Bring-A-Friend Days

Our annual "Bring-A-Friend" days this past Tuesday and Wednesday were a great success, as always! JQuest 3rd through 6th graders are allowed to bring one friend each on these special days. It's a time put aside from our normal track curricula to allow our students to share what JQuest is all about with their friends, and it's not by accident that these are held as close to the Hanuka holiday as possible - a wonderful way to share the joy of the season with both our Jewish and non-Jewish friends.

We began each session by having all the 5th and 6th graders gather together with their friends in the Beit Knesset, where I read a summary of the events leading up to and including the Maccabean Revolt (i.e. the Hanuka story) while they all ate their snacks. Once everyone in the room knew the background story, we began the festivities.

First, we divided the students and their friends into four groups. Each group was assigned to create a 2-minute skit covering one fourth of the summary of the Hanuka story, with a "twist" attached to the assignment. This "twist" was a request to each group to perform their assigned portion of the story in the style of a well-known American cultural event or story, which the audience would have to guess. Once the assignments were handed out, each group went to a separate classroom to prepare its assigned skit, led by one or more teachers and Avodah TA's. After 20 or so minutes, we all gathered back in the Beit Knesset to enjoy the performances.

The four "twists" this year were: a football game, Indiana Jones, superheroes and Frozen. Below are a few of the skits I caught on video - see if you can guess which "twist" each was trying to convey as they re-told their assigned portion of the Hanuka story. (Answers to "twists" are at the end of this post.)

Once each group had performed its skit and the audience had a chance to guess what the "twist" was (and they did guess all of them both days!), I asked the group to think about what the most important point of their part of the story was, and to be sure to include it, along with the "twist," as they performed it in half the time they took to perform the skit originally. We did this 2 or 3 times, until they had only 10-20 seconds to perform the entire skit, leaving in the important lesson it taught. To say that there was quite a lot of laughing and loud encouragement from the audience as each group tried to get it all performed in just a few seconds is an understatement!

Once all the groups had performed, each track went to its own classroom for more activities. In our Edot classroom, we used the time to play the dreydl game, using Skittles candies to bet with.

Each group or pair of students began the game by putting two Skittles into the "pot."

Our Edot students became Hebrew letter scholars, and shared which letter was showing each time one of their friends spun the dreydl.

Our Hebrew Through Movement exercises helped a lot - everyone recognized the Hebrew letters immediately!

Some preferred to stand when they spun the dreydl, and others preferred sitting.

Michael decided to play against himself, and had a wonderful time doing so!

After half an hour or so, it was time for us to collect our things (including the dreydls and Skittles), and walk up to the Sanctuary for the final part of the session - our Hanuka assembly, led by Rabbi Greninger and Eric, our weekday music teacher.

Before we began to sing Hanuka songs, Rabbi Greninger asked JQuest students to share the Hebrew names for important parts of our Sanctuary. Here, she has just opened the doors to the "aron ha'kodesh" (the Holy Ark) which holds 5 Torah scrolls. Notice also the "ner tameed" (eternal light) hanging above the Ark. The Hebrew letter "shin" can be seen reflected by the light on it. "Shin" is the first letter of one of the names of God - Shaddai (often translated as "Almighty").

Here's a photo I caught of the "shin" on the "ner tameed" in the dark. 

After Rabbi Greninger asked the friends to volunteer what one thing they had learned during the session (answers ranged from learning the Hebrew letters on the dreydl to learning about the Hanuka story to learning Hanuka songs in the classrooms), Eric led us in singing several popular Hanuka songs.

O Hanuka, O Hanuka:

The Dreydl Song: ("S'veevon, Sov Sov Sov"):

On that note, with our heads and bodies still in spinning mode, it was time to say goodbye to our friends, and also to each other since this was the final session of the fall semester. We're back in school again on Tuesday and Wednesday, January 3rd and 4th.

Let me wish you all a very happy Hanuka, and a happy New Year!

CHAG HA'OOREEM SAME'ACH! HAPPY FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS!

("Twist" answers:  video 1 = a football game; video 2 = Indiana Jones; video 3 = Frozen;  video 4 = a football game)

Shabbat Shalom

Just prior to our Thanksgiving holiday break, I introduced the Edot students to a unit of study about Shabbat. We talked about the holidays we are commanded to observe in the Torah, and then learned that Talmudic era Rabbis considered Shabbat to be the holiest of them, referring to Yom Kippur as "Shabbat ha'Shabbatot," the Sabbath of Sabbaths. Shabbat is the only holy day to warrant being included in the 10 commandments - the fourth commandment, to be exact.

In order to share how revolutionary a concept Shabbat was, and still is, I introduced the students to the concept of the Hebrew root letters - shorasheem - from which Hebrew words are built. I shared how many words - in some cases hundreds of words - can be built from one shoresh (singular of shorasheem). Most shorasheem are made up of 3 letters. An important thing to keep in mind, I told the students, is that all the words which can be built from the same shoresh must have a meaning in common. With that in mind, we began to take a close look at the true meaning of the Friday evening greeting, "Shabbat Shalom."

Once we had determined that all the words that can be built from the shin-vet-tav (sh-v-t) shoresh had to have something to do with rest (Shabbat is the "day of rest", la'shevet - which the students recognized as one of our Hebrew Through Movement commands - means "to sit," etc.), we had a lively discussion about why and how God "rested" on the seventh day. The consensus, by the end of the session, was that God rested after Creation by "stepping back" and appreciating the universe which had just been created. "And God saw that it was good." So Shabbat, for us, is a time for rest - but not to sleep late or sit around all day doing nothing. Instead, it's a day to be set aside to appreciate the universe as it was created, as well as to look back at the previous 6 days to determine if we did our best to help keep our "balance on the timeline" (help to make ourselves, our friends and families and other peoples, as well as the environment more "balanced") and to look ahead to the next 6 days, to think about how we could continue to make the world a fairer (more balanced) place for all life forms - fulfilling our Jewish obligation to become God's partners in effecting "teekun olam" (repairing the world).

We then looked at the 3-letter shoresh for the word "shalom," and learned that all the words built from the  shin-lamed-mem (sh-l-m) shoresh must have something to do with "complete." The Hebrew verb "l'shalem," which means "to pay," is reflecting the fact that when you pay, you are "completing a transaction." "Shalom," which we've always learned meant "peace" (and is also a greeting), more accurately refers to a "sense of completeness." Thus, when we wish each other "Shabbat Shalom" each Friday evening, we are wishing others that sense of completeness that can only come when you've tried your best to do what needs to be done to make this world a better place for all living things, and the "rest" that results when you can step back and appreciate how you have helped and how beautiful the universe is.

As we continued our Shabbat unit studies after the Thanksgiving break, I introduced more shorasheem relevant to the holiday, and will continue to do so throughout the unit of study which will continue through the end of January. We learned that 500 or so years ago, Lurianic Kabbalists (Spanish exiles who were followers of Rabbi Isaac Luria in Tz'fat in Israel) determined that if we perform certain rituals on the holy days which God commanded us to observe in the Torah, and perform them in a certain order and with "kavana" (intention), we will be allowed to "taste" Absolute time (the end of time when we will enter into the same dimension of time in which God exists - also referred to as the Messianic Age in Reform Judaism). We listed the 10 rituals the Kabbalists designed for welcoming Shabbat on the board - preparing for Shabbat, lighting the candles, singing "Shalom Aleichem," blessing the children, Kiddush (blessing the wine), washing the hands, Ha'Motzee (blessing the challah), eating a special Shabbat meal, saying grace after the meal, and singing Shabbat songs and telling Shabbat stories (usually from the Talmud). We learned that "order" is important in Judaism - we can't have freedom without establishing a framework of order around it. We learned that all the words built from the sin-daled-resh (s-d-r) letters must have something to do with order - siddur is our prayer book telling us the order to say the prayers for each service, and a special holiday meal with certain rituals which must be performed in a certain order is called a "seder." Thus, it's not only for Pesach (Passover) that we have a seder, but also for Shabbat every week, and for Tu Beesh'vat (the "birthday" of trees).  As a closing activity, the students decorated a "Seder Shabbat" page, creating symbolic drawings for each of the Shabbat rituals.

Last Sunday, I introduced the shoresh vet-resh-chaf (v-r-ch), from which we build words having the meaning "bless" in common. The words "barooch" (blessed) and "b'racha" (a blessing) are built from this shoresh. I then introduced two of several blessing formulas which Roman-era Rabbis designed - a short blessing and a command blessing formula - which we use for the Shabbat seder rituals. The short form is composed of six words - "Barooch Ata Adonai, Eloheynu melech ha'olam..." ("Blessed are You Adonai, Ruler of the universe...) and the command form adds four more words to the short form - "asher keed'shanoo b'meetzvotav v'tzeevanoo...." (...Who has made us holy with His commandments, and has commanded us to...). We use the command form for any ritual commanded to us by God in the Torah, while the short form is used for other actions or rituals not specifically commanded to us - thanking God for food we eat, for the lightning we may see in the sky, for any number of things. Blessings are the Jewish way of pausing in our busy lives to appreciate aspects of God's universe. As a closing activity for this lesson, we learned to recite the "Kiddush" blessing, and then decorated a page with the blessing written on it.

Eventually, the "Seder Shabbat" page and all the blessing pages for each Shabbat ritual will be put together into a "Shabbat Seder Booklet," which the students will bring home to share with the family upon completion.

Decorating "kiddush" blessing page

Since we don't teach Hebrew decoding, this is a fun way for the students to learn that Hebrew has no vowel letters - dots and dashes make up the Hebrew vowel system.  By coloring in the bubble letters, they get a "feel" for the shape of the letters and vowels. I'll be incorporating these blessing pages into our Hebrew Through Movement program, asking the students to touch or point to specific words of the blessing formula. Hopefully, they will begin to recognize these words as we use them more frequently in our lessons.

We continued exploring Hanuka vocabulary in the Hebrew Through Movement program during the past few weeks, finishing with our final Hanuka vocabulary session on Sunday.

Alexia, l'hareem sefer shel Hanuka. (Alexia, lift up a Hanuka book.)

L'hareem et ha'sefer me'al ha'rosh. (Lift up the book over the head.)

Michael, lees'vov s'veevon al ha'sefer al ha'rosh shel Alexia. (Michael, spin a dreydl on the book on Alexia's head.)

Alexia, leen'go'a ba'meelot "chag same'ach" al ha'loo'ach. (Alexia, touch the words "happy holiday" on the board.)

Joey, la'shevet al ha'beerkayeem al ha'reetzpa. (Joey, sit on the knees on the floor.) By the way, the word in Hebrew for "knee" is "berech," which is built from the v'-r-ch shoresh all of which words must have something to do with "bless." We bend our knees when saying a form of the word in our prayers (for example in the , "Barechu" prayer and in the first blessing of the "Amidah" prayer.

Callen, lees'vov s'veevon al ha'shoolchan. (Callen, spin a dreydl on the table.)

Abby, leen'go'a ba'oteeya "hey" al ha's'veevon. (Abby, touch the letter "hey" on the dreydl.)

Max, l'hareem hanukeeya me'al ha'shoolchan shel Hanuka. (Max, lift a Hanuka menorah over the Hanuka table.)

Emma, l'hadleek neyrot shel Hanuka eem ner shamash. (Emma, light Hanuka candles with a servant candle.)

During the final 15 minutes of each of our Sunday sessions this past week, we joined the other 5th and 6th grade tracks in Shira's classroom, to learn Hanuka songs. Below is a video of us learning to sing "Mee Y'malel" ("Who Can Retell") - a song celebrating the heroes of the Hanuka story and other Jewish heroes who have saved us in each generation.

Preparing Sufganiyot

On Tuesday and Wednesday this past week, all of our 5th and 6th graders at JQuest took part in the fourth of our scheduled eight cooking sessions this year. Led by Karen (on Tuesday) and Stephanie (on Wednesday), we prepared a favorite Hanuka holiday treat in Israel (which has since become very popular in other Jewish communities around the world, including our own American Jewish community). "Sufganiyot" is the Hebrew name for fried jelly doughnuts, traditionally round in shape. Since we celebrate the miracle of the oil during the eight days of Hanuka, foods prepared in oil are traditionally prepared for this holiday.

The recipe we used actually calls for the doughnuts to be baked instead of fried (though we did use Pam cooking oil spray to coat the doughnut hole pans we used!) - a much healthier version. Since we have a limited amount of time for the cooking session, Karen and Stephanie opted to simply dust the baked doughnuts with powdered sugar, but if you prepare these at home, feel free to fill them with jelly and decorate them with the glaze included in the recipe below, and any other topping you wish.

Fluffy Cake Doughnuts

(Yields 12 doughnuts)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour                                                                       2 eggs, beaten

¾ cups white sugar                                                                              1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons baking powder                                                               1 tablespoon Crisco shortening

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg                                                               ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt                                                                                      ¾ cup milk

 ½ teaspoon flavored extract

Pam spray for greasing doughnut pan

Note: For gluten-free version, simply replace the flour with the same amount of gluten-free flour and add 2 tablespoons of Xanthan gum into the mix.

For the glaze:

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons hot water

½ teaspoon flavored extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit 

Lightly grease a doughnut pan

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt

Stir in milk, eggs, vanilla and shortening

Beat together with whisk until well-blended

Fill each doughnut cup approximately ¾ full

Bake 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven, until doughnuts spring back when touched

Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan

To make glaze, blend confectioners’ sugar, hot water and flavored extract in a small bowl

Dip doughnuts in the glaze and allow to cool before eating.

Jeremy and Gabe have washed their hands with soap and water, and are ready to begin.

With the flour already in the bowl, Allie is adding in the sugar while Abby and Alexia look on.

Since there weren't enough separate containers of certain ingredients to put on each table, students from each group were asked to come up to the main table with their bowl, to add in those ingredients. Here's Alexia (holding the purple bowl) waiting for her turn.

One of the hardest parts of preparing the dough mixture was cracking the two eggs. Here, Michael has obviously found the trick to cracking the very hard shells.

Jeremy's about to find out if his method will work.

And it does!

Here's a very happy Callen and a very focused Joey waiting to get their final ingredients into their group's bowl as our Y'tzira teacher, Maimone, looks on.

Once they're back at their table, the two are focused on the task at hand.

And here are Emma and two Shira students checking the recipe sheet to find out what gets added in next into the gluten-free version of the recipe.

And once all the ingredients have been blended carefully together in the bowl, it's time to spoon the dough mixture into the doughnut pan, as Zach is doing, while Callen wonders if there's enough mixture to fill both pans (there was!).

Abby and Alexia do the same. Once the pans were filled, they were brought into the Social Hall kitchen where the ovens were already pre-heated and ready for the doughnuts to bake about 10 minutes.

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL COOKING SESSION, WITH UNANIMOUS APPROVAL OF THE RESULTS!

Leesvov S'veevon (Spin a Dreydl)

Back from Thanksgiving holiday break, we dove right in to our Hanuka unit studies, which include both the history of events leading up to the Maccabean Revolt, as well as Hebrew vocabulary associated with the holiday and some of its customs. We focused on the conflict between those Jews who accepted the Hellenist culture and the Maccabees, members of a priestly family in Judea and their followers, who fought against it. This led us to a discussion of whether we, as American Jews, could appreciate the Christian culture of the majority and still feel a strong Jewish identity. The students unanimously agreed that as long as we weren't forced to give up any aspects of our Jewish culture (as Judeans were forced to do by the Syrian-Greek king Antiochus IV), there was no reason why we shouldn't be able to appreciate not only the Christian culture around us (especially during this holiday season) but also the cultures of other minorities living in the United States today.

We had a lot of fun building our Hanuka vocabulary in the Hebrew Through Movement program over the past week.

Callen, l'hareem et ner ha'shamash me'ha'hanukiya. (Callen, lift up the shamash - servant - candle from the hanuka menorah.)

Max, la'seem ner Hanuka al ha'rosh shel Emma; Emma, la'seem ner Hanuka al ha'rosh shel Max. (Max, put a Hanuka candle on Emma's head; Emma, put a Hanuka candle on Max's head.)

Zach, l'hatzbee'a al ha'meela "loo'ach" eem ner Hanuka. (Zach, point to the word "board" with a Hanuka candle.)

Callen, l'hadleek ner shel Hanuka. (Callen, light a Hanuka candle.)

Matthew, leesvov s'veevon al ha'kova shel Joey. (Matthew, spin the dreydl on Joey's hat.)

Jack, leesvov s'veevon al ha'shoolchan. (Jack, spin the dreydl on the table.)

Alexia, la'seem ner Hanuka al ha'rosh shel Emily; Emily, la'seem ner shamash shel Hanuka al ha'rosh shel Alexia. (Alexia, put a Hanuka candle on Emily's head; Emily, put a shamash - servant - candle on Alexia's head.)

Emily v'Alexia, la'lechet ba'keeta eem nerot al ha'rosh. (Emily and Alexia, walk in the classroom with candles on the head.)

Gabe, leesvov s'veevon al ha'rosh shel Zach. (Gabe, spin a dreydl on Zach's head.)

Ashley, l'hareem hanukiya me'al ha'shoolchan. (Ashley, raise a hanukiya over the table.)

And, of course, since we are just a few weeks away from Hanuka, we now have a Hanuka bulletin board in our classroom, filled with new stumper questions relating to the history and traditions of the holiday.

There are games and puzzles on the board, as well as stumpers! We'll have a lot of fun playing some of the games on December 13th and 14th, during our "Bring-A-Friend" days just before winter break.

The new stumper questions on the board are:

What does Antiochus' nickname "Epimanes" mean?
How can we be sure that potato latkes were not eaten by the Maccabees?
Who were the "Hellenists" in Israel, and why did the Maccabees and their followers fight against them?
Who were the first Jews in Italy known to us by name, and how were the Maccabees connected to them?
Who was Judith, and how did she help save her people?
How many candles do Persian Jews light on Hanuka?

Yesterday morning, we had a special visitor to our classroom each session. Josh from the JCC Maccabi Sports Camp came to JQuest to speak to our 3rd through 6th graders about the overnight summer camp which is located on the Menlo College campus in Atherton. During tefillah in the Sanctuary, he shared a 10-minute film, showing a lot of campers having a lot of fun playing all sorts of sports, as well as observing Shabbat, doing arts and crafts, and other activities.

When he came to speak to the 5th and 6th graders in our Edot classroom, he asked us a lot of questions, many of which focused on Jewish values relating to sports. For example, he introduced the value of "sh'meerat goof" (taking care of the body) and asked for volunteers to share how we can fulfill this value everyday.

 And during tefillah, we all followed Rabbi Greninger's lead as she helped us practice for our upcoming "Hanuka Flash Mob" dance at the Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek on Sunday, December 18th. We ran through a couple of practice runs of the dance, and I for one have to say that practicing with everyone else is much more fun and certainly more productive than practicing alone at home! Hopefully, you can all join us for this happy Hanuka event!

This coming Tuesday and Wednesday, our 5th and 6th graders will be preparing a Hanuka treat with Karen (on Tuesday) and Stephanie (on Wednesday) - soofganeeyot (jelly doughnuts). And remember that on December 13th and 14th, our last weekday sessions before winter break, every 3rd-6th grade student at JQuest is welcome to invite one guest - Jewish or not - to join us for a lot of Hanuka fun. Our Edot class will join with Shira and Y'tzira students and friends for an enjoyable afternoon of Hanuka learning and fun.