This Pardes Life Season 3: Episode 7 Special for Tu B’Shvat with Aviva Lauer

Introduction

Join Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield for a special episode of This Pardes Life for Tu B’Shvat with Aviva Lauer, a master educator and Director of the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators. In this podcast, they discuss cultivating a Jewish approach to environmentalism. Aviva traces the development of the significance of Tu B’Shvat from Mishnaic times to today, and shares how this process of creative development over time and changing circumstances can be a blueprint for how contemporary Jews can feel both rooted in tradition and discover new, personally relevant lessons in Jewish practice.

For further reading, see Aviva’s article on The Many (Authentic) Facelifts of Tu B’Shvat.


This Pardes Life sees Pardes teacher Rabbi Zvi Hirshfield gets up close and personal with fellow teachers and alumni talking about life, texts and Pardes. See www.elmad.pardes.org/thispardeslife for other episodes in this series.

Zvi Hirschfield

Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield teaches Talmud, Halakha and Jewish Thought at Pardes. He is also deeply involved in Pardes’s programs for Jewish educators, with a focus on tefilah in educational settings, modern Jewish thought, and Israel education. Zvi holds a B.A. in History from Columbia University, pursued graduate studies at Harvard University in Medieval and Modern Jewish Thought, studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion, and received rabbinic ordination from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

Before joining Pardes, Zvi served as Director of Judaica at the JCC of Cleveland and taught at the Cleveland College of Jewish Studies. He also works as a curriculum writer and staff trainer for the Nesiya Institute. Zvi lives in Israel with his wife, Dina, and their four children.