If you've never participated in a seder for Tu B'Shvat, you're missing out! I want to give you the tools to host your own this year. Modeled after the Passover seder, it can be a very beautiful experience full of delicious fruits and nuts, great discussion, music, and a chance to explore your spiritual connections to the rest of creation.

PREPARING THE SEDER

The preparation itself is a wonderful way to get in touch. So while you choose the fruits, wash and divide them up, be sure to pay close attention to the feel, smell, sight, and taste of each one.

Each place setting should include a plate, fork or toothpicks for tasting, 2 wine cups, napkin, and a small flower pot or paper cup for planting. This is a great time to decorate your table with fresh flowers.

THE SEDER PLATES

Every seder will lead to a unique discussion about the symbolic explanations for these fruits. Go to town with it, there are infinite ways to look at it.

Choose five from each of the different lists:

1. Fruits with an inedible shell. The shell conceals what is inside and also protects it. These fruits remind us of our own personalities, often hardened on the outside. It also reminds us of our connection and reliance on a world enveloped by materialism.
Tangerine Grapefruit Kiwi
Walnut Pomegranate Pistachio
Coconut Peanut Almond
Orange

2. Fruits with an inedible pit or seed. Deep inside us is where we find our truest self, this is about getting in touch with and honoring the still small voice inside us.
Peach Avocado Olive
Apricot Plum Date Cherry
Mango

3. Fruits which are edible inside and out. Is it possible to be at one with ourselves and with the world around us at the same time? Celebrate a way of living with no barriers, no holding back, and fully living an awesome life.
Grape Fig Apple
Strawberry Raisin
Cranberry Pear Carob

4. Instead of fruit, the 4th plate contains different seed packets for planting. We take action to make the world a better place. Think about how seeds hold the potential for new life, rebirth, hope, and change.
Herbs (Parsley is a fun choice in preparation for Passover a few months away)
Vegetables Flowers
Be sure to have a pitcher of water near by so that you can water your seeds after planting.

THE 4 QUESTIONS

Here are the four basic questions, hopefully you will have many more to add!
1. Other New Year celebrations honor events and people. Why do we have this special New Year to honor trees?
2. On other days we eat many kinds of food. Why today do we especially eat fruits from Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel?
3. On other days we take trees and the abundance of different things that grow on trees for granted. Why today do we think about conserving and sharing?
4. Here and in many parts of the world it is wintery and cold. Why today do we speak of trees and planting?

Present these questions one at a time as you go through the seder.

THE 4 CUPS OF JUICE

The different colors of white and red grape juice represent the changing seasons:

1st Cup. This one is just the white grape juice. It represents winter, when nature is asleep. The earth can be snow-covered, taking a rest from blooming and blossoming.
2nd Cup. This one is white juice with a little red mixed in. It represents the spring approaching and the colors of the season changing as the snow melts and flowers begin to show themselves.
3rd Cup. This is mostly red with a little white mixed in. It reminds us of summertime, and flowers in full bloom.
4th Cup. This one is all red. It represents the rich and dark fall autumn colors Leaves are changing, crops are growing, and the trees are filled with blossoms.

THE SEDER!

Now you've got all of the tools, just add some friends and family who enjoy each other's company and who like to eat and talk. Start with the first cup of juice, followed by a tasting from the first seder plate and then go into a discussion of the first question. Follow this with round two and so on all the way through the fourth of everything. Instead of eating fruit for the fourth seder plate, take this opportunity to plant seeds. Why plant? Discuss.