resources for Behar-Bechukotai and for Rainbow Day (42nd day of the Omer)

[David Seidenberg]

Dear Chevra,

Here are some powerful resources for Behar-Bechukotai. As you may know from my work, I understand the entire purpose of the covenant to be the creation of a society capable of observing Shmita and Yovel. Shmita and Yovel contain within themselves every other aspect of social justice and equality and redemption for the poor, for the land, and the Earth, and for our fellow species. 

Behar-Bechukotai this year is also read on the day before Rainbow Day -- which is the 27th of the second month, when the Rainbow covenant was established. The connection between Shmitah and Sinai also makes these good resources to study on Shavuot. 

One of the resources, a text study, traces the way in which the Shmita covenant fixes what was broken before the Rainbow covenant. You can download the four pages of text plus commentary here: https://neohasid.org/pdf/Genesis-Shmitah-covenant8.3.3.pdf and the two page abridged version here: https://neohasid.org/pdf/Genesis-covenant-tamtzit6.5.pdf (large print version also available). 

Basic idea of the text study: Genesis up through the flood is the story of humanity ruining its relationship with the earth, and God giving up on humanity as a whole getting it right. The covenant with Abraham is the beginning of the process of fixing that relationship, using one people and one land, which culminates in the Shmita year. 

Here's a list of some chief clues: 1) Eden is where humans and the other animals share in the same food; Shmita is the time when this sharing is re-created, when it's a mitzvah to let the wild animals eat from our farmland. 2) In the first chapters of the Torah we are told three times that the purpose of humanity is to "serve the land / la'avod et ha'adamah" (translating this as "work the land" has the opposite meaning and is false). 3) Before the flood, the Torah says seven times that the *land* is ruined because of humanity's sins. After the flood, the word brit is used seven times, but this brit is one where God has given up on humanity (there will be no more flood for the sake of humanity = for the sake of teaching humanity). 4) Shmita repairs this fracture between humanity and the earth and between humanity and God. 5) Shmita is so important that we practice every single week for it on Shabbat.

Here are more links:

https://adamah.org/resource/shmita-resource-library/ -- two years' worth of drashot on Shmita from Hazon (included three from me)

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/bechukotai-what-are-the-curses-teaching-us/ - "Bechutkotai: what the curses are teaching us"

https://neohasid.org/torah/genesis-shmitah/ - everything on neohasid.org relate to Shmitah

https://adamah.org/wp-content/uploads/Shmita-The-Purpose-of-Sinai.pdf - "Shmitah - the purpose of Sinai" (answering the question "Mah inyan Shmitah etzel har Sinai?"

https://jewcology.org/resources/rainbow-day/ - intro to the Rainbow Day curriculum

Download the whole Rainbow Day curriculum here: 

https://jewcology.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/RainbowDay-curriculum-6.1.pdf

kol tuv,  

David Seidenberg

The Rainbow Day Curriculum includes these lessons and activities:

The Rainbow Blessing
1. Teach the Rainbow blessing and blessing the trees
Texts from Tanakh
2. The Rainbow covenant in Genesis
3. A Tale of Two Covenants: Rainbow and Shmita
4. Hoshea and the Messianic covenant
Songs
5. A song for the Hoshea verse
Midrashim: interpretations of the rainbow sign
6. Ezekiel, and a Kabbalistic interpretation of the rainbow
7. Noah and environmental responsibility
8. Flood, Ark and Rainbow, R. Arthur Waskow (also for Lag B’Omer)
9. Human responsibility, R. Shlomo Riskin
10. The diversity and unity of all life, R. Shimshon Rafael Hirsch
11. On human moral development, R. Avraham Yitzhak Kook (link)
12. * The rainbow and diversity – an interpretation of the Zohar
Biodiversity
13. Learn about biodiversity (link)
14. Pick a rainbow!
15. Study endangered species (focus on frogs)
Science, Culture and Art
16. How many colors are in a rainbow?
17. Do other animals see colors the way we do?
18. Colors and dyes
19. The science of rainbows
20. Art projects
21. Poetry!
Liturgy and Prayers
22. Rainbow prayer for creation, R. David Seidenberg
23. Council of All Beings (link)
24. A mikveh meditation, Carol Rose
Current Issues
25. Global climate disruption, aka climate change
26. * Hydrofracking
27. * Fracking in Israel and “energy security” vs. solar
28. * Pipelines
29. The Farm Bill
30. * Common deadly chemicals in anti-bacterial soap and sunscreen
31. Tzedakah and justice
Seed Saving, Harvests and Gardens
32. Seed saving and Naamah
33. Read Naamah: Noah’s Wife by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
34. For the Omer: plant a “grainbow”!
35. Eli Rogosa’s story about finding an ancient wheat
36. Plant a rainbow garden (link)
37. Count the omer! (link)
The Seven Noachide Laws
38. The seven colors of the rainbow and the seven laws
39. More study ideas

--

"Kabbalah and Ecology: God's Image in the More-Than-Human World" (Cambridge, 2015) is in paperback. Read sections and get more info at: neohasid.org/KAE/.