Tu Bishvat: A Mystical Opportunity to Repair the World

Living in the town of Tzefat in 16th-century northern Israel, Rabbi Isaac Luria dwelt among Spanish-Jewish exiles who traded heavily in the mystical concepts of kabbalah, ancient received wisdom. Rabbi Luria, sometimes referred to by his acronym, the AR”I (Elohi Rabbi Yitzhaq, the divine Rabbi Isaac), crafted a new approach to kabbalah which envisioned God’s tzimtzum (contraction) in creating the world. This tzimtzum caused the infinite light of God to be poured to overfilling into the vessels that had contained the ten sefirot (Divine emanations) of the Tree of Life, causing many of them to shatter. Some of these vessel fragments became bound up with sparks of the original light in impure qelipot (shells). Rabbi Luria saw one of our goals as Jews to be liberating those sparks from the qelipot, and thus repairing the world.

One ceremony which grew out of the Lurianic school of kabbalistic thought is the Tu Bishvat seder. Modeled on the Passover discussion and dinner that we all know, the mystical Tu Bishvat seder featured the consumption of shelled fruits and nuts as a physical manifestation of our task to repair the world through seeking and opening the metaphorical qelipot. Although Tu Bishvat is identified in rabbinic literature as the day on which all trees in the world turn one year older, the Lurianic kabbalists reframed it as an opportunity to celebrate not only the actual trees, but the Etz Hayyim, the sefirotic Tree of Life, and to return sparks to their primordial source.

We at Temple Israel will attempt to liberate a few sparks on the evening of January 30, as we gather for the N’ranena musical Kabbalat Shabbat service, followed by dinner and a mystical Tu Bishvat experience. Join us as we drink four cups of wine or grape juice, eat tree produce, chant a niggun or two, and connect with the Tree of Life. It will be a sacred moment for the entire family.


~
Rabbi Seth Adelson

Where There's a Will: A Tu Bishvat Wish

You might be aware of a problem in halakhah / Jewish law related to marriage - that a woman cannot initiate divorce.  The difficulty arises when a man is unable or refuses to grant a divorce to his wife, and as such there are a couple hundred women in North America (according to a recent survey by the Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse) that are called “agunot” - literally, chained women.  They are unable to divorce and therefore forbidden from marrying others, and are likely stuck without financial support as well.

The problem has been addressed successfully by the Conservative movement with a couple of different solutions; perhaps the best known is the “Lieberman Clause” that appears in ketubot used by our rabbis.  Modern Orthodoxy too has effective ways of resolving the agunah problem; for much of the Jewish world, 20th-century outcry by those affected led to rabbinic solutions.  As Blu Greenberg famously put it, “Where there’s a rabbinic will, there’s a halakhic way.”

If only that were the case with climate change.  I recently saw two sets of relevant statistics.  The first was that 2011 was the 11th-warmest year on record, with an average worldwide temperature of 57.9 degrees Fahrenheit.  Now that does not sound so terrible, it’s true, except that this temperature is almost a full degree over the average of the 20th century, and marks the 35th year in a row that worldwide temperatures have been above average.

The second statistic was poll data that showed that while in 2001, 75% of Americans believed that human production of greenhouse gases contributes to global warming, only 44% do so today.  

Regarding the second statistic, one might say, “So what?”  If fewer people believed that the Earth is an oblate spheroid, would it become flat?  But the difficulty is that it is ultimately public outcry that will move the hands of politicians to find solutions; in this national election year, it seems that nobody in America is talking about the climate.  If we do not care, nothing will change; the solution required is too great to be led by individual efforts, and there is probably only a narrow window of a few years before irreparable damage is done to our environment.

The Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 1:1) tells us that Tu Bishvat, the 15th day of the month of Shevat (which coincides this year with February 8), is the New Year for the trees.  In recent times, Tu Bishvat has become a day to remember our planet and our obligations to it.  If I had a Tu Bishvat wish, it would be that we remember not just the trees, but the soil in which they are planted, the rain and sun that nourish them, and the air that we all share.  Public interest may be on the wane, but as the mercury continues to rise and global weather disasters unfold at even greater rates, now is the time to act.  Let’s find that environmental will.

~

Rabbi Seth Adelson

(Originally published in the Temple Israel Voice, January 26, 2012.)

Tu Bishvat: A Day With Great Potential - Tuesday Kavvanah, 2/7/2012

In truth, Tu Bishvat is not a holiday.  It's merely the 15th of the month of Shevat, with no special customs or liturgy or ritual, on which all trees turn one year older, essentially for accounting purposes.  (There is a Tu Bishvat seder that some observe, where fruits and nuts are eaten, but this is a modern innovation with no real basis in classical Jewish texts.)


But if we allow ourselves to re-imagine this day, we might see that Tu Bishvat has the greatest potential as a modern holiday not just for Jews, but for the whole world.  You might say that Tu Bishvat is the original Earth Day, the day on which we remember God's Creation and our relationship with it.  As such, this could be the Jewish holiday that ultimately transcends Judaism to lift up the whole world.


After all, the growing threats of climate change, the lack of adequate water and food for all of humanity, and the abuse of the natural resources with which God has provided us are problems that require global efforts, far beyond the capabilities of individuals.  In remembering the trees on their "birthday" (as my daughter has been taught to call it), we should recall that although change begins at home, it must step outside and join hands with all of the other interlocked pieces of this planet.


Tu Bishvat falls tomorrow, Wednesday, February 8.  It's an opportunity for the Jewish world to remind the wider world that the only way to ensure that our great-grandchildren can appreciate the Earth in the same way that we can is if we all act, if we all garner the will to change our damaging behaviors.  The potential for this day to call us all to task is great; let us take up that challenge with vigor.


So when you step outside tomorrow and see a tree, state these words aloud: 

מָה רַבּוּ מַעֲשיךָ ה'. כֻּלָּם בְּחָכְמָה עָשיתָ. מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ קִנְיָנֶךָ

Mah rabu ma'asekha Adonai; kulam behokhmah asita; male'ah ha'aretz qinyanekha.

How manifold Your works, God; with wisdom You fashioned them all; The Earth abounds with Your creations. (Psalm 104:24)


And remember that we are all responsible not just for the trees, but for all the rest of what God has given us.  

~

Rabbi Seth Adelson

Tu Bishvat 5770: Miracles With Leaves

(originally published in the Temple Israel Voice, Jan. 22, 2010)

One day, as [Honi the Circle-Maker] was walking on the road, he saw a man planting a carob tree. He asked him, “How long will it take this tree to bear fruit?” The man replied, “Seventy years.” He asked, “Are you quite sure you will live another seventy years to eat its fruit?” The man replied, “I myself found fully grown carob trees in the world; as my forebears planted for me, so am I planting for my children.”

(Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Ta’anit 23a)


A meqom tefillah, a place of prayer, must always have a window; we should never be swept away with kavvanah that we forget the world beyond the synagogue. From our main sanctuary at Temple Israel, you cannot see through the windows due to the curtains. But in our small chapel, where we hold services at least twice every day, we have views not only of the courtyard and parking lot, but a number of beautiful trees as well, and I often find myself staring out the window during prayerful moments.

The institution of Tu Bishvat is neither particularly old, in Jewish terms, nor extensively detailed. It is actually so obscure that it does not even merit an entry in the standard Conservative work of halakhah, Rabbi Isaac Klein's "A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice." I suppose that is because the day on which all trees turn a year older has no practical import, halakhically speaking or otherwise, for the vast majority of today's Jews.

And yet, as our attention turns increasingly to the effects of global warming, and our possible responses to a now well-documented phenomenon, one must agree that it is striking that we have a day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to remembering the trees. Let's face it: the trees of this world have it rough. Proud and beautiful, trees are essential to the human economy, and as such are used and abused for our own purposes. Yes, we make sure that there are carefully-pruned trees in our yards and parks and nature preserves, but we also manipulate vast numbers of trees for lumber, paper products, pharmaceuticals, furniture, holiday observances, and of course for building new subdivisions and apartment buildings and parking lots on virgin land.

A tree is the product of an enormous investment of energy, a naturally-honed chemical machine that accomplishes truly marvelous things. That trees turn carbon dioxide into oxygen (and tree food) is old news; that the proper symbiosis of trees and oxygen-breathing animals prevents the accumulation of carbon dioxide and hence the heat of the sun in our atmosphere is nothing short of miraculous.

And so, in honor of Tu Bishvat, perhaps the next time your eyes pass over the Modim Anahnu Lakh paragraph in the Amidah (it's in every Amidah, morning, afternoon, and evening of every day), and you spot the line, "ve-al nisekha shebekhol yom imanu," "for Your miracles that daily attend us," think about the trees. Although Judaism provides only one day a year to remember them, the trees should always be numbered among the assortment of wonders that God has provided us. Come join us in the chapel, morning and evening every day, to be reminded of their comforting presence as we pray together.