This activity explores the power of naming something. Often when we
think of the language of Breishit – dominion and ruling over Creation
and stewardship – we imagine physical acts or resource use. But it is
possible to enact dominion through more subtle intellectual pursuits as
well, such as naming. This activity highlights our ability and propensity
for putting ourselves above the rest of Creation through naming, the
positive and negative aspects of that ability, and the responsibility that
comes with it.
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This game has a magical power to create joyous camaraderie, as well as teach tree biology.
It's amazingly effective for drawing a group together. Players act out the various parts of a tree: the taproot,
lateral roots, heartwood, sapwood, phloem/cambium, and bark. In large groups, more than one player can
take each role.
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Congregational Best Practices
Excerpt:
Use these successful and replicable ...
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Why is Greening Jewish
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Excerpt:
Topics covered:
Is environmentalism a Jewish issue?
Where do I start?
What are CFL bulbs and why should I use them?
Which is better and what's the difference: Local vs. Organic foods?
Farm raised, free-range and cage-free: So many labels, what do they all mean?
How can I measure my efforts?
How can I solicit support for congregational greening efforts from my board?
Is there ...
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By Rabbi Julian Sinclair
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Do we know who grows our food? Does it matter?
This question was first raised for me five years ago when I was the Campus Rabbi at England’s Cambridge University. Invited to High Table dinner with the professors at one of the colleges, I was surprised to discover that most of the conversation among some of Britain’s leading minds revolved around the food.
“This venison’s inedible,” complained an irascible professor of physics.
&ldqu...
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By Dr David Goldblatt
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Joseph (Yosef) is a paragon of foresight, self-discipline, and concern for the larger community. As we saw previously in Parshat Mikeitz, Yosef used prophetic insight to instruct Egypt to make provisions during the seven years of plenty for the seven-year famine that would follow. He had sure knowledge of an impending human-ecological problem and gathered grain in the time of plenty as insurance against hard ...
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By Rabbi Shaul David Judelman
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The Environmental movement that has sprung forth from the West bears many imprints of the same paradigms of thought that have led to the environmental crisis itself. There is a tendency to rush towards results and overlook the process required to organically arrive at those results, and part of our work in healing is to redress these internalized ways of thinking to arrive at a truly sustainable way of living. Through the Torah this lesson of process is being learned.
At the ...
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By Fivel Yedidya Glasser, with contributions from Rabbi Chanan Morrison
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Our ancestors were shepherds. The Torah tells us that our forefathers, as well as Moshe Rebbeinu, Rachel Immeinu and King David all herded goats and sheep. And in this week’s Torah portion ofVayeishev we see that Joseph (Yosef) also worked as a shepherd alongside his brothers.[1] The greatest of our early Jewish leaders chose this profession, a livelihood scorned by surrounding cultures. Years after Yosef’s exile to Egypt and rise to ...
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By Jonathan Neril
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Before Ya’akov’s (Jacob's) epic encounter with Esau, reuniting with his brother after decades of estrangement, Ya’akov brings his family and possessions across a stream. He then returns at night to the other side of the stream, and the Torah narrates that: “Ya’akov remained alone.” The rabbis see the word “alone” (levado) as superfluous, and understand it as related to the similar sounding lecado, “for his vessel,” yielding, ...
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By Rabbi Yuval Cherlow,
(translated from the original Hebrew by Ariel Shalem)
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The limited resources of the world we live in affect wide spheres of influence. To the extent that a resource is more essential and uncompromising in its need, the more potential it has to lead to conflict and war. In this week’s Torah portion, Toldot, Yitzchak (Isaac) faces conflict with the Philistines and the people of Gerar rooted in the age-old struggle surrounding the scarcity of water. [1]
The shepherds of Gerar claim, ...
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By Drew Kaplan
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Since Yitzhak went to the field to pray in this week’s Torah portion, the world has not been the same. The Talmud offers two sources for our requirement to pray three daily prayers; one is the prayers themselves of the three forefathers of the Jewish people. Avraham is credited with instituting shaharit, the morning prayer; Yitzhak grants us minhah, the afternoon prayer; and Ya’akov gives us ma’ariv, the evening prayer. The Talmud cites a verse from the Book of Genesis to establish ...
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By Rabbi Yuval Cherlow
(translated from the original Hebrew by Ariel Shalem)
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Two cosmic catastrophes unfold in the book of Genesis. The first, the flood, in which G-d brings waters down from the Heavens to destroy almost all life. The second, the utter devastation of Sodom and Gomorrah, in which an areapreviously known as a fertile and lush “garden of Hashem” (Gen. 13:10) becomes a desolate land “that cannot be sown, nor sprout, and no grass shall rise up upon it, like the upheaval of ...
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By Tuvia Aronson[1]
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The great commentator Rashi (France 1040-1105)[2] interprets the verse to mean that the land was simply unable to provide sufficient pasture for all the cattle and sheep involved. It is as if there is missing information intended to be inserted in the verse: "And the [pasture of the] land could not bear them."
An alternative approach is that of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (Germany 1808-1888) and the “Netziv” (Rav Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin -Russia 1817-1893).[3]
...
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By Shimshon Stüart Siegel
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While still in the Garden of Eden, humans, animals and plants lived in harmony, according to G-d's desire for the world. After the Fall, maintaining this harmony became a great toil: the earth outside the Garden was thorny and tough; man and beast became adversaries. After a few generations all life on the planet had “corrupted (hishchis) its way on the earth.”[1] In our Torah portion (parsha), G-d decided to wash the slate clean and begin creation over from scratch: ...
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