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Celebrate Shabbat on Tu B'Shvat
Friday February 2nd 2007 / 15th Shvat 5767
Why is this night different from all other Friday nights?
because it’s…
Tu B’Shvat - the new year for trees
This year Tu B’Shvat, the Jewish New Year of the Trees, falls on Friday evening February 2nd and Saturday February 3rd – presenting a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Tu B’Shvat by turning Friday night dinner or Saturday lunch into a Tu B’Shvat seder with family and friends.
The Tu B’Shvat seder, developed by Jewish mystics in the 16th century, is modeled on the Passover seder. It has four parts, each with a cup of wine and a blessing over the wine. Each of these parts also has a different category of fruits and nuts to eat. Following is everything you need to put together a fun, meaningful event in your own home that connects the Jewish new year for trees to your life and to the environment.
Why do a Friday night dinner / Tu B’Shvat seder?
- because tu b’shvat this year falls on Friday night, February 2nd;
- because you’ll learn something new;
- because it’ll be different from your normal Friday night Shabbat dinner – and if you don’t normally have a Friday night Shabbat dinner, it’s a great opportunity to host one;
- because it’s a great way to connect with old friends, or to make new ones;
- because it’s a great thing to do with your kids – or your parents;
- because it’s a way to connect an ancient tradition with our contemporary world;
- because it’s one step to making a difference;
- because you’ll have a great time…
What might you need for a Tu B’Shvat seder / Shabbat meal?
- Lots of different fruits, preferably native to the land of Israel (and/or locally grown, and/or organically produced)
- Both red and white wines
- Candles, spices, incense, or flowers
- Challah
- A meal. Even if you’re not vegetarian, or vegan, Tu B’Shvat is a great opportunity to eat a vegan meal (one that has no animal products), and to take the opportunity to reflect more deeply than usual on our food, where it comes from, and what impact its production has on our world
- An aesthetically beautiful space – put fresh art on the walls, place branches on the table; do what inspires you to make the place of your seder especially beautiful
- Musical instruments – if you play musical instruments on Shabbat
- Click here for a sample Tu B’Shvat Shabbat Haggadah.
Background: What is Tu B’Shvat?
Tu B’Shvat simply means “the 15th of Shvat” – the Hebrew month that coincides with January/February in the western calendar. The 15th of the Hebrew month is always the full moon, so Tu B’Shvat is the full moon of Shvat.
Tu B’Shvat is the New Year for trees, because on the 15th of Shvat in ancient Israel the new year’s crop of fruit trees were tithed and brought to the Temple as an offering to God and to give to the priests and to the poor to eat. In a sense, Tu B’Shvat marked the beginning and end of the tax year in the biblical economy. With the full moon on the 15th of Shvat a distinction was easily made between the old crop of fruit trees and the new year’s crop.
Tu B’Shvat is a time of significant renewal; the winter rains are falling and we sense that a period of new growth is about to begin as each day grows imperceptibly longer.
Tu B’Shvat celebrates the process of becoming. It is a day to meditate upon God’s continuous miracle of creation.
Tu B’Shvat is a day devoted to the higher consciousness of all being One: to a sense of the intertwined beauty and amazingness of all life on the planet.
Tu B’Shvat is an appreciation for the relationship among God, humankind, and the earth. On this day, in the spirit of joy and thankfulness, we bless the fruit of God’s creation, while coming face to face with our own role as a partner in the process of creation.
A Brief History of Tu B’Shvat:
- The Biblical Tu B’Shvat.
The first recording of Tu B’Shvat is found in Mishna 1:1 of the Talmudic tractate Rosh HaShana, as follows: “On the first of Shvat is the new year for the tree, according to the words of the house of Shammai. The house of Hillel says, on its 15th day.” During the time of the Second Temple, this day was of importance in regards to the tithing calendar. The 15th of Shvat was put aside as a time when offerings of food were brought to the Temple to celebrate growth and to recycle such growth, by leaving portions of one’s harvest for the poor.
- The Rabbinic Tu B’Shvat
After the destruction of the Temple, as a people in exile without a deep connection to any land, Tu B’Shvat was barely observed, surviving instead as a relic of tradition. It was recorded in the Talmud, but as the Jewish people lost their connection with the land of Israel, so too they lost connection with the direct observance of the new year for trees.
- The Kabbalistic Tu B’Shvat
At the end of the 15th century the Jews were expelled from Spain, and some of them ended up in the land of Israel. During the 16th century, the students of the Holy ARI (Rabbi Issac Lurie Ashkenazi of Sfat) adopted the holiday as a portal into the mystical, establishing a specific Seder as a meditation upon the world we live in and the other worlds of creation that we strive for, where’s God’s spirit is far more visible and recognizable. Today’s Tu B’Shvat Seders trace back to seeds that were planted at this time.
Part of the Kabbalistic tradition put a great deal of emphasis in the belief of four worlds. When God created the world as a whole, God’s divinity was veiled in four stages, or worlds within worlds, each division more ethereal than the next. Humanity dwells in the world of action and physicality. In our reality it is easy to feel as if God’s energy is non-existent or distant. There are three other worlds, each ascending in spirituality until the world of emanation, where the concept of physicality and boundaries ceases to exist. In each of these worlds, in order to allow an intimacy between divinity and physicality, God contains the divine energy in 10 different sephirot, or categories, each specific to certain Godly attributes. Chesed, for example, is a sephira that represents God’s loving kindness. It is thought that these attributes allow for a more fluid relationship between humans and God
Using the Kabbalistic tradition to inform Tu B’Shvat Seder practices often translates into a separation of the evening into 4 stages, parallel to the 4 levels of creation and corresponding to 4 glasses of wine. To represent the 10 sephirot we might put before ourselves 10 different fruits for a total of 30 -- because the fourth world is not connected to physicality and therefore no physical thing is used to represent the elements present in that world.
- The Zionistic Tu B’Shvat
At the end of the nineteenth century, as Zionist pioneers began to work the land of Israel, Tu B’Shvat became the day to celebrate their return to the motherland, and a day for diaspora Jews to help by, for instance, giving money to plant trees in Israel. From a Zionist perspective Tu B’Shvat became a day to bring Jews closer to the land of Israel, both in thought and in action.
- The Eco-Jewish Tu B’Shvat
The first Earth Day took place in 1970. In its aftermath, the first generation of Jewish environmentalists asked the question, “when’s our Earth Day?” – and answered, Tu B’Shvat. From an eco-Jewish perspective the celebration of Tu B’Shvat is a catalyst for encouraging Tikkun Olam (healing of the world), as well as a day to dwell on the current state of the global environment and to examine how our own actions affect the physical world.
- Tu B’Shvat in 5767/2007.
Tu B’Shvat this year falls on Friday night February 2nd & Saturday the 3rd. How will you celebrate Tu B’Shvat? Each of us is heir to this ancient tradition, and each of is able to draw upon it, to act creatively upon it, and to fashion our own Tu B’Shvat seders and observances…
Leading a Tu B’Shvat Seder on Friday Night:
Before the Seder begins, the Shabbat candles should be lit. When preparing to drink the first glass of wine, the traditional blessing for the Shabbat Kiddush should be recited. Depending on your custom, the songs of Kaballat Shabbat (welcoming the Sabbath) can either be said before the beginning of the Seder or can be included at the start of the seder.
It’s a nice tradition to begin with an opening circle. Hand the kiddush cup around and, before you make kiddush, invite everyone there to say – for instance – their name, where they’re from, and a place that they love on planet earth. It’s a great way to allow people to introduce themselves, and to establish the theme of connection with the earth.
Just as in the Passover Seder, the structure of the Seder on Tu B’Shvat revolves around the symbolism of four. Divided into four distinct sections, each part is marked by a specific type of fruit and glass of wine. Based on the Kabbalistic understanding of Tu B’Shvat some people go even further and divide the seder into four worlds, connecting each glass of wine and the different groups of fruit with the more spiritually esoteric concept of each world. (For a more detailed explanation, see A Brief History of Tu B’Shvat).
Like the Passover Seder, the purpose of the Tu B’Shvat Seder transcends physical nourishment. Every piece of fruit and each drop of wine can be thought to parallel a related spiritual and environmental theme. Furthermore, each stage focuses the participant’s attention on the importance of brachot, or blessings, and the study of Hebrew texts, thus balancing the spiritual and intellectual elements throughout the Seder.
There is a tradition of collecting thirty different types of fruit for the Seder. See how close to this you can get and feel free to invite your guests to pitch in. This tradition corresponds to certain esoteric kabalistic teachings. (For a more detailed explanation, see A Brief History of Tu B’Shvat).
It is traditional to include both white and red wine in the Seder.
Once the Shabbat Kiddush has been said you can make the blessing over the challah, Hamotzi blessing, and from there you can integrate the following ideas, foods, blessings, texts, and songs as you wish. This is a proposed model for a Tu B’Shvat seder but it is in no way binding! The challenge – and the opportunity – is to interweave a Tu B’Shvat seder with a Friday night dinner or a Shabbat lunch.
Click here for a sample Tu B’Shvat Shabbat Haggadah.
Click here to learn about Trees, Shabbat, and Israel's Ecology.
Click here for text on Trees, Shabbat, and Israel's Ecology.
Developed by Yigal Deutscher, Rachel Kaplan, and Nigel Savage of Hazon, www.hazon.org, and Mark X. Jacobs of COEJL, www.coejl.org.
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