74 results for tag: Tu B’Shvat / Tu B’Shevat / New Year for Trees

Why Is This Night Different? Thoughts on Tu Bishvat

WHY IS THIS NIGHT DIFFERENT? THOUGHTS ON TU BISHVAT Richard H. Schwartz One of the highlights of the Passover Seder is the recitation of the four questions that consider how the night of Passover differs from all the other nights of the year. Many questions are also appropriate for Tu Bishvat, which starts on Friday evening, January 25 in 2013, because of the many ways that this holiday differs from Passover and all other days of the year. While four cups of red wine (or grape juice) are drunk at the Passover Seder, the four cups drunk at the Tu Bishvat Seder vary in color from white to pink to ruby to red. While Passover is a holiday of ...

Join Us! Houston’s Jewish Food Summit – January 27, 2013

Join us in Houston on Sunday, January 27th for a morning of learning and hands-on workshops at the intersection of sustainability and Jewish values! At Texas' first Jewish Food Summit, we'll explore how to integrate ancient wisdom into our contemporary lives. The program will feature guest speakers, informative workshops, and a tree-planting followed by a special Tu B'Shvat seder--a special meal to celebrate the Jewish New Year for the Trees. All are welcome! What: Houston Jewish Food Summit When: January 27, 2013, 9:45 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Where: Congregation Brith Shalom 4610 Bellaire Boulevard Bellaire TX 77401 713.667.9201 This program is ...

Tree B’Earthday – Tu Bishvat Retreat at Isabella Freedman

Tree b'Earthday: A Tu b'Shevat Celebration Friday, January 25 – Sunday, January 27, 2013 at Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in the Connecticut Berkshires Give thanks for the birthday of the trees and the Jewish Earth Day with the many branches of the Jewish environmental movement. Join activists, rabbis, leaders, and educators to contemplate and celebrate our interconnectedness with trees and the natural world. Tree-mendous highlights include: -Romemu-style (Renewal) services with Shir Yaakov -Orthodox services with Rabbi Greg Wall All-inclusive rates start at just $228* per person and include farm-to-...

Mysticism and Making a Difference: Tu b’Shevat in Silver Spring

My local community group, the Kayamut Silver Spring Sustainability Circle, held our Tu b'Shevat Seder on February 7. It was the first time in a long time that I hosted a Tu b'Shevat Seder that was actually on Tu b'Shevat. So I wanted to make it special. Instead of being a mock seder or a model seder, it was a real seder and an opportunity to experience Tu b'Shevat for itself. I know that Tu b'Shevat has mystical meaning in addition to the more modern, environmental meaning we've given to it. For this seder, I wanted to blend a little of the mystical back into our understanding of Tu b'Shevat. I believe that this ...

Fruit Trees

(reposted from Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin's blog: http://blog.bjen.org/ dated February 17, 2012) I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Israel, which serendipitously coincided with the season of Tu B'shvat, the day that marks the new year of the trees. Since the times of the early rabbis, this holiday has been a sacred day on the Jewish calendar. In modern Israel, it is a day of joy, when school children go out into the fields and countryside to plant trees, put on plays and celebrate the glories of a returning spring. Friends and family visit each other, exchanging gifts of dried figs and dates, almonds and apricots. Wherever we ...

The Owls of Shevat

Dear Friends, Can you hear the owls of Shevat calling? They are beckoning us to find ways to bring our Jewish communities outside. I’d like to share a simple program that gets our community of different aged folks bundled up and joining a night hike filled with owl calls, wind song, star gazing, storytelling and fair-trade organic hot chocolate. Here’s what we do. We gather when the Shevat moon is waning, on a Saturday night post Tu B’Shevat. Peak owl listening time may be 4am, but we just ramble around after dinner, wide open and trusting to the mystery of what we may experience, happy to simply experience the night ...

Tu B’Shevat Saplings

Dear Friends, Our cliffhanger (see part 1 here ) left us with the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge firmly planted not within Tu B’Shevat, but within the middle of Mi Chamocha our blessing-song for redemption. Mi Chamocha is invoked in every prayer service directly after the Shema. We’ll begin by trying to make sense of this very old word, redemption, and then offer some ideas why Reb Elimelech of Grodzisk (d. 1892) might have placed his wisdom of the two trees there. Ready to wade in the water? As we get our toes wet, let’s first explore redemption- our personal, communal and cosmic invocation of trust in a ...

Jewcology Launches Year of Jewish Learning on the Environment!

This Tu b'Shevat, Jewcology will launch a major new program: a Year of Jewish Learning on the Environment, in partnership with Canfei Nesharim. Between Tu b'Shevat 5772 and Tu b'Shevat 5773, we will roll out our "Core Teachings" series, 18 sets of resources exploring the connection between Jewish texts and our response to today's environmental challenges. Topics range from Trees, Food and Energy to Shabbat, Sustainable Use and Consumerism. For each topic, we will be providing a long article (2000 words), short article (800 words), study guide (source sheet with discussion questions for chavruta study), a short ...

Those Who Plant in Joy – Tu b’Shvat and the Social Justice Protests

A.The Israeli media has recently been occupied with the six-month anniversary of the past summer’s social justice protests, in which scores of young activists (me included) declared themselves the “New Israelis.” “We are the New Israelis,” we called from the stages and street marches, “and we have a dream – to live in this land, to build our homes here, to raise our children here, and to weave our life story out of it.” This is how we “New Israelis” feel – a new generation not locked into stereotypes, one that refuses to view current reality as predestined…a new ...

Why Tu B’shvat Matters in 2012

The economy is in crisis across much of the USA and Europe, governments are killing their citizens in Syria and Bahrain, and organized crime is dominating Mexico and Central America… This Tu B’shvat how can we worry about environmental issues, when there are so many pressing social issues face our society? Indeed, environmental concerns seem to be fairly low on the international priorities list these days. Look at the recent failure of the Durban conference, in which governments, (most notably my own Conservative Canadian government), were unwilling to focus on environmental concerns choosing instead to lead with economic ...

Celebrating Tu B’shvat… By Living Up in a Tree?

Jewish camp directors spend week aloft in a redwood “tree-sit” In preparation for Tu B’shvat, my husband and I lived this past week 150 feet up in the air into an ancient and endangered redwood tree in northern California. We cooked, slept and made Shabbat in the over-200-year-old trees as part of an environmental protection action, called “tree-sitting”, to keep the trees from being cut down. Our grove included 50 redwoods connected by ziplines; these trees would have been cut down three years ago were it not for the continual presence of “tree-sitters” living high up in them. Redwoods are the tallest ...

Last Day to Order Free Haggadot

Good Chodesh! Today is Rosh Chodesh Shevat; according to Beit Shammai, THIS is the new year of the trees! In any case, we wish you a good and green new month. Tu b'Shevat is in just two weeks, on Tuesday-Wednesday February 7-8! Today is the final deadline for orders of free haggadot this year. You can order up to 25 Haggadot absolutely free by posting your request on our facebook page. Please post the number of haggadot you are requesting, your location, and the community where the materials will be used. Then, send a message via facebook to Evonne Marzouk with your ...

Tu B’Shevat Seeds

Dear friends, The origins of this post began over a year ago when I came across a quote that looked to me like Rabbi Heschel challenging Martin Buber’s masterpiece, I and Thou. Unbelievable, right? Like two superheroes fighting. I was compelled to explore deeper. Here’s what Rabbi Heschel said: “…I am not ready to accept the ancient concept of prayer as dialogue. Who are we to enter a dialogue with God?” He then declares that he is only an “it” immersed within the all that is God and can not be an ‘I’. How could this be? After sitting with this question for over a year, I think ...

Congratulations to Rachael Copp Cohen!

Thanks so much to all of you for your wonderful postings on why you celebrate trees - as part of our raffle for the Isabella Freedman Tu b'Earthday event on February 3-5, 2012. We have chosen the raffle winner, and the free pass goes to Rachael Copp Cohen! Jewcology is proud to be a sponsor of the Tree b'Earthday retreat, and we really encourage as many of you to register as possible. You can get more information and register at http://isabellafreedman.org/tubshevat. Planning to attend the retreat anyway? Wish you could go and wanting to connect to the Isabella Freedman community! Join the Isabella Freedman community on ...

Tu B’Shvat Fruits — Meaningful Foods!

It is a widespread custom on Tu B’Shvat to eat of the seven species – five fruits and two grains – associated with the Land of Israel. The Land of Israel is described in Deut 8:7-10 in terms of the resources that it offers, “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and hill; a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you may eat food without stint, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you can mine copper. When you have eaten your fill, ...

Feb 6: COEJL’s declaration signing ceremony

The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) invites you to the official signing ceremony of the “Jewish Environmental and Energy Imperative” declaration, part of its Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign. Two days before the Jewish celebration of Tu B’shvat, the New Year for trees, leaders of the Jewish community will set the community-wide goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 14% by 2014. Who: On behalf of a broad spectrum of national Jewish leaders, Rabbi Steve Gutow, president and CEO, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and co-chair, COEJL; Rabbi David Saperstein, director and counsel, Religi...

Pre-Tu b’Shvat Brunch Lecture: Lessons from the olive tree for families, Jewish unity, and the Social Security system

On Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, I will be presenting a brunch lecture at the YM-YWHA of Union County, NJ, from Noon to 1 PM on "Lessons from the olive tree for families, Jewish unity, and the Social Security system." Highlights include: The Chanukah story they DIDN’T tell you as a child Why a nineteenth-century rabbi used botany to make sense of Kabbalat Shabbat The hidden tree and advice to adult children and parents in Psalms 92 and 128 The fee for the program is $3 for YM-YWHA and JOY members and $8 for all others. For more information or to reserve a place, contact Susan Silberner at ssilberner@yahoo....

The Voices of the Whales and the Trees: Lessons for TU B’SHEVAT

It was not a typical Shabbat afternoon that August of 2001. We were sitting on the shore of Windfall Island, on the edge of Tebenkof Bay in Southwest Alaska, watching the Humpback whales feed in Chatham Strait. As we watched, they moved across our view from north to south, diving and surfacing as they fed. They moved behind a small island and as they came back into view two whales suddenly threw themselves into the air at the same time. Then others followed as we shouted in delight. It was a fitting climax to a wonderful and inspiring experience. The “we” in this case were ten Jewish environmentalists from all over North America and ...

Tree B’Earthday SAVE THESE DATES!

Come have a very special Tree b'Earthday with a pluralistic ecologically engaged Jewish community the week before Tu b'Shevat. Return home with (tree)sources to enhance your community's celebration of Tu b'Shevat, which falls on February 8, the following week. Our weekend includes spirited pluralistic Shabbat services, guided hikes, workshops, farm-to-table kosher dining, and a beautiful Tu b'Shevat seder on Saturday night. Families are welcome and children under 13 come for free if they stay in the same room as their parents/guardians. All-inclusive rates for 2 nights start at only $200 per person. If you'd like to ...

Great Video – Get Ready for Tree B’Earthday!

The trees are God's great alphabet: With them He writes in shining green Across the world His thoughts serene. ~Leonora Speyer