The Jewish Arbor Day, Tu B’Shvat, from Asherah to Shechinah

This lecture was given during the Friday, January 8, 2016, service led by Natan Fuchs at the Birmingham Temple, Farmington Hills, Michigan.

In honor of Tu Bi’Shvat (the Jewish “Arbor Day”), Natan Fuchs explores biblical references to demonstrate that the holiday was originally an agricultural dedication to Asherah, the Hebrew goddess of fertility.

Natan will also look at the Yahwist priesthood’s war on that form of worship, the removal of the feminine from the Temple rites, and its eventual return in Rabbinic and mystical Judaism in the form of Shechinah, the “feminine presence of God.”

“The Jewish Arbor Day, Tu B’Shvat, from Asherah to Shechinah,” a lecture by Natan Fuchs. from Library of SHJ on Vimeo.