Shalom Rabbi Berger,
Merkaz HaHalacha (The Halacha Education Center), under the leadership of Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon, is offering two informative and experiential educational opportunities to learn about and be inspired by the mitzvot of shemitta.
1) The first is a 32-page full-color booklet for students to study and analyze some of the basic shemitta sources, engaging with the messages that shemitta has to offer the Jewish people and the world at large. The basic halachot of shemitta are understood as part of an overall vision which provides not only an agricultural year of rest for the farmer, but a year to question and re-examine what type of society and economy is best and what type of person one aims to be. The rebirth of Jewish agricultural and commercial life in the Land of Israel is understood against the backdrop of shemitta, which calls all Jews worldwide to inculcate the lessons of shemitta.
The student booklets are divided into four classes of materials, ideal for a yom iyun, weeklong session or mini-semester. There is an accompanying teacher's guide which also provides material for school projects that will beautify the classroom and ensure that the messages of shemitta remain with the students in a powerful way.
Please take a look at our brochure online - [
www.halachaed.org].
2) The second (which can be used in conjunction with or independently of the first) is a powerful seminar regarding the experience of shemitta. Each informative discussion and lecture is based on a video which aims to impart not only knowledge, but an unforgettable experience, especially for those who have had little exposure to the actual halachot of shemitta. The presentation addresses:
• Shemitta's various areas of impact
• Accounts of non-Jewish individuals who took a "shemitta-type sabbatical," completely stopping their routines and closing down their businesses, and what they feel they gained
• The Shemitta Effect: The Life of a Shemitta-Observant Jew — short clips from interviews with farmers and consumers regarding what the shemitta year means for them
• Firsthand accounts of great businessmen and economists (both Jews and non-Jews) who were so enamored by shemitta and its messages that they were willing to change their lives and their economic views
• An appreciation of the stakes for shemitta observance through the prophetic words of the Torah, as understood through commentary coming to life
• Testimonies over time — from the great writers to Arab leaders
• Powerful footage of the agricultural rebirth of the Land of Israel, expressed through shemitta's practical significance for the Jewish people
• Shemitta in My Father's Vineyard, a video produced by Merkaz HaHalacha in conjunction with the Jewish National Fund, illustrating the realities of shemitta
• Opportunities for the students to inculcate these messages and initiate class-wide and school-wide projects that will bring the lessons home
Second Presentation Available: The Practicalities of Consumption — the shemitta-observance controversy, then and now; the joy of eating foods with shemitta sanctity; the options and their respective halakhot.
The Shemitta seminars are available between the dates March 9th-March 19th.
Pricing:
Shemitta Booklets:
Student Shemitta booklet- $4 (minimum order of 15 booklets)
Over 100 booklets- $3 a booklet.
Teacher's guide- $10
*Shipping and handling prices will be added.
Shemitta Seminars:
3 hours of seminars $500 (different options of dividing the time are available- For instance, shorter seminars can be given to different grades or classes separately)
*An additional price for transportation from New Jersey will be added.
For more information please contact the Halacha Education Center at
Yitzchak Bodner
Yitz.mhalacha@gmail.com
www.halachaed.org/en/
+972505729700
Director of English Curriculum
Halacha Education Center
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2015 12:44PM by mlb.
