Hazon, the Jewish Lab for Sustainability, has released its Tu B’Shevat Haggadah for 2020, along with holiday information, tips and resources for hosting a sustainable holiday seder.
The Haggadah encourages readers to think about trees and the critical role they play.
Hazon is also partnering with JTree, a collaboration between various Jewish groups that describes its goal of sustainable reforesting as “planting the right trees in the right balance in the right locations with the right ongoing care.”
“Every Jewish holiday comes to remind us of something that, ideally, we should be thinking about the whole year round. It reminds us that, 365 days a year, our life is dependent on the natural world that sustains us. And it nudges every one of us—and every Jewish institution—to do all that we can do to learn about the impacts of our behaviors, to reduce our impact and to speak up for wider change,” said Hazon CEO Nigel Savage.
“Tu B’Shevat isn’t just for kids,” added Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein, Hazon’s rabbi-in-residence, who wrote the updated Haggadah that combines science and current events with traditional Jewish wisdom.
“It reminds us to protect and preserve the planet’s natural filter—i.e., planting trees,” he said. “That is why this Tu B’Shevat, we call upon the Jewish community to actively engage in this global campaign to plant hundreds of millions of new trees.”
The Hazon Tu B’Shevat Haggadah can be obtained in print or as a free download.