Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 30, 2022

From the evening of Sunday, Jan. 16 to Monday, Jan. 17, Jews around the world celebrated one of the lesser known festivals on the Jewish calendar called Tu Bishvat. Tu Bishvat is known as the New Year or Birthday of the Trees. It is, as I wrote, a minor festival. The name is Hebrew for the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat.

In ancient times, Tu Bishvat was simply a date on the calendar that aided Jewish farmers in establishing exactly when they should bring their fourth-year produce of fruit from the recently planted trees to the Temple as their first fruit offerings.

In the 16th century, the Kabbalists (mystics) of Tzfat in the Land of Israel came together to create a new ritual around this minor festival which they called the Feast of Fruits. This Feast was modeled on the Passover seder. Folks would come together to read selections from the Torah and Rabbinic Texts that focused on the trees and consume fruits and nuts traditionally associated with the land of Israel.

Today, this festival is seen as a time to celebrate not only the fruit of Israel but the middot (values) of shomrei adama (caring for the environment) and bal tashchit (do not destroy). The festival allows us to come together as a community and celebrate these values as caring for the world we live in and keeping it (and us) safe is a core value in Judaism.

This year, of course, this festival had the unfortunate reality of following on the heels of the recent events at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. On the Shabbat before Tu Bishvat four hostages (including the congregation's Rabbi) were taken hostage by a man named Malik Faisal Akram, a UK national who called for the release of Aaifa Siddiqui, a convicted terrorist with links to Al Quaeda who rallied against Jews at her trial and blamed her conviction on Israel.

As I expressed to my own congregants in the days following the attack, This situation is a painful and potent reminder of the fact that synagogues, and other Jewish institutions, in America continue to be at risk for terrorist attacks. We must take this seriously, however, it doesn't mean that we should stay away.

On the contrary, in moments of grief and fear, this is when we need our community most of all (albeit virtual due to the ongoing pandemic). Around this time of year on the Jewish calendar, when we are celebrating renewal and safety, we are obligated to continue on and celebrate. To take pride in our Judaisim. To live Jewish lives with purpose.

You may be asking, how can we be expected to keep the environment safe when there is no guarantee that we can keep ourselves safe? This is a fair question. I wish I had the answer. It is something I ask myself regularly. The one thing I know doesn't work is, trying to do it all alone. In this time of uncertainty, it is imperative that we draw strength from one another.

It was ecologist Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia, who discovered that the roots of deep trees draw up water and make it available to shallow-rooted seedlings. They help neighboring trees by sending them nutrients, and when the neighbors are struggling, mother trees detect their distress signals and increase the flow of nutrients accordingly. They are social creatures that communicate with each other in cooperative ways that hold lessons for us humans, too.

Like the roots of those deep trees, we are too connected. May we continue to learn from the environment that surrounds us. To remain connected, no matter what. To stay strong, no matter what. To keep going, no matter what.

Laura Breznick is the cantor of Temple Sholom in New Milford. She can be contacted at cantor@tsholom.org.

Go here to read the rest:

Forum on Faith: What we learn from the Jewish Birthday of the Trees festival - Danbury News Times

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