Hazon Educational Library: Workshop

Three-fold workshop, which involves delving into the history of dairy on Hanukkah, making cheese and butter, and a discussion about the dairy industry and striving towards greater ethical consumption under capitalism, under the lens of our environmental crisis.

Allow intuition to guide you. Explore what resonates for you. Leave behind what does not resonate. Ultimately, the oracle cards are you ? your connection, intuition and interpretation.

This program leads participants in mikveh, Jewish ritual immersion, in a spring-fed stream.

Participants will learn to make ricotta cheese from fresh goat milk, while digging into various Jewish and secular texts, guided by the question: ?Why do we eat dairy on this holiday??

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.

Traditionally, weaving has deep roots in the Jewish culture. The craft of weaving is one of the 39 crafts that the Jewish people used to create the Mishkan (tabernacle) in the desert. Weaving, and many of the actions associated with weaving are mentioned specifically in the 39 Melachot, the list of labor forbidden on Shabbat. Although many of the traditional Jewish weaving techniques have been lost to exile, modern day ritual objects are often still made from woven materials, including challah covers, kippot and tallis. Looking back, history shows us that the nomadic Israelites used what fibers they had on hand, such as camel, goat, and sheep, to create their clothing and dwellings. These ancestral methods were simple. Using this simplicity as inspiration, the loom for this project is crafted from sturdy cardboard, the warp is made using cotton string, and the weft consists of long pieces of recycled fabric. Simplicity is often key in introducing new textile art projects to preschool age children. These projects are multifaceted and engaging to young minds, integrating core skill sets such as language and literacy development through oral storytelling, problem solving, pattern recognition, and fine motor development.

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.

This program is an interactive introduction to the environmental Jewish value of Bal Tashchit, not destroying or wasting valuable resources. Participants will have the opportunity to explore creative ways we can reduce our carbon footprint by reducing and reusing everyday materials through a solar-oven baked shrinky dink project.

This program is an introduction to Havdallah and DIY candle making. Participants will learn about a Havdallah candle and leave with their own candle. Students will leave with an understanding of what renewable resources are.

This program provides an introduction to pickling and an overview of food justice issues. Participants will leave with a jar of pickles and knowledge of the pickling process, and with deeper insight into the importance of local food and workers' rights in the food system.