The Rise of Islam

We completed our historical background studies of the Babylonian Jewish edah this morning with a video and multimedia presentations about the rise of Islam in the early 7th century C.E., and its influence on the Jews of Babylonia/Iraq.

Once again, I used the "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" dvd-rom program to bring the history to life. We viewed the interactive maps beginning in the year 586 B.C.E. when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah and exiled about 10,000 of its inhabitants to his capital city of Babylon. From there, we watched, in fast-forward motion, the emergence and disappearance of the Persian, Seleucid, Parthian, Sassanid, Caliphate Arab and Umayyad Arab empires in Mesopotamia. I then showed a segment of a video about Mohammed and Islam (minutes 42:42 - 49:30), followed by two multimedia presentations - the first about Mohammed, and the second about the peaceful co-existence of the Babylonian Jews and their Muslim rulers in the 7th and 8th centuries C.E.. We learned how the Jewish community thrived under the rule of Islam, especially in the new capital city of Baghdad where, for several centuries, close to 50% of its inhabitants were Jews. I then shared with the students how this situation changed in the first half of the 20th century. On June 1-2 1941, there was a terrible massacre of Jews in Baghdad, referred to in Arabic as the Farhud. In 1951, the Jewish Agency of Israel helped to evacuate most of the 130,000 Jews still living in Iraq at that time. Today, there are no people left in Iraq who openly identify themselves as being Jews. Most live in Israel, with a fairly sizable community living in the United States.

Before we left for tefillah in the Sanctuary, I taught the song "Al Naharot Bavel" (see 1/11 post) -  the lyrics of this song are the first two lines of Psalm 137 - "By the Rivers of Babylon":

I should also mention that I finished reading "The Storyteller's Beads" this morning, and then began a second historical novel which I'll be reading to the class this semester - "A Shout in the Sunshine." This novel provides historical background to our third unit of Edot studies this year - the Jews of Spain. The focus of the story is the clashing of two Jewish cultures - the Sephardi (Spanish) and Romaniot (Greek) - and on two boys, one from each culture, who find a way to bring their communities together.

Orange Cake and Talmud Studies

The first half hour of  our weekday sessions this week were dedicated to the fourth of our 7 cooking sessions with Karen. This time, we prepared a simple and very delicious orange cake in honor of the upcoming Tu Bish'vat holiday that will be celebrated on January 31st. It's a bit of a stretch, since oranges have never been part of the Tu Bish'vat seder developed about 500 years ago by Lurianic Kabbalists. However, Israel is famous for its Jaffa oranges, so it is a way to connect with the land!

These beautiful (and sweet-tasting!) oranges are navels - not the famous Israeli Jaffas. But the resulting cake tastes just as good!

As usual, we began each session around the demo table, watching Karen as she shared the best techniques for squeezing the juice out of the orange and then grating the peel. (Tuesday session)

(Wednesday session)

Most of the time preparing the recipe was taken up by squeezing 2 oranges, enough to get 1 cup of orange juice.

As each orange half was squeezed as dry as possible, its juice was poured into a measuring cup until an entire cup was collected.

By the end of the session, we had a roomful of orange-squeezing experts...

...who put their heart and soul and all their might into the squeezing process!

Contemplating how to get the very last bit of juice out of the remaining pulp

Even as some students were still squeezing juice out, others began the process of grating the orange rind to get 1 teaspoonful of the zest.

Following Karen's advice, they held the grater in one hand and moved the orange peel up and down the grater with the other (though we did spot a few students trying it the other way around!)

And, of course, as each step was completed, it was important to check the recipe card to find out what came next.

Measuring the 3/4 cup of sugar

There was even time to take a quick break to finish the last bite of pizza snack!

Stirring with a smile!

And finally, pouring the batter into the greased pan...

...being sure to scrape out every last drop!

Eventually, all that was left on the table were the dirty measuring cups and spoons and empty orange shells.

Did I say "empty" orange shells? Silly me! 

There was still enough pulp left to enjoy the sweet pulp still left in the shell.

There's a Yiddish expression - "Es loz sich essen!" (It lets itself be eaten!) If these boys could speak Yiddish, I'm sure that's exactly what they would be saying. 

The final step - setting the pans in the kitchen oven to bake.

Oops - did I say the final step? Here is a photo my T.A. caught "behind the scenes" after teachers and students left the Oneg Room to go to tefillah. There's another Yiddish expression that comes to mind here - OY!!!

A very big  TODAH RABAH (MANY THANKS) goes to Karen and Siena, our Hebrew Through Movement teacher, as well as to our Tuesday and Wednesday 5th/6th grade T.A.'s, for cleaning up.  And, of course, to Karen who stays behind after everyone leaves to bake the cakes, divide them up and pack each piece to bring down to the school building to be enjoyed by our students and teachers before the end of the day's session.

Following our half hour tefillah session (in the Beit Knesset with Rabbi Greninger and Ben for the 5th graders, and in the Sanctuary with Cantor Korn and the 7th graders for the 6th graders), and a 15-minute hafsaka (which we took in our classroom to stay warm!!!), I continued our historical overview of the Babylonian Jewish community.

After briefly reviewing what we had learned up to that point (see my previous posts), I jumped a thousand years ahead in our "time machine" to share the incredibly rich and vibrant culture the Jews of Babylonia had developed since they were first brought in exile to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. Our focus was on the great Talmudic academies that arose in the Babylonian cities of Sura and Pumbedita under Rabbinic leaders known as the "Ge'onim." After a brief overview of this period (minutes 37:55 to 41:45), we focused on one page of the Talmud in order to get an idea of how detailed the Rabbinic discussions and arguments could get when discussion an aspect of Jewish law.

Again, I used the "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" dvd-rom program. It's videos are on YouTube, so I can share them with you here, as I did above; unfortunately, there is no way I can share the multimedia parts of the program, which is where we found the "A Page of the Talmud" part of our lesson. The subject discussed on this page related to how we know when exactly to say the "Sh'ma" prayer in the morning (i.e., how do we know when sunrise has occurred). In going over this subject, this multimedia presentation taught us the different parts of each page of the Talmud (the Mishnah, G'mara, Rashi, Tosefot, and later commentaries), and introduced us to Rabbis who discussed the issue over a several hundred year period.

On Sunday, we'll finish our historic overview of the Babylonian/Iraqi Jewish edah.

The Birth of Judaism

During the past two sessions, we reviewed what we had learned in our previous session about the Kingdom of Israel and its conquest by the Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C.E., and the subsequent exile of all of its inhabitants to the cities of Assur and Nineveh - henceforth to be referred to as the "Ten Lost Tribes of Israel." We discussed what might have happened to them, and realized that the most logical explanation would be that they became assimilated into the Assyrian culture, losing their national identity and their cultural heritage.

We kept this in mind, as I played a video segment from the "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" dvd-rom program, sharing details of the Babylonian Conquest and Exile, (from the start of the video to minute 55:43),which had occurred just  136 years after the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians. With this previous conquest so fresh in their minds, the Judahites who were exiled to Babylon (the political and religious leaders as well as skilled artisans) did everything possible to preserve their national identity and culture and to separate themselves as a distinct people from the other peoples living in Babylon. In so doing, a new religion was born, which centered on the home instead of the Temple in Jerusalem, and on rituals and prayers instead of sacrifices. It was during the Babylonian Exile that Judaism was born.

Actually, I was only able to share the video segment with Tuesday's class; on Wednesday I ran into a technological glitch which prevented me from showing the video to that session's students. To be more specific, my 2004 (the date is correct and not a typo!) Compaq laptop onto which I had installed the "Heritage" program finally "died" a not-so-pleasant death (at least it wasn't very pleasant for me!). In spite of the best efforts of Alex, a Bonim track T.A., to resurrect it, I finally realized it was time to accept the inevitable, and to say "kaddish" (the mourner's prayer) over it.

Instead of showing the video, I provided a brief description in "storyteller" mode of the rise of the Babylonian Empire and of Nebuchadnezzar's goal to conquer the Egyptian Empire. I reminded the students that the little Kingdom of Judah was an obvious target as it lay on the land bridge connecting Mesopotamia with North Africa. I described Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem, and the ultimate destruction of its walls and the Temple of Solomon, and finally the forced exile of some 10,000 of Judah's inhabitants. Then I took an English language copy of the TaNa'CH (an acronym for "Torah" "Nevee'eem" (Prophets) and "K'tooveem" (Writings) - i.e. the Hebrew Bible) from my bookcase, opened it up to Psalm 137 , and read the lines in as dramatic a fashion as I could muster to the class.

Then I opened up a discussion with the following questions:  How do the people described in this psalm feel? What do they fear will happen to them, and what do they hope will happen to their tormentors. I concluded the discussion by sharing that many scholars believe that the final verses of this psalm were added in after King Cyrus of Persian conquered the Babylonians in 537 B.C.E., and permitted all the peoples they had conquered and exiled to return to their native lands. The final verses describe what indeed happened to the Babylonians when Cyrus and his army conquered them.

I concluded the lesson by teaching the students a mournful tune for the first 2 lines of the psalm (It's the first of the two recordings on this link).

In our Hebrew Through Movement program, we continued to incorporate commands asking the students to recognize whole words on flashcards.

In the video below: Myles: Leengo'a  b'yam ha'melach al ha'mapa. (Myles: Touch the Dead Sea on the map.) Banot, l'heestovev la'chalon - koolam, le'hatzbee'a al ha'chalon. (Girls, turn around to the window - everyone, point to the window.) Gabby, leengo'a ba'meelah chalon. (Gabby, touch the word window.)

Baneem, la'shevet al ha'shulchan. (Boys, sit on the table.)

Baneem, la'shevet mee'tachat la'shulchan. (Boys, sit under the table.)

Baneem, l'heestovev la'loo'ach ha'lavan. (Boys, turn around to the white board.)

Billy, leengo'a b'yam ha'teechon. (Billy, touch the Mediterranean Sea.)

Ella, l'hatzbee'a al ha'meela "torah." (Ella, point to the word "Torah.")

We spent the final 15 minutes of each session in Room 204, Shira track's classroom, together with the other 5th and 6th graders and with our music director, Ben.

Hava Nagila:

L'chee Lach: (a Debbie Friedman song describing Abraham's journey "to a land that I will show you.")

And, in honor of the upcoming Tu Beesh'vat holiday (on January 31st), The Garden Song:

Now that our second semester is underway, we have a change in schedule for our weekday tefillah sessions: Until now, all the 5th and 6th graders have joined the 3rd and 4th graders in the Beit Knesset from 4:45-5:05 for tefillah with Rabbi Greninger. Beginning these past two weekday sessions and going on through the end of the school year, all the 6th graders will join the 7th graders for tefillah with Cantor Korn in the Sanctuary, learning the songs and prayers of the Shabbat morning service. The 5th graders will continue to go to the Beit Knesset for tefillah with Rabbi Greninger. Tefillah for everyone will now extend to half an hour, from 4:30 to 5:00 p.m.

I joined the 6th graders for tefillah in the Sanctuary this week, which began with Cantor Korn explaining to the 6th graders what they could expect to learn with the 7th graders.

The Original Edah

Welcome back to Edot, everyone! Hopefully, you all had a smooth and enjoyable transition into 2018.

We jumped right in to our second semester yesterday morning by beginning a new unit of study about the very first edah (Jewish Diaspora community) - the Babylonian/Iraqi Jewish community. Even today, members of this edah refer to themselves as Babylonian Jews, proud descendants of those leaders and artisans of the ancient Kingdom of Judah who were forced into exile by King Nebuchadnezzar in the year 586 B.C.E., and who formed the first permanent Jewish community outside the boundaries of Israel. There was a time when Babylonian Jewry was considered the aristocracy of the world Jewish community, thanks in large part to the great Talmudic centers of learning that they established in ancient cities in what is today Iraq  - cities like Pumbedita, the ancient name for Falluja, where sadly so much fighting recently took place.

In order to give the students proper historical background to help them understand what preceded the Babylonian Exile, I used the "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" dvd-rom program (published by the Revson Foundation) to bring to life a summary of the history described in the five books of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), and the first 6 books of the "Prophets" section of the Hebrew Bible (Joshua, Judges, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings and II Kings). We ended our historical "journey" yesterday, with the Assyrian Empire's conquest of the Kingdom of Israel and the forced exile of all of its inhabitants to its two largest cities - Assur and Nineveh. We never hear from them again, and to this very day they are referred to as the "Ten Lost Tribes of Israel."

We finished the lesson by viewing a video from the "Heritage" program, describing King Solomon's reign and the era of the prophets (which began with Samuel in Israel and ended with Ezekiel in Babylonia) (we viewed minutes 46:28 - 57:00). I let the video play through the introduction to the Babylonian Conquest of the Kingdom of Judah as a bit of a "teaser" for the material we'll be covering next session.

Just prior to our history lesson, we reviewed the Hebrew foundational vocabulary I'd introduced to the students since the start of the school year. This time I added a new element to the Hebrew commands - recognizing some of the words we have learned written on flashcards. With this exercise, I'm introducing the literacy element of the Hebrew Through Movement program. During this session, I introduced the new words "meelah" (word) and "t'moona" (picture) and "chamsa" (a bit of an introduction to the symbol we'll be learning about during our Babylonian Jewry unit of study).

As a warm up, I had students "dancing" by having them hop on one foot and then the other. "Baneem, leek'potz al regel echad v'az al regel sheinee." (Boys, jump on one leg and then on the other.)

We spent a few minutes reviewing Hebrew geographical names on our map of Israel. (Justin, leengo'a b'yam ha'keeneret.) (Justin, touch the Sea of Kinneret - a/k/a The Sea of Galilee.)

Below is a video taken of Michael and Maddie, who have just walked backward from their seats to the door per my Hebrew command, and are now following my commands to point to the door, to the word for the door, to touch the picture of a door, and to touch a chamsa hanging on the side of the door.

And here is David, walking v-e-r-y  s-l-o-w-l-y to the window, then pointing to it.