Tu Bi'Shvat Seder

On Sunday, February 5th, our Edot track students were introduced to the Tu Bi'Shvat seder.  We began the lesson with three YouTube videos, which shared the history and rituals of the holiday, and got us into the holiday mood. 

The first YouTube video was a modern update of the story told by the Rabbis in the Babylonian Talmud (about which we recently studied) of Honi Ha'Me'agel (Honi the Circlemaker), who would draw a circle around himself, then ask God to bring rain.

The second video shared the history of the holiday and its rituals, with the help of an annoying orange!

Finally, we got into a "Tu Bi'Shvat mood"  with the help of "The Tree Song".

We then learned about the history of the Tu Bi'Shvat seder, beginning with the exile of Spanish Jews in 1492. Unable to comprehend why God was punishing them, many began to question their Jewish identity and the promise of the prophets that God would protect His people if they followed his commandments. We learned that one man, Rabbi Isaac Luria, eventually made his way to Tzfat (Safed) in Ottoman-ruled Palestine, and there studied Kabbalah - Jewish mysticism. After a few years, he developed his own form of Kabbalah, which eventually spread not only among Sephardic (Spanish) Jews, but over the coming centuries among Ashkenazi Jews in Poland and then Russia (Hasidism is a form of Lurianic Kabbalah). His "revelation" was that it was not only the Jewish people who were in exile, but God Himself was in exile. There had been an accident, he taught, at the moment of Creation, when God's "supernal" light overfilled the vaccum created in which to form the universe, and caused an explosion which scattered the light in the form of sparks throughout the universe.  Only human beings, who know the difference between right and wrong, and who can truly appreciate the beauty of the universe, can "collect the sparks" and thus unite God and Israel once again. A spark is collected anytime we follow a commandment or do a good deed. Even the most seemingly insignificant action can help to collect a spark.

Luria taught that a major role of humans is to help the "Eytz Chaim," the Tree of Life, flourish, by taking care of life in our plane of existence - on Earth. Here is our connection to Tu Bi'Shvat. Originally, the date (the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Sh'vat) from which the age of trees was counted (no tree fruit was allowed to be eaten before the third year after the tree was planted) - hence the day being referred to often as the "birthday of the trees" - the day now assumed a mystical and spiritual role thanks to Luria's teachings. Over time, a ritual "seder" was developed, modeled on the Passover seder. During the seder, we drink four cups of wine, each cup a slightly different color representing the four seasons (white for winter, pale pink for spring, a darker pink for summer, and dark red for fall), and eat 10 different fruits, representing three types of human beings - fruits with shells we cannot eat but which are sweet and edible within (pomegranates and bananas, for example); fruits with inedible seeds in the center, but which again, are sweet and edible on the outside (dates, apricots, etc.), and finally, fruits which are totally edible (figs, grapes,etc.).

Our Edot class observed a very short form of this seder, using a Tu Bi'Shvat "haggadah" which shared the rituals and blessings, as well as questions for discussion relating to connecting ourselves with nature. For example, students were asked if they knew anyone who had a "hard shell" on the outside, but was really nice and "sweet" on the inside. We also read stories in the haggadah relating to Israel and nature. For example, it was Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy sent to Damascus to infiltrate the government in the 1960's, who persuaded the Syrian government to plant eucalyptus trees on the Golan Heights to help provide shade for their soldiers stationed there prior to the 6-day war. During the war itself, Israeli soldiers were told to look for these eucalyptus trees and shoot in their direction.

At the end of seder, we handed out packets of parsley seeds and peat pods, so the students could take these home and plant parsley. It is traditional to plant the parsley on Tu Bi'Shvat, which will be used some weeks later during the Passover seder. I believe that a good time was had by all, and I'd like to wish everyone a happy Tu Bi'Shvat, which falls this year on Tuesday evening, February 7th.

Tikun Olam - The Words of our Prophets

As part of our ancient Jewish studies, the Edot track students learned about the Hebrew prophets and their moral teachings in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judea. Specifically, we learned about the Prophets Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel who spanned the 500 or so years of the age of prophets, from ca.1000 to 500 B.C.E.

We learned that the first prophet, Samuel, annointed the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David, even as he warned the Israelites that God should be their only king, and begged the people to "Serve the Lord with all your heart...the Lord has made you His people." (First Samuel 12:20-22)

Elijah tried to keep King Ahab of Israel from worshipping other gods, often unsuccessfully thanks to Ahab's Phoenician wife, Jezebel, who worshipped Ba'al and many other gods. According to the Bible, Elijah is the only person never to actually die, but instead, was swept up by a fiery chariot pulled by fiery horses. It is Elijah whom the Jewish People believe will lead the Messiah into Jerusalem. Elijah became a symbol of comfort to the Edot living throughout the world, and even today, we practice the ritual of the Cup of Elijah during our Passover seders, inviting him into our homes as a sign of hope, that the world will become a better place.

The Prophet Isaiah, for whom our Temple and Religious School is named, was another prophet of hope. Living in the Kingdom of Judah during the time of the Assyrian conquest of the northern Kingdom of Israel and its attempted conquest of the Kingdom of Judah, he promised the people that if they followed God's commandments and pursued justice, God would save them from the Assyrian enemy, and there would come a time when "...nation shall not lift sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4)

Jeremiah had to fight against the hopeful prophecy of Isaiah.  He lived during the Babylonian conquest of the Kingdom of Judah, and walked the streets wearing a yoke, begging the Judeans to follow God's commandments, lest God punish them by sending their enemy with a crushing force upon them, destroying beautiful Jerusalem and taking them all into captivity. He was called a traitor and fool by the people, and ultimately was taken captive and brought to Egypt, never to see his beloved Jerusalem again. Yet, from Egypt, this prophet of "doom" wrote to the Judean captives in Babylon, telling them not to give up hope. "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare." (Jeremiah 29:7).  It was the words of Jeremiah which set the stage for how future edot would live amongst many cultures, retaining their Jewish identity even as they "sought the welfare" of the people with whom they lived.

The Prophet Ezekiel was one of the Judeans taken captive by the Babylonians. His was a prophesy of redemption for the exiles. "I will assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the Land of Israel." (Ezekiel 11:17) This promise has never been forgotten by the Jewish People.

As a closing activity for our unit of study about the prophets, Edot students worked in small groups to create "torn paper" posters depicting the individual prophets and their messages, as well as the words of the Prophet Isaiah, "Learn to do good; Cease to do evil; Seek justice; Relieve the oppressed; Defend the orphan and plead the widow." (Isaiah 1:17)

Ancient Israelite History

Our Edot class began a unit of study about the earliest history of the Jewish People, as soon as we returned from winter break. I introduced the class to the 39 books of the Hebrew Bible, referred to in Hebrew as "Tanach,"an acronym for Torah, Nevi'im (Prophets), and K'toovim (Writings). Following the order of the books, we quickly reviewed our people's earliest journeys from Ur in southern Mesopotamia to Canaan (Abraham) ,from Canaan to Egypt (Jacob), and from Egypt back to Canaan (the Exodus story). We learned that the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges give conflicting accounts of what happened in Canaan, once Joshua led the Israelites into the land. In the Book of Joshua, we are told that God commanded the Israelites to kill every man, woman, and child of the other tribes residing in the land, which order Joshua carried out. In the Book of Judges, we are presented with a Canaan in which the tribes of Israel are living amongst many other tribes. Thanks to archaeological finds, the evidence seems to point to the Book of Judges as providing more accurate information.

We learned how the Israelite tribes fought amongst each other, as well as against other tribes, and that the period of the Judges (people like Deborah, Gideon, and Samson), was not a peaceful one at all in Canaan.  At this point, I introduced the students to the Philistines, one of the 5 sea peoples who were uprooted from their coastal towns along Greece and its islands when an enormous volcanic eruption caused earthquakes and tidal waves along the Mediterranean coast. We hear about them first when Moses and the Israelites are beginning their journey through the wilderness. They cannot take the short route to Canaan along the sea coast, as the Philistines are living there and would surely win in a fight against the weak Israelite slaves. The Philistines were of Greek origin, and introduced iron to the Canaanite region, easily overcoming the Israelites and other peoples who fought them when they settled in the cities of Gat, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, and Ekron on the Coastal Plain of Canaan. Iron swords easily sliced through bronze shields! The word "philistine" has taken on a derogatory meaning in English, based largely upon the Biblical description of these people as warrior-like and uncultured. Contrary to this description, however, archaeologists have discovered remains of a technologically and culturally advanced people, who earned their living pressing olive oil and who created beautiful forms of art. Unfortunately, very little Philistine writing has been found, so we only know of them from the Biblical account.  I shared a segment from A&E's "Mysteries of the Bible" series about the Philistines with the students, focusing on how important a written tradition is to ensuring the survival of a nation.  I shared the final 3 minutes or so of  "Act V" of "The Philistines," which you can view on the following link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o0mlZPuN84&feature=related
(2:54 to the end of the act is the part I showed them)

At this point, we took some time to take a look at the Hebrew prophets -  who they were and the role they played in ancient Israelite society. These were the men who were assigned by God to keep the kings of Israel true to the Covenant between God and Israel, and who cried out for social justice. The three monotheistic religions of the world owe their ethical foundations to these prophets. I showed the first two acts of the "Mysteries of the Bible" chapter about the Prophets, which you can view on the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuUZYMCgcyM

We learned how the Israelites approached the prophet Samuel, asking him to ask God to appoint for them a king who would unite them against their Philistine enemy. After reminding the people that God is their king, and warning them that they would rue the day they asked for a king, God appoints Saul as the first king of Israel. Saul unites the tribes, and they succeed in fighting back the Philistines. But we are told that Saul soon goes mad, and believes that others are out to take his throne from him. David, the musician, is brought in to calm him, but after the episode when David slays Goliath, a Philistine giant according to the Bible, even David has to flee when Saul believes the people love David more than him. Saul died fighting the Philistines on Mt. Gilboa, but God's initial warning against having a king is echoed through David, who defeats the Philistines and chooses Jerusalem as his capital city thus instituting the period of the United Kingdom, but who then kills Uriah the Hittite to be able to marry Bathsheba, with whom he has a son, Solomon. David has his own sons killed before dying himself. But it is during Solomon's reign, that God's warning rings loudest. I shared the following segment with the students, to give them an idea of how the Israelites suffered under King Solomon:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YUFDNEVigI   
(21:20-23:10 is the part I showed them)

Over the coming few weeks, I will be sharing how the United Kingdom, after Solomon's death, splits into the Kingdom of Israel in the north, consisting of 10 of the 12 tribes, and the Kingdom of Judah to the south, consisting of the largest tribe, Judah, and the smallest tribe, Benjamin (which eventually is assimilated into Judah).  The Kingdom of Israel, in 722 B.C.E., is conquered by the Assyrian Empire of northern Mesopotamia, and most members of the 10 tribes are exiled, forced to live in Assyria. We never hear from them again - they become known as the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel. I'll be sharing this story through the eyes of the prophet Isaiah in the following segment:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuUZYMCgcyM
(Act IV).  I will be asking the students why they believe the 10 tribes disappeared, and what they might have done to maintain their Israelite identity and survive as a nation. We will then compare the students' ideas for how the 10 tribes of Israel might have maintained their identity, to what we will learn in the next chapter of our unit of study, the Babylonian Conquest of the remaining Kingdom of Judah in 586 B.C.E., and the exile of its skilled labor and its leaders to Babylon. It is in Babylon that the first Edah - the Babylonian Jews - is born, and where modern Judaism can find its roots. I'll be showing the segment about the prophet Jeremiah from the above link to the "Prophets" chapter of  "Mysteries of the Bible," which immediately follows Isaiah in Act IV, as well as a video from the "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" dvd-rom program about Judean life in Babylon. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/episode2/video/video1_56k.html

This is all a lot of history being shared in very little time. It's important for the students to understand how our national memory of this history has helped us to maintain our Jewish identity, and allowed us to survive, and even thrive, in communities outside the Land of Israel. When we learn about Jewish law and the different customs of various edot, including our own American edah, the students will have a better understanding of the national memory these laws and customs have been designed to maintain and strengthen over the generations. 

Bring-A-Friend Day

Our Edot track students concluded this semester, as did all the weekday classes at Isaiah, with our annual "Bring-A-Friend" day. Students often share with their friends outside of our Isaiah community their experiences in Religious School, and this is the one day during the year when they can invite one friend into our classroom. The lesson for the day in Edot track revolved around Hanuka. Charna started the lesson by welcoming all the friends, and explaining what the Edot track was all about. She then read a summary of the events of the Hanuka story. Students and their friends were then divided into four groups, and each group was given one fourth of the summary Charna had just read, and given the challenge to create a skit depicting their assigned part of the story. The challenge was that each group was told to perform the skit in a certain style. Group 1 had to perform the start of the Hanuka story in the style of an American western film; Group 2 as a scifi film; Group 3 in the style of a Harry Potter story; and Group 4 in the style of a Sesame Street episode. The groups went to separate rooms and areas with teachers and Avodah TA's overseeing them.  After 20 minutes we all assembled in Room 202, which had been set up with a stage area, and the performances began. The audience was asked to try to guess the assigned style of the performance, and, in every case, on both days, the groups performed so well that we all guessed correctly. Following the performances, students were given dreydls and bags of pennies, and for the next half hour the sound of dreydls being spun and pennies being thrown into the "pot" could be heard, along with the accompanying shouts of triumph or sighs of frustration. We rounded out the session at a Hanuka assembly in the Sanctuary with the rest of the weekday classes. Rabbi Greninger chose 9 volunteers from friends who were visiting to become a "human hanukiya." The friend playing the role of the Shamash (servant candle) "lit" the 8 friends playing the roles of the 8 candles of the last night of Hanuka, as Rabbi Greninger explained that we put the candles into the hanukiya each night from right to left, but then light them from left to right (lighting the newest candle first). Rabbi Greninger and our Shira (Music) Track teacher, Elaya, then led us all in singing Hanuka songs until it was time to go home. A good time was had by all!

Have a very happy Hanuka holiday - Chag Hanuka Sameach!  Enjoy your winter break, and a smooth and enjoyable transition into 2012.

Hanuka Around the World

Students in our Edot class completed their Hanuka unit of study last week by learning about different Hanuka customs and traditions around the globe. They shared some of what they learned in the form of posters depicting the customs in 9 different countries or regions:  Mexico, Germany, Poland/Russia, Tunisia, Kurdistan (northern Iraq), Yemen, Germany, Alsace region of France, and Morocco. These posters were then hung on a bulletin board outside our classroom, made to look like the 8 candles plus the Shamash (servant candle) of a hanukiya (Hanuka menorah). The finished products were wonderful, and, even more importantly,  the process of learning and creating the posters was enlightening (excuse the Hanuka pun!) and fun.

Hannuka YouTube Links

Now that the Thanksgiving holiday is behind us, our Edot class has been focusing on learning about the Jewish holiday of Hannuka, as it relates to a running theme of our curriculum - cultural borrowing.

We began by reviewing the customs and laws of Hannuka. Students volunteered how they celebrated the holiday at home, and these customs were listed on the board. The students were then asked to look over the extensive list they generated, and share which of the items on the list were mandated by Jewish law (halacha). It was a surprise to many of them that playing the dreydl game and eating latkes (potato pancakes) were not required. The only halachic ritual we are required to perform is lighting the hannukiya (the 9-branch menorah used only for Hannuka), adding one more candle each night, and placing the hannukiya where all can see it  - "l'farsem et ha'nes" - "to make famous the miracle."  Everything else, from playing the dreydl game to eating the latkes, giving presents, eating chocolate hannuka gelt, etc., all falls under the category of customs or traditions ("masoret" in Hebrew).

Once we established the difference between "halacha" and "masoret," we continued the lesson by reviewing the history behind the events of the Hannuka story, beginning with the conquests of Alexander the Great in the early 3rd century B.C.E., the spread of the Hellenistic (Greek) culture, and the ultimate clash of cultures when many Jews began to adopt the Greek culture. The Maccabees, as we know, were victorious, and the Talmudic era Rabbis, living about 500 years after the events of the Hannuka story, emphasized that the miracle that occurred was not so much that the small Maccabean army was able to defeat the large, well-organized army of the Syrian-Greeks. Rather, the true miracle was that a minority culture could survive in the midst of a larger one, and the lesson we could share with the rest of the world was that religious freedom should and could be attained "not by might, and not by power, but by spirit." This lesson is what the ritual of lighting the hannukiya is meant to help us remember each year.

This past Sunday, recalling what we had learned about the prevalence of the Greek culture in the Mediterranean world some 2,000 years ago, we took a close look at our own American culture and how American Jews have adopted many of its elements, giving them a "Jewish twist" and making them part of our own culture. We viewed 4 YouTube videos, each of which reflected how we have borrowed extensively from our American (western) culture to enrich our Hannuka celebrations. Below are the links to these YouTube videos. See if you can isolate the American cultural elements in each. Enjoy!


The Maccabeats sing "Candlelight"
Hanuka with Veronica Monika
Adam Sandler's Chanuka Song
Hannuka Flash Mob in Jerusalem

The History and Geography of Ancient Canaan

Our Edot class has begun to explore the ancient history of the Jews, to learn about the origins of the specific Edot (diaspora communities) we'll be studying. As we travel back in time, we'll be trying to answer the questions, "Who were the earliest Jews?" and "Why and how did the tiny Jewish nation survive while other great civilizations (Sumeria, Assyria, Babylonia, Phillistine, etc) disappeared?"  We'll be using several resources to bring the discoveries of historians and archaeologists to life, including the Revson Foundation's "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" interactive dvd-rom program.  Check out this program online.
Heritage: Civilization and the Jews

So far, we have discovered that Abraham, the "first Jew" was actually a Sumerian, coming from the city-state of Ur, according to the Book of Genesis. We learned that cultural elements of the Sumerians were brought to the Land of Canaan (modern-day Israel) via trade routes established at least a thousand years before Abraham appeared on the scene. Sumerian creation stories are echoed in the Book of Genesis, and the Code of Law established by Hammurabi, a great king of Sumeria, was likely the basis for many of the commandments found in the Torah. And Sumeria wasn't the only civilization the earliest "Jews" were exposed to - the great civilization of Egypt also exerted a lasting influence on the ancient Israelite culture. Could the monotheistic ideas of Ahmenhotep IV (also known as Akhneton) have had an impression on the ancient Semites living in Egypt? What about the rite of circumcision, practiced in ancient Egypt before there was ever a people identified as "Israel"?

Since many of the events in our ancient history took place in the Land of Canaan, which we came to regard as our homeland, it's important that the students understand the geography of the land, and how geographical features, in many cases, influenced major historical events. For example,  why would Joshua, Moses' successor,  choose to attack the Jordan Valley city of Jericho first, to gain a foothold in the Land of Canaan? Why did the Israelite tribes fight among each other for territory, and which territory did they covet? Why did the Phillistines choose to settle on the Coastal Plain, and how did this affect their interactions with the ancient tribes of Israel? Why did King David choose Jerusalem as his capital city once he defeated the Phillistines and unified the 12 tribes?

For the past couple of weeks, our Edot students have become experts in the geography of the Land of Canaan/Israel. Students were divided into small groups, and began their research by reading a description of Canaan's geography in "A Child's Introduction to the Early Prophets" published by Behrman House. Using notes they took relating specifically to 9 geographical features of the land and its boundaries (Mediterranean Sea, Coastal Plain, Hill Country, Mountains, Jordan River, Jordan River Valley, Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee), the Dead Sea, and the Negev Desert), they drew rough drafts of a map of Canaan on scrap paper. Finally, when they correctly located each feature on their first draft, they were ready to draw the final map on 18"x24" construction paper. These maps were completed in class on November 20th, and will be laminated and referred to as we continue our historical study of the ancient Israelites.