Everybody wants spirituality. To be a good person means to walk in G-d's ways. How does that translate to reality? The only guidebook to spirituality that has stood the test of time is the Hebrew Bible. The Bible says that the Jews will be a light onto the nations. But if you are not a born Jew, you have to convert, which is not so easy!! If you do convert, it is a lot of work to be a Jew (three times a day prayer, keeping kosher, observing the Sabbath).
This blog will show you how to be Jewish without the work!!
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
15 Shevat 2025 The New Year for Trees (Tu Bishvat) is today & Ben Gurion International Airport Opens ‘Eternity of Israel’ Exhibition By Hana Levi Julian & Haredi Judge Quashes Police Protocol Removing Jews from Temple Mount By David Israel & with those we have lost & Abbott & Costello Figure of Speech
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember.
The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave.
15 Shevat 2025 The New Year for Trees (Tu Bishvat)
Dried fruit and almonds traditionally eaten on Tu BiShvat
Traditional customs
In the Middle Ages, Tu BiShvat was celebrated with a feast of fruits in keeping with the Mishnaic description of the holiday as a "New Year."
In the 16th century, the kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Safed and his disciples instituted a Tu BiShvat seder in which the fruits and trees of the Land of Israel, especially of the Seven Species, were given symbolic meaning. The main idea was that eating ten specific fruits and drinking four cups of wine in a specific order while reciting the appropriate blessings would bring human beings, and the world, closer to spiritual perfection.
In Israel, the kabbalistic Tu BiShvat seder has been revived, and is now celebrated by many Jews, religious and secular. Special haggadot have been written for this purpose.
In the Hasidic community, some Jews pickle or candy the etrog (citron) from Sukkot and eat it on Tu BiShvat. Some pray that they will be worthy of a beautiful etrog on the following Sukkot.
Sephardic Jews prepare a dessert made of grains, dried fruits, and nuts, known as Ashure or trigo koço, to celebrate the holiday. Another custom involves drinking both red and white wines to symbolise the transition from winter to spring.[15]
Modern customs
Tu BiShvat is the Israeli Arbor Day,and it is often referred to by that name in international media. Ecological organizations in Israel and the diaspora have adopted the holiday to further environmental-awareness programs. On Israeli kibbutzim, Tu BiShvat is celebrated as an agricultural holiday.
Planting trees for Tu BiShvat, 1945. Photographer: Zoltan Kluger
On Tu BiShvat 1890, Rabbi Ze'ev Yavetz, one of the founders of the Mizrachi religious Zionist movement, took his students to plant trees in the agricultural town of Zikhron Ya'akov. This custom was adopted in 1908 by the Jewish Teachers Union and later by the Jewish National Fund, established in 1901 to oversee land reclamation and afforestation of the Land of Israel. In the early 20th century, the Jewish National Fund devoted the day to planting eucalyptus trees to stop the plague of malaria in the Hula Valley; today the Fund schedules major tree-planting events in large forests every Tu BiShvat. Over a million Israelis take part in the Jewish National Fund's Tu BiShvat tree-planting activities.
In keeping with the idea of Tu BiShvat marking the revival of nature, many of Israel's major institutions have chosen this day for their inauguration. The cornerstone-laying of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem took place on Tu BiShvat 1918; the Technion in Haifa, on Tu BiShvat 1925; and the Knesset, on Tu BiShvat 1949.
In the diaspora, starting especially in North America in the 1980s, Tu BiShvat became treated as the Jewish "Earth Day" – with contemporary communities emphasizing all kinds of actions and activism related to the environment and the natural world
Ben Gurion International Airport Opens 'Eternity of Israel' Exhibition
The group Beyadenu reported this week that 4,573 Jews had ascended to the Temple Mount in the month of Tevet which ended last Friday. This constitutes a 37.78% increase compared to the same month last year. Since Rosh Hashanah, 23,047 Jews have ascended to the Temple Mount.
Jews are allowed to ascend to the Temple Mount between 7:00 and 11:00 AM, and 12:30 and 2:00 PM, without leather shoes and after immersing in the mikvah.
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