Celebrating Shabbat Through Energy Conservation

Audience: Ages 11 and up

Duration: 15 minutes

Goals:

To explore shabbat as a weekly environmental holiday

To calculate how much energy is saved by observing shabbat

Materials: Worksheet (attached) – 1 per pair of students

Pencils & pens

Calculators – 1 per pair of students

Procedure:

1) Discuss the values and practices of shabbat.

2) Divide students into pairs and distribute worksheets on per pair

3) Read and discuss the quote at the top of the page. Discuss the value of shabbat as a day of not using resources.

4) Distribute pencils and calculators

5) Instruct students to compete the worksheet.

6) Share final answer and discuss.

Final Answer: If every Jew in America didn’t use a TV, computer or drive on Shabbat we would eliminate

10,923,120,000 lbs of CO2 each year!

Materials developed by Noam Dolgin, www.noamdolgin.com.

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