Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.

In Islam, the tree is known as the sidr. The Qur’an refers to Sidrat al-Muntaha, the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary, in Surah An-Najm (53:13–18). While the Qur’anic reference is cosmic rather than botanical, Islamic scholarship and popular tradition have long associated the earthly sidr tree (Ziziphus spina-christi) with this name. Separately, the sidr has practical religious use: its leaves are traditionally used for ritual washing, including funerary preparation, because of their cleansing properties. Islamic legal tradition also treats shade-giving trees such as the sidr as protected resources, discouraging their destruction because of their role in sustaining human and animal life in arid environments. In medieval medical literature the jujube appears fre-quently under various names, such as “sidar” or “tsal“, while the fruit is called “nabaq” or dum“. This is the confusing part, because it has so many different names. 

In Judaism, the same species is known in Hebrew as shizaf and in English, the jujube tree. The tree appears in rabbinic literature as a familiar fruit tree in the Land of Israel and surrounding regions. Its significance is legal and practical rather than mystical. The shizaf is discussed in the context of agricultural law, including restrictions against unnecessary destruction (bal tashchit, not wasting or destroying) and rules governing fruit trees, property boundaries, and communal benefit. Trees that provide food or shade, even if not commercially valuable, are afforded protection under Jewish law. Trees that provide fruit are forbidden from being cut down, and in Judaism there is even a holiday for the trees, called Tu B’shevat. The jujube therefore functions as part of Judaism’s broader land-based ethic rather than as a singular sacred symbol.

The Christian association is later and less textually grounded. The English name Christ’s thorn reflects a tradition that identifies the tree’s hooked thorns with the crown of thorns placed on Jesus Christ during the crucifixion. The New Testament does not name the plant species, and there is no definitive historical proof that Ziziphus spina-christi was used. However, the tree was common in Roman-era Judea, and its flexible, sharp thorns make the identification plausible enough to persist in Christian tradition and naming. This is one of the theories. Ever hike in the Judaean Mountains outside of Jerusalem, and dry thorny trees and bushes is about all you will find.

The clean line between the three traditions can exist: Islam names the tree as the sidr and elevates it symbolically and ritually; Judaism regulates it legally and ethically as part of a lived agricultural system. Mentioned in the Mishnah and Talmud, they are linked to the biblical atad and, historically. The sidr was also known as pilgrimage trees for women who were barren. Christianity retrospectively associates it with a central moment in the life of Jesus. All three traditions engage the same tree through different lenses—cosmic boundary, legal responsibility, and historical memory—without relying on the same texts or meanings. According to this article it is the only holy tree in Islam and the Druze also revere this tree for its spiritual importance.

The medicinal uses for Christ’s thorn, the sidr tree are vast. These are documented ethnobotanical use in Israel and the wider Middle East.

Medicinal Uses of Christ’s Thorn Jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi)

Source: Dafni, A., Levy, S., & Lev, E. (2005). The ethnobotany of Christ’s Thorn Jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) in Israel. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 1:8. https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-1-8

What unites these traditions is that the jujube tree heals wounds, cools bodies, feeds communities, and thrives where water is scarce. It teaches patience, restraint, and coexistence with the land.

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In addition, we contributed toward the planting of Jewish National Fund trees in Israel. If we thought about it at all, we might have imagined a bunch of Israeli trees swaying happily in the Mediterranean breezes, but in reality, the content of the holiday was distant.

More recently, Tu B’shevat has become the rallying cry for Jewish environmentalists who have used the holiday to raise awareness of ecology, the environment and the responsibility of the Jewish community — as a society which has always valued the earth that God gave us — to spearhead the drive towards a more activist approach to environmental responsibility.

Last year I taught an online class to a group of 7th graders in Deerfield Illinois via an online Jewish/Israel education project, JETS Israel. As Tu B’Shevat approached, I decided to use distance learning to make the content of Tu B’Shevat more imminent for my students.

As part of my six-week Tikkun Olam course, I introduced the holiday of Tu B’shevat as a conduit to the value of Tikkun Olam as seen through Israeli agriculture and the observance of ancient laws that have been reinstituted in the modern State of Israel after centuries of disuse.

We started out by looking at the sharing of resources through the law of Maaser (tithing): “Every year, you shall set aside a tenth part of the yield, so that you may learn to revere your God forever.”

I posted the text on the online bulletin board as a way of introducing the connection between Tu B’shevat and Tikkun Olam. The students were asked to relate to different questions that the concept of ma’aser (tithing) brings up.

• Is ma’aser a concept that is still applicable in today’s world?
• Was it easier for people in the “olden days” to give ma’aser than it is today? Why?
• Do you know anyone who gives ma’aser? Can you tell us a little about the person and which causes s/he gives to?

These questions were posted on a linoboard and students clicked on “sticky notes” to drag the note to the question and answer, based on their knowledge, experiences and feelings.

We introduced the question of “why is giving ma’aser, or any charity, an important Jewish value?” The students watched a video about the importance of charity which served as a jumping off point for them to discuss charity in their lives and in their community.

Then, using a Mindmeister board we created a mindmap of the different types of charities that the students felt that they would want to support. Each student was asked to select a Jewish charity, describe its mission and explain the reasons that s/he thought that it would be an important tzdekka to support.

The half-hour class didn’t provide me with enough time to delve as deeply into the subject as I would have liked. However, the kids thoroughly enjoyed the lesson and, their teacher told me, spoke about it among themselves afterward.

Sitting in my home in Israel (3:00 am my time!), I was able to give the students an experience of the Israel-based aspects of Tu B’Shevat that were lost on me when I was a student. In addition the kids participated on their individual laptops, giving each student the opportunity to chat in questions and answers, post on google docs and online bulletin boards and stay involved and engaged in the entire lesson. In an online learning classroom all of the students stay engaged throughout the lesson. A student can’t zone out while someone else is taking “his turn” because it’s always everyone’s turn.

The students are constantly being asked to comment, respond, think, create and produce which gives no one any time for daydreaming.

Increasingly day schools and afternoon schools are including e-learning techniques in their curriculum as a means of broadening the students’ learning experience, expanding their learning community, and enhancing student engagement. enable the students to engage

The 2014 class begins this week which coincides with Tu B’Shevat. I am looking forward to using my “classroom without borders” to enable my new students to experience Tu B’Shevat in Israel.

Laurie Rappeport lives in Safed, Israel. She teaches about Judaism and Israel for an online education concern and researches American Jewish music traditions, including traditions of the Tu B’Shevat holiday, for the Milken Archives.

George Muresan / Shutterstock.com

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Growing up in the Midwest, our Hebrew School celebrated Tu B’shevat (The New Year for the Trees) as a minor holiday. We collected money for the Jewish National Fund to plant trees in Israel and munched on some carob pods and dried pineapple.

I immigrated to Israel in 1983 and soon afterward I moved to Tzfat where Tu B’Shevat is serious business. My Hassidic and Sepharadi neighbors spend a good amount of time planning for the holiday and spend a good amount of money stocking up on every possible type of fresh and dried fruit, nut and wine so that they can create a Tu B’Shevat Seder that comes as close to the Kabbalistic tradition as possible.

Origins of Tu B’shevat
The origins of Tu B’shevat derive from the Talmud where the Rabbis wrote that there are four new year celebrations in the Jewish year. The 15th of the month of Shvat is the New Year of the trees. The day relates to the Biblical mitzvoth of ma’aser (tithing), orlah (refraining from picking a tree’s fruit for the first 3 years) and shmitta (Sabbatical year). For purposes of determining the start and end dates of each year’s agricultural cycle for trees Tu B’Shevat was set as the end of the previous year and the beginning of the new year.

According to the Shulhan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law — written in Safed) fasting and eulogies are forbidden and all penitential prayers are omitted on Tu B’shevat. It’s seen as a day of great joy and is a time to thank God for all of His goodness.

Tu B’shevat, Kabbalah and Safed
Rabbi Isaac Luria — the Ari — lived in Safed between the years 1570 – 1573. The Ari instituted many different Jewish traditions which many Jews, particularly Hassidim and Sepharadim, continue to observe. These include the customs of cutting a little boy’s hair fir the first time when the child turns three, studying all night on Shavouth and the Tu B’Shevat Seder.

The Ari established a Seder — Order — in which participants eat specific produce in a particular order as they read appropriate mystical passages. The Ari’s Seder was recorded by one of his students in the Pri Etz Hadar booklet. His Seder involved twelve fruits which correspond to the permutations of G-d’s four-letter name, along with related verses from the Zohar. These first 12 “fruits” include wheat (the only one of the 12 for which the blessing is “blessed is the fruit of the earth” instead of “blessed is the fruit of the trees”), olives, dates, grapes, figs, pomegranates, citrons/etrogim, apples, walnuts, almonds, carobs and pears.

Explanations of the customs
One of the Ari’s students, Rabbi Chaim Vital, wrote that there are 30 fruits which parallel the ten sefirot. Fruits which are wholly edible (those with no pits or hard cores, skins which can be cooked) manifest in the world of Beriah, one of the four spiritual worlds. Fruits which can be wholly eaten except for a pit relate to the spiritual world of Yetzirah, which is a lesser level of purity. Fruits which are enclosed in a totally inedible, protective shell (almonds, walnuts) represent the world of Asiyah — our world. In the same way that the Passover Seder involves discussions of each of the symbolic foods, the Tu B’Shevat Seder includes discussions of the kabbalistic concepts that are manifested by each of these different types of fruits.

Discussions during the Tu B’shevat Seder relate to the different tastes, consistencies, colors and cultivation needs of each fruit.

Finally, as in the Pesach Seder, the Tu B’shevat Seder involves wine, though for this Seder the wine must be both red and white. The different colors are symbolic as well….the seder begins with white wine which symbolizes winter, dormancy and hibernation. The second cup is mostly white wine with a bit of red, symbolizing the new life force — spring — which is beginning to appear. The third cup is mostly red with a residue of some white wine and the fourth cup, symbolizing the emergence of spring, is a cup of red wine.

Laurie Rappeport lives in Safed, Israel. She teaches about Judaism and Israel for an online education concern and researches American Jewish music traditions, including traditions of the Tu B’Shevat holiday, for the Milken Archives.

Image of Tu B’Shevat plate from Shutterstock

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The Jewish version of Arbor Day Tu B’Shevat is more relevant today than ever. Transformed from a general agricultural holiday into a dedicated arboreal conservation initiative in the early 1900’s, this celebration takes place towards the end of January during the Hebrew month of Shevat.

This holiday addresses the travesty that trees previously revered by indigenous people around the globe have become nothing more than commodities in our modern consciousness, something to be grown, skinned, chopped and used in building projects.

But there are so many other reasons to value trees. Not only are they beautiful sentries that transform a flat and dusty landscape, and gracious hosts of important bugs, birds and sometimes mammals too, they also perform a variety of crucial environmental services that most of us don’t see. Followed is a list of five.

1. Trees Absorb Carbon Dioxide

It is relatively well known that trees absorb carbon dioxide. This environmental service also known as a “carbon sink” has become better understood as the discussion about climate change has gained momentum. Trees capture the same CO2 that is spewed from the exhaust of a car and factories and store it in their roots, bark and leaves, diverting harmful emissions from the atmosphere. If it weren’t for trees, life on earth would be significantly hotter, and yet in the last few decades we have managed to decrease forest cover by more the half. Researchers at the World Resources Institute predict that global demand for wood will double by 2050, putting trees (and therefore us) at deadly risk.

2. Trees Help Us Breathe

In addition to sucking up the pollution we unleash, trees produce the oxygen that we need to breathe. According to a website devoted to forestry, one tree produce the same amount of oxygen in one season that ten humans use in an entire year. And why does oxygen matter? Consider this: if we cut off the supply of oxygen to the brain for just a fraction of a second, we start to lose consciousness. In the prolonged absence of oxygen, we will experience respiratory failure and even death.

3. Trees Clean the Soil and Scrub the Air

In addition to absorbing CO2 and using it for food, trees scrub harmful pollutants from both the soil and the air. Remarkably resilient in the face of our pollutant blitz, they absorb pollutants in the soil and either store them or convert them into something useful and treat air pollutants in a similar manner. A world without trees would be hotter and smoggier.

4. Trees Prevent Water Runoff

As climate change escalates, global sea levels are expected to rise as much as 6.5 feet by 2100, according to the National Geographic, though some scientists believe that if the Greenland ice sheet melts, seas could rise 23 feet. If this happens, London and Los Angeles will vanish. In less dramatic circumstances, trees can absorb water runoff and prevent flash floods from destroying crops, homes and soil erosion. One Colorado Blue Spruce can absorb as much as 1,000 gallons of water, according to forestry experts.

5. Trees Block Wind and Noise

Have you ever driven down a busy highway with houses on either side of it and noticed some homeowners have planted either one or two rows of tall trees along the length of their property? Here’s the trifold logic behind such a choice: trees create a natural boundary and provide some privacy, but they also ward off noise pollution and act as a windbreaker. The latter quality can reduce heating bills by up to 30 percent and reduce snow drifts in northern latitudes.

We have barely skimmed the importance of trees in this post and not one of them has anything to do with profit; suffice to say that life without trees is no kind of life at all. So go plant one or two or three this Tu B’Shevat; your very existence is directly tied to theirs.

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The Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat begins as the sun sets on the 7th of February 2012.  This holiday has its origins in some ecologically-focused passages in the Talmud.  Deuteronomy 14:22-29 requires that one tenth of all that a field produces in a year should be set aside as a tithe and that every third year’s tithe should be stored in towns so that widows, foreigners and Levites (who have no land allotment) would have food.

Leviticus 19:23-25 warns that when a tree is planted, its fruit should not be consumed during the first three years and that the fourth year’s fruit belongs to God.  Only after the fifth year is the fruit to be consumed.

Tu Bishvat, also known as “New Year of the Trees”, was the day used to calculate the age of a tree.  A count of fruit and blossoms on this day was used to calculate these tithes (taxes) for the following year.

Tu Bishvat was also a time for planting and preparing for the spring season.  Some people prepare a traditional Tu Bishvat seder (meal) consisting of fruit, nuts and a symbolic combination of red and white wine.  Because there is no solid Talmudic basis for this seder, anyone can create their own green Tu Bishvat seder.

Tu Bishvat remains focused on the environment.  Children plant trees in a celebration reminiscent of arbor day and make nature-themed crafts.  Adults pledge to cut greenhouse gases or try to win an environmental Nobel prize.  Some of these activities have been criticized as being little more than greenwashing.  In this part of the world, even the simple act of planting a tree can have a complicated political dimension.

Image via virovets

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Tu B’Shvat (the Jewish new year holiday for the trees) happens in late winter.  This means that many people are gathering dried fruits and nuts (in a squirrel-like fashion), but it also means that others are planning a Tu B’Shvat seder or meal.

What is a Tu B’Shvat seder?

The tradition of the Tu B’Shvat seder began during the Middle Ages, when the holiday was celebrated with a feast of fruits.  It was later adapted by mystic kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria of Tzfat into the form of a seder (or meal) in which the fruits and trees of Israel were given symbolic meaning.  The idea of this seder was that eating ten specific fruits and drinking four cups of wine in a specific order, while reciting appropriate blessings, would bring people and the world closer to spiritual perfection.

Today many religious and secular Jews celebrate this tradition.  American organization Hazon, which works to “create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community and a healthier and more sustainable world for all” has made the holiday preparations a little easier for us by creating a download-able manual for hosting your own Tu B’Shvat seder.

Hazon suggests planning your seder months (or even a year) in advance.  But if you’re reading this now… chances are you want to throw something last minute together.  Have no fear, this is totally within the realm of possibility.

Here are some easy steps that you can start to take to organize your very own Tu B’Shvat seder:

Choose a location for the seder (try to choose one that is accessible via public transportation)

Invite guests (preferably in a paper-less way, such as Facebook or Whatsapp)

Plan your menu and be sure to include fruits, nuts, and wine (whenever possible, choose local, organic food items; if you’re looking for creative fruit-dish ideas, start off with Hamutal’s Plum Buckle recipe)

Print Tu B’Shvat haggadot from the Hazon website (preferably on post consumer recycled paper).

Read more about Tu B’Shvat:
Celebrate Tu B’Shevat, New Year’s for Trees, Now Jewish Earth Day
What To Do on Tu B’Shvat
Plant a Tree for Tu B’Shvat… Online

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Despite having to cancel some tree planting dates due to the war and the related school closures, they have upped sticks to Tel Aviv and are organising a benefit evening this coming wednesday 21st January at the Saluna bar (17 Tirza Street, Jaffa) to raise funds for future tree planting within the Bedouin communities, and other green education activities.

Bustan are a tremendous NGO, whose commitment to the Bedouin community of the south has been unwavering. Bustan are often the first to highlight a problem within the community, and then focus their strong local and International resources upon it, always coming up with lasting positive solutions.

Examples of this include a straw bale health clinic in the unrecognised village of Wadi Na’am, and a straw bale mosque in the same village (sadly recently demolished), the solar power project which helps sick children in a number of villages power medical equipment that they otherwise would be denied, help to create a wonderful desert herb farm in Tel Sheva, and the tree planting initiatives amongst a whole range of help they offer Individuals and communities in general.

So we urge you to get out on the night, have a great night out in Tel Aviv/Jaffa, dance and shake your green booty to the sounds of Ran Cohen, Taani Ester, Lo Dubim, and Aliza Hava, and put some money in great green education projects, courtesy of Bustan!

The post Support Bedouin treeplanting and Green education with a Tel Aviv shakedown! appeared first on Green Prophet.

“You can trace the recent history of Tu B’shevat seders like branches on a tree.”

Nigel Savage, originally from Manchester, England, founded Hazon (Hebrew for “vision”) in 2000. Hazon works to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community — as a step towards a healthier and more sustainable world for all.

In 2000 Nigel led Hazon’s first major project, a 3000-mile Cross-USA Jewish Environmental Bike Ride, in which participants cycled from Seattle, WA to Washington, DC, teaching and speaking along the way. They ended at the White House where they received a national award from the EPA.

Hazon now produces a series of bike rides and hikes, in the US and Israel.

• In 2008, Hazon will launch JBike, a new portal to connect Jewish cyclists in the US and Israel.
• In 2004, Hazon launched the first Community-Supported Agriculture project in the American Jewish community, called Tuv Ha’Aretz. Tuv Ha’Aretz is now in ten locations nationally from Berkeley to Long Island and from St. Paul to Atlanta, as well as in Israel.

Hazon’s food work also includes an annual food conference, a food curriculum (written by Nigel and Anna Stevenson) and an award-winning blog, “The Jew & The Carrot” at www.jcarrot.org.

Nigel has taught in a variety of settings, including the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities, the Wexner Heritage Conference, the UJA Young Leadership Conference, the leadership retreat of the Dorot Fellows in Israel and the World Union of Jewish Students.

For more info, buy Savage’s book:A Wild Faith: Jewish Ways into Wilderness, Wilderness Ways into Judaism

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