PICTURING ISRAEL: History, Heritage, and Homeland

Teacher's Guide Lech L'cha - Starting the Journey The Exodus from Egypt Revelation at Sinai Kingship and Sovreignty First Temple Destruction and the Babylonian Exile Second Temple Period Roman Dispersion Status of Jews and Minorities Under Islam Middle Ages Zionism, Herzl, and the First Zionist Congress Balfour Declaration United Nations Partition Plan | Declaration of Independence Home - Homeland Holiness & Spirituality The People of Israel The Land of Israel

Tragedy & Memory Operation Solomon A Tree My Hands Planted Why Be Jewish? Creating Covenant The Departure and Expulsion of the Jews from Muslim Countries Timeline of Rule of Land of Israel

Gallery

The content and images in this curriculum and presentation are copyrighted and trademarked. Photographs’ subject matter is divided into categories. All photographs are by Zion Ozeri. You may only use the presentation or parts of it while implementing the Picturing Israel in your school. For any other use, including reproduction, you must get special permission from Zion Ozeri. The use of the following content, which may be objectionable, is at your own risk, and Zion Ozeri holds no responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness, and usefulness of any content provided, prior to your use. You may contact Zion Ozeri for any questions: zion@zionozeri.com

Holiness and Spirituality
Lesson Plan | Grades 7–12 | by Zion Ozeri, Josh Feinberg, and Dara Unterberg

Opening

In Israel, spirituality also carries an added dimension. Its ancient sites serve as living bridges between past and present: the weathered stones of the Western Wall, the winding paths of Jerusalem's Old City, the shores of the Sea of Galilee, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Temple Mount, home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. To walk where prophets walked, to touch walls and stones that have witnessed thousands of years of devotion, can make history feel not just like something studied, but something experienced. These sacred landscapes, shared, layered, and sometimes contested, raise questions about where holiness resides and how people experience it.

Before introducing the theme of the lesson, ask students to look through the photographs and choose two:

one that they would immediately describe as “holy” or “spiritual”
one that they would be least likely to describe that way

Ask: What made you draw the line where you did?

As students explain their choices, listen for the criteria they are using: religion, ritual, place, history, nature, emotion, human connection, beauty, or something else.

Then ask: Is holiness something a place, object, or moment possesses, or something that happens because of the way we encounter it?

Explain that the photographs and texts in this lesson offer different ways of answering that question.

Click the thumbnails above to open the full-size images and its background information.

Part 1: Reading the Photographs

These photographs capture moments of holiness and spirituality across Israel — from formal religious ritual to quiet, unscripted moments in nature and daily life. Look through them together as a class.

Look closely at these photographs and discuss:

What do people do in these photographs to express holiness or spirituality? Consider their actions, gestures, clothing, rituals, and interactions with others.
Some photographs show formal religious sites or rituals, while others show nature or moments from everyday life. What do these different photographs have in common?
What similarities do you notice in the ways Judaism, Christianity, and Islam express holiness? What seems unique to each?
The photographs show holiness in religious practices, nature, and everyday life. How might religion shape the way people experience all of these as holy?

Part 2: The Text

Text 1: Holiness in the World

“Holiness is the descent of divinity into the midst of our concrete world.”
~ Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (American rabbi and philosopher, 1903–1993)

Text 2: Holiness Between People

“When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them.”
~ Martin Buber (Austrian-Israeli Jewish philosopher 1878-1965)

Discuss:

What do you think Soloveitchik means by the “descent of divinity” into our concrete world? What might that look like in practice?
Why do you think Buber describes God as the “electricity” that surges between two people? What does that image add to his idea?
What might it mean to relate to another person “authentically and humanly”? How could such an encounter become sacred?
Where does each thinker locate holiness? What is similar about their understandings, and what is different?
Taken together, how do Soloveitchik and Buber broaden the possibilities for where and how holiness can be experienced?
Where have you encountered a sense of holiness or deeper meaning in ordinary life, whether in a place, a moment, or a relationship? What made that experience feel different from the ordinary?

Part 3: Synthesis

Return to the photographs. Where do you see Soloveitchik’s idea of holiness entering the physical world, and where do you see Buber’s idea of holiness found between people? Are there photographs that could show both?
How do the photographs add to or challenge Soloveitchik’s and Buber’s ideas about where holiness can be found?

Follow-Up Activity

Seeking the Sacred

Take a photograph of something that you experience as holy or spiritually meaningful. It could be a place, object, moment in nature, religious practice, or interaction between people. It does not need to be traditionally religious.

Write a short caption explaining what makes the subject of your photograph feel sacred to you and how Soloveitchik’s or Buber’s understanding of holiness helps you think about it.

IMAGES

Rabbi, Philosopher, Jerusalem, 1998