Tu B’Shevat, Moses’ Childhood & More!
Tu B’Shevat, Moses’ Childhood & More!
Jewish Studies
Andrew’s Monday/Wednesday Class
This week we looked ahead a number of generations and began our learning about Moses! On Monday we explored his journey down the Nile as a baby and discussed who the heroes of the story truly were: Moses’ sister and mother. The students performed creative and high energy skits about these birth and childhood events. On Wednesday we delved into the story of Moses and the burning bush and began to explore the story of him beating the Egyptian to death who was beating the Israelite. Students debated whether Moses’ response to witnessing this made him admirable or not. Next week students will create their very own baby Moses from their class “inside” joke, potatoes!
Lee’s Monday/Wednesday Class
We started by reviewing where we left off our story, with Jacob fleeing to Haran at Rebecca’s instruction. To get ready for the next part of our narrative, we talked about whether we had ever seen something that we couldn’t believe, and whether a lie had ever come back to hurt us. We also talked about the idea that we might start seeing echoes of earlier parts of the story (reflecting on the quotes: “history repeats itself” and “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”) As we find “rhyming” elements and themes in our stories, we’ll be keeping track of them. The students found a few and made some creative connections to earlier stories as we read about Jacob journeying to Haran and meeting Rachel, agreeing to work seven years to marry her, and then falling asleep on a stone and dreaming of a ladder with angels going up and down. We attempted a recreation of the ladder, with students using their bodies to make the ladder, the angels, and God speaking to a sleeping Jacob. We then read the next part of our story, in which Jacob is tricked into marrying Leah instead of Rachel. Students were given a chance to creatively complete a midrash (commentary) in which Jacob confronts Leah about the trickery but she seems to turn the tables, and we got to talk a little bit about some more parallels between this and the previous story of Jacob and Esau.
David’s Tuesday/Saturday Class
On Shabbat we continued exploring Tu B’Shevat by discussing the importance of the trees, reasons for the holiday [originally a point to mark the tax year of the fruits] and watching videos about giant trees in the world- we saw trees the size of skyscrapers and trees that are thousands of years old! We also viewed movie clips in which trees have important roles (Lord Of The Rings and Guardians of the Galaxy). As part of the class, I conducted a meditation workshop in which we tried to see ourselves as trees that have been in place for centuries.
On Tuesday we spoke about the story of Joseph’s childhood: His father’s favoritism for him over the other children, the special striped coat he gifted him & Joseph’s dreams of his siblings bowing down to him. Students explored how this favoritism and Joseph’s dreams led to his brothers hating him and eventually selling him into slavery in Egypt. Students shared experiences in their lives where they felt jealousy or anger and together we spoke about how we can better understand how to deal with these emotions. The children suggested that when we feel jealous, we should pay attention to the good things – what we have and not on what others have, to understand that we are brothers & sisters – one unit. At the end we played a game of Mafia in Joseph style!
Lee & Marna’s Tuesday/Saturday Class
We reviewed the details of Jacob and Esau’s story, and prepared to follow Jacob as he traveled to Haran. Students then shared things they had seen which were hard to believe they were real. We also took a moment to discuss the idea of history repeating itself and what that means, so that as we’re continuing on in our story we can look for repeating themes and elements (“rhyming” themes). We then read as a class the part of the story where Jacob is travelling toward Haran and has a crazy dream of a ladder going up toward Heaven with Angels climbing up and down.
Richard’s Tuesday/Saturday Class
Last Saturday, we began the story of Moses’ birth and early childhood. We explored how he was sent down the Nile in a basket and did a deep comparison of how the Hebrew word for “ark” is used for both the basket Moses was put in and Noah’s ark during the flood. We discussed what this may mean and why the same word may have been used. To top it off the class made a basket out of strips of paper with words that may have represented both arks.
On Tuesday, the class continued the story of Moses covering the time from when he fled Egypt to the burning bush. We discussed what it takes to be a great leader and if it’s okay for leaders to doubt themselves. Our discussion led us to see that Moses had doubts and fears yet possessed qualities of a good leader. The class worked on skits in groups and completed their baskets from the previous class.
Richard’s Tuesday/Saturday Class
Last Saturday, we began the story of Moses’ birth and early childhood. We explored how he was sent down the Nile in a basket and did a deep comparison of how the Hebrew word for “ark” is used for both the basket Moses was put in and Noah’s ark during the flood. We discussed what this may mean and why the same word may have been used. To top it off the class made a basket out of strips of paper with words that may have represented both arks.
On Tuesday, the class continued the story of Moses covering the time from when he fled Egypt to the burning bush. We discussed what it takes to be a great leader and if it’s okay for leaders to doubt themselves. Our discussion led us to see that Moses had doubts and fears yet possessed qualities of a good leader. The class worked on skits in groups and completed their baskets from the previous class.
Hebrew through Movement
Monday/Wednesday
Students practiced using the following words through various games:
Big – gadol – גדול
Small – katan – קטן
We learned that, unlike in English, in Hebrew the adjective follows the verb, and composed various sentences using former and new vocabulary.
Tuesday/Saturday
Students had fun navigating an obstacle course and other activities that involved following Hebrew commands incorporating words describing directions:
קדימה – kadimah – forwards
אחורה – achora – backwards
ימינה – yamina – towards the right
שמאלה – smala – towards the left
Announcements
Upcoming Closures
Yachad will be closed, in accordance with the public schools, this Tuesday for the Lunar New Year &
Saturday Feb 16- Saturday Feb 23 for Presidents’ Week.
URJ Camps Info Session & Lunch
On February 9th the Director of URJ Crane Lake Camp, Debbie Shriber, will be coming to CBE to tell us all about Eisner, Crane Lake, and Sci-Tech! This is a great opportunity for students and parents to ask questions and learn about the URJ camping system. We will be providing lunch as the presentation will be directly after Yachad on Saturday February 9th in the Ballroom. Please email Hannah Isaacs (hisaacs@cbebk.org) by Feb 5 to let her know you’re attending!