Tu B’Shevat Seder

Introduction

The Tu B’Shevat Seder is a celebration of the new year for the trees, when their roots are beginning to take life under the soil. The seder is entirely vegan and broken into four segments. In each part, a different “mix” of wine and fruits are consumed as a symbol for the season.

Preparation

Give yourself some time to get the following things ready so you are all set up for an easy, fun and organized seder.

Grocery List

(This is just a guideline, feel free to deviate from this list based on what you like and what’s available!)

• Wine or grape juice (both red and white)

• Citrus (oranges, grapefruit, lemon)

• Bananas

• Pomegranates

• Pistachios or almonds with shell

• Cherries

• Stone Fruit (apricots, peaches or plums)

• Figs

• Raisins

• Seedless grapes

• Apples

• Challah

• Rice cakes or crackers

• Ingredients for your favorite vegan recipes (see below for inspiration)

The Seder Plate

Here’s a quick guide for how to organize your Tu B’Shevat Seder Plate.

Some Recipes

Here are some fan favorite vegan recipes to make your meal extra festive:

• Spicy Peanut Eggplant Soup

• Mushroom Gnocchi

• Carob Brownies

The Wine

Throughout the seder you will consume four separate cups of wine, from white gradually increasing in color to red. Check out this guide for the ratios. Mix as you go or have all four ready at the beginning of the seder!

Let’s get started!

The Jewish mystical tradition has always viewed the entire cycle of the Jewish year as a seamless tapestry, the textures and contours of each celebration neatly blending into one another. For the mystics the Jewish year rises as a mythic mandala in which each piece contributes to the balanced whole. This tradition presents Tu B’Shevat, conventionally known as the Jewish New Year for the Trees, as an essential “turn” from the season of darkness (winter--Hanukkah) to the season of light (spring--Passover); from the era of darkness (exile) to the era of light (redemption). Tu B’Shevat celebrates the ethereal divine spark which brings forth new life. Buds that will bring forth fragrant blossoms appear on the trees in Israel at Tu B’Shevat. The fragrance turns us away from the dark months of winter when we are consoled by the small light of the Hanukkah menorah toward a new beginning. We inhale deeply the blossoms of new life at Tu B’Shevat, say the mystics, for the sweet fragrance of God’s creation.

The Four Questions

1. What is Tu B’Shevat and what is the origin?

2. Why do we celebrate Tu B’Shevat in the middle of winter?

3. How has the observance of Tu B’Shevat evolved?

4. What can Tu B’Shevat mean to us today?

Maggid - The Telling

Question 1 Answer : The Origin and Definition of Tu B’Shevat

The first mention of the New Year of the Trees appears not in the TaNaKh, but in the Mishna, (Rosh Hashanah 1:1):

There are four New Year days:

• The first of Nissan, the New Year for kings and the festivals

• The first of Elul, the New Year for the tithing of animals

• The first of Tishrei, the New Year for the counting of years, the Sabbatical year (shemittah), and the Jubilee, and planting and vegetation

• The first of Shevat, the New Year for Trees - according to the followers of Shammai. Those who follow Hillel say it is on the fifteenth of Shevat.

Jewish law determined that a tenth of one’s produce must be given as a tax, or tithe, which went to the priesthood or the poor, depending on the year. Originally, the rabbis viewed the New Year for Trees as the day from which the tithes (ma’aser) should be calculated, and the date from which immature fruit was prohibited (orlah). The tithe of ripened fruits had to be of the same tax year (just like today, you pay taxes from the same year’s income). Consequently, fruit which blossomed prior to the fifteenth of Shevat could not be used as tithe for fruit which blossomed after that date.

FUN FACT: The years of a tree were thus reckoned from 15th Shevat; a tree planted in December would be legally “two years old” on Tu B’Shevat, only a year and 3 months later!

Question 2 Answer : Why Tu B’Shevat is in the middle of winter

In Israel, winter is usually a time of heavy rains and rushing, surging creeks and rivulets. At about the middle of the month of Shevat, the severe rainstorms cease, and soon thereafter, signs of spring begin to appear. Although two more months of winter remain, buds begin to swell on the trees, the enduring symbol of God’s promise of renewed life.

According to some traditions, Noah’s Ark landed in the month of Shevat, and the dove (a long-established Near Eastern symbol of God’s feminine qualities), returned to the Ark with an olive branch in her beak. She heralds new life and the promise of a world that will once again bloom and provide nurture, as God promises never again to destroy all living creatures (Genesis 8:21)

The schools of Hillel and Shammai agreed that the New Year for trees should be the date that they stopped absorbing water from the ground, and instead drew nourishment from their sap. It was natural that Shammai would fix an earlier time than Hillel since most of his disciples lived in the coastal plain and the Sharon valley where the flowers bloom earlier than in the hills, where Hillel, and the majority of the people lived. There the soil was drier and the sap weaker. Hillel’s view prevailed. We follow the ruling of the followers of Hillel.

FUN FACT: Tu B’Shevat is an abbreviation of Chamisha Asar B’Shevat (15th day of Shevat) utilizing the numerical values of the Hebrew letters tet (9) and vav (6) total 15. We use 9 plus 6 rather than 10 plus 5 because the letters yod and hey spell out one of God’s names.

Question 3 Answer : Tu B’Shevat Observance Over Time

When the Temple service in Jerusalem ceased, the other three new years effectively went dormant for about 1500 years. The holy kabbalists under the leadership of Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572) created a new Tu B'Shvat tradition with the multi-sensory seder we experience today.

Though Tu B'Shvat was paused, trees continued to grow both in reality and on the pages of Jewish texts. In Jewish tradition, a relationship was formed between trees and humanity in the first week (see Gen. 2:9) and it still exists today. In fact, later in the Torah, we are reminded that it is forbidden to cut down a tree during times of war (Deut. 20:19). The Rabbis explain it is because trees sustain us, offering their fruits and their oxygen. Not only should we not destroy trees, but because they can’t protect themselves (from humans) we have a moral and religious responsibility not to harm them. The Talmud takes note of humanity’s distinct relationship to trees, both for our own sake, such when we say the blessings before eating fruit (Talmud Bavli, Brachot 35a) and for generations to come.

Knowing that trees have the ability to give and sustain life, the rabbis see Torah through the metaphor of “the Tree of Life.” In a sense, trees also embody legacy, what you hold on to, and what you leave behind. Honi the Circlemaker says, in a story in the Talmud: "When I was born into this world, I found many carob trees planted by my ancestors. Just as they planted trees for me, I am planting trees for my children and grandchildren" (Talmud Bavli, Ta'anit 23a). From the start of Jewish history, trees and humans have been custodians to one another. What happens when that relationship falters?

-Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein

Question 4 Answer : What Tu B’Shevat Means To Us Today

Earth Day was established April 22, 1970, a day dedicated around the world for people to publicly display support for preserving the ecosystems of our environment. In a way, Tu B'Shvat is the Jewish Earth Day, so let’s show up for both!

We have killed trees to build cities and skyscrapers and to produce meat and dairy farms. We have killed trees for the benefit of a small number of people, at the cost and destruction of planet Earth, our habitat, our home. Science tells us that one of the great ways to mitigate and even help reverse climate change is reforestation.

As we consider what the next decade and beyond will look like for humanity, we are met with unprecedented challenges. Despite this, we have never been better positioned for success, gifted with resources and opportunities that would have been considered miracles just one hundred years ago. That is why we, the Jewish community, are mobilizing and calling upon

us to not only consider the role humanity has played in destroying ecosystems of tree life, but also to actively engage in the campaign to heal our planet.

The Ten Plagues

Each year at the Passover Seder, we recall the ten plagues that befell Egypt. During Tu B’Shevat, our focus turns instead to the plagues that we are responsible for—the plagues we inflict upon our environment. As we recite each of these plagues, spill a drop of wine and think about your own role in each:

1. The destruction of rainforests and starting of forest fires

2. Melting of the polar ice caps and rising sea levels

3. Pollution of oceans, lakes and rivers

4. Air pollution and emission of carbon into the atmosphere

5. Water shortages and droughts

6. Creating garbage landfills

7. Over-consumption of energy

8. The creation and the overuse of plastics

9. Extinction of species

10. Destruction of the ozone layer

The First Cup - Winter

White is the color of the winter snow. It is also the color of the Garden of Eden, where God gave the first humans “the fruit of every seed bearing fruit for food.” We first choose fruits that have a hard covering and a soft inside . We eat these fruits to remind ourselves that although the ground is hard from the winter, there is life underneath the ground that is waiting to be born again in the spring.

1. Wine Consumed: Completely white

2. Fruits Consumed: Hard shell/exterior and soft interior

   • Oranges/grapefruits

   • Pomegranates**

   • Pistachios/Almonds (with shell)**

Blessings

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu ruach ha’olam borei p’ri hagafen.

.ברוך אתה אדוני אלוהינו, רוח העולם, בורא פרי הגפן

Blessed are You, Lord our God, spirit of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu ruach ha’olam borei p’ri haetz.

.ברוך אתה אדוני אלוהינו, רוח העולם, בורא פרי העץ

Blessed are You, Lord our God, spirit of the universe, who creates the fruit of the tree.

Readings

A Winter Twilight

A silence slipping around like death,
Yet chased by a whisper, a sigh, a breath;
One group of trees, lean, naked and cold,
Inking their cress 'gainst a sky green-gold;
One path that knows where the corn flowers were;
Lonely, apart, unyielding, one fir;
And over it softly leaning down,
One star that I loved ere the fields went brown.

Here in the Time of the Winter Morn

Here in the time of the Winter morn, Love,
I see the Sunlit leaves of changing hue
Burn clear against a sky of tender blue,
Here in the time of the Winter morn, Love.
Here in the time of the Winter morn, Love,
I hear the low tone bells of changing song
Ring clear upon the air the full day long,
Here in the time of the Winter morn, Love.
I hear the bells, I see the changing leaves,
And one lone heart for Summer silent grieves,
Here in the time of the Winter morn, Love.

DISCUSSION

• What are your favorite things about winter?

• What are you working on manifesting for the coming year?

The Second Cup - Spring

The pink wine symbolizes the gradual deepening of color which parallels the reawakening of colors in nature as the sun brings them back to life. In spring the sun’s rays begin to thaw the frozen earth and the first flowers appear on the hillsides. In the full warmth of spring we go outdoors to be with nature. No longer coating ourselves in protective attire, we expose our soft bodies to the sun. From the cold winter, where we ate fruits with a hard covering, we now eat softer fruits to show that the land is changing; thawing out. We eat fruit containing pits and we are reminded that, despite the wondrous expressions of our spirit, we are still tied to the hard pit of our ego. We are still concealed, deep inside, protecting our divine sparks even from within.

1. Wine Consumed: White with a small bit ofred to make a light pink (3:1)

2. Fruits Consumed: Soft exterior with a pit/hard interior

   • Cherries

   • Apricots

   • Olives**

Blessings

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu ruach ha’olam borei p’ri hagafen.

.ברוך אתה אדוני אלוהינו, רוח העולם, בורא פרי הגפן

Blessed are You, Lord our God, spirit of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu ruach ha’olam borei p’ri haetz.

.ברוך אתה אדוני אלוהינו, רוח העולם, בורא פרי העץ

Blessed are You, Lord our God, spirit of the universe, who creates the fruit of the tree.

Reading

Dewdrops

Watch the dewdrops in the morning,
Shake their little diamond heads,
Sparkling, flashing, ever moving,
From their silent little beds.
See the grass! Each blade is brightened,
Roots are strengthened by their stay;
Like the dewdrops, let us scatter
Gems of love along the way.

DISCUSSION

• What are your favorite things about spring?

• Today is MLK Jr. Day! In what ways is environmental justice tied to racial justice? How can we be better allies for both our earth and our BIPOC friends?

The Third Cup - Summer

Red and white are the colors of our third cup of wine. It is pink, or red wine that has some white wine mixed in with it. These colors serve as a reminder of the abundant fruits available during the summer time. The red wine is a celebration of the richness and beauty of life during the summer. Now we eat fruits that are soft all round. These fruits are symbolic of an earth that is once again alive and flourishing. Examples of these fruits include raisins, grapes (seedless), or figs. This time we enjoy the fruit- the essence of the entire fruit. We no longer worry about the outer appearance. We have already eaten fruits with a soft center and hard covering, a hard center and a soft covering and a wholly soft fruit. In our most precious relationships, we are most like the fruit that are soft throughout and that can be taken whole, available to each other in every aspect and facet of our personalities and strong in a way which does not cut any part of us off from ourselves or from each other.

1. Wine Consumed: Red with a bit of white to make a dark pink (2:1)

2. Fruits Consumed: Completely edible

   • Figs**

   • Raisins

   • Apples

Blessings

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu ruach ha’olam borei p’ri hagafen.

.ברוך אתה אדוני אלוהינו, רוח העולם, בורא פרי הגפן

Blessed are You, Lord our God, spirit of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu ruach ha’olam borei p’ri haetz.

.ברוך אתה אדוני אלוהינו, רוח העולם, בורא פרי העץ

Blessed are You, Lord our God, spirit of the universe, who creates the fruit of the tree.

Readings

From The Color Purple

“God ain't a he or a she, but a It.

But what do it look like? I ast.

Don't look like nothing, she say. It ain't a picture show. It ain't something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you've found It.

...My first step from the old white man was trees. Then air. Then birds. Then other people. But one day when I was sitting quiet and feeling like a motherless child, which I was, it come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all. I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm would bleed.”

- Conversation between Shug Avery & Celie

In Summer Twilight

Just a dash of lambent carmine
Shading into sky of gold;
Just a twitter of a song-bird
Ere the wings its head enfold;
Just a rustling sigh of parting
From the moon-kissed hill to breeze;
And a cheerful gentle, nodding
Adieu waving from the trees;
Just a friendly sunbeam’s flutter
Wishing all a night’s repose,
Ere the stars swing back the curtain
Bringing twilight’s dewy close.

Midsummer

This starbreak is celestial air,
Just silver; earthlight, dying amber.
Underneath an arch of pallor
Summer keeps her brightened chamber.

Bright beauty of the risen dust
And deep flood-mark of beauty pressed
Up from earth in lovely flower,
High against my lonely breast;

Thou rhythm like the changing moon’s
The catch to which the waters play,
That as they kiss moon-silver sink,—
As soon to spurn the baffled clay;

Only before the waters fall
Is Paradise shore for gaining now.
The grasses drink the berry-bright dew;
The small fruits jewel all the bough.

Heart-breaking summer beyond taste,
Ripeness and frost are soon to know;
But might such color hold the west,
And time, and time, be honey-slow!

DISCUSSION

• What are your favorite things about Summer?

• What are some ways (other than Tu B’Shevat) that Judaism is environmentally focused?

• How does the quote from The Color Purple resonate with you?

The Fourth Cup - Autumn

Red is the color of the fourth cup of wine. The seasons are changing and Autumn is coming in. The pure red wine represents the full bloom of nature before the cold winter. The leaves turn a reddish brown color as they fall off the trees. As nature expends its last bit of energy, a full cycle is completed. Just as the natural world goes through changes to achieve its full potential, we also need to change so that we can be free to grow. In doing so, we will become strong like healthy trees, with solid roots in the ground and our arms open to the love that is all around us.

1. Wine Consumed: Completely red

2. Fruits Consumed: All previous fruits + grains

3. Festive meal (vegan)

4. Bread, grains

5. Carob Brownies (for dessert)**

Blessings

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu ruach ha’olam borei p’ri hagafen.

.ברוך אתה אדוני אלוהינו, רוח העולם, בורא פרי הגפן

Blessed are You, Lord our God, spirit of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu ruach ha’olam borei p’ri haetz.

.ברוך אתה אדוני אלוהינו, רוח העולם, בורא פרי העץ

Blessed are You, Lord our God, spirit of the universe, who creates the fruit of the tree.
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu ruach ha’olam borei minei mezonot.

.ברוך אתה אדוני אלוהינו, רוח העולם, בורא מ ָ יני מזוֹנוֹת

Blessed are You, Lord our God, spirit of the universe, who creates varieties of nourishment.

Reading

Autumn

In the dreamy silence
Of the afternoon, a
Cloth of gold is woven
Over wood and prairie;
And the jaybird, newly
Fallen from the heaven,
Scatters cordial greetings,
And the air is filled with
Scarlet leaves, that, dropping,
Rise again, as ever,
With a useless sigh for
Rest—and it is Autumn.

Completion of the Seder

Blessings

Master of the Universe,
grant me the ability to be alone;
may it be my custom to go outdoors each day among the trees and grass - among all growing things and there may I be alone, and enter into prayer, to talk with the One to whom I belong.
May I express there everything in my heart,
and may all the foliage of the field -
all grasses, trees, and plants -
awake at my coming,
to send the powers of their life into the words of my prayer so that my prayer and speech are made whole through the life and spirit of all growing things, which are made as one by their transcendent Source.
May I then pour out the words of my heart
before your Presence like water, O Lord,
and lift up my hands to You in worship,
on my behalf, and that of my children!

May it be Your will, O God of our mothers and fathers, that through our eating of the fruits which we have blessed, that the trees will be filled with the glory of their ability to renew themselves for new blossoming and growth, from the beginning of the year to its end, so that our lives too will be renewed and filled with goodness, blessings, and peace.

Reading

But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children's birthright
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we're brave enough to see it
If only we're brave enough to be it

- From The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman

DISCUSSION

Tu B’Shevat resolutions: what steps can we take individually to help our planet? Share your resolutions with your friends and family to keep you accountable for this coming year!