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Tu Bishvat has arrived

27/01/2021 09:18:57 AM

Jan27

Dear Congregational Family,

Tonight marks the beginning of Tu Bishvat, the new year of trees in Israel. The Mishna identifies the fifteenth of Shvat as one of four new years on the Jewish calendar.

From the time I was a young child, I have observed Tu Bishvat by collecting Tzedakah in the famous JNF (Jewish National Fund) blue box and donating it so that new trees could be planted in Israel. The beautiful oasis that Israel has become in the last seventy plus years can be attributed in large measure to the work of JNF.

In the sixteenth century, the Kabbalists of Tzfat developed the original Tu Bishvat Seder and Haggadah. In the last several decades, the Tu Bishvat Seder/Haggadah has had a renaissance. Many different texts have been composed articulating diverse points of view.

Classically, the Tu Bishvat Seder contains four cups of wine or grape juice and four different categories of fruits. The drink evolves from white to white/red to red/white to red, symbolizing the transition from Winter to Spring in Israel. 

The fruits evolve from an outer shell to an outer skin with an inner pit to an inner pit only to a fruit with neither an outer skin nor an inner pit. The transition symbolizes facing outer and inner challenges in our lives to the anticipation and hope of complete peace and tranquility.

With the onset of Tu Bishvat, Purim is one month away, and Pesach is two months away. We await these joyous occasions with the anticipation of better times for all very soon.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Howard Morrison

Thu, 28 March 2024 18 Adar II 5784