Torah of Farming | Old JFN site

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The Torah of Farming is an introduction to the foundational texts of Jewish agricultural wisdom, developed specifically by and for Jewish Farmers. Join us for a 7 week online educational journey through ancient, visionary Jewish agricultural wisdom!

The goal of this class is to connect Jewish farmers with

the relevant agricultural wisdom and practices of the Jewish tradition
each other!

This course is for you if you…

🍅 are Jewish AND a current, lapsed, or aspiring farmer

🌽 want to learn about Jewish agricultural texts, ethics, and wisdom

🍉 want to connect and build community with other Jewish farmers!

🌻 have been yearning for someone to lay down the basics of Jewish farming for you!

The details:

Sliding scale $54 - $108 with scholarships available
Capacity limited to 36 Participants!
October 21st- December 2nd 2024 from 7:00-8:30pm EST/ 4:00-5:30pm PT!

What topics will be covered?

Jewish agricultural calendar, Shabbat, and Shmita
Jewish approaches to animal, soil, and tree stewardship
Jewish food justice principles

Week 1: Getting to know you/weaving our stories as modern Jewish farmers into the story of the Jewish people with Shani Mink

Week 2: Jewish Agricultural Calendar with Kizmet Grace
Week 3: Shabbat/ Shmitah/ Yovel as radical rest for farmers and their land with SJ Seldin and Liel Green
Week 4: Jewish Food Justice with Cara Michelle Silverberg
Week 5:Jewish Livestock Ethics with Ian Hertzmark
Week 6: Jewish Soil Stewardship with Shamu Fenyvesi Sadeh
Week 7: Land Stories, Diaspora, and Our Relationships to Place with Ollie Schwartz

Past Teachers/Facilitators

Shani Mink (she/her)

Shani Mink is a seasoned farmer, experiential Jewish educator and the executive director of the Jewish Farmer Network. Shani began her farming journey at the age of 18 and has since worked on farms up and down the East Coast and abroad as a field hand, educator, manager and consultant.

Kizmet Alexander Grace

Kizmet Alexander Grace (he/him) is an educator, artist, and healer working to transform institutional trauma as a visitor on O’odham and Yaqui Territory. With a commitment to embodied presence and radically sustaining care, he offers flower medicine and somatic coaching as part of his practice Bloom & Root. He is a Creative Assistant for Rebekah Erev Studio, where he supports research, writing, and class development. In 5782, he co-authored the Shmita Hives curriculum with his chevruta, Asher Edes, inspired by their connection in ALEPH's Kesher Fellowship. The Shmita Hives curriculum offers options for participants to study together, practice rest and collective care, access play and embodiment, identify needs in their local communities, and collaborate on social/environmental justice projects in time with the Hebrew calendar. He loves learning about and transforming his relationship to time through many methods. Additional modes of understanding he incorporates are those of ancestral healing and clown.

Liel Green (they/them)

Liel Green first began farming in high school as part of Growing Youth Organizers, a coalition of young people committed to ending food apartheid and providing accessible political education for all ages. They graduated from Smith College with a degree in Jewish Studies, the Study of Women and Gender, and a Five College Certificate in Queer, Trans, and Sexuality Studies where they completed their thesis project on Queer-Jewish Futurity and Shabbat. Liel has worked as a Jewish Justice Educator and Farmer at Abundance Farm, as a co-director of Rowe Young People’s Camp, and as a crew member on Astarte Farm. Liel believes that through the loving and full integration of our whole selves, identities, histories, and traditions we can begin to move towards more meaningful solidarity with movements for healing and liberation of both people and land. Rootedness in and an exploration of the relevancy of Jewish- agricultural knowledge has enabled Liel to feel like they could even begin to move and collaborate towards collective visions of Olam Ha-ba, the World to Come. Liel loves their brilliant and beautiful community, creating big art with friends, dovening [praying], glitter, matzah ball soup, and zines.

SJ Seldin (they/them)

SJ Seldin is co-founder and board chair of Jewish Farmer Network. SJ is also a co-founder and farmer/steward at Yesod Farm+Kitchen, a Jewish community farm dedicated to collective liberation through Jewish agriculture, mutual aid, and growing relationships across difference on 16 acres of ancestral Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee) and Catawba lands near Asheville, NC. SJ loves to mikveh (ritually immerse) in wild living waters, to talk about yovel, and to dream about Olam Ha'Ba (the World to Come).

Nili Simhai (she/her)

Nili Simhai is the Director of Environmental and Agricultural Education at Abundance Farm, an earth-based, community building venture in Northampton, MA that integrates Jewish tradition, regenerative agriculture, and food justice. She has been recognized for her leadership in counseling thousands of educators and Jewish spaces in the tenets of Jewish environmental education and prior to her position at Abundance Farm Nili was the Director of the Teva program for fourteen years.

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Shamu Fenyvesi Sadeh (he/him)

Shamu Fenyvesi Sadeh is the co-founder of Adamah. He teaches Judaism and ecology, turns the compost piles, maintains the orchards, and mentors staff, Adamah Fellows and others at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center on traditional Mahican land in the NW corner of Connecticut. He has been a wilderness guide, writer and professor, and learned to shlepp the material and spiritual from his parents and ancestors.

Rabbi Jonathan Bernhard (he/him)

After 25 years at a wonderful congregation, Rabbi Jonathan Bernhard decided it was time for a change and for a different way of serving the Jewish and of following his passions. Among other areas, Jonathan now works in animal welfare education and raising awareness in the Jewish community about our sacred obligations and their implications. He is a past president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, the co-founder of the Valley Chevra Kadisha and the vice chair of the Sandra Caplan Community Beit Din. He and his wife Laurie live in the San Fernando Valley and they have 3 grown sons, 2 small dogs and 3 noisy chickens.

FAQ

Do I have to live in a specific location in order to participate? No! You are welcome to join from wherever you are.

Am I Jewish “enough” to participate? Yes!!! Jewish Farmer Network formed from the need and desire for a Jewish community that centers and uplifts Jewish agrarians, from every point of the kaleidoscope of Jewish (and agricultural!) identity, background, and experience. We are not gatekeepers or arbiters of who is Jewish. If you hold Jewish heritage or identity, you are welcome. If you come from a multi-tradition household/family, you are welcome. If you are a Jew-by-choice, you are welcome. If you have never stepped into a Jewish space before, you are especially welcome. Come as you are, as you are. We are thrilled to meet you, to learn from you, and to craft ever-more accessible spaces for learning and connection.

Do I need to be a farmer to apply? No! Farmers and agriculturalists of all kinds, at any stage of your journey (current, future, lapsed, retired, questioning) are welcome to apply! We welcome gardeners, seed keepers, shepherds, land stewards, landscapers, vintners, brewers, compost people, foragers, arborists, fermenters, herbalists, natural crafts makers, hydroponics people, aquaponics practitioners and other food system folks. If you are or are seeking to be in relationship with land and/or the abundance of the earth, we know there’s something for you here. Even if you’re just curious, you are welcome to apply. However, the content of this course is crafted for and by farmers and as such, the material is specifcially geared towards the experiences of those who are active farmers.

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