Bene Israel Handprint Amulets and Pesach

During the week day sessions last week, we completed our unit of study about the Jews of India by re-creating hand print amulets that a Bene Israel couple would make during a special ceremony called the Mehndi that took place three days before the wedding ceremony.

During this ceremony, the right hands of both bride-to-be and groom-to-be were smeared with henna or saffron dye, considered by many cultures to have "anti-demonic" properties, then the hands were pressed against a wall inside the home. Once the prints had dried, the "Evil Eye" was painted in black in the center of the palm, and good luck symbols were painted around the prints. As with all other edot (Jewish Diaspora communities), the Bene Israel borrowed from the surrounding culture, which in this case was Hindi and Buddhist. Peacocks, elephants, and lotus flowers were often painted onto amulets (representing beauty, strength and purity of heart and mind, respectively). During the ceremony, one or more of these images would be painted onto the wall around the hand prints. Then Jewish symbols of holiness and good luck would be added to the Indian symbols - the Hebrew letters "chet" and "yud" (spelling the Hebrew word for life - Chai), the Hebrew letter "shin" (representing the first letter of one of God's names - Shaddai) and the ancient menorah were the three most commonly used symbols. Beginning in the late 15th century, with the arrival of Sephardi Jews from Spain and Portugal (known in India as the Paradesi Jews or White Jews), the Chamsa (the five-fingered amulet borrowed from the Muslim cultures of Arabia and North Africa) began to appear, and in the early 19th century, the Magen David (Jewish Star) was often painted on the wall as well. The hand prints thus became permanent home amulets, ensuring a happy marriage for the couple and protection for the woman and baby during childbirth.

When the Bene Israel and other Jewish communities in India began to move to Israel in the early 1950's, they sold their homes to non-Jews. To this day, the hand prints and the Jewish as well as Indian good luck symbols remain on the walls of many of these homes.

First, the students traced their hand onto a piece of white paper.

Then it was time to choose an Indian symbol to draw free-hand or trace onto the corners of the paper.

A few years ago, I found instructions on the internet for drawing elephants, peacocks, and lotus flowers. This made the process of drawing the good luck symbols much, much easier!

I had found copies of a ketuba (Jewish marriage contract) of a couple who were married in Mumbai in 1913 (then called Bombay), decorated with two peacocks. Some of the students used those peacocks as models for their drawing.

Below are some of the completed amulets. I'll laminate all the hand print amulets when they're completed, and then hang them up in our classroom which will become a very safe place to be, indeed!

Yesterday, we had a very full schedule each session. After I read two chapters from "The Circlemaker," we began to learn the first two questions of the "Mah Nishtana" section of the Pesach Haggadah. Using props from our Hebrew Through Movement program, the students were able to "act" out the two questions by holding up or pointing to the props.

"Mah nishtana HA'LAYLA ha'zeh...?" ("How is this NIGHT different...?") Zach points to the photo of the Moon, representing the word, "LAYLA" (NIGHT).

"...meekol ha'LEYLOT?" ("...from all the NIGHTS?") Abby points to the photo of the different phases of the Moon, representing the word, "LEYLOT" (NIGHTS).

Here's Maddy doing the same.

"She'be'chol ha'leylot anoo ochleen CHAMETZ OO'MATZA..." ("That on all the nights we eat leavened food and matza...") Here's Jack holding up the CHAMETZ (a challah bread from our Shabbat HTM props) and MATZA.

"...ha'layla ha'zeh, koolo MATZA." ("...this night only MATZA.") Jeremy's holding up the HTM Matza prop.

"She'be'chol ha'leylot, anoo ochleen SH'AR Y'RAKOT..." ("That on all the nights we eat all kinds of greens...") It's hard to see in the photo, but that's a bunch of parsley Jeremy's holding up to represent the greens.

Once we had practiced the two questions a few times over, we still had time to practice our usual HTM vocabulary with some Pesach twists:

Callen, la'seem hagada shel Pesach al ha'rosh. (Callen, put a Passover haggadah on the head.)

Callen, la'seem yad al ha'rosh shel Maddie v'hagada shel Pesach al ha'rosh; Maddie, la'seem yad al ha'beten shel Callan v'l'hachzeek hagada shel Pesach ba'yad ha'sheynee. (Callen, put a hand on Maddie's head and a Passover haggadah on the head; Maddie, put a hand on Callen's stomach and hold a Passover haggadah in the second hand.)

Zach, leekpotz al regel echad la'keeseh. (Zach, jump on one foot to the chair.)

We also reviewed our Israel and its environs geography. Michael, l'hatzbee'a al eretz levanon. (Michael, point to the Land of Lebanon.)

And continued to practice recognizing written Hebrew words in our classroom. Maddie, l'hatzbee'a al ha'meela "rosh." (Maddie, point to the word, "rosh" - it means "head" and was one of the words for our "letter of the week" last week - RESH.

Then it was time to begin our Pesach unit of study. I had prepared a table with those ritual items involved in the 15 steps of the Pesach seder. The students all sat around the table, as we went through each of the 15 steps using the "Student's Haggadah" book.

Pesach is a spring holiday, and there's no doubt that spring is here, just looking at the magnificent oak tree outside our classroom window!

After lighting our "yom tov" (holiday) candles using the Hebrew Through Movement candlestick and candle props and commands ("...l'hadleek ner shel yom tov"), the first step of the seder is the Kadesh (Aramaic for Kiddush).

The second step involves washing the hands without saying the blessing.

Third step: Karpas - dipping a green vegetable (in our case, parsley) into salt water and eating it after saying the blessing "...borey p'ree ha'adama." ("...who creates the fruit of the earth.")

Then comes "Yachatz" where the middle of a pile of three cakes of matza is taken out, divided in half, and replaced on the pile (one half becomes the hidden Afikoman) - Joey is doing the honors here.

 Jumping ahead in this photo, we come to the "korech" step, in which "maror" (bitter herb) is put between two pieces of matza to make a sandwich.

A few students were a bit hesitant about tasting the maror...

Once in the mouth, they quickly discovered why horseradish is frequently used in Ashkenazi households for the maror. It does bring forth the tears and bitter feeling of slavery!

As we came to each succeeding step, each student had a chance to read the Aramaic name of the ritual and the description of the ritual involved in that step.

Once we went through all 15 steps, I read through the names of each of the rituals, and the students discovered that they rhymed. To help them learn the ritual steps of the Pesach seder by heart, I then introduced the Sephardi (Spanish/Portuguese Jewish) melody to the "Kadesh U'r'chatz."

(It's the second of the two recordings at the bottom of the page, sung by Rebecca Pardue.)

Yesterday's tefillah session in the Sanctuary was very special, in that it was the final Creative Tefillah session led by sixth graders for this school year. The theme to which the students, including our Edot students Ashley and Emily, fit the prayers was "school." YASHER KO'ACH to all the sixth graders who have participated in the Creative Tefillah sessions this year.