Living and Loving the Land of Israel

Before the Pesach vacation, the entire student body of Orot took a field trip to the mountains of the Lower Galilee, the Atzmon Mountain and the remains of the Yishuv Yodfat. We chose to concentrate on a track with medium difficulty, which included climbing the Atzmon Mountain (547 meters). The top of the mountain overlooks the amazing view of the Beit Netufa valley, the area of the Tzippori yishuv, Hoshaya, Beit Rimon and the Nazareth range from the south. The track included walking in the Mediterranean Sea vegetation and an amazing spring blossoming.
After a rest, the students descended the Atzmon Mountain towards Yodfat. Yodfat is an important city from the end of the 2nd Temple that refused to the surrender to the Romans as other cities had, and chose to fight bravely instead. Sadly, the battle concluding with Zippori's fall at the hands of Roman conquerors on their way to the oppression of the rebellion and the destruction of Jerusalem (in the year 70).
The fieldtrip was led by the 1st year students of Orot's Department of Eretz Yisrael Studies, who were thoroughly prepared by their teachers Dr. Yitzhak Sapir and Naama Bindiger.
Why does Orot insist on conducting field trips for the entire student body? If you don't live the Land of Israel, you can't love the Land properly. And, without that love, how will a teacher communicate the value of Eretz Yisrael to her students in the future? These field trips strengthen and develop the relationship of Orot's students with the Land of Israel, its landscapes and heritage, so that when they become teachers, they will appreciate the importance of field trips in the Israeli school system, and convey the value, beauty and holiness of the Land to the next generation of children.

Taking Responsibility to Prevent the Next Accident

by Dr. Michal Unger, coordinator of the Road Safety Education the Orot College of Education

Schools across Israel place great emphasis on road safety education, investing many hours of class time to train students to function effectively in traffic, teach them principles of behavior based on personal responsibility and instill values of commitment to maintaining human life and respect for traffic laws.
This year, Michlelet Orot conducted two "Road Safety Education" seminars which focused on the themes of personal responsibility and the importance of both awareness and the need to educate the next generation about road safety.
Rabbi Prof. Neria Guttel, President of Orot College opened the series with a talk about, "Caution on the Road – Theory and Practice", as he discussed halachic topics related to issues of road safety. Next, Dr. Dan Link, head of the infrastructure and traffic department at the National Road Safety Authority spoke on the topic, "Personal Involvement in Road Accidents". With the aid of a visual presentation, Dr. Link demonstrated that each student had the power to prevent a traffic accident. A short film titled, "Children Have No Brakes", added a powerful audio-visual message about the road dangers that pose a danger to children.
After a short break, the students heard an emotional talk from Yishai Meir, father of Yaara ע"ה who was killed in a traffic accident. Yaara was in a car on her way home when an exhausted driver collided with the car in which she was riding a short distance from her home. Yishai, Yaara's father, described the solace he finds in perpetuating her name by describing her good qualities and amazing skills. After his talk Yishai distributed Yaara's photo to the students.
The seminar concluded with a viewing of the film, "An Accident in the Arava Desert" that portrays the final minutes of four boys killed on the Arava road in 1994. A follow-up discussion attempted to understand some of the underlying causes for road accidents and how they could have been avoided.

Yerushalayim of our Imagination

Thoughts on Yom Ha'atzmaut

Too often, we allow ourselves to see not what we have, but what's missing. This is especially true when we look at the modern State of Israel, and even at the modern city of Yerushalayim. Through a study of Tehillim 122, we can come to a better appreciation not only for Yerushalyim, the subject of that chapter, but also for the blessing of the Medinah which, although not complete, represents a source of great blessing for the Jewish people.

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Orot Students Study Medical Ethics

By Rav Uriel Touitou, Excellence Program Coordinator

In the Orot Excellence Program's course on medical ethics students learned about the intersection of medicine, Jewish law, ethics and morals. During a recent tour at the Shaare Zedek hospital as part of their study they observed how professionals deal with real-life halachic and medical challenges presented by the rapidly advancing world of modern medicine.
Created ten years ago, Michlelet Orot's Excellence Program provides advanced students tools and skills to transform their intellectual abilities into tools they can in their educational career. In addition to offering enriched courses that focus on education and teaching, the program looks to expand students' horizons by offering classes on subjects they would not encounter during their normal course schedules.
In a world of instant communications and media, students find themselves exposed to questions about organ donation, pregnancy and childbirth issues including abortion, fatal diseases as well as many others. To address many of these questions, students in the Excellence Program attend a course in medical ethics given by Prof. Menachem Schlesinger and Rabbi Menachem Schahor. Study includes frontal classes as well as a tour at the Shaare Zedek hospital guided by lecturers from the hospital's Schlesinger Institute for Medical Halachic Research.
During their recent tour students met with doctors and nurses and heard proposed medical solutions to address marital problems and pregnancy and childbirth issues. The tour included a lecture on the subject of medicinal treatment for brides before the huppah and an additional lecture on the issue of genetic match between couples. Students learned about genes that might be carry diseases, the identification process and medicinal treatment to prevent possible future diseases, genetic matching between spouses and coping mechanisms for couples where both spouses are genetic carriers of the same disease.
In the Department of In vitro Fertilization students learned about different stages of infertility treatment as well as the challenges that couples face in their quest for pregnancy and childbirth.
The students' final lecture addressed the challenges of running hospitals on Shabbat and hagim according to halachah. Run various systems whose operation requires chillul Shabbat requires hospital directors and poskim to find creative halachic, technological and scientific solutions.
Student responses to the course were excellent. They found that this special course opened a window for them to an important and fascinating world which they would not have been otherwise exposed.

The English Department goes to a live performance of "My Fair Lady"

Dr. Vitela Arzi
Head of the English Department

No study in the field of Foreign Language Teaching would be complete without a viewing of the classic film "My Fair Lady." This film encompasses the linguistic sub-fields of socio- linguistics, psycho- linguistics, and of course practical linguistics in the form of phonetics, diction, syntax, lexis and more. All of these components are studied within the context of Introduction to Linguistics and Applied Linguistics as taught in the English Department at Orot College of Education.

However, says David Wapner, instructor of the Linguistics courses, "there is a vast difference between "simply" teaching these linguistic topics within a formal classroom setting in a theoretical sense, to that of actually seeing them in "play" in the practical forum and in an extra curricular venue. "

We were fortunate indeed , as a live production of "My Fair Lady" in English, performed by the Light Opera Group of the Negev, has come to theaters in Israel at the time that our students were just wrapping up the study of the aforementioned components in class. Mr . Wapner contacted the producers and we were given tickets at a special discounted price; we received some additional assistance from the Dean of Students Rabbi-Dr. Rachimi, who helped to defray some of the students' expenses.

The students were abuzz with excitement awaiting the date and then the hour, and finally arriving at the theater in Mody'in.

Says Shira Tzubeiri, a second year student: "It's the first time that I'm watching an English speaking play, and it was an unusual and challenging experience. It was very special to meet my friends at a location other than the classroom, and it contributed to our social integration as a group". Her friend Shulamit Isaacs adds: "This magnificent well produced play was a fantastic learning experience, which brought alive all the theoretical knowledge that was amassed in the classroom . Seeing the material come to live on stage validated everything that we had studied on a purely theoretical basis."

Watching the play together with other extra-curricular activities initiated by the English Department , reflects a holistic approach to the learning experience in general , and to language learning in particular which the English Department advocates and practices.

Students of the Department of Counseling and Social Education Visit the "Retorno" Rehab Center

The "Retorno" drug rehab center, located near Beth Shemesh, provides treatment for tens of adolescents (boys and girls) and many adults from the orthodox and ultra-orthodox backgrounds who sought an escape through alcohol, drugs, gambling or other additions.
Accompanied by their teachers Limor Tal and Bella Even-Hen, the Orot students visited the center during a week of practical work to witness the staff's professional work and devotion to their patients. The students heard personal stories of several patients, some of whom themselves became part of Retorno's training staff and administration.
Students absorbed a number of critical messages during their visit. They witnessed the catastrophic results of destructive parental and educational behaviors, including a lack of attention, sensitivity, and a failure to understand the child and teenager's soul. The students learned that drugs and alcohol represent an attempt at a permanent escape for pain. Often, teens mask this deeply hidden pain because they lacked an outlet to express their feelings in conversations with any meaningful figure in their life. Students were introduced to some of the treatments as well as to the complex challenges that the center addresses, and also learned about various methods of support and reinforcement, such as sentences that express love ("we love you") to someone who addresses the group, or a physical hug (or virtual hug in case there is prohibition of touching between man and woman).
One of the highlights of the tour was in the quarried cave of the Retorno site where meetings are held at candlelight, in group dynamics style. These experiential and powerful meetings enable both individuals and the whole group the ability to develop trust, support, acceptance, belonging, identification, intimacy and development of self-awareness and awareness to others.
The students left the center with tears in their eyes and a heart full of excitement and gratefulness for "a most instructive experience and memorable lesson for life".

Teaching the Value of Freedom at the Seder

An Article By Rabbi Reuven Spolter
Director of Recruiting and Special Projects

Should we cause our children to suffer in order to help them fully appreciate the Redemption we're supposed to relive on the night of the Seder? Maybe we should. After all, as parents, we cause our kids to suffer all the time.
You can download this article in pdf format by clicking here.

Along the same lines, my wife Rena shared with me this story of parents outraged an an educational attempt to help kids appreciate the suffering of the Holocaust. Do you agree with the incensed mother at the end of the story? I'm not sure.