Tu B'Shvat for Adults
The Tu B’Shvat Seder
The Tu B’Shvat Seder is a simple and enjoyable way to experience some of the themes of the holiday, including appreciation of trees and their fruits, the flow of the seasons of the year, and of metaphorical meanings of various types of fruits, and nuts, that grow on trees.
As with the Passover seder, there are many different haggadahs we can choose from to conduct a Tu B’Shvat seder. Below are several; feel free to omit sections or add to any haggadah as you choose.
➤ Adamah's (formerly Hazon) Tu B’Shvat Seder and Sourcebook
Includes a variety of explanations, activities, and readings
➤ Women’s League for Conservative Judaism 15-minute Tu B’Shvat seder
Use it as is, or feel free to add questions and discussion opportunities to each of its four parts.
➤ P’nai Or of Philadelphia Mystical Tu B’Shvat seder
➤ Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s Tu B’Shvat Seder focuses on environmental themes
Some of the songs included in this environmental seder:
➤ Meditative haggadah by Juliette Hirt designed to guide readers toward forming individual intentions
Many Tu B’Shvat seders are based on the Kabbalistic concept of four “worlds,” each of which represents a different "world" in which we live: Assiya (Action), Yetzira (Formation), Beriah (Creation), and Atzilut (Spirit). The movement from the first to the fourth represents the transition from the most physical to the most spiritual. Each of these worlds is represented by a particular category of fruit and wine or juice that we include in the seder, and with one of the four seasons.
There are various understandings of these four worlds. Here is one that describes how we might personally understand and express each of them.
