Some Jews of Spanish or Sephardic background conduct a seder on the night of Tu Bishvat, the 15th of the Jewish month of Shevat. The day is actually of Jewish legal significance in that it serves as a virtual end of the fiscal year for tree tithes. To this day in Israel, when people set aside one tenth of their produce for the Levites, they cannot mix this year's fruits with last year's fruits. When does the year start? On Tu Bishvat. Later, some Kabbalists or mystics felt one should eat certain fruits on this day as a way of helping to restore and fix the old tree of Life from the Garden of Eden, which showers down its blessings to the trees on this day. The following Seder is roughly drawn from the Kabbalistic work, Peri Etz Hadar.

Why are we talking about trees and fruits during the very coldest of winters? Because in Israel, this is when the rains go away and it starts to get warm and the trees start to blossom.

The Zohar is a special book of Jewish secrets. It says there that everything in the earth is a model of something in the heaven. When Rabbi Abba saw a certain tree, he cried. HE said, "If people only knew what this tree represented in heaven, they would be amazed. Also, people are like trees. Some of us are near perfect, most are part good and part bad, and others are pretty bad, but if we look carefully we always find that they are really good, too.

There are two Talmuds. One was written in Babylonia. In the other Talmud, which was written in Israel, it says that Rabbi Eliezer used to save pennies in order to be able to buy  all kinds of new foods, because Rabbi Aboon said that G-d will judge all those who don't eat of every kind of (permissible) food. We will eat a lot of different great foods of the world, and thank G-d for them.

The first cup of wine. As we drink the first cup of white wine, we remember that nature has been asleep, awaiting warmer weather and the annual cycle of rebirth of growing matter.

Some fruits are connected to very holy things in the heavens, so they are perfect in that they have not shells. Shells are thins which we can't eat, the imperfect things. Carobs, seedless grapes and raisins, and especially figs are shell-less and therefore the most holy, if we only say a blessing over them and use them to do good deeds. Some people are also like these fruits. They look nice, they seem wonderful, and even when you get to know them on the inside, we discover that they are just as good inside as out. Thank G-d for people and fruits like these.

Once, while the sage Choni was walking along a road, he saw a man planting a carob tree. Choni asked him: " How many years will it require to give forth fruit?"

The man answered that it would take 70 years.

Choni asked, " Are you so healthy a man that you expect to live that length of time and eat of its fruit?"

The man answered, " I have found a fruitful world because my forefathers planted for me. So will I do for my children." (Talmud Taaanit 23)

Now pour a little dark grape juice or wine into the cup to dilute it. It will soon be spring.

Some fruits are not so perfect. You can eat the whole thing but it has something inedible inside, like olives, apples and dates. Some people are really nice outside but have some feelings inside which can really hurt us. Our job is to enjoy these people's friendship and make sure we don't get hurt by them.

The third cup of wine is still darker. Summer is on the way.

The hardest kind of fruit to enjoy are ones which make us work hard to eat them. Almonds are so hard to crack we usually buy them pre-shelled. Peanuts have shells, too. These remind us of people whom we may not like when first see them. But, when we peel away the shell, we can always find something really worth knowing inside.

Prayer: May it be your will, our G-d and G-d of our ancestors that through the eating of fruits which we have blessed, the trees in Israel will renew themselves by blossoming and growing.