Time for Passover!
Jewish Studies
Andrew’s Monday/Wednesday Class
With Passover approaching, we spent the week reviewing the story of Moses hitting the rock and debated why did G-d not allow Moses to cross into the land of Canaan . Since we are at the end of Moses’ life and we have gotten to know quite a few of his stories, the students placed themselves in the shoes of the Israelites and imagined what it may have been like to wander in the desert for 40 years. They made a list of 40 items they would want to take and starting making real-life representations of what they would carry with them. Now, Wednesday was the big day: the Chocolate Seder! Our fourth grade classes combined to read our own version of the seder through the lens of chocolate! All goodies were from the food coop and each connected to the story. We hope you have an amazing (and sweet) Passover with your family!
Lee’s Monday/Wednesday Class
This week we reviewed where we had gotten up to in our story of the Israelites in Egypt, including a review of the 10 Plagues. We then continued the story with the Israelites fleeing Egypt in a hurry and the splitting of the Red Sea. After learning the main points of the story and singing and translating Mi Chamocha, a song we know from Tefillah which came from celebration on the other side of the Red Sea, we read the midrashic story of Nachshon and his brave willingness to venture into the sea and cause God to part the waters. We discussed why he may have done this and why it was an important example to the other Israelites. We continued in our story, learning about the life of the Israelites in the desert and the appearance of the food of Manna from God. We talked about some of the commentaries about the nature of the Manna, and that some Israelites took more than they were supposed to at first (having been told only to take extra before Shabbat). After a student pointed out a ‘rhyming’ theme (people taking food that is forbidden to them), we decided to refresh our memory of the Adam & Eve story by acting it out together as a class. Having gotten past the story of the Exodus, we were ready to have our Chocolate Seder, in which we used chocolate substitutes for the main components of the seder in order to review them. We went through a mini-seder with delicious chocolate, and also talked about how the chocolate can remind us more of the sweetness of the freedom we enjoy. After thoughtful discussions about hardships that have befallen the Jewish people in the past, and the fact that we can be conscious of the hardships of others today (with small things like trying to by Fair Trade Chocolate), we wrapped up our extra-yummy seder, found the chocolate-covered afikoman, and got ready to hopefully enjoy a beautiful Seder and Passover with our families and friends.
David’s Tuesday/Saturday Class
This week we learned about Passover. We talked about the meaning of the holiday, the importance of how education is core to the experience as well as the centrality of curiosity & questions! We explored the number 4 repeating itself: ex: the four sons, and with whom each identifies (surprise – not everyone preferred the wise son!). We also talked about the rise of the educational world, and that today one can also ask the internet questions easily, not just parents and teachers. Students thought about this modern development and what it means to us as learners. We then played a short activity asking “Rabbi Google” questions and reflecting on the difference between learning via the internet v. people. Lastly, we played interactive trivia games (kahoot), which created a lot of excitement in the class, and watched several videos and sang Pesach/Passover songs. I wish that everyone will have a happy holiday full of matzot and questions!
Lee & Marna’s Tuesday/Saturday Class
We began by reviewing the story we had learned so far, including the Golden Calf and the 10 Commandments. We read a midrash (commentary) about Aaron’s attempt to get in the way of the making of the calf, which ultimately didn’t go as planned. Students were then given an opportunity to reflect on how they might have handled the situation if they were Aaron, and there were a variety of interesting and thoughtful approaches. We then reviewed the 10 Commandments with a game of Charades, where a group of students silently acted out a commandment and the rest of the class tried to guess which one it was. We did this using a source sheet which included commandments from Shemot (Exodus) and from D’varim (Deuteronomy), and students were also challenged to find some of the differences between the two tellings of the Commandments, which prompted a conversation about why there might be those differences. Finally, we discussed how we might incorporate our acting-out of the Commandments into the play we’ve been working on, and concluded with a brief talk about the importance of the relationship between freedom and responsibility that we might ponder during our Passover time with our families and friends.
Richard’s Tuesday/Saturday Class
We spent Tuesday organizing our play, which students will perform on Saturday May 11th! I will email details about the specific time after the break. In class students chose scenes to include in the play: Moses the prince of Egypt storyline, covering his adoption into the Egyptian royalty ending at the Red Sea crossing. The students chose their roles (actor, narrator or prop designer). Finally, we made the outline of the play, from the students recounting the highlights of the story to detailing the character list. Next class, we will begin prop creation and rehearsals.
Hebrew through Movement
Monday/Wednesday
This week we concluded our Pesach classes by playing the Afikoman game using the words:
To hide – le’hachbi – לְהַחְבִּיא, To seek – le’chapes – לְחַפֵּשׂ
Cold- kar – קר
Hot – Cham- חם.
We also finished learning the vocabulary for the Four “Ma Nishtana” questions & sang them together:
Night – Lailah – לַיְלָה / Nights – Leilot – לֵילוֹת
Hametz -חָמֵץ / Matzah – מַצָּה
Vegetables – Sh’ar yerakot – שאר ירקות / Maror – מָרוֹר
To dip – matbilin – מַטְבִּילִין
One time – paam achat – פַּעַם אַחַת / Two times – shtei pe’amim- שְׁתֵּי פְּעָמִים
Sitting – yoshvin – יוֹשְׁבִין / Reclining – mesubin – מְסֻבִּין
Tuesday/Saturday
Students followed Hebrew commands while engaging with the Haggadah. Commandments included taking the Haggadah from someone (lakachat hagadah m’…) and giving the haggadah to someone (latet haggadah l’). Also, opening the haggadah (liftoach hagadah) and reading from the haggadah. (likroh min hagadah).
We also reviewed many of the HTM words by playing a hot (cham) and cold (kar) game searching for matzah and other Passover related objects. Chag Pesach Sameach! Happy Passover!
Announcements
1. Upcoming Closures
Yachad will be closed for Passover break from Friday April 19 through Sunday April 28.
2. Yachad Schedule Change & Registration
Following up on last week’s Yachad-wide email: Yachad registration will open in late April, and the schedule is significantly different for next year. Please read about the change at the link below, and contact Rabbi Rebecca Epstein, repstein@cbebk.org, or Leslie Lewin, Yachad Parent Committee Chair, with any questions. https://cbebk.org/yachad/register/