At the end of last year, The Moriah School celebrated the exciting opening of the brand new Grow Torah garden. The idea behind the project is not only to bring a beautiful garden within the school grounds, but to instill in students a appreciation for agriculture through a Torah lens.

When Rabbi Eisenberger learned about the garden’s construction, he realized that this presented an exciting and unique teaching opportunity that would seamlessly combine his two hobbies: planting and talmud Torah.

Rabbi E has since used the Moriah Grow Torah garden as a hands-on teaching tool for the 39 melachot of Shabbat. The first 11 melachot deal with planting, and Rabbi E has used the garden to develop a curriculum to not only teach the 39 melachot but to engage the students in their practical application.

With the guidance of the professionals at Grow Torah, Rabbi E has begun planting winter wheat in the garden which will germinate in the fall and be ready for harvest in the spring. The planting process begins with plowing and sowing, choraish and zoraya. The students “plowed” the land and planted the wheat seeds. Rabbi E shared that, “It was fascinating to see the boys and girls pick up on different aspects of the melachot.” Inside the classroom, the students used Rabbi Ribiat’s sefer “The 39 Melachot” to learn about these melachot more in depth.

When spring comes and the crop is ready to harvest, the class will then move on to the next nine melachot in the process, culminating in home-made bread with Morah Chani.