Tu B' Shevat Seder

[trystinn]

Once more with feeling, the local Jewish community has scheduled a public holiday on a day I wasn't expecting it. For reasons entirely inane, I somehow had the idea that the Whidbey Jews were going to celebrate the weekend after the holiday instead of the weekend before. Which lands it directly on the weekend dbmyrrha and chyara are coming up. Fortunately, both charming ladies have agreed to attend.

This holiday is celebrated with a Seder, a special dinner, to celebrate the New Year of Trees. Yep, all Jewish trees age a year on Tu Bishvat.

How one figures out if a tree is Jewish entails checking it for root trimming (circumcision), the top foliage for a yarmulke and checking for kosher status by dangling a cheeseburger in front of the tree.

For the sake of the seder, all trees are considered Jewish on this day. Even those without clipped limbs.

Tu Bishvat is the ecological holiday of the Jewish year, as conversations over the seder center around discussions of minimizing our environmental impact,

reducing carbon emissions while driving to shabbos and the use of non-petroleum oil usage in our menorahs

. Fruits and nuts are eaten, as are rare and exotic fruits (I couldn't make this up if I tried) to celebrate the bio-diversity of Creation.

There's a lovely re-interpretation of the Four Worlds (typically physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual) as social, cosmic, national, ecological. Which still follows the pattern of the Four Worlds; Emanations, Creations, Formations and Actions. Should be a good seder.