TU BISHVAT: A New Year for Trees

Tu Bishvat, traditionally known as the birthday of the trees, is a time to think about relating to the natural world. This holiday can be celebrated by planting trees, eating fruits, and having a Tu Bishvat Seder, a ritual that began with the kabbalistic masters of the 15th century.

Tu Bishvat, or the "birthday" of all fruit trees, is a minor festival seemingly tailor-made for today's Jewish environmentalists. In fact, there is an ancient midrash (rabbinic teaching) that states, "When God led Adam around the Garden of Eden, God said, 'Look at My works. See how beautiful they are, how excellent! For your sake I created them all. See to it that you do not spoil or destroy My world--for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you'" (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7.13).

But it was not always this way. In ancient times, it was merely a date on the calendar that helped Jewish farmers establish exactly when they should bring their fourth-year produce of fruit from recently planted trees to the Temple as first-fruit offerings. After this, all subsequent fruit produced from these trees could be eaten or sold as desired.

Tu Bishvat could easily have fallen into desuetude after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, since there was no longer a system of fruit offerings or Temple priests to receive them. However, the kabbalists (mystics) of Tzfat (the city of Safed) in the Land of Israel in the 16th century created a new ritual to celebrate Tu Bishvat called the Feast of Fruits.

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Tu Bishvat: The New Year for the Trees

 Tu B’Shevat, the 15th of Shevat on the Jewish calendar—celebrated this year on Shabbat, January 26, 2013—is the day that marks the beginning of a “New Year for Trees.” This is the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle.

Legally, the “New Year for Trees” relates to the various tithes that are separated from produce grown in the Holy Land. These tithes differ from year to year in the seven-year shemittah cycle; the point at which a budding fruit is considered to belong to the next year of the cycle is the 15th of Shevat.

We mark the day of Tu B’Shevat by eating fruit, particularly from the kinds that are singled out by the Torah in its praise of the bounty of the Holy Land: grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. On this day we remember that “man is a tree of the field” (Deuteronomy 20:19) and reflect on the lessons we can derive from our botanical analogue.

Follow the following links for more information about this holiday and the ideas it represents:

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How to Lose the Chip on Your Shoulder During Christmas

We Jews have two choices in our approach to the Christmas season: resent it, or embrace it. I for one vote for a big, sloppy embrace. In the name of love thy neighbor and tolerance, I say we hug it out with Christmas already and teach our kids to do the same.

Why? We expect our non-Jewish co-workers, friends, and neighbors to show heaps of interest and concern in all things Jewish. During the High Holy Days we ask our kids’ teachers not to assign big tests after those long days at shul. We offer unsolicited explanations about why Hanukkah is not, despite unfortunate evidence to the contrary, the most important event on our calendar. For the week of Passover we bore everyone we know with the reasons we’re eating matzah and other weird stuff. (Yes, gentile co-worker, that “Kosher for Passover” salad dressing seems over the top to me, too.)

Tolerance is a two-way street. It would be chutzpadik and a bad example to our kids not to muster up some genuine interest in a holiday celebrated by a significant majority of our fellow citizens. So with that being said…

10 Steps to Lose the Attitude at Christmas

1. Stop lecturing everyone who says Merry Christmas. “Merry Christmas” doesn’t mean, “We want to convert you.” It doesn’t mean, “The Cossacks are coming so pack up the chickens.” More than anything it tends to replace, “Have a nice day.” Realistically, it also conveys, “I’ve been working this shift for nine hours, and I could not care less what holiday you celebrate or don’t.”

2. Eat peppermint bark. It’s chocolatey. It’s minty. It’s joy.

3. Get yourself invited to a Christmas party. Growing up in a heavily Jewish-populated suburb of Chicago, I was unaware of the Christmas happenings sprinkled throughout the month. Now that I’m raising my family in a neighborhood where we are among the few Jews, I love that we get invited to Christmas teas, tree-decorating parties, open houses, cocktail parties, and more. Show that you’re open to experiencing someone else’s traditions. It works both ways. I, for one, feel personally responsible for exposing many of my neighbors to Sukkot, or as they affectionately call it, “the holiday when you put that big fort in your yard.”

4. Appreciate Christmas break. They aren’t canceling school and days of work for Hanukkah and Kwanza, y’all.

5. Participate in the Jewiest Christmas tradition of all–The Cookie Exchange. If you’re not aware of the frenetic cookie baking and eating that happens during the month of December, then you’re missing out. Get thee to a cookie exchange pronto. We’re talking infinite varieties of cookies and an atmosphere subtly laced with the taste of competition. This is a tradition that speaks our language.

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Beating the Blues: How to Handle Holiday Stress and Depression

We’re in the midst of the holiday season, which can be a time of great joy. But, for some, it can also bring on higher amounts of stress and anxiety and depression. Experiencing the “holiday blues” isn’t uncommon, but it doesn’t have to ruin your December. Here are some tips and tricks for beating the blues and enjoying the holidays!

Find the root cause of your depression

One of the most important things you can do if you’re feeling sad is sit down and try to pinpoint what is causing the feeling.

Did you lose someone you were close to this year? Do the holidays make you feel anxious about what the next year will bring? Do you feel like you aren’t invited to enough holiday events? Do you feel like you’ve got too many events?

All of these issues and feelings may be heightened during this time. If you can figure out what is causing your depression and it’s situational, you can take steps to fix it.

Eat right 

If you’re dieting, the holidays can be a minefield of extravagant meals and temptations of extra desserts. Following a strict diet can be difficult during this time of year, and if you slip up, it can cause you to become depressed. Combat this by coming up with a plan ahead of time. If you’re going to a holiday party, eat healthier for the rest of the day. Remind yourself that one cookie is not going to derail your entire diet, and enjoy things in moderation.

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Has This Product Solved The December Dilemma?

Let me set the scene. David Levy, Managing Editor of JewishBoston.com, declared:

If Manischewitz can market Chanukah gingerbread houses, I declare the “December Dilemma” officially solved.

What do you think? Will this kit, complete with white and blue icing and decorations, solve your gingerbread house needs? Would you make one with your family? Would your in-laws approve?

Just between you and me, I kinda love it. And maybe wanted to buy it a few months back when I first saw it in stores. And, because I’m a bit of a Jewish nerd, I love that the kit includes a mezuzah to affix to the vanilla cookie home’s doorway.

And, for the next day or so, JoyOfKosher.com is giving away a kit to one lucky winner. Enter now!

Dreidels

TEST-DRIVING dreidels at the Jewish Museum Shop on the Upper East Side, David Alhadeff, 38, turned into a child again. A look of pure glee crossed his face whenever he got a particularly good “spinner,” as he put it.

Never mind the unsolicited comments from the shoppers who gathered around him.

“You only get five tries,” one older gentleman told Mr. Alhadeff, the owner of the Future Perfect stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn, while watching the action (or lack thereof) with one particular model.

And a woman visiting from Napa, Calif., advised: “The cheap wood ones are the best.”

Mr. Alhadeff was inclined to agree. The wooden ones were the kind he played with as a child at the Seattle Hebrew Academy, but he claims that his hand-eye coordination is much better now. “The gleam you see in my eyes today is because I actually got these things spinning,” he said.

Buoyed by his success, Mr. Alhadeff went in search of more modern dreidels, but was surprised to find that, unlike the wide selection of modern menorahs, the modern dreidel pickings were slim. His theory: “It’s because it’s a kids’ game. It’s a piece of nostalgia for an adult to receive a dreidel, whereas receiving a nice menorah is receiving a relevant Judaica gift that you will use.”

Jonathan Adler was one of the few designers who offered several options. “He’s a great designer and a Jew, so it makes sense he not only did a dreidel, but did it from a modern perspective,” Mr. Alhadeff said. “They’re cute, fun and fit into the new modern lifestyle.”

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Hanukkah Gifts: A history of the practice and some tips for parents

Most American Jews can rattle off a list of Hanukkah traditions such as lighting the menorah each night; playing dreidel games; eating foods cooked in oil; and giving gifts. However, many wonder if this last tradition is really a Jewish tradition, or whether Hanukkah presents just came about in reaction to Christmas.
A Brief History

Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, explains that Jews used to exchange gifts only on Purim, but in the late 19th century there was a shift from Purim to Hanukkah. Christmas itself became magnified in the late 19th century when it became a national holiday in America. The Jewish custom shifted in imitation of Christmas, as its consumerism grew.shop our hanukkah store

Sarna distinguishes the practice of giving Hanukkah gifts from its precursor--Hanukkah gelt (Yiddish for money): "Hanukkah gelt is an old custom, well attested in Europe. Gift giving, by contrast, is new.?

The precise origin of Hanukkah gelt is unclear. The most popular explanation is that coins became a symbol of the holiday because the ancient Jews' ability to make their own coins was a symbol of the independence they gained in the battles that the festival of lights commemorates.

In his book Holidays, History and Halakhah, Eliezer Segal argues that the earliest sources that mention gelt on Hanukkah are about students in Europe giving gelt to their teachers. Segal suggests that this practice was perhaps inspired by semantic and etymological connections between the Hebrew word Hanukkah (dedication) and the Hebrew word hinnukh (education).

According to Segal, some Jewish communities used the Hanukkah season to recognize religious teachers who, because of the prohibition of accepting money for teaching Torah, would normally not accept payment for their work. Segal suggests that students whose parents gave them money to pass on to their teachers eventually started to ask for their own share of gelt. This might be the source of the custom to give gelt to children on Hanukkah.


Contemporary Parents

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