Tu BiShvat When You Can't Grow

This week we celebrate Tu BiShvat!  This celebration of trees is considered a holiday of growth and the beauty of nature.  Its roots (pun intended!) is a planting holiday.  The rabbis explain that by Shevat - there is a debate as to whether it is the first or fifteenth of the month - most of the winter rain should have fallen in the land of Israel and therefore the soil would be waterlogged and healthy for planting trees.  They would then use the date of the 15th of Shevat to determine how old a tree was and when its tithe needed to be given.  When the kabbalists created a seder to celebrate Tu BiShvat, they thought of it as a way to help bring about tikkun olam, a central theme of kabbala, to repair the world.

All of these issues pertain entirely to the land of Israel.  On Tu B’Shevat in 1890, Rabbi Ze’ev Yavetz brought his students to plant trees in the agricultural colony of Zichron Ya’akov, a town in Israel south of Haifa.  As one of the goals of the early Zionist movement was the reforestation of the land, we see Tu B’Shvat become a day to plant trees as early as the First Aliyah at the end of the 19th century. With each successive wave of Jewish immigration to the land of Israel, Tu B’Shvat grew in importance.

The Jewish National Fund, founded in 1901, turned tree planting, particularly on Tu B’Shvat, into part of the national ethos. The Zionist movement also turned to Tu B’Shvat as a symbol of revival, beyond just reforestation, when the date was chosen for the opening of the Technion in 1925 and of the first Knesset in 1949. It came to represent the blossoming of a restored Jewish nation.

This brings me to this year.  I wonder, what does Tu BiShvat represent in a time when Israel is not necessarily looking to grow, but to heal?  What does Tu BiShvat teach us when we are fighting for survival and to defend our nation rather than thinking about how our state is blossoming?  

I look forward to exploring these questions this Shabbat and on Wednesday evening during our Tu BiShvat program.  I hope you’ll join us.

Shabbat Shalom

Tu Bishvat Seder at Tel Aviv's Hostages Square (In Person and Livestream)

Wednesday, January 24th

5:30pm Israel / 10:30am ET

Join Masorti Israel for songs and prayers for the hostages’ continued safety and speedy return as well as the restoration and healing of the State of Israel. Livestream will be available via Masorti Israel FB page.

Beatrice Field  Mother of Dr. Steven Field 

Javier Cintron  Brother of Camille Romay 

Anna Heiser  Mother of Coren Weiss 

Harry Reynolds  Father of Cynthia Schiff 

Joseph Pullman   Father of Enid Dembo 

Kurt Weiss  Father of Mitchell Weiss 

Sigmund Eichholz  Grandfather of Julie Lybanon 

Saly Wertheim  Aunt of Doris Field 

Martha Feiner  Grandmother of Bonnie Amsterdam-Miele 

Yetta E. Willis  Grandmother of Roslyn Willis 

Jacob Firestone  Father of Dr. Lloyd Firestone 

Carol Ann Citrin  Sister of Dr. Paul Citrin 

Joseph Weisman  Father of S. Gilbert Weisman 

Irene Strauss  Mother of Beverly Stevens 

Louis Richelson  Great Grandfather of Brian Pearlman and David Pearlman 

Harold Goldfine  Uncle of Richard Kanter, Gail Baker, and Brad Kanter 

Friday, January 26 Kol Shira Musical Shabbat!

Saturday, January 27 Alternative Shabbat (see flyer below) and Kiddush Luncheon sponsored by Sisterhood

Friday, February 2-3rd Celebration of our Adult B'nai Mitzvah Class followed by a Howard Kanter Luncheon (RSVP by clicking the link below!)

Make a Minyan! 

Available to help last minute for a minyan occasionally? Want to be notified when someone has a yartzeit so we know we will have ten? Join our Kol Ami WhatsApp group! Click this link (from your phone) to join: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KiBtwSw7UGJ0ElQdwwxytp

Weekly Talmud Study with Rabbi Blatt.

Thursday at 10:30am - January 11, 18 & 25

Join our Talmud Class - an all levels discussion of Talmud.

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/624135476

Parsha Study with Rashi

Saturday at 8:30am - January 13, 20 & 27

A weekly discussion of the Haftarah of the week.

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/795031104

Meeting ID: 795 031 104