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 Tu BiShvat

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Debbie B.

Debbie B.


Posts : 373
Join date : 2011-09-05
Location : Chicagoland

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PostSubject: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyTue Jan 08, 2013 1:09 am

Tu BiShvat is coming up on Saturday, January 26.
For information on this holiday which is the New Year of Trees:
Tu Bishvat 101

Hazon has some great resources for doing a Tu BiShvat seder, including one for families with younger children: http://www.hazon.org/resource/tu-bshvat/
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Sarit

Sarit


Posts : 128
Join date : 2012-03-14
Age : 41
Location : Belgrade, Serbia

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PostSubject: Re: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyTue Jan 08, 2013 9:04 am

Thank you very much for the link, Debbie!

I like the way Tu BiShvat reminds me of trees, fruits, environment and the specific, history-long and always active connection of/with the living nature around us. Sometimes we tend to forget appreciating it during everyday rush.
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Dena

Dena


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PostSubject: Re: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyTue Jan 08, 2013 5:14 pm

We are very, very into tress around here. My husband is a recreational tree climber and trained to teach others to climb trees safety (with gear) and without harming the tree. We've traveled to the southern east coast and California for tree climbing. He's currently growing redwoods in our spare bedroom for a local arboretum! I'll have to remind him that Tu Bishvat is coming up soon. I didn't think it was until February.

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Debbie B.

Debbie B.


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PostSubject: Re: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyThu Jan 10, 2013 3:46 am

Tree climbing! Cool.

Did you see the recent December 2012 National Geographic cover article on giant sequoia trees? Here is article along with links to photos and related material:
National Geographic sequoia tree article
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Dena

Dena


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PostSubject: Re: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyThu Jan 10, 2013 4:19 pm

No, I hadn't see it yet but my husband probably did. I know he's told me about Steve Sillett and his work in the treetops. He was involved in climbing the large tress when others in the scientific community believed it would be of no value.

We were there in October but I don't remember seeing The President? It's possible it's just not sticking out in my mind because it hadn't yet been declared the second largest. We did see many of the others, including General Sherman and Grant. It was so beautiful I'd love to go back within the next few years. Actually, I was just about determined to go back in the next couple months but I don't think that is going to be feasible.

There is also a tree in either Northern California or Oregon that is supposedly larger but it's not publicized. You have to go look for it. A couple of his friends have been and say it's amazing.

My husband would LOVE to be able to climb the Sequoia. It would be the highlight of his life I think. Very Happy

Here are some of the coastal Redwoods (Santa Cruz) they were allowed to climb on the October trip. Not as massive of the giant sequoias of course but still quite large and very beautiful.


Tu BiShvat Tall_t14


Tu BiShvat Tall_t15



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Dena

Dena


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PostSubject: Re: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyThu Jan 10, 2013 8:16 pm

My husband says I should be posting how much I love trees too. Laughing

Tu BiShvat Tree_h11
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searchinmyroots

searchinmyroots


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Join date : 2011-12-01
Location : New York

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PostSubject: Re: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyThu Jan 10, 2013 9:55 pm

Aw! How nice!

It looks like a big tree to hug!

Hey, I just noticed your avatar has a tree in it too. You really do love trees! :)
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Debbie B.

Debbie B.


Posts : 373
Join date : 2011-09-05
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PostSubject: Re: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyThu Jan 10, 2013 10:00 pm

California redwoods are indeed wonderful trees. I grew up in the suburbs east of San Francisco so my family using to go camping every summer at campgrounds in the redwood groves near Santa Cruz:
Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park

One of the great features of a house my uncle used to have in Palo Alto is that it had a small stand of redwood trees in a corner of the backyard. I remember the trees as being over a foot in diameter and about 50 ft tall, but that was over 40 years ago, so maybe they have "grown" bigger in my memory.

Materials for our sukkah were purchased in the San Francisco Bay Area where we lived in the first couple of years of our marriage. So the 6 main 4x4 posts and main cross-pieces are made of redwood. Being a nice sturdy rot-resistant wood, they are still usable more than 20 years later.

No redwoods where I live now, but there is a huge oak tree in front of my house which my elderly neighbors who built their home in the 1950's tell us was an original tree from back when the area was prairie.

Some sad local tree stories: my neighbor has 5 big trees around his house which have all been marked by the city for removal due to infestation by the Emerald Ash Borer. The trees are probably over 50 years old since they were probably planted when the neighborhood was developed in the 1950's. But at least since those trees are in the area between the sidewalk and the street, the city is taking care of the removal. One of my friends in the neighborhood had to pay $2000 to remove a huge beautiful tree in her backyard that was also infected with Emerald Ash Borer. And I know someone else who lives just a few miles away who lost all the trees in his yard to Dutch Elm Disease.
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Dena

Dena


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PostSubject: Re: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyThu Jan 10, 2013 10:52 pm

Debbie B. wrote:
California redwoods are indeed wonderful trees. I grew up in the suburbs east of San Francisco so my family using to go camping every summer at campgrounds in the redwood groves near Santa Cruz:
Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park

That's where we were! Right across the street is a camp which is where they set up the lines to climb. I loved, loved, loved Santa Cruz. It is exactly the kind of place I could imagine living. For some reason I thought you grew up on the East Coast. I'm not sure why I didn't realize you were raised in California.

Debbie B. wrote:
One of the great features of a house my uncle used to have in Palo Alto is that it had a small stand of redwood trees in a corner of the backyard. I remember the trees as being over a foot in diameter and about 50 ft tall, but that was over 40 years ago, so maybe they have "grown" bigger in my memory.

That does happen, doesn't it? Laughing

Debbie B. wrote:
Some sad local tree stories: my neighbor has 5 big trees around his house which have all been marked by the city for removal due to infestation by the Emerald Ash Borer.

So you've got a problem there too? It's a big issue around here. They are destroying a lot of trees which means the counties and parks have to go ahead and destroy trees to try to save the others. I didn't know the extent of the issue. Another tree climber we know took part of a test today to start working on a Asian Longhorned Beetle program (she had to take a tree ID test and then she has to climb 10 trees and spot damage) so I guess that's a big problem here as well.
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Debbie B.

Debbie B.


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PostSubject: Re: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyFri Jan 11, 2013 1:48 am

Dena wrote:
Debbie B. wrote:
California redwoods are indeed wonderful trees. I grew up in the suburbs east of San Francisco so my family using to go camping every summer at campgrounds in the redwood groves near Santa Cruz:
Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park

That's where we were! Right across the street is a camp which is where they set up the lines to climb.
Is tree climbing generally available to the public? My kids love to climb trees. A neighbor once informed me that she saw my daughter climbing trees while waiting for the school bus. There are some very tall trees in the park near our house with easy to climb, closely spaced limbs. (We walk through that park on the way to our "tiny" minyan services.) We have allowed our kids to climb about 20ft up the trees. I suppose we would have regretted that if they had fallen and gotten seriously hurt. We've all done some rock climbing through scouts and would really enjoy climbing redwood trees.

Dena wrote:

For some reason I thought you grew up on the East Coast. I'm not sure why I didn't realize you were raised in California.
I probably mentioned that I was born in Boston. And I also went to college in that area. Plus I lived in Providence, RI from 1990-95 which is where my daughter was born. I went back and forth in approximately 5-15 year intervals from the Boston area to the San Francisco Bay Area until we moved to the Chicago area in 1995 where we consider ourselves "settled".
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Dena

Dena


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PostSubject: Re: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyFri Jan 11, 2013 1:55 am

Debbie B. wrote:

Is tree climbing generally available to the public? My kids love to climb trees.

Yes and know. Certainly anyone can climb a tree with the proper gear but some parks have made it illegal. You either have to check with the park or just show up with your gear and see what happens. My husband climbs near our house without problem as well as some of our other city parks. He has however run into a few police officers who ask him to leave. There are parks who bring in certified climbers to teach. He's done that a few times for boy scouts and things of that nature. You can always climb on private trees too, if you have permission (or your own tree). If you would like I can find someone in your area. He knows people all over the US (and some in Europe) and if he doesn't know someone, it's likely that someone else knows someone.
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Debbie B.

Debbie B.


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PostSubject: Re: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyFri Jan 11, 2013 3:17 am

I might ask you about it later. Right now we are dealing with my son's ADD and psychological issues. As it is I'm fretting about how to fit into his schedule some Hebrew tutoring or else we could be told that he doesn't qualify to attend Camp Ramah this summer. And that would crush him because it will be the year that he is in Nivonim, the group for the oldest campers who are thus the most experienced and coolest kids at the camp. He has attended the camp three previous years and really likes it because he was more accepted socially there than anywhere else. It is quite expensive, but it has definitely given him a stronger Jewish identity and better religious skills such as laying tefillin and doing the weekday services and rituals like Birkat Hamazon which is done out loud in full for every meal. His Hebrew reading ability is quite poor, but after praying three services a day, seven days a week for eight weeks every summer, he knows by heart all the parts of those services that are said aloud. And because he loves the camp experience, he has developed positive associations with Jewish ritual. That's the goal of Camp Ramah, of course, and it has been very successful. I personally know of quite a few adults who became very observant (and some became Orthodox and some made Aliyah) due in large part to being influenced by Camp Ramah.
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Dena

Dena


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PostSubject: Re: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyFri Jan 11, 2013 4:20 pm

Camp Ramah was discussed at length in a book I read once on the Conservative movement. Very instrumental in creating observant and knowledgeable Jews. It made me wish I had gone!

Just let me know about the tree climbing. I'd be happy to look for you.
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Debbie B.

Debbie B.


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PostSubject: short and easy Tu BiShvat seder   Tu BiShvat EmptyFri Jan 25, 2013 5:16 pm

It's not too late to prepare a simple Tu BiShvat seder. Tu BiShvat starts tonight and lasts through Shabbat. I found this very basic Tu BiShvat seder which is much shorter than the Hazon seder:
Modern Tu BiShvat seder from My Jewish Learning

I cancelled out on a Shabbat dinner invitation in which I had earlier volunteered to bring seder items because I am just getting over a nasty flu and I'm worried that I might still be contagious. Sad I have also decided to stay home from Saturday morning services where a short Tu BiShvat seder is being done at kiddush. I worry that if one of the older members of my shul (like the woman who recently celebrated her 100th birthday) caught my flu it could be fatal.

My son and I will be by ourselves because my husband flew out to NJ for the bar mitzvah of the younger son of a friend of his from high school, so the simpler seder seemed more appropriate than the long Hazon seder with lots of points to discuss. I did a quick shopping trip at the kosher grocery store to pick up nice Shabbat dinner food plus red grape juice (we always have white around) and some of the fruits and nuts for each of the seder categories. (I tried not to cough in the direction of the cashier)
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Salvia




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Age : 36
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PostSubject: Re: Tu BiShvat   Tu BiShvat EmptyTue Jan 29, 2013 3:49 pm

Dena,

That's a great picture of you and the tree!!

I only saw once in my life a real-life redwood -it's such an impressive tree!

Debbie, I hope you got better...

I just wondered how you have celebrated the new year of trees? A forest walk?

Salvia
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