In the dead of New York City winter each year, roughly 100 people don their winter coats and trek through the cold Upper West Side streets to attend the Romemu congregation’s annual “Roots to Fruits” Tu B’Shevat Seder, their way of marking the agricultural festival. Led by Romemu’s Rabbi David Ingber in the community center of the West End Presbyterian Church, Seder-goers partake in the ritual meal, featuring fresh fruits and wine.
On regular Friday nights, the cavernous prayer hall is filled with 400 to 500 worshipers welcoming the Sabbath, beginning with a silent meditation, and slowly erupting into ecstatic, joyful prayer. Like Friday night services, the Tu B’Shevat Seder—being held this Sunday—draws heavily from Judaism’s rich mystical tradition. Everything at the Seder is shrouded in symbolism and meaning: Fruits that have tough outer skins but soft insides represent life’s struggles, and pitted fruits represent endeavors that initially seem easy, get more difficult, and then flourish. Between drinking four cups of wine of different colors, “reflecting the four Kabbalistic worlds,” as Ingber explained, along with eco-conscious fruit rituals, participants sing, dance, and chant.
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