Mittleman Jewish Community Center at the Schnitzer Family Campus
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Spring 2026
Cultivating Community: The Return of the Tu B’Shvat Seder Tu B’Shvat marks the joyous new year of the trees in Jewish tradition. Thanks to a generous donation from Tony and Priscilla Kostiner through the Kostiner Cultural Education Fund, we were able to revive and reimagine the Tu B’Shvat Seder here at the MJCC in February. We partnered with Rabbi Sarah Rensin of Nehamah Jewish Chaplain Services, who led a group of over 35 participants in a traditional Tu B’Shvat Seder, taking turns to read from the Haggadah as ceremonial fruits, nuts and wine (grape juice) were passed around a communal table. After each section was read, there was discussion and interpretation of the passage. Rabbi Sarah Rensin chose a Haggadah written by Juliette Hirt, which focuses on ‘intention setting’ and weaves this theme throughout.
As the author of this Haggadah explains, “The Kabbalists were the first to adopt a Tu B’Shvat Seder, which included glasses of wine and specific fruits eaten while reflecting on certain Jewish texts. Consuming fruits on this day with the right kavanah (intention) was believed to release the divine sparks in the fruit, and bring the world into greater harmony.” The Tu B’Shvat Seder is unique in that there is a deliberate mixing of the ‘wine’ to symbolize the different stages in a tree’s growth. Each participant starts with white wine or juice and throughout the reading of the Haggadah, adds a splash of deep red wine or juice. By the end of the Seder, their cup has gone from containing white liquid, to symbolize winter, to a dark red liquid to symbolize the beginning of summer.
Community members enjoying the Tu B’Shvat Seder.
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