Tu B'Shvat Home

Open Letter

Celebrate

Learn

Activities

Take Action

15 Actions

Bibliography

P'ri Ets Hadar - The Fruit of the Majestic Tree

By Rabbi David Seidenberg (c) 2004

Blessing from the first Tu Bish’vat seder

Please, God, who makes (ha’oseh), and who forms (hayotser), and who creates (haborei), and who emanates (hama’atsil) the higher worlds,

And in their form and pattern you created their model on the earth below; You made all of them with wisdom, higher above and lower below, to join [together] the tent to become one (l’chaber et ha’ohel lihyot echad),

And you made trees and grasses bloom from the ground with the stature and pattern of what is above, to cause the children of Adam to know the wisdom and discernment that is in them, in order to reach hidden things;

And may you drop upon them the flow and power of your higher vessels (midot): “And he made the harvest fruit” and “the fruit tree making fruit by its kind”; “And from the fruit of your works you will satisfy the land”, “to eat from her fruits and to satisfy from her goodness”; “And to cause through them to the soul of all life”— from the spiritual strength which is in them;

And from your fruit comes out the reward of the fruit of the belly/womb, to cause life and to nourish the body: “and his fruit will be for eating and his leaves for healing”;

And this day* [Tu Bish’vat] is the beginning of your works [from now until Shavuot], to ripen her and to make her new: “a man will bring his fruit” “making fruit by their kinds”; for thus will be filled the days of ripening for the higher tree, “the tree of life in the midst of the garden,” and he will make fruit above.

May will [come] from before you, our God and God of our ancestors, by the power of the merit of eating the fruit which we will eat and we will bless over now, and will meditate in/over the secret of their higher roots upon which they hang/depend, [for you] to cause the flow of desire and blessing and free energy to flow over them, to return again to make them grow and bloom from the beginning of the year until the end of the year, for good and for blessing, for good life and for peace.

And may you uphold for us the word which you promised by the hands of Malachi your seer: “and I will cast out for you the one who eats away, and the fruit of the earth will not be destroyed for you, and no vine in the field will be barren for you, said YHVH of hosts.”

“Look out from your holy habitation (ma’on), from the heavens” and bless for us this year, for good and for blessing; “Let them drink blessings forever, let them celebrate in joy your presence,” “and the earth will give her produce and the tree of the field his fruit” and on them you will bring a blessing of goodness;

And may the might and majesty of the blessings for eating the fruits become lights in the wellspring of blessings, the Righteous One [the Cosmic Tree], life of the worlds,

And may we see the bow, joyful and beautified with his colors; and from there the flow of desire and mercy will flow over us, for pardon and forgiving our sins and errors;

And may the whole return now to his original strength, and return the strength of his bow, “for you are the one who will bless the Righteous One,YHVH, desire will crown him like a rampart”;

And may all the sparks that were scattered by our hands, or by the hands of our ancestors, or by the sin of the first human against the fruit of the tree, be returned to be included in the majestic might of the tree of life.

“Then the trees of the forest will sing out” and the tree of the field will raise a branch and make fruit, day by day; “And you will take from the first of all the fruits of the ground [on Shavuot] to bring the first-fruit offering (bikurim) before the altar of YHVH” with praise and thanks.

For a printable Adobe Acrobat PDF version of this document, click here.

For a printable Microsoft Word version of this document, click here.

This prayer is abridged from the original text of the blessing. A complete translation by Miles Krassen can be found in Trees, Earth, and Torah: A Tu B’shvat Anthology (JPS 2000), pp.148-151. Excerpts can be found here in The Trees Are Davening. This abridgement leaves out lines about angels, about the kingdom of David, about the health benefits for seder participants, and about details of the evils overcome by the seder. *For seders that are taking place on another day close to Tu Bish’vat, as commonly occurs in North American synagogues, one could change the phrase “And this day…” to read: “And this moon…” © 2004 Rabbi David Seidenberg, comments to: rebduvid86@hotmail.com.