Tu Bish'vat Seder

Tu Bish'vat, commonly referred to as the "birthday of the trees" will be celebrated this coming Thursday (the holiday actually begins on Wednesday evening on the Jewish calendar). So yesterday our Edot students participated in a Tu Bish'vat seder. 

Before the seder, I shared the history of Tu Bish'vat (which literally means the 15th of the Hebrew month of Sh'vat) with the students, using the "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" dvd-rom program. We viewed the first 8 minutes of the Search for Deliverance episode, which shared the reaction of Spanish Jews to King Ferdinand's and Queen Isabella's edict of exile in 1492. It was in reaction to this traumatic event, that Lurianic Kabbala arose, whose followers developed the Tu Bish'vat seder rituals.

I also shared with the students how the modern State of Israel revived the celebration of Tu Bish'vat as part of its program to reclaim the land after centuries of neglect. We viewed footage taken by photographers back in 1951, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the "Keren Kayemet L'Yisrael" (Jewish National Fund) and also viewed footage shot last January of trees being planted in Israel . In the "With Two Hands" clip, the Hebrew lyrics to the song share how "the future of this tree is in your two hands, and your future is in this tree."

Below are some photos taken during our classroom seder, both sessions. At the end of each session, each student received a plastic bag containing a peat pod, parsley seeds, and instructions for how to plant the seeds.  It is traditional to plant the parsley on Tu Bish'vat which will be used on the Passover seder plate. The year 5774 is a leap year, which means we add an extra month of Adar (which follows Sh'vat), so the plants will have 12 weeks instead of just 8 weeks to grow!

We are blessed with a view of a magnificent oak tree just outside our classroom window - a wonderful backdrop to our seder

Before the start of the seder, I explained the literal meaning of the holiday's name

The students quickly noticed that the flowers were all dyed different colors. I explained that this was a way to show that  this is the time of year when plants "awaken" from their winter sleep, and draw the nutrients and water from the soil. These flowers, when fresh, were white, and quickly sucked up food coloring put into their water.

Once the seder began, it was conducted in much the same way that we conduct a Passover seder - we read from a Tu Bish'vat "haggadah," each student taking a turn to read.

The four cups of wine (grape juice in our classroom) represent the four seasons of the year - hence the four different colors.

Blessing the wine/juice before drinking it - Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha'olam, borei p'ree ha'gafen (ha'gafen=the vine)

Three categories of fruits are eaten during the seder - fruits with peels or shells that cannot be eaten, fruits with pits that cannot be eaten, and fruits which can be entirely eaten. Again, we blessed each fruit before it was eaten - Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha'olam, borei p'ree ha'etz (ha'etz=the tree).

During the course of the seder, we discussed such questions as "How are trees and humans alike in the way they grow?" and "Why is the Torah compared to a fig?" 

 

 Finally, I'd like to say "YASHER KO'ACH" (congratulations!) to our Edot students who worked with Rabbi Miller during Wednesday's session to design a "creative t'fila" for Sunday, and to those students who participated in leading t'fila during the service.  The theme they chose was Sesame Street. Very clever!

 CHAG TU BISH'VAT SAMEACH!  (HAPPY TU BISH'VAT!)