Susan R. Eisenstein: Nugget Series: Jon Greenberg’s Torah Flora Visits Israel
Torah Flora, https://torahflora.org/, created by Dr. Jon Greenberg, is an educational initiative focused on using the knowledge of plants and the natural environment to help people understand and appreciate Torah and is devoted to the study of plants and nature in Torah and Jewish tradition, biblical ethnobotany. Ethnobotany, as Dr. Jon Greenberg writes on his website, is “the study of how people use plants. Greenberg’s website further explains, “Biblical botany is a way of using the tools of botany and ethnobotany to help us better understand the Torah. This includes such things as identifying the plants and other natural phenomena mentioned in the Tanach (Jewish Bible), using information about these plants to shed light on their use in prophetic metaphor and studying the plants involved in performing various mitzvot in order to better appreciate and perform those mitzvot.” Dr. Jon Greenberg writes all the fascinating material on Torah Flora’s website, which features resources, essays, Torah learning, personal thoughts, events, and more.
Greenberg is an Orthodox Jew who holds a PhD in agronomy, which he earned at Cornell University. Greenberg also studied at Yeshivat Hamivtar in Israel. And in addition to his writings, Dr. Greenberg also presents live programs, suitable for all ages and educational levels, that can take place at sites such as synagogues, religious schools, and botanical gardens. Program formats can include Zoom lectures, walking tours of neighborhoods or a botanical garden, a PowerPoint presentation, a Shabbat scholar-in-residence program, an ancient food and drink tasting or dinner, or a presentation followed by a food tasting.
“I was always interested in science and nature. I studied biology in college and became interested in using that background to address the problems of Third-World rural poverty and undernutrition, so I went on to graduate school in agronomy. At the same time, I began to study Torah seriously and became fascinated by the many areas of Torah that can be understood fully only with an understanding of the agriculture and natural history of the worlds of Tanach and the Talmud. Along the way, I received a gift of a book by Noga HaReuveni on this subject and eventually had a meeting with him. I’ve been researching, reading, and writing about this topic ever since then,” said Dr. Greenberg.
And Dr. Jon Greenberg continued studying and he occasionally spoke about Biblical and Talmudic ethnobotany until around 2005, when he decided to start an email newsletter on the topic and to start actively seek speaking opportunities. In this way, Torah Flora was born.
“Hardly anyone else was doing this, so it was sort of a novelty, and it grew quickly,” Greenberg continued. “Over the next few years, I added a Website in addition to the e-mail newsletter and I began to travel more widely as a speaker at synagogues, schools, and botanical gardens. To make the learning more fun, I added programs that involved food and drink. One of these, titled “Noah’s Wine vs. Pharaoh’s Beer: The Barroom Brawl that Shaped Jewish History,” became very popular. It’s a beer and wine tasting that reveals a great deal of forgotten understanding about the culinary and agricultural background to Pesach.”
Dr. Greenberg has also authored “Fruits of Freedom: The Torah Flora Hagadah.” https://torahflora.org/hagadah/ “About ten years ago,” he said, “I was trying to write a book about the role of secular knowledge in Torah learning and halachah and having some difficulty with it when a friend suggested that I write a Hagadah. I knew that would be interesting and easier to write. I spent four years researching and writing “Fruits of Freedom, the Torah Flora Hagadah,” while working full-time as a science teacher. It came out in 2020 during the COVID epidemic with a book launch on Zoom.”
“In 2024, I retired from classroom teaching and made Torah Flora my second full-time career. So far, I’ve presented Torah Flora programs in 16 US states, three Canadian provinces, Israel, England, and Costa Rica. I’m now working on expanding my Torah Flora activities in Israel and broadening my research and writing into other areas of science and Torah. You can learn all about these things on my Website, TorahFlora.org.”
And now, this summer, June 2026, Torah Flora will be coming to Israel. Asked to describe Torah Flora’s Israel tours,, Dr. Greenberg told Israel Seen, “In June, I’ll be offering two Torah and Jewish history tours of Machaneh Yehudah, the open-air market in Jerusalem, and two guided Biblical and Talmudic ethnobotany walks through the Jerusalem Botanical Garden. All of these tours will be in English and accessible, although I would not recommend them for children under 12 years old. The tours do not require any special knowledge of Torah or science. We’ll be walking on pretty level ground for about an hour and a half at both locations, over a short distance at Machaneh Yehudah, and with some moderate slopes at the botanical garden.”
“Machaneh Yehudah is the fascinating culinary reflection of centuries of immigration and adaptation by various ethnic groups to central Israel, and much of the produce and other foods available there are significant in Tanach, Midrash, Halachah, and Jewish history. I encourage people to plan on buying a few items on these tours to taste. It’s great fun learning, eating, and drinking our way through Torah and Jewish history.”
“The walk through the Jerusalem Botanical Garden is an outdoor visual delight. It will focus more on plants that have some symbolic or allegorical significance in Torah, although there are also some that were important in the Diaspora. Of course, many of them are not grown today as food plants, so this is a chance to learn about some other things that don’t show up at Machaneh Yehudah.”
The dates for the tour of the Botanical Garden, Jerusalem, are Friday June 5th and 12th at 9:00 AM. Some information to know includes the fee, NIS 30 or $10.00. Cash only. The Jerusalem Garden also charges a fee of NIS 40 for adults with discounted rates of NIS 30 or 35 for seniors, students, etc. The tour will include discounted admission if the group is large enough. Meet at the main entrance. Signed copies of “Fruits of Freedom, the Torah Flora Hagadah” will be available for sale.
The dates for the tour of Machane Yehuda are Sunday, June 7th and 14th, meeting in front of Cafe Aroma at 10:00 AM. The fee for this tour is NIS 45 or $15.00. Cash only. And signed copies of “Fruits of Freedom the Torah Flora Hagadah” will be available for sale. (NIS 100 or $35.00).
For more information: jon@torahflora.org
Website: TorahFlora.org.
