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.