"There is hope for a tree. If it is cut down, it will renew itself...At the scent of water, it will bud and produce branches like a sapling." Job 14:7-9
Tu B'Shevat, the new year for trees, is a natural time for having students consider our responsibilities to the natural world and ways we can protect it. It can also be a time for them to explore what we can learn from nature that can uplift us and increase our feelings of spirituality.
Lead your students on an exploration of how we can draw hope from nature.
The Babaganewz article "Sap," available free from our Resource Libraries, draws a comparison between sap rising in a tree and hope. This lesson includes a text study from Jeremiah along with an additional source from Shemot Rabbah, some Hebrew vocabulary to introduce (tree, trunk, branch, and sap), and a full lesson plan to help you lead students through some deeper thinking about finding hope the meaning of trust in God. As part of the lesson, each student will develop a “Self Portrait as a Tree” to explore how hope can nourish growth and change, just as sap provides nutrients for growth in nature. For the full lesson, which includes downloadable pdfs of the lesson plan, the text source sheets (in English and in Hebrew), and even instructions for how to collect sap for maple sap (and the correct blessing over maple syrup!), search SAP in the Resource Libraries.
We also have other free resources that help you lead learning groups in thoughtful discussions and activities that focus on hope. (The links below offer a preview of the material. For full access to each article or lesson and all the related downloads including text source sheets, click 'Hope' in the Values menu of the Resource Libraries; All articles are listed in alphabetical order by the first word of the article title).
- Hold On To Hope. Using text sources from Isaiah and also the words of Adon Olam, students will be able to think about hope in their own lives and compile their own list of tikvah tips for use in times of trouble.
- Hope pdf. A printable pdf with text from Psalms 27 and Hatikvah.
- Hope in the Holy Land. Interviews of Israeli teens by Dr. Daniel Gordis sets the stage for a discussion of hope in Israel when circumstances are challenging.
For a large group introduction, or for a family program on hope and Tu B'Shevat, you may wish to try our Hope PowerPoint slideshow, one of 50 Babaganewz values slideshows available in the Resource Libraries. You can preview it here.
If you are holding a Tu B'Shevat seder for students or families, you can include these Seven Species Dessert bars from a Babaganewz recipe. Review the seven species and learn about Tu B'Shevat traditions in other countries and in other times in Fruitful Traditions. Enliven your seder with these downloadable Tu B'Shevat Leaves, each printed with questions, activities, and facts related to environmental and Tu B'Shevat themes. Make copies and distribute among your participants to enliven your seder and deepen student thinking. Or, play Treevial Pursuits a Tu B'Shevat board game. The recipe and the Fruitful Traditions article are both free. The set of Tu B'Shevat downloadable leaves, and the board game are available in the Resoruce Libraries for $2.99 each. (Click Tu B'shevat in the purple Holidays menu in the Resource Libraries; articles are in alphabetical order by the first work of the title
Want to concentrate more on environmental themes for the holiday? The PowerPoint slideshow Avoiding Waste ($9.99 in the Resource LIbraries), which works in large groups, and with families and intergenerational learners, helps them contemplate the theme of bal tashchit by starting close to their own lives with thought proviking questions: When you eat a banana and throw away the peel, are you wasting the peel?
The Behrman House Resource Libraries contain nearly 2,000 individual resources for enriching learning of all kinds. Subjects include Israel, Holidays, Jewish Values, educational technology, Hebrew prayer, and more. Over 500 of these articles, lessons, recipes and images are free. The others, from single session 'instant' lessons, to slideshows for large group assemblies, and Visual Tefillah to help bring a sense of spirituality to learning prayer, are available both to individual educators and to schools, and once purchased are yours to keep, available for easy projecting or for printing as many times as you like for as long as you have an account at Behrmanhouse.com.
Resource Library items are also compatible with the Online Learning Center. Each resource can be posted directly into multiple classes at one time. Student materials will be visible in the class, and your matching teacher resource materials will be available to as a downloadable resource in your own account.
Pre-paid subscriptions to the Resource Libraries are also available. All purchases made through your pre-paid subscription receive a 20% discount. Schools can create pre-paid subscription accounts and invite teachers to use them.
Would you like to know more about the Resource Libaries and setting up a pre-paid subscription? Contact us today and we'll answer all your questions.
