Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation
It was an action packed weekend filled with fun, food and music! It was so wonderful to be surrounded by joy amongst the darkness of winter and to be reminded of the change that is inevitable and always in process. Please enjoy these photos from this wonderful weekend!
For Tu B’Shevat this year Rabbi Gabrielle has been working together with partners from the Jewish Cultural Society, The Jewish Community Center, and The Jewish Federation to build a robust and invigorating Tu B’Shevat event. At 10:15 Rabbi Gabrielle will be leading a Kabbalistic Seder and will be joined by other community leaders for other workshops over the course of the morning. Make sure that you register for the super fun event!!
Often times the long list of social justice issues that need addressing seem like an insurmountable mountain to climb. But when social justice movements converge, it provides unique opportunities for us to collaborate and scale these high peaks of injustice together. Racial justice and environmental justice are not mutually exclusive; in truth, you can not have one without the other. The intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Tu B’Shvat are full of meaning and lessons to be learned if we study them together on this double holiday!
This Tu B’Shvat Seder written by Rabbi Arthur Waskow provides a wonderful opportunity to explore this relationship. This Seder explores climate change, our communal responsibilities to each other, the battles over fossil fuel pipelines running through native communities, and more. If you are planning a Tu B’Shvat seder this year, it is worth a look! Rabbi Waskow says, “But there is a life-giving way, a sacred way, a way of love: At the same moment when we honor the rebirth of trees, the rebirth of the Tree of Life, we honor the birthday of Martin Luther King and the rebirth of the energy he symbolized.”
Hazon has made a few Tu B’Shvat Haggadahs that provide interesting insight for us this year. Here is a family Tu B’Shvat Seder. This Seder asks meaningful questions that families can discuss together and provides a shopping list for ritual objects that you will need! This Hazon Seder from 2019 would be a good one to use this year because the holiday coincided with MLK Day that year as well; it focuses on the moral imperatives of our time as a segue into the double holiday.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is often used to beautify communal spaces. It is not uncommon to find people cleaning parks or rivers on MLK Day. Combining a social justice environmental project is a great opportunity to celebrate MLK’s legacy of taking action to make our world a better place and celebrating nature and trees for Tu B’Shvat. Here are some service opportunities in our area that speak to these double meanings:
I hope that your MLK Day and Tu B’Shvat is full of meaning and purpose this year. If you take part in any of the activities shared here, please take a picture and share with us!!
Beit Sefer spent last Sunday morning enjoying the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. AARC member Drake Meadow led the group on an informative tour. Students learned about many of the beautiful and bountiful plants at the Botanical Gardens. Drake described three categories of fruits that feature in Jewish lore: Beriah (fruits with soft cores), Yetzirah (fruits with a pit) , and Asiyah (fruits enclosed in an inedible shell). The students enjoyed categorizing the different fruits they found around the gardens.
After the tour, families gathered to eat a special Tu BiShvat snack of trail mix, fruit, and hot cocoa, accompanied by Jewish folktales told by Clare Kinberg and Drake.
What a lovely way to celebrate the “birthday of the trees,” with both fun and learning! If you know of a family that might like to participate in similar events with our lively Beit Sefer program, please direct them to our website.
Please enjoy the photos below!
The function of Tu B’ishvat in the ancient world was to mark the season of taxation and accounting: farmers would count their olive trees in order to measure their wealth and then tithe accordingly. In modern times, Tu B’ishvat has been reimagined as an environmental holiday during which we celebrate nature and all that it provides.
This weekend, the sun emerged to remind us that the short days of winter are limited and spring is on the horizon. Eager gardeners are readying their seed trays and surveying their gardens. Hikers and runners are reacquainting themselves with favorite trails. Nature appreciators of all kinds are looking forward to reveling in the joys of spring. So often we partake of nature’s gifts without taking time to give thanks for the fragile ecosystem that grants us life.
Now, in 2020, the connection between our collective actions and the state of our environment is at a critical point. Tu B’ishvat’s origins as a reminder to account for our use of nature are strikingly relevant. How can we now make use of our natural resources while still maintaining accountability? Can we find ways in our lives and communities to counteract the measures of our policymakers that are hostile to our environment?
In this year’s celebration of Tu B’ishvat, let us reflect on the current state of our environment and find ways to make positive change for our communities. Do you have any ideas for environmental work? Please share them below!
It may be hard to imagine a bright sunny day in spring where AARC’s Beit Sefer students will frolic in a green meadow, picking out spots to plant new trees. But worry not! Under the guidance of Beit Sefer director, Clare Kinberg, students and their parents are making plans to do just that!
Plans are in the works to plant fruit trees in County Farm Park’s Permaculture garden. Stay tuned for more info about our very exciting planting day!
Tu B’Shvat, or the New Year of the Trees, reminds us that in these dark days of winter, our trees are resting a slumber necessary to foster new growth. Tu B’Shvat is often celebrated as an ecological conservation day in which Jews around the world plant trees in honor of the holiday. We will remember this moment with gratitude in the spring when we are reveling in our advanced planning to enjoy this special tree planting activity.
Beit Sefer will be planting some fruit trees. If you are inspired by this and would like to order your own native trees or shrubs visit Washtenaw Conservation Districtto order for your home.
In the past, our Tu B’shevat seders have followed the kabbalistic tradition of the “four worlds.” Traditionally, these seders include nuts, though we found substitutes because the JCC is a Nut Free Building.
There is also a tradition of eating of the Seven Species on Tu B’Shevat. Since these don’t involve nuts, seems like a good tradition for those of us who potluck at the JCC! This Friday, January 26, 2018 is our Tu B’shevat themed Fourth Friday potluck. I’m looking forward to some new eats!
The Seven Species
Deuteronomy 8:8 tells us that Israel was “a land of wheat, barley, grapevines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of oil olives and date honey.” The seven species are:
- Wheat (chitah in Hebrew)
- Barley (se’orah in Hebrew)
- Grapes (gefen in Hebrew), usually consumed as wine
- Figs (te’enah in Hebrew)
- Pomegranates (rimon in Hebrew)
- Olives (zayit in Hebrew), usually consumed in oil form
- Dates (tamar or d’vash in Hebrew)
Here’s a collection of recipes to get you started:
On Saturday February 11, Erica Bloom, Project Director at Growing Hope, gave this talk during our morning Shabbat service.
Hello everyone. Thank you for having me today. This is a rare opportunity for me to wear two of my hats at once. I’ve been asked to speak today to reflect on Tu B’shevat as the Program Director at Growing Hope, but also as a Jewish person who cares deeply about the natural world and access to healthy food as a human right. [Read more…] about Erica Bloom on Tu B’Shevat: “Bend a little closer to the earth”
The whole Beit Sefer showed their creativity in celebrating Tu B’Shevat this year.
Tu B’Shevat, the 15th of the month of Shevat, is the Jewish new year of the trees, the date in the Jewish calendar when we especially focus on human interdependence with nature and other environmental concerns. This year, Tu B’Shevat will fall on Saturday, February 11 and there are several ways you can celebrate the holiday with AARC.
Saturday February 11 is a Second Saturday, our regular monthly Saturday morning Shabbat service at the JCC (10am-noon), so it’s the perfect opportunity for us to get together for Tu B’Shevat. Rabbi Alana will lead the prayer service and we’ve invited special guest Erica Bloom to join us for a talk about her work with Growing Hope in Ypsilanti. Growing Hope is an organization focused on helping people improve their lives and communities through gardening and increasing access to healthy food. It hosts an urban farm on W Michigan and does several community and school programs on “farm to table” themes.
Erica’s roots are in Southeast Michigan, though she went west for her education. She received her M.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana where she studied environmental health and environmental non-fiction writing. After returning to Michigan, she worked at the Michigan League of Conservation Voters advocating to increase protections for our state’s natural resources. She is currently a Senior Fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program, and participated in a Detroit area young professional Jewish leadership initiative through Bend the Arc, a Jewish partnership for justice.
Later in the day, we are invited to two Tu B’Shevat seders in Detroit:
environment and take us on a journey from the physical world to the spiritual world with music, poetry, and learnings from some of Detroit’s most dedicated environmental changemakers and activists. Expected to be there are State Representatives Jeremy Moss and Robert Wittenberg; Executive Director & Health Officer for the City of Detroit’s Health Department, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed; President & CEO of We the People of Detroit, Monica Lewis Patrick; and Executive Director of Soulardarity, Jackson Koeppel! Co-sponsored by: The Well, NEXTGen Detroit, Jewish Ferndale, Yad Ezra, Repair The World: Detroit,Congregation Shir Tikvah, Detroit City Moishe House, and Adat Shalom Synagogue’s Young Adult Group. There is a fee for the Hazon event: sliding scale of $10-18. Scholarships available. REGISTER HERE for the Hazon event! Please contact Julie Rosenbaum for questions: julie.rosenbaum@hazon.org or 248-997-6344.For the past few years, Tu B’Shevat has been a special holiday for AARC. Here is a blog about last year’s Tu B’Shevat Shabbaton and Seder, and from the 2015 Tu B’Shevat Seder. Let’s make this year memorable as well.
