Tu B'Shvat

The film AVATAR weaves together what we usually call the spiritual and the political. Indeed, whether its director realized it consciously or not, AVATAR echoes two major strands of religious wisdom that began in Jewish thought but have had deep influence on cultures far beyond the boundaries of Jewish peoplehood. The two strands of ancient wisdom are “archetypal” — that is, they appear over and over again in human thought because they arise in human experience and yearning — with or without conscious transmission of the stories.   Read more »

SHALOM CENTER PRESENTS
GREEN MENORAH AWARD
TO JEWISH RECONSTRUCTIONIST CONGREGATION:
OFFERS MATCHING GRANT TO YOUTH GROUP

At a celebration of Tu B’Shvat, the midwinter Jewish festival for the rebirthing of trees and nature, on Friday evening February 6, 2009, The Shalom Center presented its annual Green Menorah Covenant Award to the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation of Evanston.   Read more »

Working to Tread Lightly on the Earth
Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, February 05, 2009 - Aaron Passman

.The Tu B’Shevat seder Elaine Cohen oversees at her synagogue is a tradition that goes back nearly 20 years. Between 15 and 30 people attend the annual event, and this year’s meal, like others, will feature the traditional four cups of wine, as well as emphasize nuts and fruit — products of the trees the meal celebrates.

Seders like these — once small, unremarkable events — have become an increasingly popular way of marking the holiday, and are now a fixture on many synagogue calendars. While they’re modeled after the Passover seder, there is one distinct difference, noted Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of the Shalom Center in Philadelphia.   Read more »

Report by: Rabbi Jeff Sultar, director
Green Menorah Campaign of The Shalom Center
 215/438-2983

In response to The Shalom Center’s call for the Environmental Protection Agency to live up to its middle name, Jewish groups brought living trees to regional EPA offices in New York City and Philadelphia on January 21, the trees’ Rebirthing Day in Jewish tradition.

(You can use and modify the model letters at the end of this post to join in the protest.)

The protest was well covered by the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent. For article and photoi, see —   Read more »

Ancient Jewish Income Tax Day becomes the Birthday of the Trees –— and the First Birthday for a leading sustainable synagogue

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow and Victoria Finlay *

This year, the Jewish celebration of “Tu B’Shvat,” the “re-birthday of the trees,” falls from the evening of Sunday February 8 to Monday February 9. 

In Illinois, the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation of Evanston will be celebrating both the re-birthday of the trees, and the first birthday of the sustainable re-construction of their own synagogue. 



Indeed, The Shalom Center will be presenting its third annual Green Menorah Award to JRC. (The previous awards went to Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in NYC and Temple Emmanuel outside Washington DC.)   Read more »

Last week I suggested that we plan actions on Tu B’Shvat, the Jewish midwinter festival of the rebirth of trees (and of the earth in general) , to address the recent destructive actions by the director of the Environmental Protection Agency.

He stopped efforts by the states to curb CO2 emissions from autos and thus reduce the danger we are facing from the global climate crisis.

A number of letters have come to us, supporting the idea. This letter suggests ways of carrying the message to EPA offices in eleven cities across America.

Religious Background: Monday, January 21, is the official day for celebration of Martin Luther King’s birthday. At about 4:30 that afternoon begins the celebration of Tu B’Shvat. (The day before is exactly one year before the inauguration of the next President of the United States.)   Read more »

Prepared by Rabbi Jeff Sultar
Director, Green Menorah Covenant campaign of The Shalom Center
http://www.shalomctr.org greenmenorah@shalomctr.org 215/ 438-2983

Tu B’Shvat is coming  — the evening of January 21. It celebrates the rebirthing of trees in the midst of winter, and in the mystical tradition of Kabbalah, also the reawakening of Divine energy  with God seen metaphorically as the Tree of Life, with Its roots in Heaven and Its fruit, ourselves — the universe.

Below you will find the text of a pamphlet that you can download as a supplement for you to use in holding a Tu B’Shvat Seder  or giving a sermon on the Birthday of the Trees. Cut, paste, and click here for a PDF version that you can download and print as a four-page pamphlet:   Read more »

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow *

Wouldn’t it seem strange if you heard that mystics had transformed April 15, Income Tax Day, into a festival for celebration of God’s reemergence?

Yet that is what the Kabbalists of Safed did in the sixteenth century when they recreated Tu B’Shvat. Tu B’Shvat, the full moon of mid-winter, had been important only in Holy Temple days, in the calendar of tithing. It was the end of the “fiscal year” for trees. Fruit that appeared before that date was taxed for the previous year; fruit that appeared later, for the following year.

The Talmud called this legal date the “New Year for Trees.”   Read more »