Hazon Educational Library: Spiritual Nature Experience
Oneness: All Camp Evening Activity
by Maya Havusha
Eden Village Camp
This is a one hour program designed for campers ages 8-15 to run around, have fun, and start to think about how there are so many different people in the world, but how we are one in harmony. Oneness is a central theme in our religion and allows us to see things from different perspectives. Campers will be put to the test to work together to unlock the answers to where the most strength and power exists in the universe. Through overcoming challenges placed before them, campers will ultimately understand that we have the most strength and can make the biggest changes in the world when we put our differences aside and work together.
Alef Elul: Jewish New Year for Animals
by Jaclyn Kellner
Coastal Roots Farm
During this program participants will celebrate this holiday through hands-on crafts, a ritual and by learning about heritage breed chickens. The final portion of the program is written here as a panel discussion but can be any type of learning relevant to your organization and audience
Beginnings: Exploring the beginning and connections between the plant cycle and Torah
by Liora Lebowitz
Jewish Farm School
This individual lesson will be exploring the beginning of creation, both in our Jewish tradition and in the lives of plants. It will be covering text from Breisheit and the connections to food/farming found in the text. This lesson will also cover hands-on experience with planting seeds and a basic knowledge of seed/plant evolution and the concepts of seed saving.
Age(s): Teens
Day of Awe-some: A Rosh Hashanah Family Program
by Darya Watnick
Edlavitch DC JCC
This program is an opportunity for families with young children to engage in the Jewish rituals and traditions surrounding the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. They will be able to meet families like themselves while spending the morning creating a meaningful and educational connection with a Jewish holiday.
Age(s): Early Childhood
Todah-Giving: Garlic Gratitude
by Margot Sands
Ekar Farm
This program reclaims our American holiday of Thanksgiving by transforming it into an opportunity to embrace HaKarat HaTov (recognizing the good, or gratitude) during a quiet time on the Jewish calendar. As the farming season winds down, this program invites participants to transition into a reflective season while literally and figuratively planting gratitude for what the growing season has brought us and what is to come in the next year. Through personal reflection, exploration of the Jewish and growing calendars, and garlic planting, participants will build connections to the earth and Jewish values
Our Soulful Flame
by Ilana Unger
Pearlstone Center
This program is an exploration of light through utilizing fine motor skills and creating space to experience the wonder of the natural world. Through hands- on opportunities students will connect with the natural world by opening their eyes to all the ways nature shines its light as well as how we shine our own light. Students will leave with an understanding that we can find light all around us in nature and we as a community will begin to question what that light represents for us individually and collectively.
Category: Ritual-Making, Spiritual Nature Experience
Age(s): Early Childhood
Farm Infusions: Eco-spa
by Ilana Unger
Pearlstone Center
This program is an interactive hands on activity that connects participants to the ?essence? of Jewish earth based connection. Participants will have the opportunity to harvest locally grown herbs on the Pearlstone campus, infuse those herbs collected and create a homemade hand salve and/or lip balm and learn why this is a Jewish practice. Participants will leave with an understanding that everything is connected, and that the process of infusion connects us to the heart of caring for ourselves and the earth.
Hiking Through the Sefirot
by Jacob Weiss
Isabella Freedman
This will be a meditative and metaphorical journey that will invite participants to explore the seven sefirot (emanations of god) which correlate to the seven weeks of counting the omer from Passover to Shavout.
Category: Nature Exploration, Spiritual Nature Experience
Age(s): Adults, Young Adults
Torah Theater: Ancestral Wisdom in the Wilderness
by Becca Heisler
Wilderness Torah
This program draws from the strength of our ancestors and the robustness of Jewish tradition, while preparing for a wilderness challenge.
Age(s): B'nai Mitzvah, Teens
Peace Be the Feathers
by Miki Levran
Pearlstone Center
This activity allows students to get a hands-on experience with real feathers and practice using them creatively while thinking about an important Jewish and worldly symbol.
Age(s): Elementary
Turn, Turn, Turn: A Jewish Calendar Garden Mosaic
by Anika Rice
Urban Adamah
Any Jewish farm, school, community center or garden can use this document to either create a calendar garden with the community or to lead interactive educational programs that situate the holiday and season in Jewish cycles of time. This document gives an overview of the mosaic design process. It does not give detailed instructions for mosaics; seek this out elsewhere if you are not familiar with outdoor mosaics.
Moon Qweens: Eim/Mother
by Leora Cockrell
Camp Tawonga
This curriculum is part of four-part elective (aka Chugim) titled Moon Qweens. The overall purpose of the elective is to introduce campers to female and feminine spirituality, archetypes, leadership styles, and divinity in Judaism and beyond. Through this introduction, campers may feel better able to relate to Judaism and to see the connections between spirituality, care for the earth, and care for our bodies.
Age(s): B'nai Mitvzah
Jewish Rainmakers
by Jess Berlin
Hazon
In this session we will connect ecology with the ritual of tashlich. We will look at evidence of this year's drought on the farm and the impact that water deprivation has on the land. Connections will be made between our observations to Jewish text about the cycle of rain as a reflection of our relationship with God. Together, we will create a ritual for internal healing at the bank of Lake Miriam.
Age(s): Adults
Mindfulness Nature Walk
by Jared Kaminsky
Shoresh
This program will help participants develop their ability to be more mindful and aware drawing on Jewish teachings while in nature. Participants will learn how to approach the natural world from a place of curiosity, and awareness helping to improve themselves and the planet.
Age(s): Young Adults
Ancient Garden Medicinal Herbs
by Leora Cockrell
Camp Tawonga
This program is an introduction to the history and uses of medicinal herbs growing in the Camp Tawonga Garden. Participants will learn about how medicinal herbs connect to self-care and earth-care. Participants will learn about the healing properties of twelve medicinal herbs as well as their cultural and historic uses: Israeli, Mediterranean, Jewish and Native American. Participants will be given the opportunity to and think about what it means to connect both to their herbal heritage as well as the medicinal herbs that grow natively on this land.
Age(s): B'nai Mitzvah, Teens