Deuteronomy 8:8 praises the land of Israel for being "a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and [date] honey." These agricultural products are known as the "seven species." On the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shvat, the new year for trees, it is custom to eat the seven species. Tu B'Shvat usually falls around late January or early February.

The seven species are the super foods of the Bible. No modern fad diet holds a candle to this ancient Deuteronomy menu. Packed with antioxidants, fiber, vitamins, and the monounsaturated fats, all of our diets could use a healthy injection of each of the Biblical super foods. For the next few months, B'tayavon will be rolling out different recipe options using one or more of the seven species. Stay tuned.

•Wheat (chitah)

•Barley (se'orah)

•Grapes (gefen)

•Figs (te'enah)

•Pomegranates (rimon)

•Olives or olive oil (zayit)

•Dates (tamar)

Shelley Neese is Vice President of The Jerusalem Connection. 

*Try this new twist on a Rosh Hashanah classic.  Remember to keep this new year sweet!  Don't cheat yourself.

Ingredients

Apple Filling:
5 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced thin
½ cup white sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ cup water

Crumble:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup butter, softened and cut into pieces

Caramel Sauce:
1 ½ cups sugar
⅓ cup water
1 ¼ to 1 ½ cups heavy cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 8″ x 8″ pan.
2) In a large bowl for the filling, toss the apples with sugar, flour, cinnamon, lemon juice, and water. Spread the apples evenly in the bottom of the pan.
3) In another bowl for the crumble, mix together flour, brown sugar, oats, and butter. Spoon mixture evenly over apples.
4) For the caramel sauce, mix the water and sugar in a large saucepan. Cover and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and boil uncovered until the sugar turns a medium brown, about 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Be careful that sauce doesn't burn. Slowly add the c

I am a Christian. And I am a Zionist. But it took me years of being both to realize that I'm a Christian Zionist. Though I consider myself a strong Christian and a committed lover of Israel, out of college I was leery of calling myself a Christian Zionist. My definition of a Christian Zionist was unclear and muddled by stereotypes I had absorbed over time.

Where I got those stereotypes is no mystery. Any time you hear interviews with prominent Christian Zionist leaders, certain questions are guaranteed to come up:

"Gary Bauer from American Values, tell us why evangelicals are so eager for the apocalypse?"

"Susan Michael from International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, is church support for Israel merely a tool to convert the Jews?"

"Earl Cox from Israel Always, do Christian Zionists only support Israel to realize the scenario of Armageddon?"

The answers to these questions rarely matter. The question itself attempts to unmask alleged conspiracies of Christian Zionism and expose ambiguities in the alliance between pro-Israel Christians and Jews.

To outsiders, Jews and Christians seem strange political bedfellows-Jews, traditional loyalists of the left and persecuted by the Church; and evangelical Christians, the conservative base of the right and tainted by a persecutor's history. Jews, who believe the Messiah has not yet come; and Christia

Pizza in Israel has a different flare than pizza in the U.S. For starters, kosher pizza can't have any meat toppings since you can't mix meat and dairy. Since pepperoni and bacon aren't an option, Israeli pizza joints are very creative with the vegetable toppings they offer: tuna, corn, hard boiled egg, etc. One of the more famous pizza chains in Israel is called Pizza Meter. This recipe is an attempt to recreate one Pizza Meter's specialtiues: Sweet Potato Pizza.

Ingredients
1 tube refrigerated pizza crust
1 medium sweet potato
1 medium onion, sliced thin
3 tsp olive oil, divided
black pepper
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 box (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 425. Unroll pizza crust and press evenly over the bottom of greased cookie sheet.
2) Bake crust 5 minutes and remove from oven.
3) Wash sweet potato and pierce skin several times with a fork. Cook potato in microwave on high for five minutes or until tender. Turn over potato halfway through cooking.
4) When potato is cool, peel the skin and mash up the flesh with a fork. Add 2 tsp oil to potato mixture and continue mashing.
5) Spread potato evenly over pizza crust. Sprinkle black pepper over potato. Top with spinach.
6) Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan evenly over pizza.
7)