Hazon Educational Library: Nature Exploration
Blessing Our Food Waste
Through the practice of a food waste ritual, we can find deep lessons in how we gather, cook, and scrap food. We visually express those lessons into a “visual blessing” using actual food scraps and stones or other found natural objects. Then, we craft and recite a spoken blessing. Together, this helps us rethink food waste in our homes and communities.
Local Lulav
A Sukkot resource packet with everything you need to shake sustainable, local lulavim. Filled with relevant educational materials, practical shaking and assembly instructions, and accessible spiritual and environmental insights. Created for the Metro Detroit community.
Tie-Dye and Tekhelet
This program introduces participants to natural tie dyes, introduces the concept of tchelet, and is meant to help participants enhance their observation skills by considering what natural materials could lend themselves to different colored dyes.
Age(s): Teens
Ruach: Torah of the Wind
The purpose of this program is for participants to begin to understand wind as an ecological force, and connect that understanding with ruach.
Age(s): High School, Middle School
Jewish Food for Thought: Caring for Pollinators
The series of programs focuses on the interconnections between Judaism, nature, and food - aiming to explore the threads of interconnectedness that bind people, plants, pollinators, soil, and Jewish traditions.
Age(s): Youth
Tiyul Jr at JKids Afterschool
This first session is meant to build the group dynamic, provide participants with a sense of place, and to have them practice intentionally using their senses to ask questions.
Category: Group-building, Nature Exploration
Age(s): Youth
Hakarat Hatov
This program is an exploration of the Jewish concept of hakarat hatov, or ?noticing the good?, understanding and expressing appreciation for all life and experiences in the garden or farm.
Category: Animals, Nature Exploration
Age(s): Youth
Tiyul Adventure Camp?s Israel Day at Pearlstone
Tiyul Camp?s Israel Day introduces campers to Israeli culture by using personal and Biblical stories as teaching tools, prioritizing experiences of togetherness and nature connection, rather than specific content goals.
Category: Jewish Food traditions, Nature Exploration
Age(s): Youth
Milkweed and Monarchs
This program is an introduction to the life cycle of a milkweed plant and its connection to the life cycle of monarch butterflies. Participants will have the opportunity to identify and plant milkweed and learn a song in Hebrew about butterflies.
Age(s): Youth
It?s All About Perspective: What Kind of Spy Are You?
This program is designed to have students deepen their connection with nature by looking at all the details and empowering them to use their positive brain instead of their negative brain. Participants will also have a greater understanding and connection to the story of the Jewish peoples first look into Israel.
Category: Nature Exploration
Age(s): Young Adult, Youth
Passover on the Farm
This program was designed for families with young children to connect with each other, their community, and the earth through multi-sensory activities centered around Passover and the coming of spring.
Age(s): Early Childhood with Parents
Post-Pesach Wild Edibles Hike
This program brings the Biblical story of Pesach into a modern urban nature setting. Participants are encouraged to take on the roles of wandering Israelites recently escaped from Egypt, while also learning about the plants that are safe and good to eat from the natural setting currently surrounding them.
Age(s): Middle School
Divine Dyeing: How to harness the holiness of color through natural dyeing
This program is an interactive color exploration through natural dyeing. Participants will learn about the symbolism and holiness associated with certain colors in Judaism, specifically the blue of tekhelet that is found in Tzitzit. They will also learn how to harvest and use different parts of plants to create their own dye and take home a self-dyed bookmark.
Fire Building – Even if its Raining
This program is an introduction to fire building in the rain. Participants will learn about fires and learn to how safely and efficiently build a fire. Students will leave with an understanding of renewable and nonrenewable resources and the connection between Judaism and fires.
Age(s): B'nai Mitzvah, Teens
Degel – What we stand for
Everyone has things they stand for and qualities they value. Grounding ourselves in the Biblical texts about Tribal flags the Midrash there, we will use flags as an opportunity to think about what symbols we can use to describe ourselves and what we value. Participants will learn about themselves and get to make their own flags that serve to unify what they stand for with where they came from.
