FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The Breath of Life

…Breath. The trees also breath. We breath in what the trees breath out, we breathe life into each other… (Arthur Waskow)

During Tu BiShvat we return to the place where we were first introduced to trees, the Garden of Eden. We are in harmony with nature again, the same way we were in harmony at the beginning of times. We put aside the differences between humanity and nature. In the Creation Story God punishes us for eating from the Tree of Knowledge and expels us from the Garden of Eden, from the symbiosis in which we lived with nature, to the struggle of life. However, during Tu BiShvat we recreate this relationship with the trees and the Tree of Life. We understand that long-lived trees are symbols of eternity and we are reminded of the kind of life we had in Eden and what life could have been like without thorns and without turning to dust.

Originally, we were children in the Garden of Eden and we were not ready for all the responsibilities that come with knowing all that is good and bad in the world. We didn’t know what to do with the knowledge that came with eating the forbidden fruit so we ran away and hid.

For one day, on the day of Tu BiShvat, we return to Eden where all the trees lead us towards the Tree of Life. We are ready to take responsibility for making the world a better place – for the spiritual improvement of the world and for the wholeness of the world as it was in Eden.

The Rabbis used to say: “If you are standing with a tree sampling in your hand when you hear about the arrival of the Messiah, first plant the sampling and only then go and greet the Messiah.”

THE FOUR ASPECTS OF THE HOLIDAY

We are an interesting people that we have timed our environmental holiday in the middle of the cold winter. However, Tu BiShvat did not start out as Jewish Earth Day. By analyzing various rebirths of this smaller holiday we can discover four different aspects.

Nature is the foundation of our spiritual life, a source of symbolism and reason. The 16th century Kabbalists offered a new aspect of Tu BiShvat. They thought of the cosmic tree of the Sefirot, the divine radiance which serves as the basis for the creation of the world and the thoughts of God. The Tu BiShvat seder was born out of their innovative ritual creativity.

Similarly to the Passover seder, this rite was built around the consumption of four glasses of wine and food of symbolic significance. During this seder, however, the four glasses of wine gradually change color from white to red symbolizing the process leading to full blossoming and the transition from masculine to feminine. The foods we eat are all fruits, from the hard-shelled ones that symbolize the physical to the purely unprotected fruits that are spiritual.

Wine and fruit symbolize the four levels of creation or of our world, which are commonly referred to as the physical, emotional, intellectual, and the spiritual.

The landscapes of our homeland are the sources for our memory, identity and self-expression. With our return to Israel, Zionism once again transformed the holiday of Tu BiShvat. In pre-state Palestine, Jewish educators put the emphasis on tree planting during the holiday with a new ritual creativity. They worked hard towards planting new forests, putting down new roots in the ground, and reconnecting with the land and its landscapes. Today, tree planting is one of the most popular ways to celebrate Tu BiShvat, as planting a tree in the land of Israel creates a very strong bond with Earth.

We are part of a tight web of life that connects us all in the world. The universality of this relationship leads to Tu BiShvat’s latest metamorphosis: Tu BiShvat is the Jewish Earth Day. Building on the activism of the Zionists, this day became the framework for Jews around the world to focus on environmental awareness and its key issues in their communities. This reinterpretation of the holiday has led to a new importance for the mystical seder in which we strengthen our deep physical and spiritual attachment to nature.

We obtain from nature the basic conditions for our survival, which can be measured by economic measures. Until the time of the Mishnah, Tu BiShvat was the date by which one had to complete their tax returns. This date was chosen as the end of the tree-year. At that time, economics and spirituality were even more closely connected. With the assistance of the trees, some of fruits received from God returned to the Eternal (with the help of the Temple and the priests), and the rest was distributed to the poor. After the exile, when we no longer had trees of our own from which to pay taxes, the significance of the date faded. The holiday subsided into the background only to flourish again a millennium later.

It is important to integrate these different aspects into one as they can be misleading when dealt with separately. The economic aspect can quickly become too utilitarian, the spiritual one too abstract, the national one too chauvinistic. In their seder, the Kabbalists tried to unite the different empires and worlds. We too can do this with the different aspects of Tu BiShvat, as each parts adds to the others. By celebrating Tu BiShvat, we can integrate the personal, fruit-bearing tree of the Mishna and the replanted trees of the land of Israel with the universal trees that give life to the ecosphere and the cosmic tree that gives life to Kabbalah.

SEDER FOR THE ADVANCED

THE FIRST CUP OF WINE / GRAPE JUICE

The first cup is purely white like winter. It symbolizes the beginning of times when creation began with the separation of light and darkness. A seedling is like the first light. The spark of divine creation carries with it the possibility of becoming a wholesome tree.

THE FIRST FRUIT

Assiya, actualization, the world of deeds, the concrete and the physical. At this level there is the greatest need for protection, a shield, a protective cover. At this level it is risky to expand, to open up, and to lower our safety net. This is winter. This world is the farthest from perfect and it is symbolized by fruits and seeds which have inedible exteriors but edible interiors: almonds, bananas, coconuts, grapefruit, hazelnuts, oranges, papaya, pecans, pineapples, pistachios ...

Food-mediation

Inspect your chosen fruit closely. Pay attention to its shape, its color, its lines and all of its details. Touch it and pay attention to how it feels. Now smell it and pay attention to its smell.

Take a moment to think about all the people who contributed to this fruit ending up in your hand. Where was it grown and who grew it? Who delivered it? Who bought it and sold it? Think about all the effort and hard work that these people put into taking care of themselves and their families. Now, shifting our attention to nature, think of all the processes that had to occur for that fruit to be in your hands. The role of the sun, the clouds, rain and air…

Now think of the tree, the plant on which the fruit was grown, the deep-seated roots, the trunk, the branches, and the leaves…

THE SECOND CUP OF WINE / GRAPE JUICE

The second cup is partly white, but we can already see bits of the red flame of life in it. Red symbolizes the development of the tree as it receives food through its roots. As a small seedling it has more and more power thanks to the four elements, earth, water, air and fire.

Its trunk stretches towards the sun, its roots bring water from the earth, its small leaves breathe in air, and the fire of life brings it to life from within.

We add a little red wine (juice) to the white that is already in our glass so that it will be full again, followed by a blessing and then we drink half of it.

THE SECOND FRUIT

The Kabbalists defined yetzira as the world of inner evolution and creativity. The emotional world. This is spring. This is symbolized by fruits that have an edible exterior but an inedible interior: peaches, avocados, cherries, dates, mango, nectarines, olives, apricots, plums…

Everybody should take a fruit of this type, remove its pit, say the blessing and eat it.

Kabbalists believed that every action we do in this world affects the other world, the one in the higher divine sphere. In our microcosm, this occurs when we do something locally it affects the world around us.

THIRD CUP OF WINE / GRAPE JUICE

This cup is a little bit white, but mostly red. The tree has taken root in the soil, has grown to its full size and is in full bloom. The shade, the tree, the spices and the flowers, all of which are modest gifts to the world and to humanity, are seen in all their splendor.

We add more red to the wine / juice in the glass to make it full again and we drink it all, except for a small drop.

THE THIRD FRUIT

The beriah, the world of thought, is symbolized by the fruits that are wholly edible.

There is no longer a need for a protective cover, either outside or inside. It is a world of openness and abundance. This is summer. These are: blueberries, blackberries, carob, figs, grapes, kiwi, raspberries, strawberries ...

Choose one from this category, say the blessing, and eat it.

THE FOURTH CUP OF WINE / GRAPE JUICE

This cup symbolizes the highest level of creation. The tree shines with life, it burns, the red completely overshadows the white light that marked its beginnings. We can see the tree in all its splendor. It now includes every part of growth and life and has the divine spark in it. This deep red wine (juice) is the ripe fruit of citrus, etrog, the aroma of which we enjoy in autumn, the melon, which tastes the best in the summer.

The cup symbolizes the source of our strength and the power of our connection to Earth.

We refill our cup to the brim with red, in addition to the few drops of white, say the blessing and drink the whole cup.

THE FOURTH FRUIT

The world of atzilut for the Kabbalists was the world of spirituality. We all have a connection to both the physical and the intangible spiritual world. The fourth world is the highest level of ourselves, beyond the physical. The symbol of this is the tree, as a symbol of life, which symbolizes the balance in which both nature and people have their place.

FORRÁS

THE TU BISHVAT SEDER

The basic idea behind Tu BiShvat seder is to strengthen the flow of God’s blessings into our world. By consuming different fruits we are helping to make our world more fruitful again from the Tree of Divine Life. The text of the seder can be found in the Pri Etz Hadar (Fruit of the Majestic Tree) collection, which requires the eating of three groups of fruits (with ten fruits per group) and the consumption of four glasses of wine. The number ten denotes the ten sefirot through which the Eternal enters our world. Each of the three groups represents a level of creation.

According to the Kabbalah, the Creation has four levels:

Atzilut (emanation)
Beri’ah (creation)
Yetzirah (formation)
Assiah (action)

ATZILUT

The world of atzilut is purely spiritual thus it is impossible to symbolize it in any way.

BERI'AH

Beri’ah is symbolized by ten types of fruit that do not have a pit nor a shell, thus they are completely edible: grapes, figs, apples, Etrog, lemons, pears, raspberries, blueberries, carob and quince (the seeds are considered edible in this category).

YETZIRAH

The fruits of yetzirah have an inedible pit but an edible exterior. This category contains: olives, dates, cherries, jojoba, persimmons, peaches, apricots, plums, loquat and hackberry.

ASSIAH

The fruits representing the world of assiah have an edible interior but an inedible exterior. This category contains: pomegranates, walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, coconuts, pistachios, pecans and brazil nuts.

To put the symbolisms simply: the edible parts represent the holiness, the inedible parts symbolize impurity, and the shell symbolizes protection for the fragile inner sacrament.

The tradition is to consume these fruits and to drink four glasses of wine. An appropriate quote from the Bible or Talmud is read for each fruit. The order can be varied. Each glass of wine is filled at the beginning of the series but is drunk only after all the fruits in the group have been consumed.

The first glass of wine is completely white, followed by a small red mixed with white. The third is a small white mixed with red. The fourth is completely red with a few white drops.

White wine symbolizes a sleeping nature while the red symbolizes a blossoming nature.

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