So I keep reminding myself – and being reminded – to step back.  Step away.  Wait until the time is right.

And then the month of Shevat came.  And while I’ve enjoyed not running around to lead seders, not rushing to prepare and post articles or send out free haggadot or prepare my own community talks…

I found myself having a tearful conversion with my husband.  I confessed I didn’t want to go through Tu b’Shevat without celebrating with a Tu b’Shevat seder.

So we are having a Tu b’Shevat seder tonight.

We bought fruit and juice and we invited one other family in the neighborhood.  I’m going to set the table with the fruit and the spices and I’ve prepared a one-hour seder that I hope will be fun for kids and inspiring for adults.  I’ve included some lessons about mysticism that I love but never seemed to have space in a straight Jewish environmental seder.  In fact, I’m coming to understand Tu b’Shevat as not only environmental, but with all its kabbalistic beauty, too.

This is what it’s like for me right now.  I know that I’m growing.  I know that sometimes I have to let go.  And I also know that, personal exile or not, Tu b’Shevat is something I don’t want to miss.

“May the merciful One turn our hearts toward the land,
so that we may dwell together with her in her sabbath-rest the whole year of Shmita.”

Harachaman hu yashiv libeinu el ha’aretz
l’ma’an neisheiv yachad imah b’shovtah, kol sh’nat hash’mitah!

הָרַחֲמָן הוּא יָשִיב לִבֵּינוּ אֶל הָאָרֶץ לְמַעַן נֵשֵב יָחַד עִמָהּ בְּשָׁבְתהּ, כָּל שְׁנַת הַשְׁמִיטָה

The words of this blessing were written by Rabbi David Seidenberg. Nili Simhai made it into a singable liturgy by setting the words to the “Sosne Nigun” by Jonah Adels, z”l. (Listen to the song at www.neohasid.org/resources/shmita-harachaman.)Harachaman blessings come after the main part of the blessing after the meals, and they ask for special blessings, including blessings related to Shabbat and holidays. Sing it at your Tu Bish’vat seder and at every meal this whole Shmita year!

Shmita means “release”, and the Shmita year is about release or liberation for the land, liberation between the people and the land, and liberation between people themselves. This Harachaman blessing references all three kinds of liberation, and it does that by using three different verbs that include the letters Shin ש and Bet ב. The first, yashiv, comes from the word “turn”, lashuv, לשוב, and it refers to our returning to a right relationship on a heart level with the Earth. The second, neishev, comes from “to settle” or “dwell”, lashevet, לשבת, as in shevet achim gam yachad — how good it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together, and it refers to liberation between individuals in the year of release, when debts are canceled and food is shared. The third, b’shovtah, comes from lishbot, לשבות, to rest, and it refers to the shabbat that the land itself enjoys in the Shmita year, as it says, “the land will enjoy her sabbaths”. This is the true nature of tikkun olam: tikkun, repair and restoration, on all these levels together. That is what must happen to fix the world.

You can download the PDF at neohasid.org/pdf/Shmita-Harachaman.pdf or get a PNG graphic of the blessing at neohasid.org/resources/shmita-harachaman/ (there are 8 Harachamans per page) to use at your Tu Bish’vat seder and for every meal during this Shmita year.

The words fit into the song like this:

Harachaman hu yashiv libeinu
el ha’aretz, el ha’aretz
Harachaman hu yashiv libeinu
el ha’aretz, el ha’aretz 

l’ma’an neisheiv yachad imah
imah b’shovtah
neisheiv yachad imah
imah b’shovtah

kol sh’nat hash’mitah
kol sh’nat hash’mitah
kol sh’nat hash’mitah
kol sh’nat hash’mitah

The weekly Haftorah readings follow the story of the Israelites after they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land.  The writing styles vary greatly, from poetry to historical prose.

Of particular note are writings from the time of the divided kingdom. Conquests of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah were seen by the prophets as divine punishment for failure to follow the Torah.  The writings from this time are full of harsh rebukes and biting metaphors. This is the type of reading found in the weeks leading up to Tisha B’Av.

Once Tisha B’Av is over and the High Holidays are approaching,  the tone changes. Both Torah and Haftorah readings become infused with literary beauty – the lyrical prose of Deuteronomy accompanied by the lovely poetry of the late Isaiah, filled with images of nature’s grandeur as a reflection of the divine, beckoning us to look around at the world and the heavens and there find G-d.

This turning away from harshness towards hope and tenderness reflects the history of the period.  Seventy years after the destruction of Solomon’s Temple and exile in Babylonia, the ascendancy of Persia brought a king who allowed the Jews to return to their homeland.  Isaiah’s writings from that time offer consolation and hope for a future of life back in the homeland.

Thus Teshuvah – a return from exile to home, from harshness to spiritual comfort, and, for us, a turning from the concerns of ordinary life to a remembering of the divine – is undertaken in a milieu of beauty which awakens the soul to the process of positive change.

We know that the perception of beauty affects us deeply.  We crave beauty, we seek it out, we spend our precious moments dwelling on that which offers it.  So, for example, the harmonies of violin music are so arresting as to bring tears to our eyes.  A Dutch still life entices us with its intricacies and balance; time stops while we gaze at it. Intense patterns on flowers are gorgeous beyond human imagination. Birds’ plumage dazzles us with striking elaborations.  The music of  synagogue prayers draws us in; we sing and the notes hum inside us. We gaze at colors of a sunset sky; we rush outside to see a rainbow.

We perceive beauty and drink spiritual nectar – tasty, nourishing, filling.  Every single human being is endowed with this faculty, through whatever sense functions within them.

On the physical level, there seems to be no biological utility to this capacity we have for deep appreciation of certain “results” of our five senses. Call it a gift from G-d, a blessing.  But still, nothing in biology is maintained unless it endows the species with something positive to strengthen and perpetuate itself.  The biologic utility of the pleasures of food, sex, etc seems obvious. But what about the pleasures of seeing or hearing beauty in nature or in the artistic creations of humankind?

This pleasure feels like an instinctual form of love, an immediate response on a tiny scale.  Suppose you come across a wild iris in the woods.  The iris is existing happily in its own environment; it doesn’t need you for food or water. You find it beautiful, it pleases you.  You have experienced a quantum of love for this little iris. Now you care about it. A connection has been made.

A piece of music stirs us – how beautiful! It was composed by a human being, played by other human beings. We don’t know them; they may look nothing like us. And yet, some of that sense of beauty, that love we felt for the music spills out onto the humans who created it.  A connection has been made.

Look out over a swath of treetops. The pattern of greens and rounded shapes is so pleasing.  We can’t help but love the trees, plus the whole web of nature that sustains them and relies on them.  A connection has been made.

Our ability to take pleasure from the natural world and from artistic creations of humankind creates threads of connections  between each of us and the myriad elements of nature.

Beauty does have biological utility. It is the antidote to narcissism and loneliness.  It connects us to the web of existence in the world, causes us to care about it, love it, and of course, do everything we can to preserve it.

Genesis was right.  We are stewards of the world.  We are the only species that can preserve it or cause large scale destruction of it.  Look for beauty in the world and there you will find the passion to preserve it.

Lois Rosenthal is a member of Temple Tifereth Israel Winthrop where she teaches Hebrew School, does Bar/Bat Mitzvah tutoring, and participates in Shabbat services.

This ebook is the most comprehensive study in English of how Jewish traditional sources teach us to protect our natural resources and preserve the environment. From food to trees, energy to water, wealth to biodiversity, the book studies eighteen topics where Jewish tradition has a relevant lesson for today's environmental challenges. All materials were comprehensively studied and reviewed by scientists and rabbis before printing.

These materials were originally created for the Canfei Nesharim/Jewcology Year of Jewish Learning on the Environment in 2012, and were released between Tu b'Shevat 5772 and Tu b'Shevat 5773. The materials were shared widely throughout the Jewish community, reaching more than 50,000 people. Source sheets, podcasts and videos are also available separately for each topic.

The ebook can now be ordered for your Kindle or Ebook device.

Podcasts now available: Another exciting release from the Year of Jewish Learning on the Environment: all podcasts from our series are now available on iTunes! To see the full series, simply search “Canfei Nesharim” in the itunes store, or go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/canfei-nesharim/id646475293?mt=2. You can listen to the podcasts right there, or click "view in iTunes " and then click subscribe to have them appear in your iTunes podcast library.

Don’t have itunes? All items are also available for listening or downloading at http://canfeinesharim.podbean.com/.

Check out all the materials, including source sheets and videos, at www.canfeinesharim.org/learning or www.jewcology.com/learning.

Time: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 5:00PM

Tu Bishvat — the full moon of Shvat — the New Year for the Trees is Wednesday! It's the Kabbalistic celebration of the cosmic Tree of Life, and it's been the focal point of Jewish ecology since the 70's. There are beautiful rituals, and NeoHasid has tremendous resources you can use to celebrate, including 3 different haggadot, source sheets, and the original Tu Bishvat blessing. Go to: http://neohasid.org/resources/tu_bishvat/

Tu Bishvat is the time we pray for the fruit trees to have enough water, sunshine, and love to be able to produce for all of us (all the creatures, not just humans). And it's a time when we reflect on fixing the "sin of the human eating the fruit of the tree of knowing" — which essentially means reflecting on how much and how greedily we take, and how we might change that.

You can get all the resources you need to make a seder/ritual meal (except the fruit) on neohasid.org. You can also get a simple 1-page haggadah/guide on neohasid.org. Here's a list of ingredients for an easy seder: 3 kinds of nuts (like walnut, almond, coconut), 3 kinds of fruit with pits (like olives, dates, avocado), 3 kinds of fruit with edible skin (like apple, grapes, peach, orange, carob), two bottles of white grape juice and one of red. The guide online will tell you how to do it. There's a list below of all the other Tu Bishvat resources you'll find.

And here's a bit of Tu Bishvat Torah, paraphrased from Pirkei d'Rabi Eliezer ch.12. It's from my book on ecology and Kabbalah — which is almost almost completed.

******************

>When God created the first human being, Adam Harishon, and stood the creature up, it was magnificent like one of the ministering angels. God said: "If I let this one be the unique and only human in the world, then all the other creatures will see it and say, 'this one created us'. Therefore, 'it is not good for the adam to be alone'. (Gen 2:8) So God split the human into male and female.

>When the Earth heard that there would be human beings would multiply, she trembled and quaked. The Earth said: "I do not have in me the strength to feed the flocks of humanity." God said: "I will feed humanity at night with sleep, and so share the burden with you."

According to this midrash, humanity must bet fed by our sleep, by our resting, by our dreaming, by being connected to the realm of the unconscious, to the realm of the soul. If we are not fed in this way, we can (will?) overwhelm and destroy the Earth.

What about the way we live now makes it hard to connect to the unconscious? How can we strengthen our connection to it?

*******************

If you're in the Boulder CO area next week, I'll be leading a community-wide seder at Nevei Kodesh. And if you're in the Pioneer Valley of MA next Shabbat (Jan 17-18), I'll be leading Tu Bishvat learning at the Jewish Community of Amherst. And of you're in the Bay area, you can fond out about EcoJews of the Bay's seder at: https://www.facebook.com/events/601539973233485/

********************

Tu Bish'vat on neohasid.org:

Find ideas about leading the seder, commentary on the JNF, the prayer for the trees from the original seder, texts to learn and teach at your seder, and more.

"The works" for Tu Bishvat

Haggadot, brakhot, text study sheets, in one zip file. Direct download — 1 MB.

A simple Tu Bishvat Haggadah

An all-English simple haggadah for Tu Bishvat with intro.

A basic version of the well-known flowchart Haggadah

An haggadah all in English with a smidgeon of Kabbalah, accessible for beginners to Kabbalah or to Jewish practices.

One-page flowchart Haggadah plus more links

A flowchart haggadah on a single sheet, in three versions including. Plus some quick links to other resources.

The Ultimate Text Crunching Sheet for Tu Bish'vat

Study, for many days or for one seder, some of the great Jewish and Kabbalistic texts on fruit, trees and the earth.

Shirat ha'asavim ~ The Song of the Grasses

A rough recording of the well-known Naomi Shemer tune, in time for Tu Bish'vat.

How to make a Kabbalstic Tu Bishvat Seder

Instructions on how to run a seder, how to use the blessing from the first Tu Bishvat seder, and how to use the One-page Haggadah chart.

A Prayer for the Earth – Hebrew and English

Y'kum Purkan Lish'maya: A prayer for the earth, for use in your synagogue, minyan, or havurah; for Earth Day, Rainbow Day, Shabbat Noach, Shabbat Behar/Bechukotai, everyday.

Blessing from the first published Tu Bish'vat Seder

From the 16/17th century seder manual, P'ri Eitz Hadar, based on the Kabbalah of the four worlds. The original seder calls on us to bring blessing to all creation.

The Giving Tree: A Way to Honor Our Vision for Israel

Planting a tree for the future sounds like second nature, a wise investment for both Israel and the planet. But whether you think about doing this at Tu Bish'vat or during the Omer when it's really planting time, it's a little more complicated than donating to JNF…

Birkat Ha-ilanot

Once a year there is Jewish custom is to say a special blessing on flowering fruit trees. It happens in spring, especially during the Omer, but it's also a good teaching for Tu Bish'vat. You'll also find some other good tree texts here.

Longer meditations on Pri Etz Hadar

Imagine a Jewish practice which has the purpose of restoring all the species and creatures, and all the sparks they contain, to the fullness of blessing.

Tu Bish'vat wisdom

Three teachings about how holy eating brings blessing to all life and all creatures, submitted by Jacob Fine.

Become a partner in engaging your community this year!

Together, we will organize Jewish campaigns throughout the year to help you learn about opportunities to make a difference on key environmental issues at the national and state level, to get to know your elected representatives, and to engage your community.

How can Jewish environmental advocacy make a difference?

The Jewish community has a long history of championing support for Israel and social justice causes. For the last twenty years, we have been learning and changing our behaviors to protect our environment. To address this critical global challenge, it is now time for us to unite in support of sustainable policies that reflect our Jewish interests and values, to make a meaningful impact at the state and national levels and beyond.

Explore our current Year of Engagement Opportunities:

• Campaign #1: Wish Your Reps a Happy Tu Bishvat
  
• Basics of Advocacy for Jewish Environmentalists: A Citizen Training Webinar
  

Campaign #1: Wish Your Reps a Happy Tu Bishvat!

We are beginning the Year of Engagement with a simple but effective way to begin a conversation about environmental advocacy with your family, community, and elected officials.

For our first Year of Engagement campaign this year, we encourage you to send a simple letter to your representative to wish them a Happy Tu Bishvat and explain why our nation needs sustainable climate and energy policies.

On Tu Bishvat, many Jewish communities get together for seders and to learn about Jewish environmentalism. If your community has a shared event, invite them to join along with you in your letter.

To help you turn your Tu Bishvat into a policy engagement opportunity, we’ve created:

•Activity instructions (PDF),

•A template letter for your elected representatives (editable .doc file),

•An example letter to show you what it will look like (PDF), and

•some talking points to help you engage your community (PDF).

Each of these materials can be previewed below if you are logged into google. Or simply click the links to download the files.

We hope you’ll take this opportunity to begin to share your views with your elected representatives and your community. Let us know after you take this action!

Basics of Advocacy for Jewish Environmentalists: A Citizen Training Webinar

To build a more sustainable society, we need more than just individual action: we also need sustainable policies at the local, state and national level. Many Jewish environmentalists want to get involved with advocacy, but aren’t sure exactly where to start. The advocacy world can feel like a confusing maze. When should I call my representative? What kind of letter will make the most difference? How do you schedule a meeting?

Join COEJL, Canfei Nesharim and Jewcology for “Basics of Advocacy for Jewish Environmentalists,” an opportunity to learn about the basic tools of advocacy and how you can make a difference. We explored the challenges and opportunities of advocacy, tools to help you, and practice some specific skills to help you get started.

Recent webinars:

• Monday, March 31 at 8:00-9:30 pm. 
• Tuesday, January 28 from 12:30-2:00 pm. View the webinar here!

Want to hear about future opportunities? Let us know.

This training requires your active participation, so please plan to have computer, internet and telephone available and to be present for the full 90 minutes. Space is limited. This webinar is free, thanks to the generous support of our Year of Engagement sponsors.

From the following I learned that I should be an environmental activist, working to help preserve the world:

In the hour when the Holy one, blessed be He, created the first person, He showed him the trees in the Garden of Eden, and said to him: “See My works, how fine they are; Now all that I have created, I created for your benefit. Think upon this and do not corrupt and destroy My world, For if you destroy it, there is no one to restore it after you.” (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28)

From the following and the rabbinic commentaries on it I learned that I should avoid destruction and should conserve resources:

When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy (lo tashchit) the trees thereof by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them, but you must not cut the down; for is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you? Only the trees of which you know that they are not trees for food, them you may destroy and cut down, that you may build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it fall. (Deuteronomy 20:19, 20)

The following helped convince me that I should be a vegan:

And God said: “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree that has seed-yielding fruit — to you it shall be for food.” (Genesis 1:29)

From the following I learned that as a Jew I should strive to serve as a positive example:

And they came to Elim, where were 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees; and they encamped here by the waters. (Deuteronomy 15:27) Rabeynu Bachya saw a much deeper message. He stated that the 12 springs represented the 12 tribes and the 70 palm trees represented the 70 then nations of the world. He stated that just as the 12 springs nourished the 70 palm trees, the 12 tribes (the Jewish people) should serve to “nourish” the world by serving as a good example.

From the following I learned to consider the consequences of my actions on future generations:

While the sage Choni was walking along a road, he saw a man planting a carob tree. Choni asked him: “How long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?” “Seventy years,” replied the man. Choni then asked: “Are you so healthy a man that you expect to live that length of time and eat its fruit?” The man answered: “I found a fruitful world because my ancestors planted it for me. Likewise, I am planting for my children.” (Ta’anis 23b)

From the following I learned how important it is to be involved in the natural world:

In order to serve God, one needs access to the enjoyment of the beauties of nature – meadows full of flowers, majestic mountains, flowing rivers. For all these are essential to the spiritual development of even the holiest of people. (Rabbi Abraham ben Maimonides, cited by Rabbi David E. Stein in A Garden of Choice Fruits, Shomrei Adamah, 1991).

From the following I learned the importance of acting on my knowledge and beliefs:

Whoever has more wisdom than deeds is like a tree with many branches but few roots, and the wind shall tear him from the ground… Whoever has more deeds than wisdom is like a tree with more roots than branches, and no hurricane will uproot him from the spot. (Pirke Avot 3:17)

From the following I learned the importance of working for a more peaceful world:

And He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide concerning mighty nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken. (Micah 4:3-5)

Last but far from least, from the following I leaned how the Torah is a guide to a happy, productive, and fulfilling life:

1. And God said: “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree that has seed-yielding fruit — to you it shall be for food.” (Genesis 1:29)

2. In the hour when the Holy one, blessed be He, created the first person, He showed him the trees in the Garden of Eden, and said to him: “See My works, how fine they are; Now all that I have created, I created for your benefit. Think upon this and do not corrupt and destroy My world, For if you destroy it, there is no one to restore it after you.” (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28)

3. When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy (lo tashchit) the trees thereof by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them, but you must not cut the down; for is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you? Only the trees of which you know that they are not trees for food, them you may destroy and cut down, that you may build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it fall. (Deuteronomy 20:19, 20)

4. And they came to Elim, where were 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees; and they encamped here by the waters. (Deuteronomy 15:27) Rabeynu Bachya saw a much deeper message. He stated that the 12 springs represented the 12 tribes and the 70 palm trees represented the 70 then nations of the world. He stated that just as the 12 springs nourished the 70 palm trees, the 12 tribes (the Jewish people) should serve to “nourish” the world by serving as a good example.

5. Happy is the man … who delights in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. (Psalms 1: 1-3)

6. And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing. (Ezekiel 47:12)

7. Rabbi Shimon said, “The shade spread over us by these trees is so pleasant! We must crown this place with words of Torah.” (Zohar, 2:127a)

8. While the sage Choni was walking along a road, he saw a man planting a carob tree. Choni asked him: “How long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?” “Seventy years,” replied the man. Choni then asked: “Are you so healthy a man that you expect to live that length of time and eat its fruit?” The man answered: “I found a fruitful world because my ancestors planted it for me. Likewise, I am planting for my children.”

9. Shimon bar Yochai taught that “if you are holding a sapling in your hand, and someone says that the Messiah has drawn near, first plant the sapling, and then go and greet the Messiah.” (Avot d’Rebbe Natan 31b)

10. For as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people. (Isaiah 65:22)

11. He will be like a tree planted near water… (Jeremiah 17:8)

12. R’ Abba taught: There is no greater revealing of redemption than that which the verse states: “And you, mountains of Israel, you shall give forth your branches and you shall bear your fruit for my people Israel, for they shall soon come.” (Ezekiel 36:8; Talmud Sanhedrin 98a)

13. It is forbidden to cut down fruit-bearing trees outside a besieged city, nor may a water channel be deflected from them so that they wither. Whoever cuts down a fruit-bearing tree is flogged. This penalty is imposed not only for cutting it down during a siege; whenever a fruit-yielding tree is cut down with destructive intent, flogging is incurred. It may be cut down, however, if it causes damage to other trees or to a field belonging to another man or if its value for other purposes is greater. The Law forbids only wanton destruction… Not only one who cuts down trees, but also one who smashes household goods, tears clothes, demolishes a building, stops up a spring, or destroys articles of food with destructive intent transgresses the command “you must not destroy.” Such a person is not flogged, but is administered a disciplinary beating imposed by the Rabbis. (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings and Wars 6:8,10)

14. Rabbi Simon said, “There is no plant without an angel in Heaven tending it and telling it, ‘Grow!’” (Genesis Rabba 10:7).

15. And I will restore my people Israel and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine, they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit. (Amos 9:14)

16. Israel is like the date palm, of which none is wasted; its dates are for eating, its lulavim are for blessing; its fronds are for thatching; its fibers are for ropes; its webbing for sieves; its thick trunks for building – so it is with Israel, which contains no waste. (Genesis Rabbah 41)

17. And G-d said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit trees yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is on the earth,” and it was so. And the earth blossomed with grass, herbs and trees, and G-d saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:9-13)

18. Everyone will sit under their vine and fig tree and none shall make them afraid; for the Lord of Hosts has spoken. (Micah 4:4)

19. And God said: “Let the earth put forth grass, herb-yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit of its kind.” “Fruit tree” means the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which put forth blossoms and fruit. “Bearing fruit” is the tzaddik, the basis of the world. ‘Of its kind’ means all the human beings who have in them the spirit of holiness, which is the blossom of that tree. This is the covenant of holiness, the covenant of peace — and the faithful enter into that kind and do not depart from it. The Tzaddik generates, and the tree conceives and brings forth fruit of its kind. (Zohar – Bereishit 33a)

20. “My teacher [the holy Arizal] used to say that one must intend while eating the fruits [at the Tu B'Shvat Seder] to repair the sin of Adam who erred by eating fruit from the tree.” (Rabbi Chaim Vital)

21. In order to serve God, one needs access to the enjoyment of the beauties of nature – meadows full of flowers, majestic mountains, flowing rivers. For all these are essential to the spiritual development of even the holiest of people. (Rabbi Abraham ben Maimonides, cited by Rabbi David E. Stein in A Garden of Choice Fruits, Shomrei Adamah, 1991).

22. Once, when Rav Abraham Kook was walking in the fields, lost deep in thought, the young student with him inadvertently plucked a leaf off a branch. Rav Kook was visibly shaken by this act, and turning to his companion he said gently, “Believe me when I tell you I never simply pluck a leaf or a blade of grass or any living thing, unless I have to.” He explained further, “Every part of the vegetable world is singing a song and breathing forth a secret of the divine mystery of the Creation.” For the first time the young student understood what it means to show compassion to all creatures. (Wisdom of the Mystics)

23. No part of the date palm is wasted:
The fruit is eaten,
the embryonic branches (lulav) are used for the Four Species of Sukkot,
the mature fronds can cover a sukka,
the fibers between the branches can make strong ropes,
the leaves can be woven into mats and baskets,
the trunks can be used for rafters.
Similarly, no one is worthless in Israel:
some are scholars,
some do good deeds,
and some work for social justice.
(Midrash Numbers Rabba 3.1)

22. Every part of the vegetable world is singing a song and bringing forth a secret of the divine mystery of creation (Rav Kook)

23. The tree of life has five hundred thousand kinds of fruit, each differing in taste. The appearance of one fruit is not like the appearance of the other, and the fragrance of one fruit is not like the fragrance of the other. Clouds of glory hover above the tree, and from the four directions winds blow on it, so that its fragrance is wafted from world’s end to world’s end.” (Yalkut Bereishit 2)

24. The Jerusalem Talmud teaches that “On Tu B’Shevat most of the winter rain has already passed, and the roots of the trees begin to suckle from the new rains of the current winter, and no longer suckle from last year’s rains.”

25. How can a person of flesh and blood follow God? … God, from the very beginning of creation, was occupied before all else with planting, as it is written, “And first of all [mi-kedem, usually translated as "in the East"], the Eternal God planted a Garden in Eden [Genesis 2:8] Therefore … occupy yourselves first and foremost with planting (Leviticus Rabbah 25:3).

26. [The Torah compares humans to trees] because, like humans, trees have the power to grow. And as humans have children, so trees bear fruit. And when a human is hurt, cries of pain are heard throughout the world, so when a tree is chopped down, its cries are heard throughout the world. (Rashi)

27. When a tree that bears fruit is cut down, its moan goes from one end of the world to the other, yet no sound is heard (Pirket de-R. Eliezar 34)

28. Whoever has more wisdom than deeds is like a tree with many branches but few roots, and the wind shall tear him from the ground… Whoever has more deeds than wisdom is like a tree with more roots than branches, and no hurricane will uproot him from the spot. (Pirke Avot 3:17)

29. I shall bring you an example of what this resembles. It is like a man, who wanders in the desert, weak with hunger, exhaustion and thirst, and finds a tree with sweet fruits and shady leaves, beneath which is a source of water. He eats the fruit, drinks the water and rests in the shade. When it comes time to leave, he thinks: “O, tree, how shall I thank you? If I say, “May your fruit be sweet” – they are already sweet; shall I say, “May your shade be beautiful?” – it is so; or, “May your roots find moisture?” – they already have it. So I shall say, “May everything which comes from you resemble you.” (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Ta’anit, p.5)

30. It was the custom when a boy was born to plant a cedar tree and when a girl was born to plant a pine tree, and when they married, the tree was cut down and a canopy made of the branches. (Gittin 57a)

31. Rabbi Yaakov Said: “When A Person Walks On A Journey Reviewing [A Passage Of The Torah], And Interrupts His Study To Remark: ‘How Beautiful Is This Tree! How Beautiful Is This Plowed Field!’ [The Torah] Considers It As If He Were Guilty Of A Mortal Sin.” (Pirke Avot 3:9)

32. A tree of life to those who hold fast to it,
and all who cling to it find happiness. Its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace. (Proverbs 3:17-18)

33. And I will turn the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them. (Amos 9:14)

34. The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. (Ezekiel 34:27-28)

35. And He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide concerning mighty nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken.
For let all the peoples walk each one in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever. (Micah 4:3-5)

36. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia-tree, and the myrtle, and the oil-tree; I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane-tree, and the larch together; That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.

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 springtime, Tu Bishvat considers the changing seasons from winter to autumn, as symbolized by the changing colors of the wine or grape juice, to remind us of God’s promise of renewal and rebirth.

While Passover commemorates the redemption of the Israelites, Tu Bishvat considers the redemption of humanity; the kabbalists of Safed who inaugurated the Tu Bishvat Seder regarded the eating of the many fruits with appropriate blessings and kavannah (intentions) on Tu Bishvat as a tikkun (repair) for the sin of Adam and Eve in eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.

While other Jewish holidays honor or commemorate events and people, Tu Bishvat honors trees, fruits, and other aspects of nature.

While people generally eat whatever fruits are in season, on Tu Bishvat people eat fruits from Israel, especially the seven species and other fruits mentioned in the Torah.

While people generally take the environment for granted, on Tu Bishvat there is an emphasis on the proper stewardship of the environment.

While people do not generally think about trees in the winter, there is much interest in trees on Tu Bishvat, although the spring is still months away.

While people generally think of Israel as the land of the Bible, as the Jewish people’s ancestral home, and as the modern Jewish homeland, on Tu Bishvat people think of Israel in terms of its orchards, vineyards, and olive groves.

While people generally think of fruit as something to be purchased at a supermarket or produce store, on Tu Bishvat people think of fruit as tokens of God’s kindness.

While people generally try to approach God through prayer, meditation, and study, on Tu Bishvat people try to reach God by eating fruit, reciting blessings with the proper concentration, and by considering the wonders of God’s creation.

While many people eat all kinds of food, including meat and dairy products, during most Jewish holidays and on most other days, the Tu Bishvat Seder in which fruits and nuts are eaten, along with the singing of songs and the recitation of Biblical verses related to trees and fruits, is the only sacred meal where only vegetarian, actually vegan, foods are eaten as part of the ritual.

While people generally look on the onset of a new year as a time to assess how they have been doing and to consider their hopes for the new year, Tu Bishvat is the New Year for Trees, when the fate of trees is decided.

While most Jewish holidays have a fixed focus, Tu Bishvat has changed over the years from a holiday that initially marked the division of the year for tithing purposes to one in which, successively, the eating of fruits, then the planting of trees in Israel, and most recently responses to modern environmental crises have became major parts of the holiday.

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach once quipped that the most important Jewish holidays are the ones that are least celebrated. While there has been increasing interest in Tu Bishvat recently, this holiday that is so rich in symbolism and important messages for today is still not considered to any great extent by most Jews. Let us hope that this will soon change and that an increased emphasis on Tu Bishvat and its important lessons will help revitalize Judaism and help shift our precious, but imperiled, planet to a sustainable path.

The Urban Adamah Fellowship, based in Berkeley, CA, is a three-month residential training program for young adults (ages 21–31) that combines urban organic farming, social justice training and progressive Jewish learning and living within the setting of an intentional community.

Through the operation of Urban Adamah’s one-acre organic farm and internships with social justice organizations, fellows gain significant skills, training and experience in all aspects of sustainable urban agriculture, community building, leadership development and food justice advocacy. The Fellowship’s experiential curriculum is designed to equip fellows with the tools to become agents of positive change in their own lives and in their communities.

Now in its third year, the Fellowship has graduated nearly 100 young adults who have gone on to work in the fields of environmental education and policy, sustainable agriculture, community organizing, Jewish education and social entrepreneurship.

Upcoming Fellowships

Spring: March 2–May 23, 2014

Summer: June 8–August 29, 2014

Fall: September 7–November 25, 2014

The cost of the Fellowship is offered on a sliding scale from $1,300 to $1,800. Program fees are highly subsidized and include room, board and all other program expenses. We accept 12­–14 fellows per season. Admission is on a rolling basis, and we encourage applicants to apply as soon as they’ve made the decision to enroll in a particular season.

Visit the Urban Adamah websitetoday to learn more and to request an application.

www.urbanadamah.org|510-649-1595 | info@urbanadamah.org| See us on Facebook

The Urban Adamah Jewish Community Farm, located in Berkeley, CA, integrates the practices of Jewish tradition, sustainable agriculture, mindfulness and social action to build loving, just and sustainable communities.

Don’t we have enough already?

Not according to Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), of which I am president emeritus. We are working with a coalition of Jewish groups and individuals to restore and transform the ancient and largely forgotten Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana L’Ma’aser BeHeima (New Year’s Day for Tithing Animals for sacrifices when the Jerusalem Temple stood) into a day devoted to increasing awareness of Judaism’s beautiful teachings on compassion to animals.

These teachings include: (1) “God’s compassion is over all His works [including animals] (Psalms 145:9); (2) “the righteous person considers the lives of his or her animals” (Proverbs 12:10); (3) the great Jewish heroes Moses and King David were deemed suitable to be leaders because of their compassionate care of sheep when they were shepherds; (4) farmers are not to yoke a strong and a weak animal together nor to muzzle an animal while the animal is threshing in the field; (5) the Ten Commandments indicate that animals, as well as people, are to rest on the Sabbath day; (6) and much more, summarized, in the Torah mandate that Jews are to avoid causing tsa’ar ba’alei chaim, pain to animals.

Many religious Jews are properly diligent in “building fences” around some mitzvot. For example, there is great care on the part of religious Jews to fukfil the laws related to removing chumetz before Passover. But other mitzvot, including tsa’ar ba’alei chaim, are often downplayed or ignored.

Perhaps this is not surprising when one considers that, with regard to animals, the primary focus of Jewish religious services, Torah readings, and education are on the biblical sacrifices, animals that are kosher for eating, and laws about animal slaughter, with relatively little time devoted to Judaism’s more compassionate teachings related to animals.

It is essential that this emphasis on the killing and sacrifice of animals be balanced with a greater consideration of Judaism’s more compassionate teachings about animals. Hence the need to convert the ancient, long forgotten holiday into a Rosh Hashanah LaBeheimot, a New Year for Animals.

There is a precedent for the restoration and transformation of a holiday in Jewish History. Rosh Hashanah LaIlanot, a day initially intended for tithing fruit trees for Temple offerings, was reclaimed in the 17th Century by mystics as a day for celebrating nature’s bounty and healing the natural world. Many Jews now regard this increasingly popular holiday, Tu Bishvat, as an unofficial “Jewish Earth Day,”

It is hoped that the transformed New Year for Animals will also serve as a tikkun (healing or repair) for the current widespread mistreatment of animals on factory farms that is far from Jewish compassionate teachings. Some examples are: (1) Egg-laying hens are kept in cages so small that they can’t raise even one wing and part of their beaks are painfully seared off to prevent them from harming other birds by pecking from frustration in their very unnatural conditions. (2) Male chicks at egg-laying hatcheries fare even worse as they are killed almost immediately after birth, since they can’t lay eggs and have not been genetically programmed to produce much flesh. (3) Dairy cows are artificially impregnated annually on “rape racks,” so that they will be able to continue ‘giving’ milk, and their babies are taken away almost immediately, often to be raised as veal under very cruel conditions. (4) Ten billion animals in the U.S. alone are slaughtered annually after being raised under very cruel conditions on modern factory farms, where all of their natural instincts are thwarted.

Making increasing awareness about tsa’ar ba’alei chaim even more important is that animal-based diets and agriculture are contributing substantially to many diseases that are afflicting the Jewish and other communities and to climate change and other environmental problems that threaten all life on the planet. It can be argued that a major shift to plant-based diets is essential to help shift our precious, but imperiled, planet to a sustainable path. In addition, the production and consumption of meat and other animal products arguably violate Jewish mandates to preserve human health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources,
and help hungry people.

Restoring the New Year for Animals would have many additional benefits, including (1) showing the relevance of Judaism’s eternal teachings to today’s critical issues, (2) improving the image of Judaism for many people, by showing its compassionate side, and (3) attracting disaffected Jews through reestablishing a holiday that they find relevant and meaningful.

Rosh Hashanah LaBeheimot occurs on Rosh Chodesh Elul, the first day of the Hebrew moth of Elul (from sunset on August 6 to sunset on August 7 in 2013). Since that date ushers in a month-long period of introspection, during which Jews are to examine their deeds and consider how to improve their words and actions before the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, this is an ideal time for Jews to consider how to apply Judaism’s splendid teachings on compassion to animals to reduce the current massive mistreatment of animals on factory farms and in other settings.

Anyone interested in celebrating the New Year for Animals this year can contact me at Schwartz@JewishVeg.com, and I will send background mater, a Haggadah draft, and ritual ideas.

This Tu B’Shvat, volunteers and community members of Beer Sheva worked in the field for a week of work creating an Urban Orchard. This Urban Orchard is the start to the Urban Farm. The volunteers worked hard all week digging swales and trenches in line with the natural contours of the land. The purpose to dig the system of trenches and swales is to provide a water catchment system on the land. Many times in the Beer Sheva semi-arid environment, there is a downpour of rain. Much of the rain is lost to the sewer systems because of run off. The soil type “Loess” is high in clay content; therefore, the water has a difficult time absorbing into the underground aquifers. The system of trenches and swales is meant to catch the water and encourage drainage into underground aquifers. The increase of this water can increase the overall abundance of a particular piece of land.

At the lowest point of the land we created a Leman. This is a landscape feature that takes advantage of the flood of water at the lowest point during a heavy rainfall in a landscape with relatively high run off rate. The water collects at the lowest point of the land for a period of time and slowly seeps into the aquifer below.

The Nabateans who were expert water engineers in the Negev, masters of the Spice Road, and expert desert farmers applied both of these practices. We at Earth’s Promise learned from these practices and applied them to our Urban Orchard. In addition to the soil that barely allows water to seep into the underground aquifers, our city environment with asphalt and hard surfaces is another important reason why the Urban Farm and Urban Orchard must be planned in a manner that utilizes the most amount of water that falls naturally.

Although signs of spring are starting to appear, we are still enjoying the winter rains and last week was no exception. Throughout the week, there were downpours that proved that these methods are effective at achieving their goals. The proof came with those rains, as the land we had previously worked and dug absorbed the water very well as opposed to the areas that we hadn’t dug yet showed that water was collecting on the surface and made small pools all over the landscape. As though a blessing from above, on the last day of the week when the work was finished and just before the Shabbat, a massive rain downpour started and didn’t stop until the next morning.

On Sunday morning, when I went to check the Urban Orchard, it was apparent that our hard work paid off. There were no small pools as there had been earlier in the week, and all of the water was gathering at the lowest point of the land, slowly seeping into the underground aquifer.

I think the most meaningful part of the week was the last day, when a local neighbor “Abraham” showed up to plant the first tree of the Urban Orchard. He was a man of about seventy years and he helped all of us young folks. His work was even the most beautiful of all of ours. It was fitting that “Abraham” planted the first tree in the Urban Orchard in Beer Sheva, like our forefather Abraham who also planted a tree in Beer Sheva when he settled here.

Although Tu b’Shevat is already over for 2013, here is a great activity we thought up on the farm that you can use for 2014! This activity is adapted from The Lookstein Center’s “Tu B’Shvat Seder for Young Children.”

Make a birthday cake for trees! The activity involves making a large batch of air-dry salt clay in several different colors: brown, green, red, etc. On a very large surface, make a tree shape out of the brown dough. Then, each participant can come and help to make the leaves and fruits to add to the tree, to show how it grows in spring. When the tree is done “growing,” you can add candles to it, and sing a happy birthday song (or any other song), then blow out the candles as a group! That can be the end of the activity, or you can have a separate fruit cake which can then be served in honor of the tree’s birthday, and you can discuss all of the delicious and yummy fruits we get from trees.

Add-ons: you can also read the book, “Honi’s Circle of Trees,” plant your own tree seeds, or make dried fruit shish-kabobs to be eaten at the party.

The directions for how to make air-dry salt clay are below. Use regular food dye to create different colors.

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 cup hot water

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (this makes the texture smoother)

Mix the Clay

1- Combine flour and salt in a large bowl.

2- Add hot water and oil – mix thoroughly.

3- Allow to cool.

4- Knead for about 6 minutes- the dough should become smooth and workable.

5- Create artwork!

Happy Tree B’Earthday!

Pushing the Envelope Farm

———————————————————

After five years at the Food Bank for NYC, during which time I monitored over 400 food pantries and 200 soup kitchens, I thought I knew everything there was to know about local responses to hunger. Happily, It turns out I was wrong.

So what's new in the world of emergency food? Over the next three weeks I will profile three projects in this column. Together, they were showcased in a panel entitled Reversing Hunger: Local Responsesat last month's Hazon Food Conference. They represent some of the exciting local anti-hunger initiatives happening right now.

And just in time too, because this Saturday is Tu B’Shvat! One of the most enigmatic holidays in the Jewish calendar, Tu B’Shvat is, according to the Talmud, New Year’s Day for the Trees. Historically, it demarcated the calendar – if a tree began to flower prior to Tu B’Shvat (the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shvat), it was included in a tithe for the previous year. If a tree began to flower after Shvat it was counted in the following year. In this way, our ancestors determined, in accordance with the laws of shmitta (2), when the land would rest from work, its bounty ownerless and available for anyone in need.

Yup, every seven years land would become liberated from ownership and decommodified – produce could be harvested for nourishment and enjoyment, but could not be sold for profit.

These days, anti-hunger projects that empower those who are hungry are, unfortunately, the exception. While soup kitchens and food pantries do vital work in treating the symptoms of hunger, they’re often structured in a hierarchical benefactor-recipient framework.

Thankfully, this new crop of projects exemplify some of the best practices for fighting hunger – preserving dignity, growing skills, pooling resources and creating community across class lines. Let’s start with Eden Gardens, based out of Detroit.

Eden Gardens

In downtown Detroit, Chava Knox and Blair Nosan are transforming an abandoned lot into a productive vegetable and flower garden. Yet Eden Gardens, as the project is called, is cultivating something far deeper. Chava (R) and Blair (L) are bringing two communities together, and empowering both in the process.

The project, a collaboration between the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue and a neighborhood block club also called Edan Gardens, was born just last year, during a Women's Circle meeting at the synagogue. From there it has grown to hosting volunteer work days, which unite Jewish and African American communities. Once neighbors in downtown Detroit, the city is now divided, the vast majority of Jewish families having decamped to nearby suburbs.

Today, the Synagogue and Block Club members are planning dinners, in which community members share and draft visions for the garden and the intentional community. There are trainings, in which community members give and receive support in entrepreneurship, community organizing and digital media. And there is – or will be – food. In this winter season, mulch and compost cover the garden floor, nourishing and protecting it from frost. But come Spring, thousands of carefully planted seeds will sprout and the vegetable bounty will feed those who need. With over 30% of Detroits resident’s living in poverty,(2) the need is great. Detroit is also well-known in food security circles for being home to some of the worse food deserts in the country, in addition to startlingly high rates of obesity.(3) Yet Eden Gardens inspires hope by pursuing systemic change. In contrast to a traditional food program, this method is slow, deliberate and small. Yet it offers deep, sustainable rewards.

May we all enjoy the sweet fruits of community and connection this Tu B’Shvat!

————————————————————————————————————-
(1) Fascinating info on shmitta here: http://www.hazon.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Shmita-Booklet.pdf

(2) http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/26/2622000.html

(3) http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdch/Obesity_chapter_283600_7.pdf

Richard H. Schwartz

Since Tu Bishvat, the “New Year for Trees,” has increasingly become a “Jewish Earth Day,” why not use Tu Bishvat Seders as, among other things, a time to consider how we can effectively respond to current environmental crises that threaten all life on the planet?

The world is rapidly heading toward a climate catastrophe, severe food, water, and energy scarcities, and other environmental disasters. This is a strong consensus of almost all climate scientists and science academies worldwide. The warmest year for the US since temperature records have been kept for the lower 48 states was in 2012. All 11 of the warmest years worldwide have occurred since 1998. Polar ice caps and glaciers worldwide are melting faster than the worst-case predictions of climate experts. There has been a recent significant increase in the number and severity of heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms, and floods.

Everything possible should be done to avert these disasters, because if we don’t, nothing else will matter much. Saving the global environment should become a “central organizing principle” for civilization today, and tikkun olam (the healing of the world) should become a major focus for all of Jewish life today.

Time is running out for efforts to avert the potential catastrophes. Climate experts, including James Hansen of NASA, believe that we may be very close to a tipping point, when climate change might spiral out of control with disastrous consequences. While many climate experts think that 350 parts per million (ppm) of atmospheric CO2 is a threshold value for avoiding a climate catastrophe, we are already at about 400 ppm and experiencing an increase of two or three ppm per year. While climatologists think that an increase of over 2 degrees Celsius would be disastrous, climate experts project that we will have an increase of at least 4 degrees Celsius, unless major changes soon occur.

Among the many necessary changes, reducing consumption of meat and other animal products is something everyone can do to meaningfully address the problem of climate change. A 2006 UN FAO report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” indicated that animal-based agriculture emits more greenhouse gases (GHGs), in CO2 equivalents, than is emitted by all the cars, planes, ships, and other means of transportation worldwide combined. A 2009 cover article in World watch magazine , Livestock and Climate Change,” by two environmentalists associated with the World Bank argued that the livestock sector is responsible for at least 51 percent of all human-induced GHGs. This is largely due to the massive destruction of tropical rain forests to produce pasture land and land to grow feed crops for animals and the emission of methane (a very potent cause of warming) from farmed animals.

Tu Bishvat is an ideal time to start a dietary shift since the Tu Bishvat Seder in which fruits and nuts are eaten, along with the singing of songs and the recitation of Biblical verses related to trees and fruits, is the only sacred meal where only vegetarian, actually vegan, foods are eaten as part of the ritual. Such a shift would be consistent with basic Jewish teachings on protecting human health, treating animals with compassion preserving the environment, conserving natural resources, and helping hungry people.

Despite all of the above and much more, there is great denial out there and far from enough is being done to try to avert the potential catastrophes. Most people seem to be “rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic, as we head toward a giant iceberg.”

In response to the above points, Jews, preferably in alliance with others, should play a major role in increasing awareness of the threats and how the application of Jewish values and a shift toward vegan diets can make a major difference. This would help show the relevance of Judaism’s eternal teachings and, more importantly, help move our imperiled planet to a sustainable path, so we can leave a decent world for future generations.

Richard H. Schwartz

Tu B’Shvat is arguably the most vegetarian of Jewish holidays, because of its many connections to vegetarian themes and concepts:

1. The Tu B’Shvat Seder in which fruits and nuts are eaten, along with the singing of songs and the recitation of biblical verses related to trees and fruits, is the only sacred meal where only vegetarian, actually vegan, foods, are eaten. This is consistent with the diet in the Garden of Eden, as indicated by God’s first, completely vegetarian, dietary law:

“And God said: ‘Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree that has seed-yielding fruit–to you it shall be for food.’” (Gen.1: 29)

2. The Talmud refers to Tu B’Shvat as the New Year for Trees. It is considered to be the date on which the fate of trees is decided for the coming year. In recent years, one of the prime ways of celebrating Tu B’Shvat, especially in Israel, is through the planting of trees. Vegetarianism also reflects a concern for trees. One of the prime reasons for the destruction of tropical rain forests today is to create pastureland and areas to grow feed crops for cattle. To save an estimated 5 cents on each imported fast food hamburger, we are destroying forest areas in countries such as Brazil and Costa Rica, where at least half of the world’s species of plants and animals live, and threatening the stability of the world’s climate. It has been estimated that every vegetarian saves an acre of forest per year.

3. Both Tu B’Shvat and vegetarianism are connected to today’s environmental concerns. Many contemporary Jews look on Tu B’Shvat as a Jewish Earth Day, and use Tu B’Shvat seders as a chance to discuss how Jewish values can be applied to reduce many of today’s ecological threats.

The following ancient warning has become all too relevant today:

“In the hour when the Holy one, blessed be He, created the first person, He showed him the trees in the Garden of Eden, and said to him: ‘See My works, how fine they are; Now all that I have created, I created for your benefit. Think upon this and do not corrupt and destroy My world, For if you destroy it, there is no one to restore it after you.’” Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28

Vegetarianism is consistent with this important Jewish environmental concern, since modern intensive livestock agriculture contributes to many current environmental problems, including soil erosion and depletion, air and water pollution, the destruction of habitats, and potential global warming.

4. Both Tu B’Shvat and vegetarianism embody the important teaching that “The earth is the Lord’s” (Psalm. 24:1) and that people are to be stewards of the earth, to see that its produce is available for all God’s children. Property is a sacred trust given by God; it must be used to fulfill God’s purposes. With their concern about the preservation and expansion of forests and their focus on plant-based foods, both Tu B’Shvat and vegetarianism, reflect this important Jewish teaching.

5. Tu B’Shvat and vegetarianism both are consistent with the Torah mandate that we are not to waste or destroy unnecessarily anything of value. It is interesting that this prohibition, called bal tashchit (“thou shalt not destroy”) is based on concern for fruit-bearing trees, as indicated in the following Torah statement: “When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shall not destroy (lo tashchit) the trees thereof by wielding an ax against them; for thou mayest eat of them but thou shalt not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of thee? Only the trees of which thou knoweth that they are not trees for food, them thou mayest destroy and cut down, that thou mayest build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it fall.” (Deut. 20:19-20)

This prohibition against destroying fruit-bearing trees in time of warfare was extended by the Jewish sages. It is forbidden to cut down even a barren tree or to waste anything if no useful purpose is accomplished (Sefer Ha-Chinuch 530). The sages of the Talmud made a general prohibition against waste: “Whoever breaks vessels or tears garments, or destroys a building, or clogs up a fountain, or destroys food violates the prohibition of bal tashchit” (Kiddushin 32a). In summary, bal tashchit prohibits the destruction, complete or incomplete, direct or indirect, of all objects of potential benefit to people. The important Torah mandate of bal tashchit is consistent with vegetarianism, since, compared to plant-based diets, animal-centered diets require far more land, water, energy, and other agricultural resources.

6. Tu B’Shvat reflects a concern about future generations. In ancient times it was a custom to plant a cedar sapling on the birth of a boy and a cypress sapling on the birth of a girl. The cedar symbolized strength and stature of a man, while the cypress signified the fragrance and gentleness of a woman. When the children were old enough, it was their task to care for the trees that were planted in their honor. It was hoped that branches from both types of trees would form part of the chupah (bridal canopy) when the children married. Vegetarianism also reflects concern about the future since this diet puts a minimum of strain on the earth and its ecosystems and requires far less water, land, energy, and other scarce agricultural resources than animal-centered diets.

7. Both Tu B’Shvat and vegetarianism are becoming increasingly popular today; Tu B’Shvat because of an increasing interest in and concern about nature and environmental issues, and vegetarianism because of increasing concern about health, the treatment of animals, and also the environment and the proper use of natural resources.

Tu Bishvat is not a biblical holiday. In Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1, the early rabbis describe four different New Years occasions. One of these is Rosh Hashanah La’ilan—the New Year for Trees—which the School of Hillel places on the 15th of Sh’vat. (In Hebrew, “Tu” is an acronym for the number 15, so “Tu Bishvat” means simply “the 15th of Sh’vat.”) Why was a New Year for Trees necessary? Leviticus (19:23-25 and 25:1-12) and Deuteronomy (14:22-15:1-6; 26:12-13; and 31:10-13) establish a number of agricultural prohibitions, tithes and other regulations (including Sh’mittah) that are calculated according to annual cycles. In order to observe these mitzvot properly, the early rabbis instituted fixed, universal starting points for determining the beginning of each agricultural year. While Rosh Hashanah (the 1st of Nisan) is the New Year for vegetables and general produce, trees bear fruit at a different time of the year. The solution was a unique New Year for Trees.

As we might expect, finding an appropriate and effective date for dividing one year’s fruit production from another’s is hardly a simple matter. The Babylonian Talmud states that the year to which a fruit tree’s tithes belong depends upon whether the chanatah of its fruits occurred before or after Tu Bishvat (Rosh Hashanah 15b). However, commentators on the Talmud disagree about the precise meaning of the Hebrew term chanatah. Rambam (Maimonides) understands chanatah to mean the stage right before the fruit ripens (Hilchot Ma’aser Sheni 1:2; Hilchot Sh’mittah 4:9). However, Tosafot argues that chanatah actually refers to the earliest stage of fruit formation, when the bud is just visible (Rosh Hashanah 12b).

In his commentary on Mishnah Ma’asrot, the 19th-century Talmud scholar and kabbalist Rav Eliyahu Guttmacher of Greiditz offered a convincing explanation for and solution to this disagreement:

The concept of chanatah held by many people is highly questionable; for they interpret the chanatah mentioned in the Talmud as meaning the buds that the tree brings forth. It seems that this error has arisen because of the fact that in our part of the world (Eastern Europe) it is somewhat common for trees to bring forth buds in the month of Sh’vat…. They do not realize that in the Land of Israel in the month of Sh’vat, though it is winter, the fruits are at the [nearly ripe] stage described in the Mishnah. I myself received from Jerusalem two partly grown pomegranates, and although they were taken from the tree (two months earlier) in the month of Kislev, they had already reached the size of a goose egg; and if they had remained on the tree, (by Sh’vat) they would have been much bigger….

Rav Eliyahu’s custom of enjoying fruit during the Polish Winter was not unique. It can be traced at least as far back as the 16th-century Tikkun Yissachar, a compendium of laws and customs related to the days, months, seasons and festivals of the year: “Tu Bishvat… is the New Year for Trees. On [that day], it is the custom of the Ashkenazim to indulge in different types of tree-fruits to honor the name of the day.” (TY Daf 25; quoted in and popularized by Magen Avraham 131:16 and Mishnah B’rurah 131:31)

Of course, obtaining such fruit was not easy. In The Rebbe’s Daughter: Memoir of a Hasidic Childhood, Malkah Shapiro recalls a Polish acquaintance shouting at people departing for Palestine, “Remember to tell our people in the Holy Land to send fruits for Tu Bishvat.” And in his introduction to Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin’s The Festivals in Halakhah, Meir Holder explains that Tu Bishvat “was the only day in the year when most Jewish families [in Eastern Europe] indulged themselves in the unheard-of luxury of eating as many kinds of fruit as were available, and especially fruits that came from Eretz Yisrael.”

The surreal situation faced by Ashkenazi Jews who wanted to enjoy fruit on Tu Bishvat will be familiar to anyone who has attempted to observe Jewish holidays or implement Jewish agricultural practices outside of Eretz Yisrael. The seasons, weather, landscape, flora and fauna mentioned in the Torah, the Mishnah and the Talmud simply do not describe temperate North America. We want to celebrate Tu Bishvat as the New Year of the Trees—a Festival of Fruit—yet doing so can seem artificial and confusing in the Winter, when the trees are bare and the ground is frozen solid.

American Jews—myself included—are increasingly embracing and reclaiming the seder as a meaningful way of observing Tu Bishvat and its connection with fruit. Yet the Tu Bishvat seder—specifically, the mystical practice of contemplative eating outlined in the Sefer P’ri Eitz Hadar—was invented by kabbalists in Eretz Yisrael. While relatively unknown in Eastern Europe until recently, the seder was popular among Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews, who lived in climates that supported a wide variety of fruits and nuts that could be enjoyed on Tu Bishvat. Although I would hardly suggest that we abandon the Tu Bishvat seder, I do think it is important for those of us in temperate North America to note that in our eagerness to form meaningful connections with fruit, trees and food, we have adopted a ritual that encourages—if not requires—us to import out-of-season fruits.

This is a dilemma that we face not just on Tu Bishvat, but every time we shop for produce. In The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, Peter Singer and Jim Mason explain our out-of-season eating practices in sobering detail:

The average distance traveled by food that is consumed in developed nations has increased, partly because international trade in food has quadrupled since 1961. That increase has allowed people in the wealthier nations to enjoy foods all year-round that once had a limited growing season. For example, in the 1960s, North Americans ate grapes only when North American growers, mostly in California, could supply them, roughly from June through December. Now almost half of the grapes eaten in the United States are imported, many from Chile and other Southern Hemisphere countries, so grapes are available in the northern winter.

Eating locally produced food—either purchased at a farmers’ market or a food co-op, through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), or grown in a home garden—is an excellent way to reduce the massive carbon footprint associated with transporting food across such vast distances. Moreover, eating locally—learning what grows when and where—will almost certainly deepen our connection with our food and our bioregion. For those wondering what such an experiment might look like, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life beautifully chronicles Barbara Kingsolver’s experience of eating only locally produced food.

Alas, we must bear in mind that becoming a locavore is not a flawless solution. For example, Singer and Mason point out that eating out-of-season tomatoes grown in a fossil-fuel-heated greenhouse just down the road likely consumes more energy than eating in-season, organic tomatoes shipped by boat from the Southern Hemisphere. There are many variables that we must account for when making ethical food choices.

As we prepare for Tu Bishvat—and possibly begin to plan this year’s seder—may we be ever more thoughtful about the fruit that we eat. While we sanctify our food through our blessings and our reverence, may we also consecrate it through enlightened choices and honest reflection. Where was this fruit grown? How far did it come? How did it get here? Might this fruit grow near my home? How else might I obtain it in the future? After considering all these questions, does eating this still feel holy? If it does not, what must I do to make it so?

Below are a few simple things you can do to help protect forests, along with ways to be more mindful of your paper use in honor of the New Year of the Trees:

• Buy a forest-friendly alternative to an everyday product: Buy a reusable travel mug so you don’t have to use a disposable paper cup from your local coffee shop. If you plan to purchase greeting cards or stationery, look for products made with recycled paper with at least50 percent post consumer waste
• Look for the FSC label: If you are buying paper in bulk for home or the office, look for paper that has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Paper products with the FSC label have been certified to come from forests that are being managed to the highest environmental standards.
• Go to a waste free lunch: If you typically pack a brown bag lunch for yourself or your kids, change from a brown bag to a reusable one. Reduce plastic waste as well by using washable containers or reusable sandwich bags instead of disposable sandwich bags.
• Support advocacy efforts to preserve forests: Organizations such as the Pew Environmental Trust have initiatives that aim to preserve our forests and prevent deforestation. Find out more at www.ourforests.org.

Chag Sameach!

Originally posted in jewishinstlouis.org at http://www.jewishinstlouis.org/blog.aspx?id=345

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 springtime, Tu Bishvat considers the changing seasons from winter to autumn, as symbolized by the changing colors of the wine or grape juice, to remind us of God’s promise of renewal and rebirth.

While Passover commemorates the redemption of the Israelites, Tu Bishvat considers the redemption of humanity; the kabbalists of Safed who inaugurated the Tu Bishvat Seder regarded the eating of the many fruits with appropriate blessings and kavannah (intentions) on Tu Bishvat as a tikkun (repair) for the sin of Adam and Eve in eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.

While other Jewish holidays honor or commemorate events and people, Tu Bishvat honors trees, fruits, and other aspects of nature.

While people generally eat whatever fruits are in season, on Tu Bishvat people eat fruits from Israel, especially the seven species and other fruits mentioned in the Torah.

While people generally take the environment for granted, on Tu Bishvat there is an emphasis on the proper stewardship of the environment.

While people do not generally think about trees in the winter, there is much interest in trees on Tu Bishvat, although the spring is still months away.

While people generally think of Israel as the land of the Bible, as the Jewish people’s ancestral home, and as the modern Jewish homeland, on Tu Bishvat people think of Israel in terms of its orchards, vineyards, and olive groves.

While people generally think of fruit as something to be purchased at a supermarket or produce store, on Tu Bishvat people think of fruit as tokens of God’s kindness.

While people generally try to approach God through prayer, meditation, and study, on Tu Bishvat people try to reach God by eating fruit, reciting blessings with the proper concentration, and by considering the wonders of God’s creation.

While many people eat all kinds of food, including meat and dairy products, during most Jewish holidays and on most other days, the Tu Bishvat Seder in which fruits and nuts are eaten, along with the singing of songs and the recitation of Biblical verses related to trees and fruits, is the only sacred meal where only vegetarian, actually vegan, foods are eaten as part of the ritual.

While people generally look on the onset of a new year as a time to assess how they have been doing and to consider their hopes for the new year, Tu Bishvat is the New Year for Trees, when the fate of trees is decided.

While most Jewish holidays have a fixed focus, Tu Bishvat has changed over the years from a holiday that initially marked the division of the year for tithing purposes to one in which, successively, the eating of fruits, then the planting of trees in Israel, and most recently responses to modern environmental crises have became major parts of the holiday.

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach once quipped that the most important Jewish holidays are the ones that are least celebrated. While there has been increasing interest in Tu Bishvat recently, this holiday that is so rich in symbolism and important messages for today is still not considered to any great extent by most Jews. Let us hope that this will soon change and that an increased emphasis on Tu Bishvat and its important lessons will help revitalize Judaism and help shift our precious, but imperiled, planet to a sustainable path.

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 sponsored by Congregation Brith Shalom in Houston, the Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy, The Jewish Herald-Voice, and our friends at Hazon,

To see the program and to register, see the Jewish Food Summit page.

Have questions? Email us!

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-table shabbat meals, an elaborate seder with four cups of wine, lodging, diverse learning and celebration, multiple prayer options, yoga classes, guided hikes on our beautiful trails, and more.

Visit http://isabellafreedman.org/tubshevat for more information and to register.
*Register by midnight on December 28th and save 10%!
*All attending Tree B'Earthday receive 50% off a two-day community organizing training, in partnership with Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign, Jewish Energy Network, & JOIN for Justice, in Washington DC on March 13 and 14. Click here to apply!

Thanks to our sponsors:

http://romemu.org/
http://edenvillagecamp.org/
http://neohasid.org/
http://www.jewcology.com/
http://www.jewishfarmschool.org/
http://coejl.org/
http://www.tevalearningalliance.org/
http://www.hazon.org/
http://www.greenzionism.org/
http://www.rimonberkshires.org

This resource is designed to enhance your learning by providing:

• An overview of the Contemporary Jewish Museum exhibition, Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought;
• an essay on the interconnections of Jewish people, Torah text, and the environment, "From Roots to Fruits: The Life of the Trees and the Tree of Life," by Dr. Jeremy Benstein;
• Jewish source texts on trees, including agricultural cycles, environmental stewardship, and spiritual teachings;
• images of new works from teh exhibition with guiding questions for classroom use.

http://www.g-dcast.com/tu-bshvat;

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 mystical understanding is not only complementary, but supportive of our goals at a deep level .

To achieve this, I began by reading from Inviting G-d In, Rabbi David Aaron's book about the holidays. Regarding Tu b'Shevat, he writes:

"The Torah teaches that G-d created the world so that we could experience goodness in general and His goodness in particular. Experiencing His goodness — bonding with G-d — is the greatest joy imaginable… If we eat and enjoy the fruits of this world for G-d's sake — because this is what He asks of us — then we are actually serving G-d and bonding with him. We serve G-d by acknowledging that the fruits of this world are His gifts to us and by willingly accepting and enjoying those gifts… We connect to G-d by serving Him, and this means obeying His commandments to enjoy the fruits of this world." (p. 158-159)

Rabbi Aaron goes on to explain that the mystical significance of Tu b'Shevat is to receive pleasure and have this act transformed into an act of service of G-d. He writes:

"An apple is not just an apple; an apple is a blessing. Maybe I could believe that apples come from trees but a blessing could only come from G-d. If I really contemplate the mystery and miracle of the taste, fragrance, beauty, and nutrition wrapped up in this apple, I see that it's more than just a fruit – it is a wondrous loving gift from G-d. When I taste an apple with that kind of consciousness, I cannot but experience the presence of G-d within the physical."

Thus, we began our seder with a true appreciation of the fruit as a gift from G-d. We began the seder with Canfei Nesharim's fruit meditation, but this time I tweaked it so that we could focus on the fruit not just as a blessing in itself but as a gift — from G-d! All the way through the seder, when we ate fruit, we savored it and we experienced it as a gift. This is part of the mystical beauty of Tu b'Shevat.

Just today one of the participants told me that every time she slows down to eat, she remembers what we learned and how delicious food can be.

The other thing I was interested in was having this seder make a real difference. That's not always easy to do, especially with a Tu b'Shevat Seder. So many things are happening at any one time, and the program does not lend itself to action. But this time we had a special opportunity. The very next day, on Tu b'Shevat, a group of environmentalists were going to meet with our delegate to Maryland's legislature to talk about bringing wind power to Maryland. This is a campaign our group is already behind.

The fourth world of the Tu b'Shevat Seder is emanation. It's about transcending physicality and I like to use the time to appreciate the importance of things we cannot see. I always ask: what things are important that we can't see? It's a meaningful exercise. People often take a few minutes to figure out an answer. Someone always figures out that "air" is something we can't see that's very important. Later on, someone usually comes up with "love." The suggestion I made this time: "the opportunity to make a difference." It's something we often cannot see. It may take many years before you can see any change at all! The emunah, the faith that it is possible is all we have for a long time. And althought it's hard to see, the possibility of making a difference is incredibly important.

That gave me the opportunity to speak of something else that we can't see: wind. And our group did something unique (thanks to Joelle Novey for suggesting it!): we sent a Tu b'Shevat card to our Delegate (Del. Ben Kramer) thanking him for his support of renewable energy, a friendly but encouraging reminder that people in his district care about this. You can download the card here.

Another thing you can see? The ripples of the difference you might make before they spread out. I experienced that when our efforts were covered in the Washington Post the next week!

I believe that we all have something meaningful to contribute to the world. Maybe the key is just this: to believe in something you can't yet see!

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 went, we were the recipients of the abundance of these baskets and platters of this vernal visiting.

Off a side road from Tel Aviv to Be'er Sheva, at the farm of Ariel Sharon, we saw that almond trees really do burst into blossom almost overnight. Adorned in white petals with a pinkish hue, almond trees stand, a bit demur yet all puffed up, looking like a shy but proud debutant being presented to the world in her poofy crinolined skirt. All around, the land just smiles, covered with a profusion of wildflowers.

What struck me throughout these quiet celebrations – though why it took me all this time to fully grasp this, I don't know – is that Tu B'shvat is not a holiday about trees. It is not like Arbor Day, a broad celebration of the gifts of all trees. It is, rather, a holiday pointedly about fruit trees. Non-fruiting trees are, technically, unconcerned with Tu B'shvat. For Tu B'shvat is an accounting tool, a way to determine how old a fruit tree is and which fruits are counted in which year's harvest.

Perhaps I am more sensitive this year to this fact given that I am the founder of a new organization called the Baltimore Orchard Project, which began last September and focuses on gleaning fruit from residential and other non-commercial trees and giving it to the hungry, as well as promoting the planting of more local fruit trees.

(By the way, we are looking for volunteers to help us build an inventory of all such fruit trees in the city and county, and to help us harvest and distribute the fruit in late summer and fall. If you would like to join us, please let me know! You can sign up on our website or send me a comment on this blog.)

What was stunning in Israel is the way so many people across the land (we went from Be'er Sheva in the south to Zichron Yaakov in the north) have fruit trees growing in their yards and along the sides of roadways. Teas were spiced with lemons and loquats plucked before the meal (and in one case, our host made it from fresh herbs growing in her garden).

Though Baltimore is not the climate for citrus, we are a great climate for other fruits like figs, peaches, pears, apples, nut trees, and much more. Once upon a time, here in Baltimore, it was all the rage to plant fruit and nut trees in one's yard. Somehow that fell out of favor for more exotic ornamentals.

How wonderful would it be if we could re-establish the norm of planting fruit trees in our yards. And orchards on empty city lots. How wonderful if our homes and cities were not simply sterile, ornamental landscapes but working land that enriched the beauty, the bounty and the health of our community.

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 together. We begin sharing stories of special encounters we’ve had with owls or the moon, meeting a few of our owl neighbors through photos and calls and learning to listen with ears wide open.

We then stroll around the paved mile loop inside a beautiful park/cemetery. It is here where many in our village of 2000 choose to walk, jog or teach their children bike riding. It is nestled in the Berkshire foothills surrounded by forest, cliff and river. The perfect place for a night hike.

When walking in winter, the art of building a container for silence is crucial for the success of this program (less so for the Owls of Sivan program that might be enjoyed in early summer!). For us winter walkers, I’ve found that active pacing and group jumping jacks fare better than slow and mindful walking meditations.

When we arrive at the stations of our loop, marked by beautiful old trees or open spaces, we all call to our owl neighbors- the simple hoots of Great Horned Owl, and the more elaborate “Kugels and Jews, Kugels and Jews Y’all” of the Barred owl and then listen with all of our heart, soul and might. Can you tell it’s kind of fun? Even if we only hear back the song of night wind and tree cracklings, people don’t seem to mind. After all, we are surrounded by the outlines of tall, stout and gangly trees, a glorious night sky filled with stars, and the warm presence of each other.

After 40 minutes or so, we arrive at a pavilion with benches, short walls just enough to support our backs and block the wind and a simple roof. The trees are still with us as we enjoy hot chocolate, introduce the great role of the moon in Jewish tradition and hear a few stories from Chelm and Reb Nachman that are dedicated to the moon. What might you share when everyone gathers around with hot cocoa?

If you want to explore ideas- feel free to write me at david@maggiddavid.net. Of course, the best ideas are to be found in the silence that fills the night. There, in the darkness, it becomes easy to feel how the entire universe vibrates- and how those same vibrations also move through us. Happy Hiking!