VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1
from OY to JOY
JANUARY 2011 TEVET/SHEVAT 5771
FREE
A DEN VER JEW ISH SENIOR ACT IVI T Y GUI DE
Tu B’Shevat Celebration with the HEA, Kabbalah Experience and Temple Sinai Tu B’Shevat is one of four “New Years” that we celebrate during the year. The first New Year, the New Year for Kings, is in spring on 1 Nissan (the first day of the first month on the Jewish calendar). During the summer there is a New Year for Animals on 1 Elul and, of course, in the fall is the most famous New Year,Rosh HaShanah on 1 Tishrei,when we add one more year to the Jewish calendar. Tu B’Shevat simply means the 15th of Shevat and is commonly known as the New Year for the Trees. As with animals, a new year for trees was important because in the Torah we have commandThe Kabbalah Tree of Life ments which are specific to the age of trees and animals. For trees, we are commanded not to harvest its fruit for its first three years, and after that we must give portions to the poor and to G-d. In order to know when we could begin harvesting the fruit, and how much of it we owed to God and the poor each year, we needed a way to know how old a tree was, so the holiday of Tu B’Shevat was established. A tree would be considered one year old on its first Tu B’Shevat and one year older each Tu B’Shevat after that. The timing of the Tu B’Shevat in winter corresponds to when the sap is believed to start flowing in the trees, awakening them from their winter slumber and starting the growth of the coming year’s harvest. In 1571, 440 years ago, in Tzfat, Israel, the center for Kabbalah at the time, Rabbi
Isaac Luria, the ARI (Ashkenazi Rabbi Isaac), began the practice of celebrating Tu B’Shevat with a seder. The seder was developed as a way of studying the Kabbalistic or mystical connection between G-d and nature.At the seder, many foods from Israel were eaten and four glasses of wine, each of a different color - white, pink, dark pink and red - were drunk. The Kabbalists associated the foods and each glass of wine with a season of the year, (winter/white, spring/pink, summer/dark pink and fall/red) and the food and drink symbolized a higher and higher Kabbalistic level of understanding our connection to G-d and creation. Tu B’Shevat Celebration with HEA, Kabbalah Experience and Temple Sinai Continues on page 13
CONTENTS Senior Resources Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 02 Community Senior Activities • Allied Jewish Apartments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03–04 • BMH/BJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04–05 • B’nai Havurah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 05–06 • Hebrew Educational Alliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06 • Jewish Community Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06–10 • Jewish Family Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 • Shalom Park. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 • Temple Emanuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11–12 • Temple Micah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 • Temple Sinai. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12–13 JCC & Network Activities Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14