Illustrating Babylonian Jewish History

We spent a very rainy Sunday morning yesterday, both sessions, creating posters illustrating key events in Babylonian Jewish history.  These posters will become an integral part of our Chamsa family workshop in two weeks, serving as scenic backdrops for the skits the students will be presenting, described in a previous post.

Before beginning the poster activity, I began to read a new novel to the class, "The Family Y Aguilar," (originally published as "The Family Aguilar"). This is a wonderful introduction to the next edah we'll be studying in class following our Chamsa Family Workshop - the Jews of Spain.

After reading a few pages into the story, enough to introduce the major characters and their precarious situation, we cleaned up the tables from our Sunday morning snack and prepared them for our "y'tzira" activity.  "Y'tzira" is the Biblical Hebrew term for "formation" - that is, forming something new from already formed material. This term is in contrast to "bree'a," ("creation"), which can only be accomplished by God according to Jewish belief. "Bree'a" involves creating something from nothing.

As always, it didn't take much direction from me to get the students to take a blank "canvass" (in this case, poster paper) and share what they had learned from our Babylonian Jewish history sessions in the form of illustrations. Students were assigned to small groups, four groups each session. Below are some photos of the process.

Reading the directions for the poster assignment...

...and then discussing ideas for the poster

Beginning the process of "y'tzira" - exploring the available materials: paints...

...ribbons, cloth, yarn, construction paper, and more

Can we use these?

Plotting the design on the paper with pencil...

...then adding the chosen materials to bring the idea to life

Aprons were the "fashion du jour"

Checking off the list of things to include?

Team work in action!

A room filled with the "y'tzira" process - stay tuned for the results

And to finish each session - a wonderful surprise!

JOEL IS BACK!!!

And not a moment too soon!  Just in time to help us learn the two songs we'll be singing during our Chamsa workshop - "Al Naharot Bavel"and "Hallelu Avdei Adonai"

WELCOME BACK, JOEL. WE ALL WISH YOU A CONTINUED SPEEDY RECOVERY.