Tu B’Shevat Homepage

Find stories, insights, videos and customs for the holiday of Tu B’Shevat, the New Year of Trees.

Kabbalistic Tu B’Shevat

By Yerachmiel Tilles
Learn how to conduct a Tu B’Shevat seder according to the custom of the Safed Kabbalists.

The Best Is Yet to Come

By Elisha Greenbaum
I’m a work in progress, unfinished business. I’m willing to learn and dedicated to growth, but I’m not there yet . . .

Blossoms in the Winter

By Gershon Kranzler
He struggled daily with the hardheaded farmer boys who were his students, for they would rather roam the countryside than learn . . .

Tu B’Shevat in a Minute

When’s the last time you wished a tree Happy New Year? The 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat is a great opportunity.

Tu B’Shevat and Healing

By Daniel Wasserman
Learn more about the meaning of Tu B’Shevat, and some of the health and healing properties of the fruits mentioned in Deuteronomy: “wheat, barley, grapes, fig, pomegranates, oil-yielding olives and [date] honey.”

Marriage as Self-Discovery (video)

By Chay Amar
“Relationship Rabbi” Chay Amar explains to Jewish singles why you never really know yourself until you get married.

Finding Balance

by Chana Slavaticki
Both love and awe are necessary ingredients to develop a holistic relationship.

Convert to Marry?

Answered by Sara Esther Crispe
I am in the process of an Orthodox conversion to marry the man I love. I am now living a wonderful observant life, but my fiancé is not interested in living in such a way . . .

The Third Month Family

By Chana Weisberg
One of your children may be particularly neat, while another might be highly creative. Contrasting the two is not only unfair; it can be destructive.

Planting a Family Tree

By Rucheli Manville
I have two weeks left. That isn’t a lot of time to plant a tree and make it grow fifty different branches. I’m planting it for the woman sitting next to me . . .

How to Agree to Disagree (video)

By Chana Weisberg
The gateway to tolerance is humility; but humility must be tempered with healthy and guarded self-assurance.

Feivel's Depression (video)

By Tzvi Freeman
Be small, accomplish big things, enjoy life.

King Solomon’s Harpist

By Gershon Kranzler
In the time of King Solomon, there lived a young shepherd by the name of Barzilai. He was a dreamer. He dreamed of strange adventures as his eyes followed silvery clouds to the distant horizon . . .

Yitro in a Nutshell

G‑d writes a book, Moses argues with angels, Egyptian is spoken at Sinai, the Ten Commandments are set in parallel stones, and the Torah is given to Israel . . .

The Custom That Refused to Die

By Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
There was a time when there were not three paragraphs in the prayer we call the Shema, but four . . .

A Need for Speed

By Elisha Greenbaum
When embarking on any new endeavor, there is an understandable tendency to either panic with terror or to act overconfidently, both of which lead to inevitable disaster.

Torah in Ten (video)

By Chaim Miller
Understand how we draw the Ten Commandments of Torah into the Ten Utterances of Creation, and why the revelation at Sinai is the basis for our belief in Moses.

Reality and Its Shadow

By Yaakov Brawer
We live on a miniscule speck of dust floating around in the infinite void we call the universe. Where are we? What does it all mean? Why are we here? What, if anything, are we supposed to do?

Understanding Our Faith (video)

By Yehuda Leib Schapiro
What is the true definition of faith? How does believing differ from knowing? Are there logical proofs for the belief in G‑d and in the divine origins of the Torah?

Torah Business Inc.

By Yitschak Meir Kagan
Even while he sits at the supper table, a careful look at the businessman’s expression, at the thoughtfulness in his eyes, reveals that the affairs of his business are very much on his mind . . .

The Laws of Visiting the Sick

By Eliezer Wenger
Most of the time, a short visit is preferable. One needs to take the status and the desires of the sick person into considerations.

The Master Craftsman

By Mina Gordon
As a young girl, I had always wondered why Babushka never seemed to have much variety of food in her house. We would come to visit, and she had almost nothing to offer her grandchildren to eat.