This lesson will teach the basic Biblical laws of Tza’ar Ba’alei Chaim (the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) the rationale that supports these laws, and practical applications of these laws in today’s world. The learner will participate in a class project aimed to assist community programs that aid abandoned and stray animals.
This lesson provides learners with a deeper understanding of the concept of giving tzedakah utilizing primary source materials to identify the manner in which the commandment is to be performed. Learners are then asked to identify behavioral guidelines from the values expressed in the texts. An optional component asks learners to plan and perform a tzedakah project in keeping with the values studied.
It is obvious that our bodies require proper nutrition. It is less obvious that our souls and imaginations require sustenance as well. This lesson is intended as nutrition for the spirit. It is intended to demonstrate ways that people utilize their time, their talent and their treasure to improve the lives of others. These endeavors, often voluntary, are ones that fulfill the precept of loving one’s neighbor by providing for them what it is that we wish for ourselves.
Our lives are the results of billions of decisions. Not only the big decisions – law school or skydiving classes, but the small decisions as well – do you greet someone or pass by? Do you extend a helping hand or the back of it? What we decide determines the course of lives, the content of our character and the condition of our world. In this lesson we look at texts that speak to how we use our personal power in this world and then find and record opportunities to act on the learning.
Our tradition of caring and sharing for one another has its roots in the creation of humanity b’tzelem elohim, (in the Divine image). That concept is explained in concrete terms by Maimonides (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon) and helps form an ethical imperative that sanctifies our everyday behavior. This lesson enables the learners to develop an understanding of tolerance that is based in the universal concept that all of humanity shares a Divine origin.
In this lesson the learners will be introduced to some of the individuals/Heroes whose acts of tikun olam provide important models. Having developed a better understanding of tikun olam based upon Sefer Yetzirah and other classical and modern sources on the topic of how the work of tikun olam is to be performed, Lesson Three adds to the scaffolding necessary for learners to create their own mitzvah project/”service plan” for world repair.
This lesson will introduce learners to a number of texts from classical and modern sources on the topic of how the work of tikun olam is to be performed. From these texts, the learners will derive rules for Jewish living and apply those rules, along with input from family members, to appropriately responding to the question- How is a person to use his/her time, talent and treasure?
This lesson will familiarize learners with a story of Creation from the Jewish mystical tradition. The story, based upon the Sefer Yetzirah, provides the foundation for the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, repair of the world. Learners will begin to formulate a personal concept of what that message might mean in their own lives.
The most important role models for learners demonstrate how one can live responsibly in our world while achieving success by contemporary measure. The great gift and challenge of Judaism is to bring holiness to the profane- to the worldly. The models offered in this lesson are successful in this world and they act as well as give voice to the ideal of caring and sharing our personal gifts and bounty.
We are commanded to “master the earth”. How one elects to do that, is a product of one’s understanding of the concept of mastery. This lesson enables learners to create a personally meaningful model and action plan of mastery/stewardship based upon their interpretation of traditional texts.