Events
Arrange a Torah Flora Event
Upcoming Events
Recent Programs
Sample Speaking Topics
If you are considering a Torah Flora program, I encourage you to contact me (jon@torahflora.org) to discuss possible formats and topics. I would be happy to collaborate with you to come up with a format and topics that are customized for your audience. I can also provide references from sponsors of earlier events.
I’ve listed some sample topics following the list of events below. The list of possible formats and topics for a Torah Flora program is flexible and always changing. Possibilities that may be suitable for your group include botanical garden tours, Powerpoint presentations, hands-on student activities, a scholar-in-residence program, ancient beer and food tasting, or a presentation followed by a food tasting.
To receive e-mail announcements of upcoming Torah Flora events and new articles, please e-mail me at jon@torahflora.org. The Torah flora e-mail list is strictly confidential and involves no ads, spam, or sharing of e-mail addresses.
February 18, 2012
Botany, Prophecy, and Theology
Shabbat afternoon talk at Hebrew Institute of Riverdale
3700 Henry Hudson Parkway (at 237th St. and Netherland Ave.), Bronx, NY
See how our understanding of Jeremiah’s theology depends on the identify of the plant he alluded to in a puzzling metaphor of religious faith. This talk will follow Minchah. For more information or directions, contact the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale at 718-796-4730 or office@thebayit.org.
February 20-21, 2012
Florida Speaking Tour
The current schedule includes the following events, as well as private programs in Miami Beach and Cooper City. Inquiries about additions to the itinerary for this tour are welcome at jon@torahflora.org.
Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012
Insights on the meaning of Passover from botany, pharmacology, and barbecue
physics
Lecture at Temple Beit HaYam, 951 SE Monterey Commons Blvd., Stuart, FL 34996. The program begins at 7:30 PM and is open to the public without charge. Samples of the original wild maror (bitter herb) will be available for tasting. For more information, contact Temple Beit HaYam at 772-286-1531 or info@tbhfl.org.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Science and Torah: Friends and Enemies
Following services at 8:00 PM at Kol Ami Reconstructionist Synagogue
2601 St. Andrews Blvd., Boca Raton, FL
Highlights include:
- Barbecue physics, Peter Rabbit, and the meaning of Passover
- What was the tree of knowledge?
- Noah and Pharaoh: Was civilization just a way to get a beer?
- Talmudic mushroom physiology, 1800 years ahead of academic biology
Refreshments to follow. For more information contact Congregation Kol Ami at
561-392-0696 or kolami1@aol.com.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Insights into Passover from botany, food history, and barbecue physics
Illustrated lecture with light refreshments
7:00 PM at the East Midwood Jewish Center
1625 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NYC 11230
Highlights include:
- Peter Rabbit and what’s wrong with horseradish
- Pomegranate anatomy explains the Paschal lamb sacrifice
- Did civilization begin as a way to get a beer? Saying no to yeast worship
Admission is $10 for members of the East Midwood Jewish Center Sisterhood and $15 for all others. For more information or to reserve a place, call the East Midwood Jewish Center at 718-338-3800.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Narrated Shabbat dinner and beer tasting at Congregation Shearith Israel, 70th St. at Central Park West, New York City
A culinary and agricultural tour of Torah and Jewish history for young leadership (ages 20s through 40s)
Details to follow soon.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Brunch-Lecture at the YM-YWHA of Union County, NJ, Noon to 1 PM
Matzah, maror, and lamb: Passover insights from science and food history
Highlights include:
- Bread and beer: Pride of the slave drivers
- The Talmud’s warning: Slavery grows like wild lettuce
- The God who hates superstition mocks sheep and onion worship
The fee for the program is $3 for YM-YWHA and JOY members and $8 for all others. For more information or to reserve a place, contact Susan Silberner at ssilberner@yahoo.com or 908-289-8112 X 34.
The YM-YWHA of Union County is located at 501 Green Lane, Union, NJ 07083.
Monday, June 25, 2011
Torah tour of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Includes transportation from the YM-YWHA of Union County, located at 501 Green Lane, Union, NJ 07083.
Highlights include:
- The vegetables that kept Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden
- How Columbus made Passover food easier
- Why Israel became a Roman gourmet destination
- The Biblical fruit that crowned European kings
The fee for the program is $25 for YM-YWHA and JOY members and $50 for all others. For more information or to reserve a place, contact Susan Silberner at ssilberner@yahoo.com or 908-289-8112 X 34.
Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012
Brunch-Lecture at the YM-YWHA of Union County, NJ
Lessons from the olive Tree for families, Jewish unity,and the Social Security system
Highlights included:
- The Chanukah story they DIDN’T tell you as a child
- Why a nineteenth-century rabbi used botany to make sense of the Friday night prayers
- The hidden tree and advice to adult children and parents in Psalm 92
December 8, 2011
Lunch & Learn at Congregation Shearith Israel (the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue) in New York
Lecture on “Lessons from the Olive Tree for Chanukah, Jewish Unity, and
the Social Security System”
August 17-18, 2011
Four Talks at the Chabad National Jewish Retreat
August 11-16, 2011
A Healthier Planet, A Healthier You: Two six-part program series at Block and Hexter Vacation Center in Poyntelle, Pennsylvania:
- Series 1: Nutrition for a Healthy Retirement
- Series 2: Environmentalism: Part of a full Jewish life?
July 31, 2011
Torah tour of The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, NY.
Highlights included:
- Samples of the original maror
- The “Etrog Problem”– How a conflict between science and Torah was created and solved
- Why wine is important in Judaism but beer helped create civilization
- Botany is Theology: Our understanding of Jeremiah’s theology depends on what plant we think he used as a metaphor for faith
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Biblical botany tour of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden with sign language interpretation for the deaf and hearing-impaired and their families
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Biblical botany tour of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for women and children
Torah Flora Weekend in the Berkshires, July 15-17, 2011
Three Events:
July 15, 2011
Slide Lecture and Lunch at Hevreh of the Southern Berkshires, sponsored by Jewish Federation of the Berkshires
Great Barrington, MA
Passover and Peter Rabbit, Olive trees and Social Security:
How Insights from Nature, Science, and Agriculture can Help us Understand and Appreciate the Torah
July 15-16, 2011
Shabbat at Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Falls Village, CT
(Part of the Center’s summer Senior Adult Program)
- Friday night lecture on Nature and Torah
- Shabbat afternoon Torah tour of the Retreat Center’s vegetable gardens
July 17, 2011
Torah tour of The Berkshire Botanical Garden in West Stockbridge, MA.
- How the Exile helped Jews teach Americans that tomatoes are edible.
- Why wine is important in Judaism but beer is just something we don’t drink on Passover
- How the onion family traces Jewish history from the Philistines and Romans through Dutch New Amsterdam to bagels and lox.
June 7-9, 2011 Shavuot
Lecture-demonstrations, all-night Shavuot learning, and Torah nature walk at Kutsher’s Country Club resort, Monticello, NY
The theme for the learning during Shavuot this year at Kutsher’s was “Halachic issues related to the state of Israel.” I spoke along with Rabbi Rafael Grossman (former president of the Rabbinical Council of America), Rabbi Yale Butler, and Meir Weingarten (Middle East affairs commentator and Israel tour operator). My speaking topics were:
- When most Jews are Israeli: Halachot that are about to change
- Beer and wine, pistachios and idol worship: The fruits of Eretz Israel in halachah and symbolism
The guided Torah nature walk by the lake was beautiful and as always, a very successful favorite of singles: After enjoying the tour, nearly all of them wandered off to talk in pairs!
April 21-26, 2011
Beer, Peter Rabbit, and Barbecue Physics: Insights into Pesach from nature and agriculture
A series of six daily presentations during Passover in the Poconos at Block and Hexter Vacation Center in Poyntelle, Pennsylvania.
September 28, 2010
Torah tour of The Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Two tours of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Conservatory greenhouses, one intended primarily for families and children, and one for Jewish singles.
Highlights of the tour included:
- A poisonous relative of tomatoes and potatoes, and the story of how a Jewish exile helped Thomas Jefferson overcome his fear of tomatoes
- The tree that Noah probably used to build his ark (There is no such thing as a “gopher tree.”)
- The forest fire and the history lesson hidden in the lulav and etrog
- The secret of the olive tree that connects Chanukah and Tu B’Av
- See for yourself why the rabbis decided that a banana is more like an onion than an apple
August 20-22, 2010
Lecture-demonstrations and nature walk at Kutsher’s Country Club resort, Monticello, NY
The Shabbat afternoon Torah nature walk was full of surprises and a strong favorite of singles. The topics of my lecture-demonstrations were:
- The Seven Species and the Choice Products: Taste the Difference
- Apples & Honey: Symbols of Prosperity and Chaos
The presentations were enhanced by tastings, botanical art, and fragrant myrrh and frankincense (Hebrew Mor and Levonah)
August 15, 2010
Torah tour of The Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Highlights of the tour included:
- Five Passover plants that got fired (They used to be on the seder plate)
- Vegetables that kept Adam and Eve from slipping back into the Garden of Eden
- The critical role of beer in the Exodus and the origin of civilization
July 26, 2010
Torah tour of The Berkshire Botanical Garden in West Stockbridge, MA. Highlights of the tour included:
- Lilies you have eaten that trace Jewish history from the Philistines and Romans to Dutch New Amsterdam, bagels, and lox
- A flowering plant that created a choice between defrauding the Jewish people and Roman execution
- A plant that looks like a menorah, was the namesake of the Temple Mount, and is now eaten on Thanksgiving
July 25, 2010
What is Maror?
Lecture and sampling at the annual convention of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists at the Heritage Hotel in Southbury, CT
July 14-21, 2010
In the Fields and Footsteps of Our Ancestors–A Journey through Nature to the Heart of the Torah
A series of six lectures with food samples and a meditation on Torah and nature at Block and Hexter Vacation Center in Poyntelle, Pennsylvania
July 11, 2010
Torah Tour of the New York Botanical Garden.
This event was enthusiastically reviewed on the Jew and the Carrot blog: JCarrot Review. Highlights included:
- The meaning of a common spice plant that looks like a menorah
- How the exile of the Jewish people led Americans to see that tomatoes are not poisonous, paving the way for pizza sauce and ketchup
- The critical importance of beer to the origin of civilization
May 18-20, 2010
Shavuot at Kutsher’s Country Club Resort in Monticello, New York. Four sessions:
Fruits of Idolatry, Fruits of the One God: The Meaning of the Bikkurim
Lessons of the Olive Tree: Jewish Unity, Jewish Families, and the Social Security System
Botany Determines Theology: Jeremiah’s Puzzling Simile of the Faithless Man and the Desert Tree
Understanding the Korban Pesach Barbecue with a Little Help from Botany and Food Science
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Interview on Land Minds, a Web radio program devoted to Israeli and Biblical history and geography. The interview has been archived and can be heard at http://www.foundationstone.org/page49/page49.html or at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/radio/.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Two talks at Congregation Ahawas Achim B’nai Jacob and David in West Orange, NJ: The Origin, History, and Meaning of Tu B’Shvat and Shivat HaMinim and Zimrat HaAretz: The Hazards of Natural Religion
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Insights from Ethnobotany and Culinary History that Help us to Appreciate the Mitzvot of Pesach: Address to Professor Karen Shawn’s graduate course, Resources for Jewish Educators, at Azrieli Graduate School of Education, Yeshiva University
Friday and Saturday, May 29-30, 2009 (Shavuot) Two classes at Block & Hexter Vacation Center: Insights into the Mitzvot of Pesach From Thermal Physics, Ethnobotany, and Beer; Tales of the White Squill and Decoding the Secret of the Hidden Tree: Jewish Unity, Piety, and the Social Security System
Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008, 7:30 PM at the Jewish Community Center of Paramus, E-304 Midland Ave., Paramus, NJ 07652
Spices Around the World, in History, and in Judaism
This dinner and lecture/demonstration was sponsored by Hadassah for their members and prospective members.
- What is maror? Species, symbolism, why it’s not bitter, and what it has to do with the Civil War, Peter Rabbit, and Renee Zellwegger
- Botany and theology—How plant identification affects our understanding of prophetic metaphor
- Tu b’Shvat–History and symbolism (Why are we trying to plant trees in February?)
- The importance of beer and wine in Jewish history and the origin of civilization
- Why the menorah? Chanukah, Jewish unity, and the symbolism of the olive tree
- Shavuot and the first fruits–Why these seven species?
- Egypt, Israel, and Sukkot–Why the sukkah? Why these four species? Why does the Torah connect idol worship with irrigation?
- Mizmor Shir l’Yom haShabbat: Why the date palm? Why the cedar? Is there a hidden third tree in this psalm?
- How did Betzalel get the huge logs he needed to build the mishkan?
- Astronomy and theology of the calendar in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
- Pesach: What does “Chag ha’Aviv” mean? (Not ”springtime festival”)
- What is the “gopher wood” that Noah used? (There is no “gopher tree”)
- Mushroom physiology—How the kabbalah anticipated biology
- Lessons for families and Social Security from the olive tree (Psalm 128)
- Tales of the white squill (Tu b’Av, unity of the Jewish people and the land of Israel, and Li’l Abner)
- Sefirat HaOmer, the mystical significance of wheat and barley, and the modern problems of the mitzvah of yashan
- Why was the expression “land of milk and honey” a blessing for Moses, but an expression of disaster for the later prophets?
- Spices: Sacraments, medicines, symbols, preservatives, and flavorings
- Your enemy’s olive tree: Halachah and vandalism of Arab orchards
- When most Jews are Israeli: Halachot that are about to change
- Michshol lifnei ha’ever: The halachic question of Israeli arms exports
