Tu B'Shevat-A Celebration of AbundanceShalom and welcome to a Tu B’Shevat edition of Tikkun Tips, a monthly nugget of eco-Jewish thought from your friends at the Teva Learning Center. This coming Sunday night marks the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat, an important date on the Hebrew calendar. It is the New Year of the trees, the beginning of the fiscal year for the taxes that were paid on fruit of the trees. During the times of the Temple, a ten percent tax was paid on all fruits harvested between the 15th of Shevat of one year and the next. After the destruction of the Temple, Tu B’Shevat faded to the background as the date had no rituals associated with it-it was merely a date of financial significance.
While Tu B’Shevat lay dormant for many centuries in the Ashkenazi world, it was celebrated in a variety of ways in the expansive Sephardic world; the oldest document known to us dates back to the 10th century. However, in the 16th century the Kabbalists of Tzefat reclaimed the holiday and infused it with deep mystical importance. The Tu B’Shevat seder has become the central ritual in celebrating the holiday. Throughout the meal, participants eat as many as 20 different types of fruit and drink four cups of wine that progress from white to red to symbolize the different seasons and the different Kabbalistic realms. (More information on the Tu B’Shevat seder)
The Kabbalists used the imagery of an inverted tree to describe the flow of divine energy from God to humans. The roots of the tree were in heaven and through the trunk and branches, that energy, manifesting in the fruit, flowed down to the humans. By consuming the fruit of the trees after reciting the various blessings, we are completing the flow of the divine energy. Pretty cool, huh?
There are some components to the seder that make it unique. First, it is the only ritual meal that is inherently vegan-no animal products at all are used in the seder. Additionally, there is no loss of life in that the fruit which is consumed comes from trees and vines that can nourish us year after year. The seder is truly a celebration of the abundance of food and that celebration is done in a way that requires no destruction.
But one might say that we have too much of a mindset of abundance, which allows for a tremendous amount of waste in our society. How often have we been at restaurants and seen practically untouched food thrown away? Or supermarkets discarding soon to be expired food-food that in all likelihood is more than fine to eat-just maybe not pretty enough for the picky consumer.
Luckily, there are resourceful people who have also noticed this tendency but who are motivated to do something about it. Around the world there are local chapters of Food Not Bombs established that make use of the inherent waste of our food systems. Working in cooperation with supermarkets, food distribution centers and restaurants, the members of Food Not Bombs are able to amass a tremendous amount of healthy and delicious food. They then make this food available to anyone by serving free hot meals in public spaces to anyone without restriction.
On the national website, they explain, “The name Food Not Bombs states our most fundamental principle: That our society needs things that give life not things that give death. Our society is dominated by violence and the threat of violence. Food Not Bombs has chosen to take a stand against violence. As a group of individuals we are committed to non-violent social change through the celebration and nurturing of life by giving out free vegetarian food.”
According to the Philadelphia Chapter , FNB “looks forward to the day when no one will ever find food in the trash. Until that day, we will turn what is conventionally thought of as waste into warm meals for anyone who wants to eat. We know that everyone deserves to eat regardless of who they are, where they live, what they look like, or anything else about them.”
The laws at the foundation of Tu B’Shevat were in part a mechanism for insuring that the needs of all were met. The tithes were a source of food for the Levites, those dedicated to the spiritual work of the community, as well as for the poor and needy. When the Kabbalists returned to the land of Israel, they understood their actions to have cosmic importance. Arthur Waskow writes, “All around them was that very land of Israel that anciently had been judged in its fruitfulness by a God Who cared whether the poor were fed. Although the tithes could not begin again until the Temple stood once more, there was for them a vivid sense that a time of counting tithes was intimately connected with whether the land was fruitful.”
This year for Tu B’Shevat, as we celebrate the wonders of trees and the fruit they provide us, take time to support your local chapter of Food Not Bombs. Their work is important, has a direct impact on their local communities, and they serve as a very real reminder that in the richest country in the world, there are still people who go to bed hungry, and that much of that suffering could be alleviated if we focused our resources on food not bombs.
Chag Sameach!
Nati Passow
Nati Passow is a carpenter, educator and writer living in Philadelphia, Pa. He is Co-Director of the Jewish Farm School .
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Thursday, February 16, 2006
Celebrate Tu B'Shvat with a night of inspiring music, great people, and simcha while supporting the work of the Teva Learning Center. See you there!
Time is Running Out
Show your concern for Israel's environment.
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The Food Project
Just Food
The Urban Nutrition Initiative
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