1988 results for tag: Uncategorized

The Holiness of Eating

This weeks Torah parsha, Shemini, begins on the eighth day of the ceremony to ordain the priests and consecrate the Tabernacle. Moses instructed Aaron to assemble several types of animals and a meal offering as sacrifices (called korbanot in Hebrew) to God, saying: “Today the Lord will appear to you." (Leviticus 9:1–4.). At one point, Moses becomes angry at Aaron and his sons for failing to eat the sin offering at the proscribed time and place. The parsha concludes with a listing of which animals are considered clean and therefore permissible to eat, and which are considered unclean and therefore forbidden to eat. In ...

Question of the Week #16

Judith Erger, the Governance, Leadership Development, and Architecture Specialist for the Union for Reform Judaism, asks Jewcology's Question of the Week!

Environmental Tip of the Week: You can find creative new uses for things!

Cross posted on Environmental Tip of the Week Sometimes you can reuse something you'd otherwise have to throw out! It can also save you from having to buy new stuff. For example, the nice little box my husband's iPhone came in was sitting in our closet, unused. Also sitting in our closet were random coins and dollar bills that were constantly falling on the floor. I'm now using that box to keep our spare change!

Eden Village Camp Video and Events!

Dear Friends, We're thrilled to present our first-ever Eden Village Camp video!! We hope you get a sense of camp from it, and emerge smiling. Please share this with anyone who might like to know that there is a Jewish organic farm, wilderness and arts camp! Also, please visit our Spring events page! Tons of exciting family programming coming up, including Sugar Mapling this Sunday, Beekeeping 101, Family Farm & Picnic days, and more. http://www.jewishfarmschool.org/edenvillage/ Warmly, Vivian, Yoni and the Eden Village family

Finding “Finding”

Every Wednesday night, I attend Chabad at Binghamton's Supper and Study (a forum for Jewish young adults to eat together and reflect upon Jewish texts). The topic of our dinner conversation last week did not focus on how cute my chevruta's shirt was, nor did it center around who's dating who or the unfair professor or the impossible midterm. Instead, we spoke about the tragic murders of six members of the Fogel family in the settlement of Itamar in the northeast Samaria. We discussed everything from our frustration towards the lack of media coverage to our feelings of helplessness dealing with the turmoil in the Middle East. ...

Biodiversity Under Attack

Until a few years ago I would not have classified myself as an environmentalist. Further, my entrance into the world of environmental advocacy was related to my growing interest in energy issues. However, during my journey over the past few years I have come to understand that nothing can be a more obvious sign of our society’s disregard for the natural world than the rate at which we are killing off majestic creatures of creation. I recently read the following headline: “Without Intervention Lions Heading for Extinction.” In 1960, there were 400,000 lions living in the wild. Today, there are just 20,000.http://ww...

happy purim!

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IdeaSlammin’ in Vancouver!

Hiking / Outdoors Club, a Jewish food initiative and a local organization to connect people to volunteer opportunities are just three of nine majors idea developed and hundreds more presented by young adults from across Vancouver’s Jewish community at IdeaSlam. While social, spiritual and networking opportunities also spotlighted as areas of interest, it was clear that food, nature based and service based initiatives had an attraction to at least 1/3 of the audience. (Confirming the results of the ‘Generations of Change’ Study, see previous post). Watching these results develop naturally, with influence from myself, was ...

Trees without Bulldozers: Environmental Justice for the Bedouin

NEW YORK (March 17, 2011) — When David Ben-Gurion envisioned making the desert bloom, bulldozing Bedouin villages to make way for new groves of trees is not exactly what he had in mind. But, in the name of environmentalism, that is exactly what Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael / Jewish National Fund did recently, bulldozing the village of al-Araqib for the 21st time since last July as part of its $600-million Blueprint Negev project. It gets worse: In order to plant the new grove of trees, KKL-JNF also bulldozed about 850 olive trees owned by the villagers of al-Araqib. And the bulldozing has not been bloodless: Village residents and ...

Think Globally, Act Locally, and Increase Happiness

Shalom Friends, The days approaching Purim are an auspicious time for increasing happiness. Happiness can be experienced in any number of ways. There are those who draw joy from observing our beautiful world alive with spring blossoms. Others find sparks of pleasure in the small details of daily life. And, of course, there are those who glimpse joy in the increasing social-environmental action in Israel and throughout the Jewish world. Recently, I have found great joy in a unique Teva Ivri activity – a joint seminar for the principals of Kiryat Bialik and Boca Raton schools on the topic of Judaism and the Environment. The ...

Question of the Week #15

Farmer Emily Jane Freed asks Jewcology's Question of the Week from a field of rosemary in Santa Cruz, CA.

Environmental Tip of the Week: Know your local recycling policies!

Cross posted in Environmental Tip of the Week Just Google recycling policies [your city] and you should get relevant sites. I found a site with Seattle's recycling ordinance, for example, that apartment building landlords can put up as a sign. If you live in an apartment building, it's worth checking its policies against the local laws to make sure they comply.

Finding Tiferet

תפארת or Tiferet is the sixth sefira in the Tree of Life in Kabbalah, ancient rabbinic mysticism. There are ten sefirot and together the system roots spirituality with the physical self and attributes of Hashem. This particular sefira is commonly associated with balance and integrating many aspects into one whole being. תפארת is understood as the balance between the sefirot chesed, compassion, and gevurah, control. I am on a constant search for balance. A twenty year old from suburban Massachusetts, I am challenged with balancing a full academic course load, several student organizations and my ever-wandering mind about the ...

1br Storybook Stone Cottage on Farm for Rent

For Long Term Rent by Owner: Storybook Stone Cottage on Farm 
Great location: Metro (8 min.); I-695 (8 min.); Owings Mills Mall (12 min.) Quiet Oasis: Storybook stone cottage surrounded by Woods and Pastures (7+ acres) One-bedroom/loft with cathedral ceiling, picture windows, four skylights,
Hardwood floors, spiral staircase. Sunny kitchen with lots of windows overlooking natural scenery. Dining area, living room, office nook, enclosed stone porch. 
 Full Bath with whirlpool tub/shower and marble floor. Utilities: Central air/oil heat & heat pump. Propane hot water, range & oven. Electric Washer & ...

Jewish Urban Farming Fellowship, Berkeley, CA

Urban Adamah, based in Berkeley, CA, is a three-month intensive residential leadership training program for young adults ages 20-29, that integrates urban organic farming, social justice work and progressive Jewish living and learning. Twelve Urban Adamah Fellows are selected each season to operate an organic farm and educational center, intern with community organizations addressing issues at the intersection of poverty, food security and environmental stewardship, and learn an approach to Jewish tradition that opens the heart and builds joyful community. Applicants do not need any farming or Jewish knowledge or experience to participate. Fellows ...

The Joys of Event Planning

I admit it. Most of my Jewish environmental career has been rather intellectual. I like to think about what the Torah says and I like to learn about our philosophical and scientific challenges. I like to apply new concepts to old problems - or old concepts to new problems - and see what the answers yield. I don't have all that much experience as an event planner. But there is a leadership methodology that I think could help us win "hearts and minds" that have so far not been a part of our Jewish environmental movement. In our Jewcology grant, we requested the opportunity to organize leadership programs to demonstrate and ...

1200 Jewish Young Adults Walk Into a Casino…

From March 5-8, I had the pleasure of participating in the first ever Tribefest, at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. This fantastic event put on by the Jewish Federations of North America, brought together 1200 young adults from across North America to ‘Connect, Explore and Celebrate’ their Jewish identity, culture and community. While not particularly an environmental friendly event (judged by the location, quantity of disposable dishes, etc.) the organizers went out of their way to include two environmentally themes sessions, one on food and one on energy. Both were well attended with 100 - 150 participants. ...

Raise Your Mask Purim – The Fountainheads

An a capella Purim music video parody by The Fountainheads. Graduates and students of Midreshet Ein Prat, Israelhttp://einprat.org/thefountainheads.php Based on Pink's "Raise Your Glass." All sounds made with voice and mouth. Vocals: Yoav Hoze, Shani Lachmish, Ayelet Beazley, Tamar Gur, and Noa Yammer. Choreography: Edeete Suher and Orna Pfefferman Produced by Shiran Yalovich, Smadar Tsook, Keren Apfelbaum, and Stav Taub. Film by Ben R. Lyrics by Ben R. and Ari L.: Here comes the story of Purim and it goes a little something like ...

On Overpopulation

There are a good many issues upon which Environmental and Jewish values seem to be in lock-step, and then there are those challenging issues where our environmental values and our Jewish values seem to come into conflict. Perhaps no issue presents such divergent viewpoints between the Environmental and Jewish perspective as that of “overpopulation”. As our planet is set to cross the 7 Billion human threshold this year, and environmental problems continue to grow exponentially worse, there is no better time to address this issue than the present. Many environmentalist identify overpopulation as one of the ‘root ...

Jewcology Celebrates our 100th Day!

Mazel tov! We're excited to be celebrating the 100th day since Jewcology's launch on November 29. In honor of this happy anniversary, we are awarding the new Jewcology Leaf to our most active participants. You can see the leaf in the corner of the profile pictures of our top participants. Look on the site to see who got the leaf, and participate actively to earn your own! Jewcology has come a long way in the last 100 days. In just 100 days, the site has generated over 10,000 visits from nearly 6,000 unique visitors representing 80 countries. In addition, the site features: 469 resources for ...