On Friday night, January 29, as the sun slips behind the ocean in the West, the moon will rise in the East, bright and full.  That full moon will bring Tu be-Shvat, the New Year of the Trees.

We’ll celebrate with a special seder – an orderly ritual of eating fruits of the tree and drinking the fruit of the vine.  The seder brings us into deeper relationship with the flow of vital energy through the great Tree of Life.  From the unknown realm of pure potential we move into the stage of beginning and then emerge more fully into active flourishing and culminate with fulfillment.  This four-fold pattern is repeated in the four seasons of the year, the four directions of the compass – even the four letters in the Name of God.

Tu be-Shvat is on Friday evening, January 29, the night of the full moon.  You are invited to our house for a briefer-than-usual Kabbalat Shabbat and kosher veggie Shabbat dinner followed by the Tu be-Shvat Seder.  Kabbalat Shabbat at 6:30, dinner at 7:30 and the seder 8:30.  Come only for the seder if you wish.

I want everyone to RSVP.  We have limited space.  RSVP at rabbi@ahavat-olam.ca.
I also need everyone coming for dinner to prepare a dish and it needs to be kosher for our house.  If you don’t know exactly what that means, please ask me, or see below.

Also, I need everyone coming to contribute $10 so we can purchase wine, grape juice and fruit.  You can drop it off or mail it to me before Tu be-Shvat at:  2644 Manitoba Street, V5Y 3A8.

I need at least two or three helpers for shopping and set up. 
I would love for you to join me in thinking about and co-leading the seder.  Write or phone me if you want to do that.

David

Learn more about Tu b'Shvat at www.shalomctr.org, www.coejl.org/tubshvat/ and http://jrf.org/Tu-B-Shevat.

Keeping Kosher at the Mivasairs’
By Michal
If your home is truly strictly kosher, we're delighted for you to make and bring anything veggie or dairy from your own kitchen.  If your own kitchen is not truly kosher, then please follow these guidelines:

• All cold drinks and fresh, uncooked fruits and vegetables are fine and completely welcomed at our table.  They don’t need a heksher (kosher symbol on the label).
• All raw salads are welcome.  So you could bring a green salad, spinach salad, cole slaw, carrot salad, fruit salad and so on.  Dressings, though, have to be made only of non-cooked ingredients or have a heksher.
• All cheese must be made without animal rennet.  This is pretty easy to find.  Check the label carefully.  If it has a heksher or if it says vegetable rennet, bacterial or microbial enzymes, etc – even if it doesn’t have a heksher -- it's OK.
• All breads, pastries, crackers, etc, must have a heksher.  This means they need to have a kosher symbol on the label or be bought at a strictly kosher bakery such as Sabra's, Omnitsky, Mount Royal and Garden City.
• Any other foods that you purchase which have been cooked at any time during their processing have to have a heksher.  This means they needs a little kosher symbol on the label.  Any kosher symbol, even just a K, is fine with us -- but, it's gotta have one.  These products are in any supermarket – the Superstore, Safeway, IGA, Capers, Choices, WholeFoods, Urban Fare, SaveOn, etc, are great.  You just have to look for a heksher on the label of what you’re buying.
• Fish with fins and scales like tuna or salmon are great.  Make sure the tuna has a heksher.   Add mayo (with a heksher) and uncooked veggies to make a salad.
• Pickles, olives and so on don’t need a heksher.
• You could make something like couscous if you made it in a glass bowl, poured boiling water into the bowl and then added those raw ingredients. 

Any questions?  Call David at 781-7839.  For some, this will be an adventure.  I assure you that with a little practice, you'll be claiming soon enough that keeping kosher is a piece of cake.  Or is that a bissel of rugelach?  Sample heksher symbols:  http://www.hanefesh.com/edu/kosher_Food_Symbols.htm