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7 Ways to Celebrate Tu BiShvat – Even in the Winter

For many of us, Tu BiShvat, the Jewish holiday that celebrates trees and the earth, falls in the middle of the coldest, snowiest part of the year. Nonetheless, here are seven ways you can celebrate the new year of the trees and planet Earth

Dried fruits in the supermarket in Jerusalem

In Jerusalem, Tu BiShvat Offers a Welcome Respite from Winter

Cantor Evan Kent

Coming a month and a half before the spring equinox and two months before Passover, Tu BiShvat provides a glimmer of springtime at a time when winter can often be at its cruelest.

Hands holding a mound of dirt and a small plant

Tu BiShvat: How Israel Has Planted New Seeds in the Jewish Soul

Rabbi Neal Gold

The way we celebrate Tu BiShvat has changed over the years – a case-in-point of how Jewish life and observance has been transformed in our day, due in no small part thanks to the successes of the State of Israel.

I am familiar with a Passover seder, but what is a Tu BiShvat seder?

Answered by

Rabbi Victor S. Appell

Tu BiShvat (Hebrew for the 15^th day of the Hebrew month of Shvat) is the new year of the trees.

Why do we celebrate Tu BiShvat, the Jewish “New Year of the Trees,” in the middle of winter?

Answered by

George Robinson

Tu BiShvat, called the "New Year of the Trees," falls at a seemingly incongruous time of year.

Why is caring for the environment emphasized on Tu BiShvat?

Answered by

George Robinson

Tu BiShvat is a minor festival whose provenance dates only to the time of the Second Temple. However, the kabbalists who clustered around the great fifteenth-century mystic Isaac Luria of Safed placed great weight on the holiday, creating new festivities, gatherings at which hymns were sung, fruit (particularly carob) was eaten, and four cups of wine were taken (as in the Passover seder).