Tu BiSh'vat or the "New Year of the Trees" is Jewish Arbor Day. The holiday is observed on the fifteenth (tu) of Sh'vat. Scholars believe that Tu BiSh'vat was originally an agricultural festival, marking the emergence of spring. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.C.E. this holiday was a way for Jews to symbolically bind themselves to their former homeland by eating foods that could be found in Israel. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century Kabbalists created a ritual for Tu BiSh'vat similar to the Passover seder. Today, Tu BiSh'vat has also become a tree planting festival in Israel, in which both Israelis and Jews around the world plant trees in honor or in memory of a loved one or friend. To plant a tree in honor or in memory of a friend or loved one, please contact The JNF Online Tree Planting Center.
Tu BiSh'vat in Your Home
Enjoy a Tu BiSh’vat seder - See examples below.
Jewish Parent Page - The Tu BiSh'vat issues of this newsletter for families with children gives many ways to celebrate through cooking, reading, conversation and more.
Holiday Happenings (PDF) - For families with young children: ctivities, recipes and conversation to have with little ones.
Tu BiSh'vat Social Action Guide - Integrates social action programming related to natural resources, health issues and endangered species with Tu BiSh'vat holiday practices.
In an effort to protect creation, generation to generation, COEJL provides activities, reading materials, ways to celebrate and actions you can take to protect the environment.
Learn about the work of Kibbutz Lotan, a Reform kibbutz in Israel, where members live in an ecologically sound community and teach others through their Creative Ecology Program.
This multi-generational seder, although ready to use is easily adaptable. It includes narration and congregational readings, Hebrew text, transliteration and translation as well as song lyrics and suggested meditations.
Using Torah texts and traditional Jewish stories as a basis, this book for intermediate grades presents an exploration of ecology and the interconnectedness of all life on earth.
Judaism not only enjoins us to take stock of our human relationships, as it does on the birthday of the world, Rosh Hashanah, it also wants us to examine our relationship with the wider world of God's creation, Tu BiSh’vat.
Enjoy a Tu BiSh’vat seder - See examples below.
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