Mishkan, Gearing up for Passover & More
Jewish Studies
Andrew’s Monday/Wednesday Class
Following up from our last Purim celebrations last week, we continued learning about the Mishkan (Tabernacle) and how it influenced Jewish communal spaces today. We imagined ourselves back in time before the days of today’s synagogues and thought about what the first Jewish communities looked like. The students then had the liberty to create their own cities based on what we learned about, followed by how they would reimagine synagogues today. After the students used items around the classroom, including boxes, pipe cleaners, oil pastels and more, there was a surprise in store. They created their own buildings/synagogues from pretzels and frosting! Next week we will continue learning about the Jewish exodus and lead into passover!
Lee’s Monday/Wednesday Class
This week we began by connecting the end of our Joseph story to the introduction of our next Torah character, Moses. To do this, we looked in a translation of the original text and found first that it reiterates a list of Joseph’s brothers (allowing us to complete our family tree), and then we found that we are told Moses descended from Levi (allowing us to add him to our tree). Recognizing that God plays an increasing role in the next part of our story, we entered into a discussion about what the concept of God actually means to different people, and students had a discussion in pairs and then wrote/drew something about their understanding of the idea. This bore a wonderful variety of perspectives, with some students talking about their ideas about descriptions of our God, some referencing gods from other cultures, and some talking about what other people are saying when they reference god. Next we launched into Moses’ story, with a detour into the important but oft-overlooked story of Shifra and Puah, the midwives who evade Pharaoh’s orders to kill all the baby boys. We talked about how these are uniquely-heroic figures in our text, and also connected it to an earlier conversation about people who risk getting in trouble to do what they think is right. Finally, having learned about baby Moses being hidden and then sent down the river, we reviewed the story while playing a game of ‘Hide Baby Moses’ where one team was Moses’ family and the other team were Egyptian soldiers trying to figure out where they were hiding their little ‘ball’ of joy.
David’s Tuesday/Saturday Class
This week we learned about the splitting of the Red Sea. We talked about the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud that provided light and heat protection to the Israelites in the desert. We dealt with the feelings of the people who only left Egypt and thought they were free when more drama came about. We mentioned the snake of Nachshon ben Aminadav, who entered the water first, even though the sea had not yet been divided into two. We spoke about the midrash (commentary) that tells of God’s response to Shirat Hayam (the Song of the Sea): “How can you sing, when people I [God] created are drowning in the sea,” and to the conflicting emotions at seeing your enemy’s suffering and how we can still garner empathy and compassion. We played sea / land and also viewed a number of cinematic scenes illustrating the splitting of the Red Sea.
Lee & Marna’s Tuesday/Saturday Class
On Saturday we continued the story of God choosing Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. We began by watching a BimBam video that explained Moses’ hesitation to lead, including the midrash (commentary) about his speech impediment. God tells him to enlist Aaron’s help. I asked them to privately contemplate the things they feel insecure about and ways they may be able to ask others for help. We discussed how we all have strengths despite having weaknesses too, and that each of our contributions is significant.
In reading the story of how God smote the Egyptians, we discussed why he started with less to more extreme plagues, as opposed to hitting the Egyptians with one harsh punishment that would compel Pharoah to push them out. The kids asked some very deep questions: Why did god punish all of the Egyptians when it was only Pharaoh who was in charge and kept hardening his heart with each plague? Why did Pharaoh want to punish the firstborn sons and not just the parents? How and when does God choose to intervene?
We then imagined how different life would be for the Israelite kids leaving Egypt and we listed the ways starting a new life might be harder in some ways and easier in others. Some ideas they came up with were the importance and complexity of having a leader. Starting over might entail many people competing to establish new rules, versus the new opportunities that starting over offers, including freedom to make new and different choices, as well as the possibility of working with others in a new way.
We then outlined the characters in our next play (the Exodus) as well as the behind-the-scenes roles necessary to get the show off the ground. I asked them to consider two choices of how they’d like to be involved and we will discuss these next week.
On Tuesday we began by talking about situations where people might have stood up for what they believed was right, even if they might get in trouble for it. Students gave great examples from history (including various American Civil Rights figures), as well as from fiction and their own lives. We then jumped backwards in our story to find some heroes who were left out of the summary we had learned. We used a translation of the original text to first find out the answer to an earlier question (about Moses’ age when he was placed in the river, which we figured out from textual clues was probably a little over 3 month) and then we found the names of two characters earlier in the story who had been glossed over. Once we found this, we read an expansion of the story of Shifra and Puah, who evaded the Pharaoh’s directive to kill all of the first-born males, and were later rewarded by God. This gave us a chance to add two more important characters to the list or roles for the play we’ll be working on, and we then began the process of giving out roles to the class.
Richard’s Tuesday/Saturday Class
On Saturday students responded to the questions about the Mishkan (Tabernacle): Why did the mishkan have such a specific way to be built and so many particular details? Why did the Israelites need to build a single dwelling place for God considering God’s omnipresence? Students read a story about the mishkan and then went on to design their own synagogues while considering the questions of what is important for the building of such a special place and how to make it feel holy and a place where God’s presence could be felt. Students shared many interesting and complex ideas in the intention behind their designs!
On Tuesday, we began a new unit, about the story of the Israelites at the border of the Promised Land. We covered the story of the 12 spies sent into the land to gather information about their new home. the question of the day naturally was, Who do you trust and why? Many students found that they trusted their family and friends because they knew them closely. We discussed why the Israelites yet again struggled with trusting God. This discussion was so interesting we chose to continue the discussion until tefilah. We look forward to continuing the story this Shabbat.
Hebrew through Movement
Monday/Wednesday
This week we started talking about Passover! We talked about the things that we are mostly looking forward towards Passover, and introduced the words:
Hametz – חמץ
Matza – מצה
Matzot – מצות
Next week we will discuss the characteristics of the Passover Seder plate.
Tuesday/Saturday
On Saturday students responded to commandments focused on several familiar nouns (masculine and feminine) in their plural form along with the following agreeing adjectives: ktanim/small (plural masc.), ktanot (plural fem.), g’dolim (plural, masc.), g’dolot (plural fem.) It was a little confusing at first, but students got the hang of it after some practice. On Tuesday, we started our Pesach/Passover unit! For this HTM unit, students will engage with the Passover Hebrew vocabulary that is featured in the “Ma Nishtana” (The Four Questions), the items featured on the Seder Plate as well as other Hebrew words associated with Passover. This past Tuesday, we practiced singing the first part of the Ma Nishtana and focused on the following Hebrew words: lailah, leillot/night(s), matzah, chametz, yerakot (vegetables) and maror. We used visuals and pretend matzah. This coming Saturday, we will practice saying the blessing before eating the matzah, eat real matzah and continue learning the Ma Nishtana.
Announcements
1. Save the Date: Passover Family Workshops & Concert!
Saturday April 13: Shabbat services begin at 9:30, followed by Passover Family Workshops at 10:30
Passover Around the World Workshops
Kindergarten through 4th grade families will travel the world learning about different Passover traditions through crafts, recipes, songs and more!
5th and 6th grade families will participate in a Seder Around the World!
All Yachad families are invited to join us! K-4th grade students must be accompanied by a parent or responsible adult.
2. Noah Aronson Concert
Following our Passover Workshops, join artist in residence, Noah Aronson, for a special family-friendly performance at 11:45. Free and open to all!
3. Havdalah Hootenanny Celebrating Sarah Grabiner
Saturday April 13, 5:30-7:30
Sing, learn, and say thanks to Sarah Grabiner for her 2 years of dedicated service as CBE’s cantorial intern! A brilliant, multi-talented teacher and prayer leader, Sarah has endeared herself to the Brooklyn Jews community; to Gan Shabbat families; to teen Torah chanters; and especially to our 2018 b’nei mitzvah, whose preparation she oversaw during Cantor Josh Breitzer’s sabbatical. Sarah recently accompanied many of those former b’nei mitzvah students to Israel as part of CBE’s largest-ever annual 8th grade trip. Following her ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in May, Sarah will relocate back to her native United Kingdom to serve Radlett Reform Synagogue. Join the clergy team, together with artist-in-residence Noah Aronson and musical members of all ages, as we send Sarah off with singing, stories and profound gratitude!