Judaism Unbound Episode 417: Jewish Learning for Climate Crisis – Laura Duhan-Kaplan, Yosef Rosen
Yosef Rosen is a historian of Kabbalah and Jewish magic, a creative Jewish educator, and an immersive ritual designer. Laura Duhan-Kaplan is an award-winning author, teacher, and spiritual leader serving as Rabbi Emerita of Or Shalom Synagogue in Vancouver and Professor Emerita of Philosophy at UNC Charlotte. The two thinkers join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about their upcoming UnYeshiva classes, which both use Jewish history and tradition to grapple with today’s climate crisis.
Both Yosef Rosen and Laura Duhan-Kaplan are teaching courses in the UnYeshiva this semester. Learn more about and register for their classes, Re-Imagining Biblical Animals: Beyond the Talking Donkey and Fire and Rain: Magical and Mythic Jewish Ecologies for Climate Crises!
[1] Dan’s first question centers on Benay Lappe’s theory of “donkey stories,” a framework for understanding how diverse people can all see themselves in one text. Learn more about this idea here, or in our episode, Episode 3: Exodus – Benay Lappe.
[2] Duhan-Kaplan states that locusts show up as markers of ecological destruction and therefore moral failure in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). See Exodus 10:4-6, Deuteronomy 28:39, and Yoel 2:35.
[3] Duhan-Kaplan mentions the story of Balaam and the donkey (Numbers 22:2-25:9, aka Parshat Balak) in her discussion of how we must understand animals’ Biblical context in order to analyze their roles in stories. Speaking of Donkeys: check out Duhan-Kapla’s book, Mouth of the Donkey: Re-Imagining Biblical Animals.
[4] To demonstrate how natural disasters can lead to interfaith collaboration, Rosen cites the 1711 Judengasse fire, which destroyed the homes of the Frankfurt Jewish community, who were then taken in by their Christian neighbors.
[5] Duhan-Kaplan mentions that she co-directed a seminar at Vancouver School of Theology on Indigenous and Inter-Religious Studies. She also helps run the school’s Inter-Religious Studies program.
