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Every Tu BiShvat Is a Second Chance
Tu BiShvat, the precursor to Earth Day, should make us alert to our air, water, animals, and foliage – and all that we’re doing to destroy them.
Tu BiShvat: How Israel Has Planted New Seeds in the Jewish Soul
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.
Marinated Olives
Olives and oranges are often combined in foods of the Mediterranean. Here the ingredients almost call out their location as foods of Morocco and Spain are joined to create a great nibble at cocktail parties, as a part of a meze or tapas assortment.
Tu BiShvat
Hebrew Spelling
ט"וּ בִּשְׁבָט
Alternate Spelling
Tu BiSh'vat
Tu Besh'vat
"15th of Shevat;" New Year of the Trees; Jewish Arbor Day, which is a minor festival.
Greening Your Congregation as One Way to Make It Holy
When a group of us – congregants from University Synagogue in Los Angeles, CA – attended the Consultation on Conscience a few years ago, we learned about the GreenFaith Energy Shield, a program that encourages faith communities to reduce their carbon footprint. We returned home ready to put our faith into action.
7 Tips for Starting a Congregational Recycling Program
Our role as custodians and stewards of God’s earth is to protect and preserve the ecology and environment as best we can.
New Beginnings: Tu BiSh’vat and Environmental Action
In this moment of transition, we will celebrate a different kind of new beginning: Tu BiSh’vat, the new year for trees. Tu BiSh’vat is an opportunity to celebrate the earth and to recommit ourselves, for another year, to environmental action.
New Beginnings: Tu BiShvat and Environmental Action
Tu BiShvat is an opportunity to celebrate the earth and to recommit ourselves, for another year, to environmental action.
Tu BiShvat: Touchstones in Time
I love Tu BiShvat’s low-key preparation: no sermons, no sukkah, and no kitchen turned upside down. Quick trips for food and wine, and I’m all set.
Tu BiShvat: Customs and Rituals
The Jewish mystics of the 17th century, the Kabbalists, created a special ritual—modeled after the Passover seder—to celebrate God's presence in nature. Today in modern Israel, Tu BiShvat has become a national holiday, a tree planting festivaTu BiShvat is not mentioned in the Torah. Scholars believe the holiday was originally an agricultural festival, corresponding to the beginning of spring in Israel. But a critical historical event helped Tu BiShvat evolve from a simple celebration of spring to a commemoration of our connection to the land of Israel. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. and the exile that followed, many of the exiled Jews felt a need to bind themselves symbolically to their former homeland. Tu BiShvat served in part to fill that spiritual need. Jews used this time each year to eat a variety of fruits and nuts that could be obtained from Israel. The practice, a sort of physical association with the land, continued for many centuries.l for both Israelis and Jews throughout the world