G'mar Chatima Tova

During the past week, we continued to explore traditional Jewish beliefs about time and its purpose. This is a particularly important subject for our Edot studies, because it was this strong and unwavering belief in the purpose of time which allowed the members of each edah to maintain their Jewish identity and connection to other Jews around the world, even in the face of adversity.

On Sunday, we discussed the Jewish understanding of history, as propounded by the Biblical prophets and later by Talmudic era Rabbis. According to the Rabbis, time began with Creation and will end when the world is in "balance" - when justice has been achieved for all living things - and the Messianic Age will set in. In the Talmud, many Rabbis refer to this Age as 'Absolute Time', when the dimension of time as we know it will end, and we will begin a new existence in the dimension in which God exists - no past, no present, no future.

As we "balance on the timeline" (the metaphor I've introduced to Edot students), we move forward toward Absolute Time by following God's commandments, and doing whatever we can to help "repair the world" (tikkun olam) and bring justice to all living things. According to the teachings of the prophets, God will bless us when we follow the commandments, but will send our enemies upon us if we break them. Every historical event to them was a reflection of how well we "kept our balance." We learned that about 2,000 years ago, during the Roman occupation of Judea, a group of Jews who believed that the Messiah had finally arrived in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, believed that time had ended and stopped counting the years. When they realized that injustice still reigned, they developed the concept of the "Second Coming," believing that God had sent Jesus to earth to remind us to continue our efforts to bring justice and balance to the world, and that when Jesus came again, time would end. So they began counting the years from Jesus' birth. This led us to a discussion of the terms B.C. and A.D. (Before Christ and Anno Domini) and our Jewish use of the terms B.C.E. and C.E. (Before the Common Era and Common Era). As a closing activity, each student was given a piece of paper on which to create a timeline, beginning with Creation and ending with the Messianic Age. As we learn about specific edot and Jewish historical events over the course of the school year, we'll note these on the timelines.

During the weekday sessions, we continued the theme of "balancing on the timeline" by looking at what happens when we "fall off" and need to "return" in order to continue our individual and community efforts to effect tikkun olam. The Hebrew word for returning is "t'shuva" which we commonly translate as "atonement." Using a case study approach, students were divided into four small groups, each group being assigned one case study of a person who had made a mistake, hurting themselves and others. Each group was asked to consider if the person had "achieved full t'shuva" or not, and to prepare to defend their decision. From this activity, we determined during the ensuing class discussion that there are four steps which must be followed in order to achieve complete or full t'shuva. They are:

1. Realize you have made a mistake and what it is;
2. Apologize to yourself and to all others hurt by your mistake;
3. If possible, correct the immediate situation caused by the mistake; and
4. Make a plan for how to avoid making the same mistake again

To bring this lesson to our own classroom, I have shared with the students that if they "fall off the timeline" by acting inappropriately during class (i.e. talking at inappropriate times, hurting property, or in any way making anyone feel unsafe or unwelcome in our classroom community), I will give them two verbal warnings, after which, if the behavior still persists, I will ask them to write a "t'shuva essay." This involves writing one or two sentences for each of the above 4 steps of the t'shuva process. It will give the student a chance at home to reflect on what they did and how it affected others in the class, as well as giving them the opportunity to plan for how to avoid the behavior in the future.  I have a poster hanging in Room 201 to remind everyone of the four steps:

Here is a glimpse into our classroom during the past weekday sessions, as the students in one group were discussing their assigned t'shuva case study:

As a closing activity to this session, I gave each student a "T'Shuva Worksheet" which allowed them, using sentence starters, to make some reasonable goals for themselves for the coming school year.

Once they completed writing their goals on the worksheet, they were asked to fold the sheet in thirds, then put the worksheet into an envelope. After writing their full name on the envelope, the students were each given a sticker to "seal" their goals in the envelope. These will be returned to the students the final week of Religious School in May, at which time they can "break the seal" and see if they were able to achieve some, if not all of the goals they set for themselves.

During our Sunday Hebrew Through Movement sessions, I had a wonderful surprise. After our usual warm-up of review vocabulary, several students asked if they could give the commands. We only had enough time for two of the students, both of whom did a fantastic job!

This coming Tuesday evening we are holding our annual "Back-to-School" night for parents. I'm looking forward to seeing many of you, and to sharing the exciting year we have ahead of us and to answering any questions you may have about our Edot curriculum. In the meantime, I'd like to wish you and your families  G'MAR CHATIMA TOVA.  May you have been sealed in the Book of Life!