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Part of Our Learning Series,ÌýSeasons of Responsibility: InterreligiousÌýConversationsÌýon Environmental Justice and Repair

Seasons of ResponsibilityÌýbegins withÌýTu Bishvat. The session explored how Tu Bishvat’s meaning has evolved over time.ÌýWe discussed the gifts of Tu Bishvat for this unique moment. And we’ll see Tu Bishvat not just as a single day, but as the beginning of a springtime season that leads to Purim, Pesach and Shavuot.Ìý

The session features Nigel Savage, founding CEO of the Jewish Climate Trust, in conversation with Rabbi Ayelet Cohen, Dean of the Rabbinical School at 91¿ì²¥. Jewish Climate Trust is a co-sponsor of this event.

OrganizedÌýby the 91¿ì²¥ Division of Lifelong and Professional Studies andÌýMilstein Center for Interreligious DialogueÌý

About the Speakers

Nigel Savage is the founding CEO of Jewish Climate Trust, based in Jerusalem. Before JCT he worked in finance, and then founded and led Hazon (today Adamah) for twenty years. He studied at Georgetown, Hebrew U, Pardes and Yakar – and is proud to have received an honorary doctorate from 91¿ì²¥. 

As Pearl Resnick Dean of The Rabbinical School and Dean of the Division of Religious Leadership at 91¿ì²¥, Rabbi Ayelet Cohen leads The Rabbinical School and H. L. Miller Cantorial School. In this role, she works to shape the next generation of Jewish clergy, cultivating students’ spiritual and intellectual lives so they can meet the challenges of Jewish life with wisdom, creativity, and resilience. Rabbi Cohen assumed this position in 2022, becoming the first woman to hold this role. 

About the Series

Across Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu traditions, spring is a season of reflection, renewal, and ethical commitment. Grounded in holidays from Tu Bishvat and Lent to Ramadan, Holi, and Passover, this interreligious series explores responsibility, repair, and leadership in the face of urgent ecological challenges. Together, participants consider how religious wisdom can inspire ethical action and collective hope. 

Across Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu traditions, the early spring season is a shared period of reflection, renewal, and ethical clarity. While rooted in different stories and practices—from Tu BiShvat to Lent and Easter, from Ramadan to Holi and Passover—these holidays collectively invite communities to consider how human choices shape the world we inhabit.

This series brings together people to explore questions of responsibility, agency, and repair in the face of urgent ecological challenges. Each session will examine pressing environmental issues through an interreligious lens, highlighting how wisdom traditions can inform ethical action and public leadership.

The series uses the spring season as a narrative frame: a moment when many communities turn inward, commit to repair, and seek renewal. Through interreligious dialogue, we aim to illuminate how diverse traditions encourage accountability, resist misinformation, and nurture hope and collective responsibility in a rapidly changing world.

Organized by the 91¿ì²¥ Division of Lifelong and Professional Studies and Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue

Programming Partners include The Center for Earth Ethic, Dayenu the Institute on Religion, Law and Lawyer’s Work (Fordham University), Jewish Climate Trust

Thank You for Your Participation

A famous parable in the Talmud teaches this very lesson. “One day Honi was journeying on the road and he saw a man planting a carob tree. He asked, ‘How long does it take [for this tree] to bear fruit?’ The man replied, ‘Seventy years.’ Honi then further asked him, ‘Are you certain that you will live another seventy years?’ The man replied, ‘Just as I found the world full of carob trees planted by my parents and grandparents, so will I plant for my children'” (Ta’anit 23a).

As parents, we can establish roots for our children. We can tend to our saplings and watch them grow. However, we may never see the fruit of their grown branches. We can only hope for the blessing of seeing our children blossom. This dream gave rise to a beautiful birthing custom in the rabbinic period. According to the Talmud, when a boy was born, it was customary to plant a cedar tree. When a girl was born, a pine tree was planted. When they married, branches from each tree were woven together to form their wedding canopy (Gittin 57a).

Tu Bishvat is the celebration of the New Year of Trees. It marks the turning point from the bitterness of winter to the hint of spring. In Eretz Yisrael, this is the time of year when the buds are just beginning to form. We rejoice in the annual blooming of trees. It is also the time for planting new trees. We hope and plan for the future of a fertile and prosperous land. Many of us are removed from this world of agriculture. However, Tu Bishvat serves as a yearly reminder of our connection to the land, our responsibilities as stewards of the natural world, and our own human resemblance to the trees of life around us.

After God created Adam, “God planted a garden in Eden … and God made to grow from the ground all sorts of trees, pleasant to look at and good for eating” (Genesis 2:8). Then God placed man in the garden “to till it and tend it” (v. 15). Perhaps, like my wise student, God ordained that the invaluable lessons of cultivating trees prepare man for the sacred task of fostering human life. Tu Bishvat is a day in which our faith is renewed in the cycle of life. Despite the barrenness of winter, new buds are forming once again. Tu Bishvat is a day in which we place our faith in the delicate laws of nature. We plant new trees, even though we may never see them grow to maturity. The annual cycle of the Jewish calendar reflects the divine promise in the possibilities of life. Tu Bishvat affirms our greatest blessing as human partners with God to serve as creators of life in this world. May we be worthy of our role, and may we tend our gardens well.

Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Lauren Eichler Berkun

The publication and distribution of the 91¿ì²¥ KOLLOT: Voices of Learning commentary has been made possible by a generous gift from Sam and Marilee Susi.