Schools

Temple Beth Elohim Celebrates Tu B'Shevat

The Religious School brings alive the "New Year of the Trees."

Tu B'Shevat, the New Year of the Trees, represents the awakening of
nature after winter. It's like a Jewish Earth Day.

Even though it's still so chilly outside in Plainview, trees in Israel are already beginning to grow and bear fruit. Trees have always been an important part of the evolution of Jewish history and are an integral part of the creation of
the world. Even the Torah is called the Eitz Chayim, the Tree of Life.

This holiday is a way for Jews around the world to symbolically bind
themselves to their homeland by eating fruits of the trees that are
found in Israel.

On Sunday, Feb. 12, students in Temple Beth Elohim's religious school celebrated Tu B'Shevat by participating in a seder. Tu B'Shevat was first celebrated with a Seder more than three hundred years ago in Tzfat, located on the mountain top city of Israel.

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Food representing different trees were placed on each child's plate: grapes, olives and raisins along with slices of apples, oranges, and grapefruit.  The children drank four different types of "wine" (juice, of course), each a different color representing the white flowers on the mountains: pink blossoms of the almond tree, a dark "wine" for the brightly colored flowers of summer, and a deep red symbolic of the last flowers before winter.

Mrs. Weinberg's 6th grade class was given the assignment of choosing a tree that grows in Israel and creating a poster describing it and explaining its connection to Judaism. The children presented their posters during the seder, each explaining the significance of their tree.

At the end of the seder, the entire religious school participated in singing HaTikvah - the national anthem of Israel.

Temple Beth Elohim is a Reform congregation serving the Plainview -
Old Bethpage and surrounding communities since 1955.


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