Friday, January 29, 2010

Seder Tu BiShvat

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Shabbat shalom and happy Tu BiShvat.

It is the 15th day of Shvat. Today is the New Year for Trees.
I just came back from dinner at the neighbors' house. My first time ever to attend a seder Tu BiShvat.
It is modeled on the Passover seder, complete with the four cups of wine.
But the subject matter is nature and the fruits of the Land of Israel.
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I am too groggy now to explain any more. Hopefully tomorrow morning . . .
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Meanwhile, say happy birthday to your favorite tree!
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10 comments:

  1. Shabbat shalom and happy Tu BiShvat!



    Aloha,


    Comfort Spiral

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  2. Shabbat shalom and happy Tu BiShvat... to you too! Don't those treats look yummy :)

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  3. Happy Tu B¨Shvat Dina! last year I went to a lovely Tu B'shvat seder, the first time ever.

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  4. Hmmmmm? Four cups of wine? Groggy? Hmmmmm...

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  5. «Louis» is interested in learning what each of the foods represents. «Louis» knows that in the Passover Seder, each food has a meaning. And what is the meaning of the four cups of wine? No doubt each of them has a different meaning.

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  6. New Year for trees? I'll tell mine after I have cleared the snow - 15 cm during the night.

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  7. The only thing I can remember about the holiday of Tu B¨Shvat is that most public buildings in Israel had their cornerstones laid in this day of the year, but I don't know why...

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  8. Thanks Cloudia. "Shaloha"

    Cath, toda raba. Those fruit "treats" were the opening of our meal. It was hard after all that sweetness to proceed to the greens, salad, mung bean soup, and cooked vegetables.

    Petrea, I'm a lightweight when it comes to drinking wine, so when I sat down to the computer at midnight I fell asleep sitting up. hehe

    Chag sameach, Yaelian. Glad to hear that. I guess these seders are becoming more common (but still quite rare).

    Kay, I was careful to take as little as possible each time the wine bottles were passed around.

    Louis, I didn't take the 5-page printed seder readings home. So I'll have to google and find you and me a good link.
    You are supposed to eat each of the "seven species" of Israel's biblical time produce. And the mystic Rabbi Isaac Luria ate 15 different fruits at his seder, so we are to take at least 12.

    Rune, good luck with your snow!

    VP, really? I'll have to check that out.
    I know the Knesset (the Parliament, not its present building) celebrates its birthday on Tu BiShvat because it first sat on that day in 1949.
    And I think the Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus was dedicated of the 15th of Shvat in 1925.

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  9. VP, hey, you are right! I just saw this in Wikipedia:
    "In keeping with the idea of Tu Bishvat marking the revival of nature, symbolized by the budding of the almond tree, many of Israel's major institutions have chosen this day for their inauguration. The cornerstone-laying of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem took place on Tu Bishvat 1918; the Technion in Haifa, on Tu Bishvat 1925; and the Knesset, on Tu Bishvat 1949."

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