New Curriculum Stresses Ties Between Torah, Nature

By RENEE WOHL

"Making A Difference" was
the theme for a community-wide
outing for sixth-graders involved in
a new curriculum, Torah, Teva and
Talmidim, (Torah, nature and
students).
This camp experience, held
recently at Butzel Conference
Center in Ortonville, is an integral
part of a new curriculum by Renee
Wohl, director of the Agency for
Jewish Education Resource Center
and Rita Abramson, principal of
Temple Israel. The curriculum was
launched last year at Adat Shalom,
Temple Israel and Shir Tikvah.
Through the Agency for
Jewish Education Resource Center,
the program has been expanded
to include Beth Shalom, Beth
Abraham Hillel Moses and Temple
Kol Ami. Thirteen teachers and
more than 200 students
participated in this curriculum,
funded by a grant from the Max M.
Fisher Community Foundation.
More than 100 sixth-graders
convened for "Making A
Difference." The major theme of
the day — Is there a Jewish
approach that can help us become
more responsible to others and our
environment — was developed
through a variety of learning
activities.
Responsibility as Jews to one
another, to the environment and to
the animal world, is emphasized,
demonstrating the relevance of
traditional Jewish values and texts
to contemporary issues and
emphasizing the vital relationship
between Jewish study and Jewish
action.

When's the last time your kid hugged a tree?

L-4

FRIDAY, FEB. 7, 1992

Sixth-graders learn teamwork at mini-ropes
course.

Trying to create an awareness
and sensitivity to the world around
us, as well as a sense of
responsibility to make a difference
in the world as in the value
concept of tikkun olam (repairing
the world), is addressed in each
unit. Other Jewish values such as
"bal tashcheet" (no wanton
destruction), and "tzaar baalei
chayim" (compassion for animals)
are incorporated into the
curriculum.
The program had three

components: outdoor treks, a Tu
B'Shevat seder and indoor stations
on several different themes.
The treks or initiatives were
facilitated by naturalists. This
element of the program, which
included a mini ropes course and
scaling a wall showed individuals
make a difference in a group. Our
interdependence on one another
and recognition of this truth was a
major theme of the outdoor
program.
The indoor stations focused
on three key ideas and directed
students toward Jewish texts and
action.
One dealt with the question of
ruling over, or guarding, the land
through the two biblical creation
stories and making environmental
vows.
Another dealt with endangered
animals and used talmudic and
midrashic texts on extinction and
offered students suggestions for
influencing a bill that is pending in
Congress on the Endangered
Species Act.
The third addressed
relationships between trees and
humanity and through an activity
called hug a tree, students were
introduced to this notion.
These activities were led by
Jewish environmental educators
Fred Dobb of Ann Arbor and Matt
Biers of Milwaukee. Both are
involved with Shomrei Adamah, a
Jewish environmental organization
based in Philadelphia.
The Tu B'Shevat seder, which
was originally developed by
Kabbalists or Jewish mystics in the
land of Israel in the 16th century to
honor nature, was re-enacted by
our students.
Just as the four questions and
four cups of wine are part of the
Passover seder, so too are they
part of the Tu B'Shevat seder. The
four questions our sixth-graders
asked and answered were:
1) What does Tu B'Shevat
have to do with ecology and what
does ecology have to do with
God?;
2) If Tu B'Shevat is the New
Year of trees, why not celebrate in
the summertime when the fruit is
ripe?;
3) When we leave here today,
how can we remember that the
whole earth, even the air we
breathe, is alive?;
4) So, what can I do to help
the earth?

Renee Wohl is director of the
Agency For Jewish Education
Resource Center.

Environmentalist Fred Dobbs of Shomrei Adamah

Creat'

Based on Genesis: I
Lyrics by Margot Stein Azen and
Alan Nashman.

In the beginning when all was new
There was nothing to see even
less to do
I mean a mega-darkness, a never-
ending night

'Til the big voice said,
"Let there be light!"
What's yet to be is still unknown
'Cause we start at the beginning:
Yom Rishon

Water above, water below
Deep blue ocean and whaddya
know
Spread out the sky to the nth
degree
We're talkin' heaven and earth:
Yom Sheni

And it was good, it was real good
And it was good, it was real, real
good!

Plants bearing fruit, marrying earth
giving birth to plant and tree and
weed
We need to breathe ...
photoSUNthesis
Gives the impetus to greening and
cleaning air.
Renewable resource, straight from
the source
Botany on Yom Shlishi
The days catch the rays of the
blazing sun