The Baal Shem Tov, or Besht —  the founder of Chasidism — 
met the soul of the Messiah during an ascent to heaven. 
The Besht asked him, "When will the Master come?" 
The Messiah answered, "When your wellsprings break forth to the outside!" 
(from a letter written by the Besht to his brother-in-law about one of his soul ascents) 


 

Blessing from the first Tu Bish'vat Seder

(For more Tu Bishvat resources click here.)

This blessing comes from P'ri Ets Hadar – "The Fruit of the Majestic Tree", the first published Tu Bish'vat seder, c. 17/18th century. In this prayer the author equates Creation with the mishkan--the portable sanctuary that the Israelites carried through the desert, by invoking Exodus 36:18, the verse in Torah that describes the completion of the mishkan, the traveling sanctuary.

Get a short version of this prayer updated for contemporary seder-goers here!

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Please God, who makes (ha'oseh העושה), and forms (hayotser היוצר), and creates (haborei הבורא), and emanates (hama'atsil המאציל) the higher worlds, and in whose form and pattern you created their model on the earth below—

You made all of them with wisdom, higher above and lower below, "to join [together] the tent to become one" (l'chaber et ha'ohel lihyot echad לחבר את האהל להיות אחד Exod 36:18).

And You made trees and grasses bloom from the ground in the shape and pattern of what is above, to make known to the children of Adam the wisdom and discernment in them, to reach what is hidden;

And upon them You will drop the flow and power of Your higher vessels (midotekha, i.e., the Sefirot) [as it says]: "And he made the harvest fruit" and "the fruit tree making fruit by its kind"*; "and from the fruit of Your works You will satisfy the land", "to eat from her fruits and to satisfy from her goodness"*; "to give life through them to the soul of all life"* (l'hachayot bahem nefesh kol chai להחיות בהם נפש כל חי), [meaning] from the spiritual strength which is in them;

And from Your fruit will come the reward of the fruit of the belly [womb], to bring life and nourish the body, "and his fruit will be for eating and his leaves for healing";

And this day of Tu Bish'vat (or: this moon of Sh'vat) is the beginning of Your works [from now until Shavuot], to ripen [the fruit] and make her new [so that] "a person will bring his fruit" "making fruit by their kinds"; for thus the days of ripening for the higher tree will be fulfilled, "the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden," and "he will make fruit above".

May it be willed by You, YHVH our God and God of our ancestors, through the power of the merit of eating the fruit which we now eat and bless, and through our meditating upon the secret of their roots, that their supernal sap/angels** upon which they depend will be awakened / yit`or'ru s'rafeihen ha`elyonim, to cause the flow of desire and blessing and free energy (shefa) to flow over them, to return again to make them grow and bloom, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year, for good and for blessing, for good life and for peace.

And may You sustain the word which you promised us by the hands of Malachi your seer: "...and the fruit of the earth will not be destroyed for/because of you, and no vine in the field will be barren for you, said YHVH of hosts."*

"Look out from Your holy habitation (m'on kodshekha), from the heavens"* and bless for us this year for good and for blessing, "let them drink blessings forever, let them celebrate in joy Your presence,"* "and [so] the earth will give her produce and the tree of the field his fruit"* – bring on them a blessing of goodness;

And may the might and majesty of the blessings for eating the fruits "become lights" in the wellspring of blessings, the Righteous One צדיק [the Cosmic Tree], life of the worlds, and may the [rain]bow appear, joyful and beautified with his colors; and from there may the flow of desire and mercy flow over us, for pardoning and forgiving our sins and errors; and may the Whole (Hakol הכל) return now to His/its original strength, and may His/his bow reside in strength"*, "for You are the one who will bless the Righteous One, YHVH, desire will crown him like a rampart."*

And may all the sparks, scattered by our hands, or by the hands of our ancestors, or by the sin of the first human against the fruit of the tree, return now [to be] included in the majestic might of the Tree of Life.

"Then the trees of the forest will sing out"* and the tree of the field will raise a branch and make fruit, day by day; "And [then] you will take from the first of all the fruits of the ground [on Shavuot] to bring the first-fruit offering (bikurim) before the altar of YHVH"* with praise and thanks.

* Citations for all verses are found in the pdf.

** Later editions have shorsheihen - their roots, but we know that שרפ makes sense because in P'ri Eitz Hadar because the author describes the sap, שרף, rising in the introduction to the seder (a cognate of syrup). The two words look almost the same: שרפיהן שרשיהן. I have no doubt that the author intended the double entendre of sap and angels.


Download a Word doc or a PDF with the text of the blessings found on this page. See also Tu Bish'vat Wisdom and the One-Page Haggadah, along with links to all the Tu Bish'vat texts and resources on neohasid.org.
How to use this blessing | Meditations on Pri Etz Hadar

art: detail from William Blake's Job, "Thus did Job continually", adapted

Here's an abridged version of the prayer you can easily incorporate into your seder – download a pdf 2-per-page here!

O God, who makes, forms, creates, and emanates the spiritual worlds! You made trees and plants grow from the ground in their shape and pattern above, so that this Creation may be “joined together as one”, to become a holy mishkan-sanctuary. And this full moon is the beginning of Your work to renew and ripen the fruit trees, for so will be filled the days of ripening the fruit of the supernal tree, “the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden.” May it be Your will that our eating and blessing of these fruits now, and our meditating over their roots above, will arouse their spiritual sap and make the flow of love and blessing and pure gift flow upon the trees, to make them grow and bloom, for good and for blessing, for good life and for peace. May the whole of Creation return now to its original strength, and may the rainbow appear rejoicing and glorified in its colors. And may all the sparks of Divinity, scattered by our hands, or by the hands of our ancestors, or by the trespass the first human committed against the fruit of the Tree, return to be included in the majestic might of the Tree of Life!

אָנָּא הָאֵל, הָעוֹשֶׂה וְהַיּוֹצֵר וְהַבּוֹרֵא וְהַמַּאֲצִיל עוֹלָמוֹת עֶלְיוֹנִים וְאִילָנִין וּדְשָׁאִים מִן הָאֲדָמָה הִצְמַחְתָּ בְּקוֹמָתָם וּבְצִבְיוֹנָם שֶׁל מַעְלָה לְחַבֵּר אֶת הָאֹהֶל לִהְיוֹת אֶחָד כְּאוֹהֶל הַמִּשְׁכָּן. וְזֶה הַיּרֵחַ תְּחִילַּת מַעֲשֶׂיךָ לְהַחְנִיטָם וּלְחַדְּשָם כִּי כֵן יִמְלְאוּ יְמֵי הַחֲנוּטִים לְפֵירוֹת הָאִילָן הָעֶלְיוֹן, עֵץ הַחַיִּים אֲשֶׁר בְּתוֹךְ הַגָּן. יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְפָנֶיךָ, יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ וְאִמּוֹתֵינוּ, שֶׁבְּכֹחַ סְגוּלַּת אֲכִילַת הַפֵּירוֹת שֶׁנֹּאכַל וּנְבָרֵךְ עֲלֵיהֶן עַתָּה וַאֲשֶׁר נֶהָנֶה בְּסוֹד שׁוֹרְשֵהֶן יתְעוֹרְרוּ שְׂרָפֵיהֶן הָעֶלְיוֹנִים לְהַשְׁפִּיעַ עֲלֵיהֶן שֶׁפַע רָצוֹן בְּרָכָה וּנְדָבָה לְהַגְדִּילָם וּלְהַצְמִיחָם, לְטוֹבָה וְלִבְרָכָה לְחַיִּים טוֹבִים וּלְשָׁלוֹם. וְיָשׁוּב עַתָּה הַכּל לְאֵיתָנוֹ הָרִאשׁוֹן וְנִרְאֲתָה הַקֶשֶׁת שָׂשׂ וּמִתְפָּאֵר בְּגוֹוָנִים. וְכָל הַנִּצוֹצוֹת שֶׁנִּתְפַּזְּרוּ עַל יָדֵינוּ אוֹ עַל יְדֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ וּבְעָוֹן אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן אֲשֶר חָטָא בְפֵירוֹת הָאִילָן עַתָּה יָשׁוּבוּ לְהִתְכַּלֵּל בְּעוֹז הֲדַר עֵץ הַחַיִים

This prayer, and the seder, are based on the Kabbalah of the four worlds and the ancient idea that everything physical is an image of the spiritual. Traditionally this prayer was recited at the beginning of the seder, but it can also be recited at the end. A complete translation is found in Trees, Earth, and Torah. See also "The Trees Are Davening," on the COEJL and Shalom Center websites. Note: Material in brackets is added to make the prayer easier to read. Material in parentheses represents alternative readings or Hebrew transliteration.

Abridged and translated by Rabbi David Seidenberg (c) 2006, 2010, 2018.


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Design in progress © Rabbi David Mevorach Seidenberg 2006