Dial-in audio at +1 646 558 8656; Meeting ID: 613 613 3702 8:00pm: Niggun Circle - Rabbanit Bracha
Dial-in audio at +1 646 558 8656; Meeting ID: 613 613 3700 **Israeli-themed Niggun Circle in honor of Tu BiShvat**
Upcoming Events Scenes from Work Makes Free This Motzaei Shabbat • January 30 • 8:00pm A one-person show by Bayit Community member Kenneth Soloway, whose play, Son, My Son opened the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 1993. Join us for a reading in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Click here to join on Zoom or dial-in audio at +1 646 558 8656; Meeting ID: 613 613 3703
Today's Way to Help If you would like to suggest a way to help please email yael@thebayit.org.
Bayit Call for Volunteer Drivers IMPORTANT - Please read below: The Bayit has organized a team of volunteers to help seniors in our community get vaccinated. Volunteer callers have been setting up appointments for seniors and volunteer drivers are driving seniors to and from the vaccination sites. We need more volunteer drivers and are seeking your help! If you are 64-years-old or younger, if you do not have any underlying conditions and you have a car - we can use your help! Please contact Yael Oshinsky at yael@thebayit.org, 201-503-5562.
Closing Message - Rabbanit Bracha View video version here.
כִּי הָאָדָם עֵץ הַשָּׂדֶה “For the tree of the field is a person”
This enigmatic phrase from Deuteronomy [20:19] might be explained through two minor Jewish holidays: Tu BiShvat and Tu B’av.
Today we celebrate Tu BiShvat - the fifteenth of Shevat - known in our tradition as the New Year of the trees, or more precisely, the new year of the fruit trees. The first three years of a fruit tree’s life in the Land of Israel is called orlah, during which the owner may not derive any benefit from its fruit. In the fourth year - after the bikkurim (first-fruits offerings) were brought to the Temple, the fruit could be eaten or sold as desired.
Tu B’av occurs in the heat of summer, on the fifteenth of the month of Av. It is a day of celebration in commemoration of various moments of reconciliation and rejoicing in Jewish history. Surprisingly,Tu B’av also has a connection with trees. It marked the day when they finished collecting the yearly supply of wood used for building the fires of the main altar in the Temple.
These two dates could not be further away from each other. They are exactly six months apart on the Jewish calendar, and they are vastly different in temperature, season, and daylight hours. Their association to trees is vastly different as well. Tu BiShvat represents the young trees, as they bud and flower, and we gather and eat their sweet fruit. Tu B’av corresponds to the dry season when the mature wood can be chopped and collected, piled up and preserved, to be used all year long.
These two holidays shine a spotlight on different aspects of the trees’ usefulness and contributions to humankind.
כִּי הָאָדָם עֵץ הַשָּׂדֶה “For the tree of the field is a person”
At our best, people mirror the finest qualities of the trees. We are giving and caring in various ways, at different stages in our lives.
Let us take a lesson from these holidays. - Where there are differences, let us see diversity. - Where there is aging, let us see maturity. - Where there is need, let us see an opportunity to give.
Tu BiShvat Same’ach! Happy Tu BiShvat!
Reminder to all to take good care of ourselves and each other. Try to do something specific today that strengthens you, and something else that strengthens someone else.
Hebrew Institute of Riverdale - The Bayit 3700 Henry Hudson Parkway Bronx, NY 10463
