TuBishvat Seder

8/3/2019 TuBishvat Seder

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Read m e f i rs t !Welcome to the Tu BShvat Seder Toolkit, version 1.2. This toolkit

is freeware. Where noted, the authors m ust be credited whenever

the m aterials herein are u sed. The original comp iler of this sidur

wrote much of this material and wishes to remain anonymous.

The goal in creating th is toolkit was to pu t an entire Tu BShvat

seder in electronic form. It was also to put an alternative Tu BShvat

seder in electronic form. Ultimately, I hope to be putting such texts

in editable electronic form, but with the scarcity of software to

hand le Hebrew and English together, the ugliness of the outpu t of

most such p rograms, and the Babel-ous lack of standards betw een

the var ious packages, I decided , instead, to create something ha lf-

tech that could be printed out and incorporated in a traditional

cut n p aste Hagad dah . The sole advantages of this form are in

portability, and (for most computer users) ease of printing fresh

copies, rather th an being forced to rely on xeroxes of xeroxes of

xeroxes. Think of th is file as a very thin book :-).

If you have qu estions, corrections, or m aterials that you would like

to add to future versions of this toolkit, please contact me:[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Addenda: At the back of this Hagad dah are some alternate formsof some of the blessings. There are no graphics in this toolkit

because I had none w hose artists I could verify to ask w hether or

not they w ished to see entire works p ut into p ublic dom ain. With

text, excerpts, prop erly cited, credit the au thor and direct attention

to their full works. An illustrat ion is, by itself, a full work. If some-

one has created graph ics that they w ould like to see embod ied in

future versions of this, or similar projects, do contact me.

I wou ld like to add thanks to Pat Cohn w ho provided a copy of

the seder, to Carol Delton, cantor extraordinaire, who du g u p

legible, correct Hebrew versions of some of the songs herein, along

with much good advice, and to Lilith Morgan ([email protected])

and the other beta testers of the var ious versions of this toolkit.

Technical stuff: This text was composed in Quark XPress 3.3 using

Adobe Palatino, some oddities from Adobes Woodtype 2 collection,

and a customized version of Henri Friedlanders Hadassah type-

face. The current online versions are being made available in

Adobe Acrobat format, hopefully properly byteserving thanks to a

friend w ith version 3.x of the Distiller. Let us hop e all goes well!

For those in the know, use of XPress means that, yes, I typed all ofthe Hebrew in backward s and carefully, hand-kerned , each and

every vowel into place (well, some of the work was done by th e

kerning tables, but n ot as much as youd th ink). I did it this way

because I wanted things just so: Text whose layout, line width,

placement of vowels, letter-spacing, m ixing of Hebrew and

English, etc., are as close to the ideal as possible. I chose th ese par-

ticular typefaces because they are commonly available, sturdy,

xeroxable, and aesthetic. For those wh o wond er at the juxtaposi-

tion of Hebrew an d English, yes, it does mean th at these are com-

mon ly don e poorly. Careful stu dy of the polyglot classics will showthat the backing of Hebrew and transliteration, or backing of

Hebrew and English, is the most readable (and comfortable to the

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viewer) way to place these languages on a p age. A personal agend ain the creation of this text is to put Hebrew d one w ell into peop les

hands, and to encourage others to do as well (and, without incredible

difficulty, better).

If you w ant a good H ebrew-English (and more) word processor (and

dont like editing your Hebrew in reverse!), you should explore

Nisus (Macintosh) or Dagesh (Wind ows). The latter comes with a

lovely collection of Hebrew truetype fonts, as well. FontWorld, up

in Rochester, New York, makes a wid e variety of Hebrew fonts for

Mac and Window s, which can be purchased th rough Precision Type

(theyve got an 800 num ber) of Long Island , New York.

Known Bugs: The shin appears to be hinted poorly, and I have

not yet managed to fix that. At lower resolutions (


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rsxiueh,

ycac uyA Seder

for

Tu BShvat


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This Hagaddah is dedicated to Tamar Kaufman.

Feminist, journalist, and friend, Tamar died of brain cancer in late

1994 (http:/ / ww w.well.com/ user/ ari/ tamar/ tamar.html).

After a delightful stint as a farrier following high school, Tamaremigrated to Israel du ring the Seventies where she became an

activist in the Israeli Feminist movement. She also experienced h er

first bout with cancer. By the mid-Eighties, Tamar was living in the

Bay Area, writing for theNorthern California Jewish Bulletin. In 1987

she p layed a m ajor role in helping m e start the Jewish discussion

SIG on the WELL, still one of the largest mod erated online SIGs,

and one of the most d iverse. She w as also active in the wr iters

guild on Com pu Serve, and in real life. Several years ago, Tamar

became (and continues to be) my co-mod erator and co-conspirator.

Six years ago she encountered cancer a second time. That ap peared

to be defeated, but in 1993, it returned.

Tamar leaves behind a hu sband , Daveed Man del, two brothers,

and many d evastated friends.

The family asks that d onations be sent to:

The Tamar Kaufman Memorial Fun d

New israel Fund

PO Box 91588

Washington , DC 20090-1588

Donations mad e in Tamar s name w ill be used to help promote the

status of wom en in Israel.


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In t roduc t ion

Why do we observe Tu BShvat with a Seder?

The mystical sages of Safed in the 16th century u nd erstood God as

a tree of life, whose roots were in the heavens, and whose branches

extended toward earth, bringing all of us life and blessing. The

New Year of Trees was a holy time, an op portu nity to p artake of

the fruit of the trees, and to thank God for the wond er of renewed

life for the u niverse. They organized a Seder for Tu BShva t at

wh ich they d rank four cups of wine, and many different kinds of

prod ucts from the Land of Israel.

In 1653 the first liturgy, a collection of readings and ritua ls for

Tu BShvat, was published in Salonica (Greece) under the name

Pri Etz Hadar(rsv .g hrpFruit of the Goodly/ Citrus Tree).Although the identity of the author is unknow n, it is generally

assumed to have been Haim Vital, a student an d d isciple of the

Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria), reknow ned kabbalist of Safed.

The basic concept behind the ritual is to increase the flow of Gods

emanations/ blessings into the world . By eating the various kinds

of fruits w ith the p roper intention, we aid in the refructification of

our world from the divine Tree of Life.

In Salonica two legend s are related concerning Tu BShva t. The

first states that an an gel hits the head of every plant on this d ay

saying to it: Grow. The second believes that, on this day the trees

embrace. Anyone seeing that embrace will have his or her wish

fulfilled.

Some barren Jewish wom en, believing in th e pow er of sympa-

thetic magic, would plant ra isins and candy n ear trees, or embrace

trees on Tu BShvat, at night, praying for fertility. Young girls eligible

for marriage were brought to trees wh ere an imitation marriagewas enacted. If, shortly after, bud s were found on the tree to which

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they were marr ied they knew their turn would soon come. Insome areas the Tu BShvat celebrations were held in the homes of

families who had lost a beloved during the past year, to remind of

the prohibition of mou rning on that day, and also of the renewal of

life from the trees being parallel to the resurrection.

In southern an d ru ral Morocco, the rich w ould invite the whole

town to their homes and fill their hats with fruit. In Persia there was

a custom of climbing on the roof and lowering an empty basket

through the chimney which would be returned laden with fruit. In

Turkey there was a custom w here each member of the family would

have a special relationship with one species of fruit. In Persia andAfghanistan, Jews on Tu BShvat would purchase new fabrics from

which clothing for Pesach would be sewn. Another custom performed

in anticipation was to eat jelly made from the last Sukkoths etrog,

and then to p ray for etrogim of fine quality for the coming Sukkoth.

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O p e n i n g D a n c eOn seeing fruit trees blooming for the first time in the year

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Lkha Dodi

vKF ,t rek h ss vfk Lkha dodi, likrat kalahvkCeb ,C hbP Pnai Shabbat ni-kabla

vfkbu Ufk ,C ,t rek Leekrat Shabbat Lkhu vnelkhavf rCv ren thv hF kee hee mkor habrakhavfUxb o sEn trn mey-rosh mee-kedem nsukha

/vKj< vcjnC vgn ;x sof maaseh bmakhshavot tkhila.

Come, my beloved, with choru s of praise,Welcome Bride Sabbath, the Queen of the days.

Sabbath, to welcome thee, joyous we haste;

Foun tain of blessing from ever thou w ast

First in God s plann ing, thou fashioned the last,

Crown of His hand iwork, chiefest of days.(continue with the service here)

According to Kabbalah, there are four worlds or levels of creation:

azilut(emanation), briah (creation),yetzirah (formation), and assiyah

(actionour world of physical reality). The world ofazilutis pure-

ly spiritual and cannot be symbolized in an y concrete way. The

world ofberiah is symbolized by ten fruits that have neither pits on

the inside nor shells on the outsidethat is, they are totally edible:

grapes, figs, apples, etrogim (citrons), lemons, pears, raspberries,

blueberries, carobs, and quinces. (Seeds are considered edible in this

system.) The world ofyetzirah has p its inside, but the outside can be

eaten. Its ten fruits are olives, dates, cherries, jujubes, persimmons,

apricots, peaches, loquats, plums, and hackberries. The w orld of

assiyah has an outside shell that must be discarded and an inside

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that can be eaten. Its ten fruits and n uts are pom egranates, walnuts,almond s, pine nuts, chestnuts, hazelnu ts, coconuts, Brazil nuts,

pistachios, and pecans. The symbolism, in brief, is as follows.

Those parts that can be eaten represent holiness, the inedible

partsthat is, the pitsrepresent the impure, and the shells serve

as protection for the fragile holiness inside.

(from The Jewish Holidays, by Michael Strassfeld)

The categories of fruits may symbolize three kinds of interpersonal

situations also. Entering an un friend ly or anxiety-prod ucing

atmosphere, one is guard ed, externally armored , as it were. Theshell is on the outside, like the fruits ofassiyah.

In friendlier surroundings, but su perficial or entered w ith some

reservations, there is more interpersonal contact and exchange,

even some degree of affable sharing, but the very p rivate self

remains surrou nd ed by the inner shell, like the fruits ofyetzirah.

In certain special situations of deep trust and intimacy, howev-

er, the inner self is revealed and shared with another; at this

moment of IThou there is no inner shell, like the fruits ofberiah.

At several Tu BShvat seders in recent years, we have spent

time reflecting individually on interpersonal situations during thepreceding year that exemp lified each of these categories, and each

time most of us present have been nou rished by the d iscoveries

weve made.

(E. G.*)

5

*possibly

Everett

Gendler,

possibly cited

in The Jewish

Holidays.

If anyon e can

confirm , please

let us know so

that we can

correct this.


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SongNad Elan

ikht sb Nad eelanjUrv ;Yk < r Nm Tzamarto leetef ha-ruakh

/uhkg e bu Venashak alav.iDC o Sham bagan

jUP< vpye h ,ph Yafati katfah tapuakh/cvb VejmU Utzkhokahshenhav

jUr thvikht hbt Uk Loo ani eelan he ruakh

/hk ; t vebu Vnashkah af lijUP< h,t ;ye< sg Of t iktof oti tapuakh///hbbh j kheenani, kheenani.

jUph oH v h, n wv Ho matai hayom yafuakhhke ttu vesah koli

jUk h s r h ,ph yafati, redi lasuakh///hBdC begani, begani.

The tree is swaying / The wind caresses the treetopsAnd kisses its leaves / There, in the gard en

My beauty picked an ap ple / And her smile is ivory

If I were a tree and she the w ind

She wou ld kiss me too, / Or she may pick me

A lovely apple / Oh, when w ill the day end

And I will start to sing

My beauty, come take a walk / In my garden.

Words: M. Dor;Music: J. Had ar

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The Kabbalists of Safed used to dr ink four cup s of wine, each oneredder than its predecessor. So today, following this tradition, we

dr ink our first cup which is white wine representing the winter

season at its peak.

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The Kabbalists also spoke oftikun olam, the repair of the w orld. Welive in a time wh en the natu ral world , too, needs repair.

Our situation as a species is the following: the life-support systems

of this almost imp ossibly beautiful p lanet are being violated and

degrad ed, resulting in dam age that is often irreparable, yet only a

small proportion of hum ans have engaged their consciousness

with this crisis. In ou r ow n coun try, our farms are losing four bil-

lion tons of topsoil a year; the groun dw ater and soil are being p oi-

soned by p esticide ru n-off and toxic du mp ing; the ground water

table itself, accumulated over thousands of years, is being reckless-

ly dep leted to serve the profits of agribusiness and developers; the

nuclear pow er industry has generated mu ch m ore than enough

pluton ium to p oison every creature and ecosysytem on Earth and

has no idea how to store it safely; were losing 200,000 to 300,000

acres of wetland h abitat every year; and the songbirds, which used

to herald the coming of spring, are now p erishing in large num -

bers every winter when they migrate to the devastated land in

Central and South America that formerly w as majestic tropical

rain forest.Charlene Spretnak

Biblical law required Jewish farmers annually to contribute ten

percent of that years orchard harvest to the Temple*. The question

arose in w hich year does one include the fruits in the process of

growth du ring portions of consecutive years. We learn from the

Tosefta (Shviit 4:20) that the Rabbis fixed Tu BShvat as the

determ ining dateall fruits beginning to flower before that d ate

were considered to be prod uce of the previous year (from the p ast

Tu BShvat to th e p resent Tu BShvat); those which blossomed afterTu BShvat would be counted as prod uce of the new year.

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*actually, theKohanim andLeviim?


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hk r ntu h ss vbg Ana dodi vamar leeh,hg r k h nUe koomee lakh rayati:k-hfkU h,ph yafatee ulkhee-lakh.

rcg u ,Xv vBv-hF Kee-heenay ha-stav avar:k kv ;kj o Dv ha-geshem khalaf halakh lo.

Come with me, my love, come away

For the long wet months are past,

the rains have fed the earth

Song of Songs, 2:1011, Marcia Falk translation

Following the tradition of Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Kabbalists in their

Tikun Tu BShvatdivided the fruits to be consumed into three group-

ings according to the three levels of physical creation. The simp lest

level, Olam Haasiyah, is that in which we assemble and shap e arti-

facts withou t changing the form of the raw material. An examp le

would be the construction of a wooden table. This lowest level was

considered to be the most vulnerable and in need of protection. It was

symbolized by those vulnerable fruits which possess an outer pro-

tective covering, usually peeled off and discarded. It is fruits of this

category which we eat now.

M e d i t a t i o n

There never seems to h ave been any d oubt th at Rocks came

before living thingsthat they w ere in a sense, the first

beings. In the oldest myths Rocks are tricky objects.

Sometimes alive, or at least inhabited by spirits, they could

move around and tu rn into other things. Monotheism quiet-

ed them down. They became Rocks of Ages, symbols of

heavenly permanence and p ower, eminences for saint and

prophet to stand on, foundations for temples and churches.Evolution seems to have reversed th is trend towards qu ies-

cence and Rocks are on the move again. Although we no

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This meditationis sweet, butthe originalcompiler and Iare not surewh ere it camefrom. By us,this d oesnt feelparticularlyJewish! This

would be agood place toinsert yourown mediation


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longer see them as an imate, we know that some of themonce were alive, that many will be alive again as their ele-

ments break down into soil and are taken up by plants, and

that they are constantly on the move. Rocks have regained

respect in the past century or two. They are not just inert

stuff to be blasted th rough or piled up into bu ildings. They

have a slow life of their ow n. They form, mature and age,

and their movements affect the lives of plants and animals

enormously.

David Rains Wallace, The Klamath Knot

Song: Umoshe hikah al selah

rUm kg vFV v NU Umoshe hikah al tzur(2) gkx kg vFV vyNC ba-mateh hikah al selah (2)

oh n UbNn Utmhu va-yatzu me-menu mayim(3) tkpu tkpv Ha-flei vafeleh (3)

vkx i nt Amen, selah

And Moses struck the rock / With a staff he struck the stone

And th ere came forth water / A marvelous deed, a wond erAmen, Selah.

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hvt vuvh hF For the Lord you r Godthcn is bringing you

vcy . rt-kt into a goodLand

. rt a Landohn hkjb of brooks of water,

,nv,U ,bhg of fountains and depths:r vcU vgeCC ohtmh springing forth in valleys and hills,

v rgU vYj . rt a Land of wheat and barley

vbt,U ipdu and vines and fig treesi Nru and pomegranates,

:csU in ,hz-. rt a Land of olive trees and honey,,bFxnc t rt . rt a Land wherein

ojk VC-kft< you shall eat breadVC kF rxj,-t without scarceness,

kz rc vhbct rt . rt a Land w hose stones are ironvh r rvnU and out of whose hills

:,jb cmj< you m ay dig brass.


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Ye t z i r a hThe world of water

Yetzirah is the world of formation and birth. Water, the fluid

element, gives shape to all matter. Our hearts are folded rivers; our

bones are spiralling vortices; knots in trees are recycling eddies.

From w ater, the heart, pours forth blessing and emotions. At this

time we honor the w atery ones: the phytoplankton who produ ce

most of our oxygen, the sea creatures: dolph ins, whales and seals

subject to our unconscious w astefulness, the salmon whose lives

are interrupted by dam s.

iC ohn o,cU U-shav-tem mayim bsasson./vguhv hbhgnn mee maayanay ha-yshua.

And you shall draw water with gladness from the wells of

salvation.

Rain Prayer

With all our Being, all our Heart

we Pray for Rain

With all our Intention, all our willwe Pray for Rain

Hear u s, Creator, answer Ou r Prayer

Bless us with ample Rain for this year

Hear u s, Creator, answer Ou r Prayer

Bless us w ith Rain

words, song by And rea Beth Damsky

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The olive appears early in the Bible, playing an important role inthe flood story. It is a symbol of renewed life and peace.

ohsnug oh,z hmg Atzay zayteem omdeem

The olive trees are standing.

j rph rn


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Choni, the righteous man, was journ eying on the road andhe saw a m an p lanting a carob tree. He asked him, how

long does it take for this tree to bear fruit? In about 70

years, answ ered the man. But you are so old, you will

never taste its fru it. You are right, bu t I have eaten the

fruit of trees that have been p lanted before I was born. I

plant for my d aughters and sons, grandd aughters and

grandsons.

(Choni sat dow n to have a meal and sleep overcame h im. As

he slept, a rocky formation enclosed u pon him w hich h id

him from sight and he continued to sleep for seventy years.

When he aw oke he saw a man gathering the fruit of the

carob tree and he asked him, are you the man who planted

the tree? The man replied, I am h is grandson. Thereup on

Choni exclaimed: It is clear that I slept for seventy years.

Talmud, Taanit223a (Talmud)

Commentary on carob in Europe

For us, Jud aism is the carob tree planted by others: our mothers

and fathers, grandm others and grand fathers, and the many Jews

who lived and developed our tradition. It is now for us to plant

for ourselves by connecting and m aking trad itions passed on to us

our own. In addition, we plant for the future by adding our energy

and creativity to Jewish life in its many forms and styles.

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Our second cup of wine is white, but tinged with red. It symbol-izes the beginnings of spr ingtime and the earths reawakening. In

Israel, pink and w hite flowers dot th e hills and mou ntains at this

season of the year. As we dr ink the w ine, let us th ink of one hope

or wish w e have for the coming spring.

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B r i y a hThe world of air

The third level of creation was designated by the Kabbalists as Olam

HaBriah. We eat the entire body of the fruit which represents this

world. This fruit is both w holly soft so that it can be wholly taken in

by us, and is yet wh olly strong, structured so that it needs no outer

hard shell nor inner hard pit: its special strength is present in its

every portion.

In Arabic, the wind is ruh, but the same word also means

breath and spirit. In Jewish tradition, the word ruach has been

broadened to includ e concepts of creation and divinity.

Withou t wind , most of Earth wou ld be un inhabitable. But w ith

the wind, Earth comes truly alive. Winds p rovide the circulatory

and nervous systems of the planet, sharing out energy and informa-

tion, d istributing both warm th and awareness, making something

out of nothing.

And what is there to life if man cannot hear the lonely cry

of the whipp oorwill or the argum ents of the frogs around a

pond at n ight? The Indian p refers the soft sound of the

wind d arting over the face of the pon d, and the smell of thewind itself cleansed by a mid -day rain, or scented with

pinyon pine. For all things share the same breaththe

beasts, the trees, the man.

Chief Seattle, 1855 (letter to President Pierce)

Time is the continuous loop, the snakeskin with scales end-

lessly overlapp ing withou t beginning or end , or time is an

ascending sp iral if you w ill, like a childs toy Slinky

The power we seek, too, seems to be a continuou s loop. I

have always been sympath etic with the early notion of adivine power th at exists in a particular place, or that travels

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Heres anotherone we considermysterious.Annie Dillardsthoughts arebeautiful, but

we d o not seewhere they fitinto Jewishtradition


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about over the face of the earth as a man m ight wan derand when h e is there he is surely not here. You can shake

the hand of a man you meet in the woods; but the spirit

seems to roll along like a myth ical hoop snake with its tail

in its mouth. There are no han ds to shake or ed ges to untie.

It rolls along the mountain ridges like a fireball, shooting off

a spray of sparks at random, and will not be trapped,

slowed, grasped , fetched , peeled, or aimed .

This is the hoop of flame that shoots the rap ids in the creek

or spins across dizzy m eadow s; this is the arsonist of the

sunny w oods: catch it if you can.

Annie Dillard(Pilgrim at Tinker Creek)

lrc, hj kf ,nab Nishmat Kol Khai TvarekhOur every breath we breathe could su rely be a wond er.

If we could on ly taste every sensation passing throu gh u s,

taste every breath we p ulled into our lungs,

were we to refuse to allow any joy or pain

brought to an y of our senses

to pass through us unexamined and u napp raised,

then every breath,

every movement, every thought,

every app rehension, every fear and every caress

wou ld be a prayer of awe.

Let us feel it all, let us embrace it all, let us love it all

even that which we hate.

Then w e wou ld not only eat, we w ould taste,

we would not only hear, we would listen,

we w ould not only be awake, but be aware

we w ould not only be standing, but be upstanding,

then w e wou ld not only be released from p rison,we would be free:

17

the originalcompiler nownotes that this

feels more likea negation ofthe gna!


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Free to say our than ks, free to feel our love, free to feel ourpain, free to struggle, free to submit,

and free to inspire the breath of life infusing all matter,

all energy in all time and space.

When that breath is our breath,

Then every breath will speak

the secret holy name

ubkrd sgk lna jc,ah Yishtabakh shimkha lad goraleynuCould I repress my praise if I wanted to?

And if I could ,would it stop the irrepressible river of praises,

songs and celebrations

that open our mou ths as we our witness

the infinite energy and p ower w hich are set before us

every moment of every day?

All I can say

is that blessings are not enough ,

and praisings lack the scale to embrace our aw e

of just this one hu mble drop of universe

which has been ours to examine.

,ugsuvu ,ufrc Brakhot vhodaotBlessings and m any than ks from now and forever more.

Blessed is the majestic and migh ty,

the delicate and fragile,

the melody and song,

the power, the beauty, the life of all worlds!

David Cooper 1988

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Spirit of the (Earth, Water, Air, Holy)Carry me

2x Spirit of the (Earth, Water, Air, Holy)Carry me homeSpirit of the (Earth, Water, Air, Holy)Carry me hom e to myself4x { Spirit of the (Earth, Water, Air, Holy)

vhkkv HalleluyahPsalm 150

VhUkkv Halleluyah (4) seC kt-Ukkv Hallelu (2) el bkadsho

:Zg ghe rC UvUkkv Halleluhu (2) birkiya uzoHalleluhu (4)

uh,rUcdC UvUkkv Halleluhu (2) bigvurotav:ksd crF UvUkkv Halleluhu (2) krov gudlo

Halleluhu (4)rp ge,C UvUkkv Halleluhu (2) bteika shofar:rBfu kcbC UvUkkv Halleluhu (2) bneivel vchinor

Halleluhu (4)

kjnU ;,C UvUkkv Halleluhu (2) btof umachol:cdgu ohBnC UvUkkv Halleluhu (2) bminim vugav

Halleluhu (4)

gn-hkmkmC UvUkkv Halleluhu (2) btsil-tslei shama:vgUr, hkmkmC UvUkkv Halleluhu (2) btsil-tslei tru-a

Vh kKv< vnBv kF Kol hanshama (2) thallelya (2):VhUkkv Kol hanshama, thallelya halleluyah (2)

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Praise God, sun and moonPraise God, all you stars of light

Praise God, heavens of heavens

and you waters that are above the heavens.

Let all praise the name of the Lord

Who comm anded and they were created.

Praise God from the earth

O monsters and all deeps,

fire and hail, snow and vapour

storm w ind fulfilling the word .Moun tains and all hills,

fruitful trees, and all cedars,

beasts and all cattle;

creeping things and winged birds,

kings of the earth, and a ll peop les

Let them p raise the Nam e of the Lord;

Whose nam e alone is exulted;

Whose majesty is glorified above the earth

and the heaven.

from Psalm 148

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The most w idespread custom for the celebration of Tu BShvat isthe enjoyment of many different fruits, the number and combina-

tion of species varying widely among comm un ities. Many observe

the custom of eating 15 types in hon or of the name of the day

(ouh ka una sucfk). Another pop ular p ractice is the m aximizingof the num ber of fruits eaten: jcuan vz hrv vnstv kfu

We say Ubhjv (shehechiyanu ) over a new fruitone which wehave not eaten since at least last fall:

whh v


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M e d i t a t io n o n s a f e t y a n d co u r a g e

On seeing fruit trees blooming for the first time in the year

c rj hD-kt hD Uth-t Lo yisoo goy el goy cherev:vnjkn sg iUsnkh-t u vlo yilmdoon od milchama.

bpD ,j< ht Uchu Vyashvu ish tachat gaf-no,rh rjn ihtu ,bt< ,j,u vtachat teynato, ieyn machrir.

The fig is mentioned in the Bible sixteen times together with thevine as the most important fruit of Eretz Israel. The fig motif illus-

trates an era of peace and security in the past, and an ideal vision

for the future.

Nation shall not take up sword against nation / they shall

never again know war. / But every person shall sit un der

her grapevine / or fig tree with no one to disturb her.

Micah 4:34

Sing together:

c rj hD-kt hD th-t Lo yisa goy el goy cherev/vnjkn sg Usnkh-t u vlo yilmdu od milchama.

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The originalcompilers asks,Is this theright season toinclude thisbracha?


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whh v


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Then the Lord God formed the humanof the dust of the ground,and breathed into the nostrils

the breath of life;

and the human became a living soul.

Genesis II:7

The breath of life of course th at isIts nam e. We

breathe, and the trees breathe. We breathe in w hat th e trees

breathe out . So we breathe each other into existence: We,

and the galaxies, and the arrays of science and the codes of

law and the plays of music, we are breathing each other

into existence.

And the breath, of course, goes in a cycle.

Arthur Waskow,Rainbow Sign

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A t z i l u tThe world of fire

Th eres a fire alive with in

every liv ing cell of every being. The

carbons we eat burn in the presence

of the oxygen w e breathe giving u s

th e en ergy to be. Th is sp ark of

light is ou r con nection to

the Divine.

The fourth Kabbalistic category of creation was spiritual and there-

fore un representable by physical food. ,ukhmgv okug OlamHaatzilutdealt w ith Gods love, mercy, wisdom , and other essen-

tial and omnipresent realities which w e perceive with our hearts

rather than ou r five senses.

Ayts Ch aim

/VC ohehzjNk thv ohHj-.g Ayts chayim hee la-machazikim ba:r tn vhfn,u Vetomchay-ha meushar.

She is a tree of life to all wh o hold fast to her, and all of her

supporters are happy.

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Candles

Tribu te to th e Trees

I sing to the trees

I sing to the trees

I sing to the trees

I sing to the trees

I sing to th e trees that feed m e

I sing to the trees that shade m e

I sing to th e trees that house m e

I sing to the trees that be

I sing to the trees in flower

I sing to the trees of green leaves

I sing to the trees of beauty

I sing to th e threes that be

words, song by And rea Beth Damsky

Every p art of the vegetable world

is singing a songand bringing forth a secret

of the divine mystery

of the creation.

Rav Kook

No man is sterile. Every soul is pregnan t with the seed of

insight. It is vague and h idd en. In some p eople the seed

grows; in others it decays. Some give birth to life. Others

miscarry it. Some know how to bear it, to nurse, to rear an

insight th at comes into being. Others do not.

Abraham Heschel

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The originalcompiler says,

This remind sme of the RebNachman /Naom i Shemersong:

kfa lk gsvguru vguriudhb uk ah

/ukan sjhn


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1. If you were unblocked by fear and in possession of allyour pow ers, wh at would you d o to heal our world?

2. What specific projects could actually be accomp lished

through you in the next years time?

3. What strengths and resources do you have now that

wou ld help you d o that?

4. What will you need to learn or acquire?

5. What obstacles are you likely to put in the way of fulfill-

ing this goal?

6. What can you do in the next 24 hours, no matter how

small the step, that will help you reach that goal?

Joann a Macy

We now fill our cup s a fourth and final time with th e wine red in

color representing the ruling of Spring and the first hints of sum-

mer with its mature fruits whose blossoms were born on Tu

BShvat.

whh v


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Connections are mad e slowly, sometimes they grow under-ground . You cannot tell always by looking wh at is happ en-

ing. More than half a tree is spread out in the soil un der

your feet. Penetrate quietly as the earthw orm th at blows no

trum pet. Fight persistently as the creeper that brings d own

the tree. Spread like the squash p lant that overru ns the gar-

den. Gnaw in the d ark and use the sun to make sugar.

Weave real connections, create real nodes, build real houses.

Live a life you can endure: make love that is loving. Keep

tangling and interw eaving and tak ing more in, a thicket

and bramble wilderness to the outside but to us intercon-

nected w ith rabbit runs an d burrows and lairs.

Live as if you liked you rself, and it may h app en: reach out,

keep reaching out, keep bringing in. This is how w e are

going to live for a long time: not always, for every gard ener

know s that after the d igging, after the p lanting, after the

long season of tending and grow th, the harvest comes.

Marge Piercy, from The Seven Pentacles

Blessing over Challah

whh v


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A d d e n d u mFeminized forms of some blessings

wvbhf vh vfUrC Brukha yah shekhina,wokgv ,fkn wUbhvt Eloheinu malkat ha-olam

/.gv h rP ,t rC borait pree haetz.

Blessed art Thou, Divine Presence, Queen of the universe,

who creates the fruit of the tree.

wvbhf vh vfUrCBrukha yah shekhina,

wokgv ,fkn wUbhvt Eloheinu malkat ha-olam/ipDv h rP ,t rC borait pree hagafen.


who creates the fruit of the vine.

wvbhf vh vfUrC Brukha yah shekhina,wokgv ,fkn wUbhvt Eloheinu malkat ha-olam

/. rtv i n ojk ,tmNv ha-motzeyt lechem meen ha-aretz.


who brings forth bread from the earth.

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from M arcia Falk

A blessing over wine

ohHjv ihg ,t rcb Nvareykh et eyn ha-khayimipDv h rP ,jh nmn Matzmikhat Pri ha-gefen

UbhHj hdh r ,t rz bu vnishzor et srigei khayeynu:ogv , rxnC bmasoret ha-am.

Let us bless the source of life that nurtures fruit on the vine

as we weave th e branches of our lives into the trad ition.

UbhHj ihgn ,t rcb Brukha yah shekhina,wokgv ,fkn wUbhvt Eloheinu malkat ha-olam

/UbnHeu /Ubhjv shechechiyanu vkiyuimanu/vZv i nZk UbghDvu vhigiyanu lazaman ha-zeh.

Let us bless the flow of life that revives us, sustains us, and

brings us to th is time.

The blessings on this page w ere originally part of a broadsidepublished on the occasion of the opening of AFIKOMEN: Jewish

Books an d Arts, Berkeley, CA. This page Copyright 1991 by

Marcia Lee Falk. These blessings are excerpted from her forthcom-

ing The Book of Blessings: A Feminist-Jewish Reconstruction of Prayer,

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

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Documents

TuBishvat Seder