How We Talk About Science

In this episode, Jen Stern Granowitz and Erin Beser speak with Rabbi Geoff Mitelman, the Founding Director of Sinai and Synapses. The organization bridges the religious and scientific worlds, offering people a worldview that is scientifically grounded and spiritually uplifting. Rabbi Mitelman shares advice on how to talk with your learners about the Torah and God while also validating their understanding of science and history.

Discussion and Reflection Questions

1. How do you authentically connect with the Torah and God? To use Rabbi Mitelman’s words, how do you bridge the religious and scientific worlds?
2. How have you or would you respond to a student who does not want to engage in learning about our Biblical stories because “this didn’t even really happen”?
3. When teaching about Passover specifically, how have you or would you help your students connect to the holiday if they are struggling to connect with something that “didn’t even really happen”?
4. A question from Rabbi Mitelman: Where do I find meaning even if something is not necessarily factually true?