Mo'adim L'Simcha

Sukkot began last Sunday evening, September 27th, and what a spectacular start it had this year - it made its entrance under a blood moon! We are commanded to be joyous during this 7-day holiday, to sit in the sukkah, shake the lulav and etrog and welcome guests. It also marks the beginning of the rainy season in Israel (and in California as well). Prayers for rain are an important part of the Sukkot prayer service.

During the weekday sessions this past week, our Edot students celebrated Sukkot together with Shira and Y'tzira track students. On Tuesday, Shira and Edot students had the chance to visit Temple Isaiah's community sukkah up in the parking lot outside the main Sanctuary entrance. Erin, the Shira teacher, and I shared the history and symbolism of the holiday. Thanks to wonderful lyrics written by Erin to the tune of "The Hokey Pokey," we all learned how to shake the lulav and etrog after reciting the blessing. 

The weather was perfect, and we even got to watch a group of turkeys strutting by outside the sukkah!

Well, our wishes for rain on Tuesday worked! Wednesday's students met in the Beit Knesset on the second floor of the school building to learn about Sukkot, because the Sukkah was far too wet from the morning rain to visit. This time, the Y'tzira track joined us, and we had fun again with the "Hokey Pokey" lulav ritual.

We actually began each weekday session (as we plan to do every weekday session this year) with a fun, 10-minute activity for all three 5th/6th grade tracks in the Beit Knesset. Each week, one of the 5th/6th grade teachers will prepare a community-building activity, giving all the students a chance to get to know and interact with each other. This first week was a great success.

Erin prepared a charades game, and called up 3 students at a time to act out Jewish holidays or ritual objects.  

Hmm - must have something to do with eating - that could be any Jewish holiday

On Wednesday, Erin's two TA's, Daniella and Nicole led the game

Still photos tell a story, but this little video clip tells an even better one of how much fun we had!

We had our first weekday tefillah session with Rabbi Greninger and started out with a joyous song of how good and pleasant it is for us to be together as a community: Hinei Ma'tov U'ma'na'eem, Shevet Acheem Gam Yachad!

And to finish off our day after our visit to the Sukkah on Tuesday and the Beit Knesset on Wednesday, we had fun learning Hebrew commands during our Hebrew Through Movement session - reviewing commands we had already learned and learning new ones relating to the holidays of Rosh Ha'Shana and Sukkot.

Baneem la'shevet al ha'reetzpa (Boys sit on the floor)

Ben, la'seem shofar al ha'rosh shel Shaina (Ben, put the shofar on Shaina's head)

Jake, l'hareem lulav v'etrog l'mala (Jake, raise up lulav and etrog)

This coming Sunday evening marks the end of the Sukkot holiday and the start of the final month of Tishrei holiday - Simchat Torah - the happiness of the Torah. JQuest will be celebrating the start of the holiday at Temple Isaiah in a big way. I'm looking forward to seeing all my Edot students in our classroom (Room 201) on Sunday afternoon at 4:30 (be sure not to come to school in the morning!); we'll learn about how scribes copy the Torah scroll and will prepare ourselves for joining parents and other classes up in the Social Hall at 5:30 for a free dinner. This will be followed by a joyous celebration of our Torah, when we unroll two Torah scrolls in our Sanctuary, with lots of dancing to follow.  Please join us!