"There are four New Years days: the first of Nisan is the New Year for reckoning the reigns of kings and the feasts; the first of Elul is the New Year for the tithe of the cattle; the first of Tishrei is the New Year for reckoning of the years and taking stock of human lives; the first of Shevat is the New Year for the fruit trees. That is according to the school of Shammai; the school of Hillil says on the 15th of Shevat."
- Mishnah Rosh Hashanah

The Jewish calendar is lunar; most holidays mark the phases of the moon. Tu b'Shevat, the Jewish New Year of the trees, falls on the full moon of Shevat, which is the 15th. In Hebrew, "tu" - this year on January 27th (1995). (Hebrew letters have numerical values) Tu b'Shevat was originally a day to pay taxes one's fruit trees, and for many centuries that was its only significance. In the tenth century, public fasts were prohibited on Tu b'Shevat. In the eleventh century, psalms were composed especially for the Tu b'Shevat Amidah. By the sixteenth century, it was common practice among central European Jews to eat 15 types of fruit in honor of the name "Tu." and by the late seventeenth century a full Tu b'Shevat Seder had evolved.

The kabbalists of Safed created the ritual of the Tu b'Shevat seder for the eve of the holiday. The text, called the Peri 'Ez Hadar (Fruit of the Goodly Tree), was initially published in an anthology of kabalistic customs called the Heindat Yamun. It was first printed separately as a pamphlet in 1728, in Venice, and has been reprinted in many editions since then.

The celebration of Tu b'Shevat has long been popular in Sephardic communities. Local populations developed their own customs: in Bucharia and Kurdistan, a dinner of 30 kinds of fruit was prepared. In India, 50 varieties of fruits made for an abundant feast! In rural Morocco, the rich invited the whole town to their homes and filled the guests' hats with fruit. In Persia, it was customary to climb onto neighbors' roofs and lower an empty basket through the chimney. It would be returned laden with fruit. A Greek-Jewish legend claims that on this day the trees embrace, and anyone who witnesses this miraculous event will have a wish fulfilled.

Until recently, Eastern European Jews did not celebrate Tu b'Shevat. Now, however, with diverse Jewish communities living side by side, the Peri 'Ez Hadar and the ritual of the Tu b'Shevat seder have gained popularity among contemporary Ashkenazi communities as well.

So, nu, why a seder, of all things for Tu b'Shevat? Why not just plant a tree and eat some fruit? Because a seder is a ritual that makes an idea tangible. On Passover, we use all of our senses to transform a trip to the dinner table into a journey of liberation. We eat horseradish in order to really taste the bitterness of slavery; we see haroset and envision the labor of our ancestors; we drink wine to experience the giddiness of freedom. We also tell the story of the Exodus so that we have words to understand these sensations intellectually. Slavery and freedom as concepts (and realities) may be difficult to grasp when we are fortunate enough not to be experiencing them. The Passover seder engages our minds with a saga, while our bodies respond directly, almost bypassing the brain, to the sensations they are taking in.

The intention of the Tu b'Shevat seder is also to make an idea concrete. The idea is this: God is the source of all life, so every tiny piece of creation - a raisin, a walnut, a peach - is infinitely valuable. This them speaks to human responsibility; since Nature is a grand web in which everything is connected to everything else, every small action that humans do reverberates all over the universe.

A Tu b'Shevat Seder consists first and foremost of saying many blessings. We also drink four cups of wine, eat a great fruit feast and study texts. The Kabbalists conceptualized the cosmos in four "worlds," so everything in the Seder is divided into four parts. At the base is assiyah, the physical, everyday world that we live in, the world of earth. Assiyah is symbolized by fruits or nuts with an outer shell and fruit within; orange, banana, walnut, pecan. Next to that is yetzirah, the world of water, represented by fruits with edible outer flesh and inedible cores: olive, cherry, peach, date. Then briyah, the world of air, embodied by fruits that are edible throughout: strawberry, grape, fig, and carob. The edible part of each fruit - the flesh or meat - represents holiness while the inedible portion - the shell, skin, or pit - represents protection. Finally, there is atzilut, the perfect world of pure spirit, the world of fire, where the presence of God dwells. Some people use fragrances or a burning candle to represent atzilut; others leave it completely without symbolism.

Just as the fruits we eat are very particular, so is the wine. Each of the four cups of wine is a certain combination of red and white wine - first pure white, then adding some red, then some more, and finally pure red - to portray the changing seasons.

Each "world," after the study of texts from traditional Jewish sources, as well as modern thinkers, poets and environmentalists, culminates wtih blessing, eating and drinking. Aryeh Kaplan writes: "The most important discipline of Judaism...involves the blessing. When a blessing is recited before eating, then the act itself becomes a spiritual undertaking....Just as one can contemplate a flower or a melody, one can contemplate the act of eating." The blessing is the same for each fruit, almost becoming a mantra: "Baruch atah...boray pri ha-etz." We also say a shehecheyanu over each fruit being eaten for the first time that year. This is not just noshing! Meditation on food is the central ritual of the Tu b'Shevat seder. The Peri 'Ez Hadar says that if blessings are not said over what is eaten, it is as if the plant is "robbed" of its "divine energy" and the tree will not bear plentifully again the next season. In this seder, each berry and nut is the proverbial "grain of sand" in which to know the world, and knowing it, to act rightly in it.