Moadim L'Simcha

We focused our attention during the previous weekday sessions on one of the most joyous of Jewish holidays - Sukkot. Immediately following the more somber and contemplative High Holy Days, we are commanded to build a sukkah and to take the branches of the palm, myrtle, and willow trees, along with the fruit of the "etz hadar" (translated as the "goodly," "majestic" or  "splendid"  tree by various sources - Rashi, the 11th century scholar, insists this refers to the "etrog" or citron tree), and be joyous. What the commandment fails to tell us is how to be joyous using these symbols of the holiday.

Our Edot students had a lively discussion relating to how we could express joy using the lulav (the palm, myrtle and willow branches) and etrog. One student thought that we could use them to perform a hula dance, another that we could attach lights to them and create happy designs in the darkness of the night, under the full moon. The ideas kept coming. We finally took a look at a Torah Aura Instant Lesson entitled, "Palm, Willow, Myrtle" to learn how Talmudic era Rabbis interpreted the commandment. We discovered there were multiple Rabbinic interpretations, just as our own students had different ideas. For example, one Rabbi taught that the palm branch represented the human spine, the myrtle leaves were like the human eye, the willow leaves resembled the human mouth, and the etrog was like the human heart. We hold them together so that the entire body will praise God. Another Rabbi taught that each of the 4 species (as the 4 parts of the lulav are referred to) reminded us of the different parts of the Land of Israel - as we rejoice, we should never forget our connection to the Land of Israel. We concluded our discussion by learning the laws and blessings relating to the ritual of shaking the lulav and etrog. We also learned that it is during this holiday that we ask God to send us rain. The shaking of the lulav, some students noted, might sound like rain falling.

Immediately following t'fila, we went outside to the amphitheater area to visit the sukkah built by the 3rd and 4th graders in the Bonim track last week (very impressive!). We all managed to fit into the sukkah, and there we discussed the symbolism of the sukkah and its importance in helping us recall our nomadic roots before we settled in Canaan, as well as our farming roots in the Land of Canaan.

Hopefully our ancient ancestors had more room to move around in their sukkot than we did!

I also introduced Sukkot vocabulary to the students during our Hebrew Through Movement session.

Samantha, la'tet etrog l'Ian (Samantha, give etrog to Ian)

Ian, l'hareem etrog me'al ha'rosh  (Ian, raise the etrog over the head)

Ari, la'tet lulav l'Jason (Ari, give Jason lulav)

Jason, lee'tol lulav (Jason, shake lulav)

Finally, I thought I'd share with you a couple of photos I took during our hafsaka (recess). Fifth and sixth graders from all 3 tracks go upstairs to the lawn outside the Sanctuary for about 15 minutes each weekday session, where the children can run around to their hearts' content, usually playing ball games or standing around and shmoozing.

Climbing the stairs to the lawn

Enjoying a ball game under a clear, blue sky

Hopefully, you had a chance to see the beautiful, full moon which rose above the hills Wednesday evening, to welcome the Sukkot holiday. Be joyous during this "season of joy" - MOADIM L'SIMCHA!