by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat (CLP6) and Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser (R2)
[T]he 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat, the full moon of the month, is the New Year of the Trees; we pause to mark the passage of time measured in their rings. The Talmud established this as the New Year’s Day for all trees, so that we could observe the commandment “When you enter the land and plant any tree for food…three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten. In the fourth year all its fruit shall be set aside for jubilation before Adonai; and only in the fifth year may you use its fruit.” (Leviticus 19:23-24.)
Jewish tradition uses trees as a symbol for life, learning and the divine. The Jewish mystical tradition reads a verse of Torah to say, “For a human being is a tree of the field” (Deuteronomy 20:19). Proverbs depicts the Torah as “a tree of life to them that hold it fast” (Proverbs 3:17-18). Jewish mystics also visualize God as a tree, whose crown is unknowable and whose roots spread into creation.
Today we follow the seder of the medieval Kabbalists of Tzfat. In this practice, Tu BiShvat is not only a New Year’s Day for earthly, material trees, it marks the renewal of the supernal tree in which God’s abundant energy flows from heaven to earth. On this day we participate in the renewal of that tree by traveling its length along the “Four Worlds” of Asiyah (making),Yetsirah (formation), Briyah (creation) and Atsilut (essence).
The seder is also a “tikkun” — a ritual of repair. By eating the fruits and nuts of the trees with special blessings and awareness, we repair our own spiritual brokenness and the brokenness of a world that is not yet as we and God most wish it to be. We drink four cups of juice or wine to represent the FourWorlds and the round of the seasons.
Our Tu BiShvat journey also reminds us of our obligations to the earth — “To till it and tend it” (Genesis 2:15), as God told Adam. Today, we are witnesses to many forms of environmental destruction — the erosion of the ozone layer, global warming, deforestation, species extinction, toxic chemicals, and runaway population growth. We see that the poor suffer disproportionately from these illnesses.
Amid the snow of winter, let us reconnect with the world of root and leaf, affirming our faith that spring will come.
Click here for the full text of this Tu Bishvat seder.
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat is a poet, liturgist, and serves as spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel in North Adams, MA. She blogs at The Velveteen Rabbi, and is participating in the current cohort of the IJS Clergy Leadership Program.
Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser serves as spiritual leader of Temple Sinai in Cranston RI, and is a graduate of the second rabbinic cohort of the Clergy Leadership Program.