe.

Participants in the kabbalistic seder would also drink four cups of wine: white wine (to symbolize winter), white with some red (a harbinger of the coming of spring); red with some white (early spring) and finally all red (spring and summer).

Complete with biblical and rabbinic readings, these kabbalists produced a Tu Bishvat Haggadah in 1753 called “Pri Etz Hadar” or “Fruit of the Goodly Tree.”

Tu Bishvat Meets Modern Zionism

When Zionist pioneers began returning to the land of Israel in the late 19th century, Tu Bishvat became an opportunity for these ardent agrarians to celebrate the bounty of a restored ecology in Israel. In ancient times, the land of Israel was once fertile and well forested. Over centuries of repeated conquest, destructions, and desertification, Israel was denuded of trees. The early Zionists seized upon Tu Bishvat as an opportunity to celebrate their tree-planting efforts to restore the ecology of ancient Israel and as a symbol of renewed growth and flowering of the Jewish people returning to their ancestral homeland.

READ: The Tree Herzl Planted in Israel

In modern times, Tu Bishvat continues to be an opportunity for planting trees — in Israel and elsewhere, wherever Jews live. Many American and European Jews observe Tu Bishvat by contributing money to the Jewish National Fund, an organization devoted to reforesting Israel (the purchase of trees in JNF forests is also customary to commemorate a celebration such as a Bar or Bat-Mitzvah). Many parents donate to the JNF every year on Tu Bishvat in honor of their children.

Tu Bishvat and Environmentalism

For environmentalists, Tu Bishvat is an ancient and authentic Jewish connection to contemporary ecological issues. The holiday is viewed as an appropriate occasion to educate Jews about their tradition’s advocacy of responsible stewardship of God’s creation, manifested in ecological activism. Tu Bishvat is an opportunity to raise awareness about and to care for the environment through the teaching of Jewish sources celebrating nature. It is also a day to focus on the environmental sensitivity of the Jewish tradition by planting trees wherever Jews may live.

The Tu Bishvat seder has increased in popularity in recent years. Celebrated as a congregational event, the modern Tu Bishvat seder is multi-purpose. While retaining some kabbalistic elements–and still very much a ritual that connects participant to the land of Israel–the seder today is often imbued with an ecological message as well. One new custom often found at such seders uses Tu Bishvat as a preparation for the Passover seder. In climates where tree planting is not feasible, participants will plant parsley seeds; the parsley will be used on the Passover seder plate.

The post Tu Bishvat, the Jewish ‘Birthday’ of the Trees appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

• The 15th of Shvat of the sages (which we first read about in the Mishnah, which may be ascribed to the second century).
• The 15th of Shvat of the kabbalists (the students of Isaac Luria, known as the Ari — end of the 16th century).
• The Tu Bishvat of the Zionists (end of the 19th century).
• The Tu Bishvat of the environmentalists (end of the 20th century).

The first three of these were born in the Land of Israel. The last incarnation was born in the United States.

Each of the four incarnations contains a fundamental innovation relative to the previous traditions. Each of these innovations emphasizes a different tikkun, a different repair/remedy/healing.

The Tu Bishvat of the Sages

The emphasis of the fifteenth of Shvat in the Mishnah (or the first of Shvat, according to the House of Shammai) is on social tikkun olam [repairing/perfecting the world]. There exists a fundamental injustice, which indeed has no complete solution (“the poor shall never cease out of the land”–Deuteronomy 15: 11), but allows for the possibility of much tikkun.

The sages of the Mishnah suggest effecting this tikkun through the imposition of taxes in the form of tithes, terumot [free-will offerings], corner gleanings, and the like. The fifteenth of Shvat is one of the most important days for reminding society to take a frank reckoning of itself. On this day, all who have gardens are supposed to go down to their garden to count up all the fruits and profits that were gathered in the course of the year, and to reserve the required portion for the benefit of those who have neither garden nor fruit to eat from it.

The sudden appearance of the idea of a “New Year for the tithing of trees” on the mishnaic landscape is sufficient in itself to teach about the social revolution that the sages of the Mishnah effect through their relationship to the priestly monarchic conception of tithes and terumot. In the Bible there is no mention of such a day, and the fact of its establishment testifies to a need to give more force to social and religious taxes that will improve the situation of those in need.

The Tu Bishvat of the Kabbalists

In contrast to the mishnaic Sages’ social tikkun, the emphasis of the kabbalistic Fifteenth of Shvat is on theo-cosmic tikkun. The world was devastated as a result of the taste from the Tree of Knowledge and by the resultant expulsion from the Garden of Eden [as recounted in the book of Genesis]. The kabbalists (the students of the Ari) took it upon themselves to repair this devastation by means of numerous rituals spread about the calendar (tikkunei hatzot–midnightvigils, tikkun leil Shavuot–midnight study session for Shavuot, and the like).

The Fifteenth of Shvat is a day on which many kabbalists try to get as close as possible to the Garden of Eden, to taste of its fruit, and to heal its damaged trees. They do this with a long, drawn-out Tu Bishvat seder, at whose center they taste the fruits of this world and say blessings over them using techniques of special mystical meditations directed toward the fruits of the heavenly worlds.

The custom of eating fruit on the Fifteenth of Shvat is absolutely novel relative to the Mishnah and to the rest of the known rabbinic literature (halachah, Jewish law; and aggadah, rabbinic narrative). The Tu Bishvat seder, with its extended ritual of mystical meditations, is an absolute innovation relative not only to rabbinic Judaism, but also relative to earlier Kabbalah. (Neither the Zohar nor any of the Kabbalah prior to the Ari relates at all to the Fifteenth of Shvat.)

The Tu Bishvat of the Zionists

The Zionist Fifteenth of Shvat is a day of national-historical tikkun, of healing from the devastations of the exile, whether these resulted from external causes, such as oppression and anti-Semitism, or from internal causes, such as the religious, halachic leadership. More than any other day, this day symbolized the longing of the Zionists to be healed of their Diaspora characteristics, to be joined anew to a patch of earth, of land.

On this day, the Zionists taught themselves and their children to color the Land of Israel green with the planting of thousands of trees. They would thus — so they believed — again take possession of their homeland by making the desert bloom. Likewise — so they hoped — they would teach themselves and their children to stop their exilic floating and finally land on solid ground.

The rebellious nature of the Zionist Tu Bishvat relative to the prior biblical, halachic and kabbalistic perspectives is patently obvious. The planting ceremony (ritual?) is a definite innovation in the landscape of Jewish ritual. As we will see below, it was imported at the end of the last century from rites celebrating spring and May Day and “slipped” into the traditional Fifteenth of Shvat.

The Tu Bishvat of the Environmentalists

The environmentalist Fifteenth of Shvat is a day of ecological tikkun olam, of repairing the planet, which has been appallingly devastated over the course of the last century by the human race. Beginning in the 1970s, environmentalists started to cry out and warn us against cutting off the branches that we were sitting on. Some of the Jews among those who sounded that alarm felt a need to express themselves in the terminology of their own culture. That is how Tu Bishvat became more and more the central day of environmental awareness in the Jewish year. More and more Tu Bishvat seders began to take on an environmental character, and recently, Tu Bishvat has even been declared “officially” to be the Jewish Earth Day.

The environmentalist Tu Bishvat, in my opinion, gives us a picture of a rooted Jewish paradigm in conflict with both Zionist Judaism and halachic Judaism. The conflict with Zionism is expressed, to take one example, in the change of Tu Bishvat into a universal Earth Day, rather than a day only for the earth of the Land of Israel.

Similarly, the environmentalist Tu Bishvat is in direct confrontation with halachic Judaism because the environmentalist Tu Bishvat understands the halachic essence of the holiday to be mitzvot [commandments]that apply to the world as a whole and not only to the Land of Israel. The message of the environmentalist Tu Bishvat is that one must interpret the word “land” not just as the Land of Israel, but as Earth, as the world.

This, of course, is in direct conflict with the traditional, halachic viewpoint. For the groups behind the environmentalist Tu Bishvat, this conflict is part of the attempt to fashion an entire system of alternative halachah, which is expressed, for example, by the ethical claims for all eco-kashrut that goes beyond food to other “fruit of the earth” that we consume, like coal and oil and paper.

We have before us, then, four different types of tikkun: social, theological, national-historical, and ecological. These four types of tikkun signify not only four different Tu Bishvats, but also four different world views. Every one of these four viewpoints constitutes a revolutionary change relative to the views that preceded it. Within each of these revolutionary changes is a veiled or open rebellion. The change and the rebellion become expressed in a characteristic ritual, which is innovative in comparison with the previous incarnations of this day.

It is possible, therefore, to see in each of the four different Tu Bishvats a weaving of rebellion and continuity. I personally have a problem with that pair, “rebellion and continuity.” It’s too black-and-white and has the stale taste of Modernism. However, I am interested not in doing away with it, but rather in adding to it the pair “dismantling (peruk)-repairing (tikkun).”

Based on the above clarifications, I would like to make the following claims: (1) Each of the four Tu Bishvats described above is a tikkun (reconstruction) of one (or more) of the prior Tu Bishvats. (2) A necessary condition for each of those tikkunim is the dismantling (deconstruction) of the conceptual universe out of which one (or more) of the previous Tu Bishvats was built. In other words, we’re not speaking of only remodeling the past, but of also dismantling the entire structure. Often the dismantling is liable (likely?) to end up destroying the ceremony or occasion; just as often it is likely to end up transforming and renewing it. In the case of Tu Bishvat, we are witness to a series of transformations that spreads out over nearly 2,000 years (or more).

Reprinted with permission from Trees, Earth, and Torah: A Tu B’Shvat Anthology, edited by Ari Elon, Naomi Mara Hyman, and Arthur Waskow (Jewish Publication Society).

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The Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet LeYisrael, established in 1901 to collect money to buy property in Palestine) arranged highly spirited annual Tu Bishvat tree-planting ceremonies. In a procession with marching bands and banners, thousands of people carrying young trees sang and danced on their way to the hillsides. Today, almost one-seventh of the entire population of the State of Israel goes to the countryside to plant saplings.

Outside Israel, the day was often devoted to activities centered on the geography and produce of the land. Palestine Day, as it was known in America, was celebrated with parties, songs, games, and stories at school, synagogue, and home.

Reprinted with permission from Celebrate! The Complete Jewish Holiday Handbook (Jason Aronson).

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School kids love the field trips to plant trees while home cooks and chefs dream up new ideas for integrating the seven edible species mentioned in the Torah:

wheat

barley

grapes

figs

pomegranates

olives

dates

When M. returned from a quick trip to visit his parents in Israel, he brought back a tightly wrapped disc of plump, moist figs in his backpack. I immediately turned to Mollie Katzen’s latest vegetarian book  The Heart of the Plate for inspiration on how to integrate these beauties into a dish where figs would be the stars while I stay true to eating within the growing season here in the Northeast.

This kale-based salad really hit the spot and was almost too beautiful to eat! Almost. Check out more from Mollie Katzen and her newest cookbook  The Heart of the Plate
!

The post Mollie Katzen’s Grilled Bread and Kale Salad with Red Onions, Walnuts and Figs appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

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With a bounty of tempting options among the seven — barley, wheat, olives, pomegranates, figs, grapes and dates — it’s easy to be inspired. This cake is made with semolina, the inner portion of durum wheat before it has been pulverized to make flour. Its gritty texture lends an alluring bite to the cake, which also uses olive oil instead of the more typical butter or margarine. Although almonds are not one of the seven species, the sight of almond blossoms on trees in Israel is a sure sign that spring has arrived — hence the hint of almond flavor in the cake. While it is delicious served alone, consider topping each piece with a dollop of strained Greek yogurt.

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Tu Bishvat or the “birthday” of all fruit trees, is a minor festival. The name is Hebrew for the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat.

In ancient times, Tu Bishvat was merely a date on the calendar that helped Jewish farmers establish exactly when they should bring their fourth-year produce of fruit from recently planted trees to the Temple as first-fruit offerings

The Tu Bishvat Seder

In the 16th century, the Kabbalists (mystics) of Tzfat (the city of Safed) in the Land of Israel created a new ritual to celebrate Tu Bishvat called the Feast of Fruits. Modeled on the Passover seder, participants would read selections from the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic literature, and would eat fruits and nuts traditionally associated with the land of Israel. The Kabbalists also gave a prominent place to almonds in the Tu Bishvat seder , since the almond trees were believed to be the first of all trees in Israel to blossom. Carob, also known as bokser or St. John’s bread, became another popular fruit to eat on Tu Bishvat, since it could survive the long trip from Israel to Jewish communities in Europe. Participants in the kabbalistic seder would also drink four cups of wine: white wine (to symbolize winter), white with some red (a harbinger of the coming of spring); red with some white (early spring) and finally all red (spring and summer).

Complete with biblical and rabbinic readings, these kabbalists produced a Tu Bishvat Haggadah in 1753 called “Pri Etz Hadar” or “Fruit of the Goodly Tree.”

Learn how to lead a Tu Bishvat seder here.

The early Zionists seized upon Tu Bishvat as an opportunity to celebrate their tree-planting efforts to restore the ecology of ancient Israel and as a symbol of renewed growth and flowering of the Jewish people returning to their ancestral homeland.

In modern times, Tu Bishvat continues to be an opportunity for planting trees — in Israel and elsewhere, wherever Jews live. Many American and European Jews observe Tu Bishvat by contributing money to the Jewish National Fund, an organization devoted to reforesting Israel (the purchase of trees in JNF forests is also customary to commemorate a celebration such as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah).

Learn more about planting trees on Tu B’Shevat here.

Environmentalism and Tu Bishvat

For environmentalists, Tu Bishvat is an ancient and authentic Jewish connection to contemporary ecological issues. The holiday is viewed as an appropriate occasion to educate Jews about their tradition’s advocacy of responsible stewardship of God’s creation, manifested in ecological activism. Tu Bishvat is an opportunity to raise awareness about and to care for the environment through the teaching of Jewish sources celebrating nature. It is also a day to focus on the environmental sensitivity of the Jewish tradition by planting trees wherever Jews may live.

The Tu Bishvat seder has increased in popularity in recent years. Celebrated as a congregational event, the modern Tu Bishvat seder is multi-purpose. While retaining some kabbalistic elements – and still very much a ritual that connects participant to the land of Israel – the seder today is often imbued with an ecological message as well.

The post Tu Bishvat 2025 appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Tu Bishvat or the “birthday” of all fruit trees, is a minor festival. The name is Hebrew for the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat.

In ancient times, Tu Bishvat was merely a date on the calendar that helped Jewish farmers establish exactly when they should bring their fourth-year produce of fruit from recently planted trees to the Temple as first-fruit offerings

The Tu Bishvat Seder

In the 16th century, the Kabbalists (mystics) of Tzfat (the city of Safed) in the Land of Israel created a new ritual to celebrate Tu Bishvat called the Feast of Fruits. Modeled on the Passover seder, participants would read selections from the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic literature, and would eat fruits and nuts traditionally associated with the land of Israel. The Kabbalists also gave a prominent place to almonds in the Tu Bishvat seder , since the almond trees were believed to be the first of all trees in Israel to blossom. Carob, also known as bokser or St. John’s bread, became another popular fruit to eat on Tu Bishvat, since it could survive the long trip from Israel to Jewish communities in Europe. Participants in the kabbalistic seder would also drink four cups of wine: white wine (to symbolize winter), white with some red (a harbinger of the coming of spring); red with some white (early spring) and finally all red (spring and summer).

Complete with biblical and rabbinic readings, these kabbalists produced a Tu Bishvat Haggadah in 1753 called “Pri Etz Hadar” or “Fruit of the Goodly Tree.”

Learn how to lead a Tu Bishvat seder here.

The early Zionists seized upon Tu Bishvat as an opportunity to celebrate their tree-planting efforts to restore the ecology of ancient Israel and as a symbol of renewed growth and flowering of the Jewish people returning to their ancestral homeland.

In modern times, Tu Bishvat continues to be an opportunity for planting trees — in Israel and elsewhere, wherever Jews live. Many American and European Jews observe Tu Bishvat by contributing money to the Jewish National Fund, an organization devoted to reforesting Israel (the purchase of trees in JNF forests is also customary to commemorate a celebration such as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah).

Learn more about planting trees on Tu B’Shevat here.

Environmentalism and Tu Bishvat

For environmentalists, Tu Bishvat is an ancient and authentic Jewish connection to contemporary ecological issues. The holiday is viewed as an appropriate occasion to educate Jews about their tradition’s advocacy of responsible stewardship of God’s creation, manifested in ecological activism. Tu Bishvat is an opportunity to raise awareness about and to care for the environment through the teaching of Jewish sources celebrating nature. It is also a day to focus on the environmental sensitivity of the Jewish tradition by planting trees wherever Jews may live.

The Tu Bishvat seder has increased in popularity in recent years. Celebrated as a congregational event, the modern Tu Bishvat seder is multi-purpose. While retaining some kabbalistic elements – and still very much a ritual that connects participant to the land of Israel – the seder today is often imbued with an ecological message as well.

The post Tu Bishvat 2024 appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Tu Bishvat or the “birthday” of all fruit trees, is a minor festival. The name is Hebrew for the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat.

In ancient times, Tu Bishvat was merely a date on the calendar that helped Jewish farmers establish exactly when they should bring their fourth-year produce of fruit from recently planted trees to the Temple as first-fruit offerings

The Tu Bishvat Seder

In the 16th century, the Kabbalists (mystics) of Tzfat (the city of Safed) in the Land of Israel created a new ritual to celebrate Tu Bishvat called the Feast of Fruits. Modeled on the Passover seder, participants would read selections from the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic literature, and would eat fruits and nuts traditionally associated with the land of Israel. The Kabbalists also gave a prominent place to almonds in the Tu Bishvat seder , since the almond trees were believed to be the first of all trees in Israel to blossom. Carob, also known as bokser or St. John’s bread, became another popular fruit to eat on Tu Bishvat, since it could survive the long trip from Israel to Jewish communities in Europe. Participants in the kabbalistic seder would also drink four cups of wine: white wine (to symbolize winter), white with some red (a harbinger of the coming of spring); red with some white (early spring) and finally all red (spring and summer).

Complete with biblical and rabbinic readings, these kabbalists produced a Tu Bishvat Haggadah in 1753 called “Pri Etz Hadar” or “Fruit of the Goodly Tree.”

Learn how to lead a Tu Bishvat seder here.

Zionism and Tree Planting

The early Zionists seized upon Tu Bishvat as an opportunity to celebrate their tree-planting efforts to restore the ecology of ancient Israel and as a symbol of renewed growth and flowering of the Jewish people returning to their ancestral homeland.

In modern times, Tu Bishvat continues to be an opportunity for planting trees — in Israel and elsewhere, wherever Jews live. Many American and European Jews observe Tu Bishvat by contributing money to the Jewish National Fund, an organization devoted to reforesting Israel (the purchase of trees in JNF forests is also customary to commemorate a celebration such as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah).

Learn more about planting trees on Tu B’Shevat here.

Environmentalism and Tu Bishvat

For environmentalists, Tu Bishvat is an ancient and authentic Jewish connection to contemporary ecological issues. The holiday is viewed as an appropriate occasion to educate Jews about their tradition’s advocacy of responsible stewardship of God’s creation, manifested in ecological activism. Tu Bishvat is an opportunity to raise awareness about and to care for the environment through the teaching of Jewish sources celebrating nature. It is also a day to focus on the environmental sensitivity of the Jewish tradition by planting trees wherever Jews may live.

The Tu Bishvat seder has increased in popularity in recent years. Celebrated as a congregational event, the modern Tu Bishvat seder is multi-purpose. While retaining some kabbalistic elements – and still very much a ritual that connects participant to the land of Israel – the seder today is often imbued with an ecological message as well.

The post Tu Bishvat 2023 appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

The traditional Tu B’Shvat seder has a loose structure and leaves a lot of room for creativity. If you’re planning a larger event, you’ll want to pack it with  interesting programming that invites guest participation and consider using breakout rooms to create opportunities for more personal interaction. If you’re planning a small seder for close friends or family, you can keep it more open-ended. 

Know the Structure of the Seder

As at Passover, participants in a Tu Bishvat seder traditionally drink four cups of wine. The kabbalists mixed wines in various shades of red and white to symbolize the various sefirot, the mystical dimensions that are an essential part of Kabbalistic teachings. Some of the themes represented in the Tu Bishvat seder are atzilut, God’s emanating energy, the transience of the passing seasons, beriah, or creation, and the spark of God within each person. 

As Tu Bishvat is a celebration of trees, it is also traditional to eat fruits including those that are hard on the outside and soft on the inside, those with a pit, fruits that are completely edible, and fruit that has a tough skin on the outside but is sweet on the inside. Each kind of fruit symbolizes something different from protection, to nourishing the body, to the mystery of God’s omnipotence to the power of the Torah’s secrets. Learn more about the meaning and symbolism behind the wine and fruits here.

Gather the Goods 

If you are having a small seder, you can send fruit and wine packages to your friends who are joining, or you can simply ask them to kindly purchase a few of the fruits that you are looking to eat for the purposes of the seder. If you are mailing packages, consider sending packages with an item that visually unites everyone on their screen, such as a flower crown, or a thematically-appropriate t-shirt. Having something everyone wears during the event helps create a sense of community and afterward, provides your guests with a cute memento! 

Each guest will need a bottle of red and white wine, and one fruit option for each of the four fruits. Here’s a quick suggested shopping to get you started:

First fruit: walnuts, coconuts or almonds

Second fruit: olives or dates (or peaches, apricots, etc.)

Third fruit:  figs, grapes, and raisins

Fourth fruit: mangos, bananas, avocados, or sabra (desert pear)

Choose a Haggadah or Make Your Own! 

Different haggadahs will help you create different seders — there are many out there! Here is a list of some of the Tu Bishvat haggadahs available online. You can ask your guests to either open or print whichever haggadah you choose for the seder.

Have Fun With It!

Everyone is seeking connection with others during this difficult time. A Tu Bishvat zoom seder invites friends together to come together and look away from the chaos of the world and into the mystical insights from the mystical teachings of the Torah. Think about what aspects of the holiday — its environmental dimension? its mystical dimension? noshing fruit? — interests your guests and what interests you and find a way to incorporate it into your seder. Add a painting section for your art lovers, subtract a cup or two of wine (four is quite a lot — some seders opt for juice instead!) or make a Tu Bishvat trivia game to educate any little ones that might join the festivities. The event is only limited by your imagination.

Chag Sameach!

The post How to Lead a Zoom Tu Bishvat Seder appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

1. Some Jews eat the dried carob fruit on this day. 

All tree fruits are especially appropriate on Tu Bishvat. But the carob fruit, in particular, is associated with the holiday because of the story of the sage Honi who wandered the land planting carob seeds. Carob trees take decades to produce fruit so God put Honi to sleep to allow him to see his own saplings create edible fruits. There is also a famous talmudic story about a sage named Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai who was forced to hide from Roman persecution with his son in a cave. They survived off a carob tree and stream of water for 13 years (Talmud Shabbat 33b).

2. Tu Bishvat was not originally a festival.

The rabbis designated Tu Bishvat, the 15th of the month of Shevat, as an important date for Jewish farmers in ancient times to calculate their taxes for the year. In Leviticus 19:23, the Torah states, “When you enter the land [of Israel] and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten.” Fruits were forbidden for the first three years of growth to eat, and the fruit of the fourth year was to be offered to the priests in the Temple as a gift of gratitude for the bounty of the land. The fifth-year fruit — and all subsequent fruit — was finally for the farmer to eat and enjoy. Tu Bishvat therefore, became known as the general “birthday” for all the trees, when one took accounting of each tree as a year older, and marked the time when farmers would be able to designate taxes or finally eat their fruit’s harvest. 

3. Tu Bishvat is one of FOUR Jewish new years.

The rabbis of the Talmud established four “new years.” (Mishnah, Rosh Hashanah 1:1) The most famous, Rosh Hashanah, is the Jewish new year for the calendar date. There was also a new year for establishing the reign of kings and a new year for tithing animals Jewish farmers gave to the Temple.

4. Tu Bishvat falls at the close of the rainy season in Israel.

Once the ground has become saturated with the rains, the fruits can begin to bloom. This was a date that made sense to mark the start of a new season. Even though it falls smack in the winter, the message of Tu Bishvat is one of renewal and hope — spring is coming.

5. The kabbalists in the Middle Ages created a seder for Tu Bishvat. 

The mystical Tu Bishvat seder mirrors the Passover seder. It involves eating four different fruits native to the Land of Israel and drinking four cups of wine (in varying shades of red) to correspond to the four seasons and the four aspects of creation according to the Kabbalah. The most common fruits to eat during Tu Bishvat are olives, dates, grapes, figs and pomegranates.

6. Fruit trees have a special place in Judaism. 

Beginning with the Garden of Eden, in Jewish thought fruit trees symbolize life, growth and nourishment. There is also a traditional image of a person as a tree whose arms and legs are branches bearing good deeds, the “produce” of one’s labors. (Midrash Shmuel on Pirkei Avot 3:24)

7. It became a custom to plant trees on Tu Bishvat with the establishment of the state of Israel. 

On the Tu Bishvat of 1949, less than one year after the creation of the state, Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion made a stopover at Sha’ar HaGai, a lookout at  the edge of Tel Aviv, en route to Jerusalem for the first Knesset assembly. There, he planted trees to celebrate Tu Bishvat — the first trees planted in honor of the festival in Israel. Today, people commonly donate to the Jewish National Fund, a Jewish non-profit organization that has an initiative to plant trees in Israel. Each tree can be planted in the name of a loved one, and one receives a certificate showing that a tree had been planted on their behalf.

8. It was the custom of the famed Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria (“Arizal”) to eat 15 varieties of fruits on the 15th of Shevat.

Four cups of wine is good, but adding fifteen kinds of fruit is even better!

9. There is a custom to plant parsley seeds on Tu Bishvat. 

Parsley planted on Tu Bishvat will sprout and mature in time to be used on the Passover seder plate.

The post 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Tu Bishvat appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

In Hebrew, there are only two spellings: טו בשבט or, more accurately, ט’’ו בשבט. In English there are a variety of spellings from Tu B’Shvat, to Tu B’Shevat, to Tu Bishvat. Whatever spelling you use, the correct pronunciation is Too Bish-VAHT.

The “tu” in the name of the holiday is not actually a word but a number — 15. Hebrew historically wrote numbers using letters (not numerals) and 15 is written טו because the values of those letters, tet and vav respectively, are 9 and 6 (which add up to 15). You might have expected the number 15 to be written יה, yod and hey which have the values 10 and 5 respectively, but that letter combination looks too similar to the name of God, so 15 is written טו instead.

Sometimes just the Hebrew letters symbolizing numbers are written as any other words, and sometimes the punctuation between them that looks like a quotation mark, called a chupchik, is also included, signalling that it is not to be read as a word but as a number. The chupchik is also used to designate acronyms. 

The word “Bishvat” means “in the month of Shvat (also spelled Shevat).” The “b” (in Hebrew the letter bet, ב) is a prefix meaning “of” or “in.”

As with “Hanukkah” and most other Hebrew words, there is no one correct way to spell the name of this holiday. On the internet, Tu Bishvat is the most widely used spelling of the holiday. 

However you spell it, Tu Bishvat is about appreciating our relationship with nature, planting trees, and considering how to take care of our planet in a more eco-friendly way. Learn more here.

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