Kehilat Kesher: Community Synagogue of Tenafly and Englewood, Orthodox

Standing outside the Young Israel of Scarsdale this past Sunday, mourning the loss of two great leaders taken by a strange fire, I could not help reflecting on the loss of the sons of Aharon, two great leaders taken by a strange fire. Rabbi Jacob and Debbie Rubenstein were taken last Friday night in a fire that we still do not understand. They were founders of the Jewish community of Scarsdale and they both created a powerful presence for these last 25 years. The shul was filled to capacity, with more than 2,000 people inside. Several hundred others stood outside. Listening to the words of my contemporaries mourn their parents and standing with old high school classmates, I could not help but shed a tear.

Kehillat Kesher, Englewood, Orthodox

And they did not listen to Moshe because of the kotzer ruach [shortness of spirit] and difficult labor" (Exodus 6:9). The Midrash on this verse is startling: It was difficult for them to listen to Moshe and leave their idolatrous ways (Bereisheet Rabbah 6:5).

Kehillat Kesher, Englewood, Orthodox

That is a hapax legomenon? It is a word or phrase that is used only once in a certain work. The word flother, a synonym for snowflake, appears only once in written English before 1900. There are two parts of Noah’s ark that are described with words that only appear once in the Bible. One is the type of wood and the other is the tzohar.

Noach is told to make a tzohar for the ark (6:16). The Midrash (B"R 31:11, Sanhedrin 108b) cited by Rashi on that verse records a debate as to what exactly was this tzohar. According to Rabbi Abba bar Kahana it was simply a window; according to Rabbi Levi it was a precious stone that reflected the light from inside the ark.

I remember vividly sitting in the classroom for my final exam in biblical history at SUNY Binghamton. The professor had told us what the final question would be, and I had been preparing for weeks. It was a question with only four words, and we had the entire 90 minutes to answer, "Who wrote the Bible?" There I sat, a naïve Orthodox student who had for the first time been exposed to the world of the academic study of the Bible, staring at a blank blue book. I thought about answering with one single word, "God" — but we had to show a mastery of the material from the course. How would I stick to my deeply held beliefs about the nature of the biblical text and make sure not to fail this course?

Tu B’shevat evolved in four separate stages. It began, at the time of the Mishnah, as a simple agricultural marker. Then, early 1,000 years later, the mystics of Tzfat fashioned a Tu B’Shevat Seder modeled on the Pesach Seder. Later, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Haluzim in Israel turned the day into the holiday of tree planting with the JNF. And now, at the tail end of the 20th century and now the 21st century Tu B’Shevat has become an eco-holiday, a time to learn and teach about the environment.

Few other Jewish Holidays allow, or perhaps demand, as much from the individual community. A Tu B’Shevat seder can include anything from meditation to discussions about the environment, from emphasis on Israel to singing songs; there are very few rules about what one has to do on this day. Some shuls will have children’s programs, others learn about Eretz Yisrael, and all are observing Tu B’Shevat within the boundaries of Halakhah.

It’s become a holiday that has pluralism built into its very observance.

Our community, Kehillat Kesher, will host the members of the Englewood Berrie Group Home at a seder designed for people with special needs. I hope that it will be a growth opportunity for the members of the shul, as well as for the members of the home.

The position that Beit Shammai took regarding when the New Year for the trees should fall may spread some light on the history of this day. In the first mishnah in Rosh HaShanah, Beit Hillel says that the New Year for the trees is on the 15th (Tu) of Shevat, while Beit Shammai says that it should be on the first of Shevat.

The first day of the month of Shevat has significance in the Jewish calendar for another reason as well. If we look at the third verse of the Book of Devarim we are given a date for the start of Moshe’s speech, "And it was in the 40th year, in the 11th month, on the first of the month that Moshe spoke to the children of Israel…." The 11th month, when counting Nissan as the first, is Shevat. The Book of Devarim began on the same day that Beit Shammai claimed the New Year for the trees should occur — Rosh Chodesh Shevat.

Devarim, according to Ramban’s introduction to the book, existed in an oral state from the time of its revelation at Sinai until its authorship in the Plains of Moav, and some consider it the beginning of the Oral Torah.

The Oral Torah can be understood as the aspect of the Torah that demands human involvement. It is through the lens of the rabbinic tradition laid out in the Oral Torah that we live our lives today. So, perhaps it is no coincidence that one of the few Jewish holidays that has a degree of pluralism built into its very observance takes place on the anniversary of Moshe’s delivering of the beginning of that Oral Torah.

Maybe Tu B’shevat is meant to teach us that, although we may observe the laws of Judaism differently from one another, and although we may disagree about the correct path of observance, there is still value in the other.

Let us hope and pray that we are able to imbibe this aspect of Tu B’shevat on an individual as well as a communal level.