A Taste of Archaeology

On Sunday, November 6th, our Edot students were given the opportunity to learn about the skills and patience that archaeologists must have in order to reconstruct and interpret their finds. As we begin our exploration of ancient Jewish history over the coming weeks, it's important for the students to understand where and how the information we have was obtained and interpreted, and how historians and archaeologists work in tandem to understand each other's finds. Each of the 3 stations provided the students with "hands-on" experiences. In one station, students were asked to decode paleo-Hebrew letters on an ancient Judean coin minted during the Roman occupation, and to find a chapter in the Second Book of Kings in the Bible, describing how King Meshach of Moab successfully rebelled against Israel. They then compared the Biblical verse to the "Moabite Stone" discovered by archaeologists, on which King Meshach proclaims his successful rebellion. A second station taught the students how to use "pottery typology charts" developed by archaeologists, to date specific pottery forms. The students were then asked to reconstruct a broken clay pot, as archaeologists must often do. The third station introduced "cylinder seals" to the students, which were used by kings in antiquity to "sign" edicts and other proclamations written by scribes. Students created their own "seals," carving their paleo-Hebrew initials into a piece of carrot, then rolling the carved side of the carrot onto a flattened piece of Play-Doh to view the raised initials.

The following photos share the focus and delight of the students, as they worked together on their projects.

Journey on a Magic Carpet

This past Sunday, April 29th, all the fifth graders from the Academy, Edot, and Shira tracks came together during the first session to experience a "journey on a magic carpet."  The reference in the title is to the Operation Magic Carpet carried out by Israel between 1949-1951, when over 45,000 Yemenite Jews were flown "on the wings of eagles" (Exodus:19:4) back to the Land of Israel. Jews had lived in Yemen for at least 2,500 years, perhaps even longer, and had always dreamed of returning to Israel. Unfortunately, due to Yemen's isolation at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, its very harsh, mountainous terrain, and the extreme poverty that the Jews lived in, most were not able to fulfill this dream until "Magic Carpet".

We began the workshop with a brief introduction to the subject, during which time the students and parents who attended were literally given a "taste" of Yemenite Jewry as they sampled Zemeta (a mixture of ground roasted garbanzo beans, sesame seeds, sugar and cinnamon), plain roasted garbanzo beans, and a candy made of lemon juice, sugar, and cardamom favored by Yemenite Jews. As they sampled the treats, they watched a YouTube segment which introduced, without words, the Yemenite Jews  and their world.

Following this introduction, the students and their parents were divided into three groups, and rotated between three stations. One station introduced them to the art of Yemenite Jewish jewelry-making.  The Yemenite Jews were not allowed to own land, so over the centuries they began to excel in handcrafts, like leather-working, basket-weaving, and embroidery.  But they became especially famous for their silver and copper jewelry, creating beautifully filigreed pieces of work. Since the Muslims were not allowed to work metals, they depended upon the Jews to create their weapons as well as their jewelry.  During the jewelry-making station, the participants learned to use the needle-nose pliers to create copper wire coils, and embellished the coiled wires with multi-colored beads. Considering that we only had 20 minutes for each station, the bracelets that were created were lovely.

The second station allowed the participants to board one of "Operation Magic Carpet's" flights, during which they were treated to a popular Yemenite Jewish story which originated in the Babylonian Talmud, called "The Merit of the Sabbath."  When the story was over, Genia (Academy's teacher) led a discussion about the Jewish values reflected in the story, and then gave the students the opportunity to write notes on the wings of the plane, sharing what they would take with them to Israel from Yemen.

The third station was entitled, "Teiman: Music of the Jews of Yemen" and shared how a unique Yemenite Jewish sound was created due to a tragedy that struck the Jewish People in the year 70 C.E.  It was then that the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Judea.  When news trickled down to the Yemenite Jewish community about this national disaster, they mourned deeply. They had always dreamed of returning one day to worship God in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, and now the Temple was gone. To this very day, some very religious Yemenite Jews still wear black armbands on their right arms to mourn the destruction. The Yemenite Jewish community swore that until a new Temple would be built, they would never play musical instruments. They kept their promise, and only used tin cans or dumbeks (drums held under the arm when played) to keep the beat as they sang their songs. One of the songs they sang in prayer for the restoration of the Holy Temple is still sung today - "Im Nin'Alu."  In order to introduce the workshop participants to the sounds of Yemenite Jewish music,  two YouTube segments were played, both sharing the Im NinAlu song as sung by the famous Yemenite-Israeli singer, Ofra Haza. She sings a modern version of the original prayer, which you can briefly hear being sung by Yemenite Jewish men during their prayers in a segment from the video "Teiman: Music of the Jews of Yemen".

By the time the participants had visited their third station, it was time to join the rest of the school for t'fillah in the Sanctuary.  This was the third, and final all-fifth grade workshop of the school year. We began with the Ethiopian Jewish (Beta Yisrael) Sigd Festival, back on October 23rd, followed by the "Chiddur Siddur" workshop on February 26th. These three workshops succeeded in their goals of providing the fifth graders and their parents with the opportunity to get to know each other, as well as to share a taste of the focus of each track.

Preparing our Jewish History Timeline

Our school year is nearing its end (May 20th this year!), but we still have lots to look forward to up to the final day.  This coming Sunday, April 29th, all our fifth graders will participate in a special workshop, entitled "Journey on a Magic Carpet."  Keep an eye out next week for my blog describing the workshop. The following Sunday is Mitzvah day (May 6th), when the students and their families help out on various service projects on and off of Isaiah's campus.

The Edot class, meanwhile, has begun to prepare for our annual Edot Fair, on May 15th and 16th this year, when the students are given the opportunity to share what they have learned about the cultures of various Diaspora Jewish communities (edot) with the rest of the weekday classes.  The Fair kicks off with an introductory skit, which explains what the edot are, and how they came to exist. As part of this skit, the students have begun to prepare a Jewish history timeline, noting specific events and eras we have studied over the past year. This timeline is HUGE - it usually takes 5-6 students to hold it up after it's been unfurled during the skit.  This past Sunday, the students began the process of creating the timeline by cutting out photographs and pictures from various magazines which I've collected over the years - Biblical Archaeology Review, Odyssey, DIG, Archaeology, Smithsonian, Hadassah, and Eretz (the national geographic of Israel!). It's fun for the kids, and a wonderful learning experience at the same time - introducing them to these magazines and to the exciting world of Biblical archaeology, Jewish history, geography, and culture.

Over the next four sessions, we'll spread out the butcher paper on which the timeline will be drawn (it takes 8 long tables to do so!), and begin to decorate the different eras we've studied with the magazine photos, as well as with student drawings. The final product will certainly be a sight to behold!

Crypto-Jewish Passover Seder

This past Saturday evening, March 24th, our Edot families re-enacted a Crypto-Jewish Passover seder. The details of how Crypto-Jews in Spain observed the rituals of the Passover seder have been gleaned from very detailed Inquisition records. Where they met for their seders (caves, by running rivers, in attics and basements), which songs they sang (Dayeinu, Adon Olam, Ladino version of Chad Gadya, called Un Cavritico), their recollection of the rituals involved in each of the 15 parts of the seder ceremony, even their recipes, were all recorded as witnesses testified against the accused. We all dressed in white, as the Crypto-Jews did, and students played the roles of Moses and the Israelites and even the waves of the Reed Sea, as the story of the Exodus was acted out, as the Crypto-Jews acted it out. Our seder meal was composed of roasted lamb, garbanzo beans prepared in honey with cilantro, huevos haminados (vermillioned eggs), haroset balls, and fresh fruit, similar to a seder meal the Crypto-Jews ate, according to Inquisition records. Edot students prepared special Crypto-Jewish haggadot, in which were included paragraphs they had written in class describing how it felt to always have to hide your true identity, to feel "sandwiched" between Judaism and Christianity, how they interpreted the four major themes of the Passover seder (freedom, slavery, hospitality, and return to Zion), and shared questions they would ask the Prophet Elijah during the "Cup of Elijah" part of the ceremony (Why are we being punished by God?  When will our suffering end?).  Selected students read from their paragraphs during the ceremony.

We completed our evening with a Havdallah service, which was perfectly timed, as we began it at 7:15, just as the sun was setting on a very rainy Shabbat. Hopefully, the students and their families came away from the seder with a clearer understanding of what the rituals involved in the Passover seder are, the origins of some of the rituals, like the Cup of Elijah, and an appreciation of the risks Jews have taken over the centuries to maintain their Jewish identity and beliefs, sometimes in the face of certain death. I will consider this seder a great success if they share what they have learned with friends and family at their own seders.

Passover begins at sundown on April 6th this year.  Chag Pesach Sameach - Happy Passover holiday - to all.

Here are a few photos from the event.

Preparing for our Crypto-Jewish Seder

Our Edot class has been preparing over the past few sessions for our upcoming Crypto-Jewish Seder, scheduled for this coming Saturday evening.  We have learned the history of the Jews of Spain, with particular emphasis on the period following the 1492 unification of the Christian states of Spain by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, when Jews were forced to leave the country or convert to Catholicism. Scholars believe that approximately a quarter of a million Jews left Spain at that time, and that as many and perhaps even more stayed in Spain, unwilling to give up the country they had called home for over a thousand years by that time. Of those Jews who converted, many became true Christians, but many could not give up the religion of their ancestors, and secretly continued to practice Judaism, very often on pain of torture and ultimate death. These "Crypto-Jews," as we refer to them in English (they called themselves "conversos" and the Spanish authorities referred to them as "marranoes," meaning "swine" in 15th century Spanish) lived in constant fear, always wondering if a servant, neighbor, or friend, or even family member who had been arrested and tortured, might give them away. They prayed by running rivers, in caves, or in underground chambers, usually at night. During the day, they had to go to mass, and celebrate all Catholic holidays. Without benefit of rabbis, synagogues, Jewish calendars, Jewish prayer books and other religious texts, they began to confuse the Christian and Jewish rituals and prayers, and, over several generations, forgot most of them.

There was one holiday which they never forgot - the Passover.  This is the time when Jews have always retold the Exodus story, when we were slaves in Egypt and then led to freedom, ultimately reaching the Promised Land. For the Crypto-Jews, slavery was real - they had no control over their lives; freedom was still a dream, of the time they could return to the Land of Israel, or perhaps even remain in Spain and be allowed to live openly, without fear, as Jews. They held Passover seders (the ritual meal of Passover, during which time the Exodus story is retold) in secret places. They forgot many of the seder rituals, and instituted their own. Thankfully, they never forgot the Exodus story itself since the Catholic Bible includes the Hebrew Bible. The Exodus story is told in the Book of Exodus, the second of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, referred to in Hebrew as the Torah.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella invited the Office of the Inquisition to begin operations in Spain in 1481. It was the mission of the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition, first established by the Catholic Church in the 12th century,  to root out all heretics. In Spain, the focus was on the Jews, and, following 1492, on the "Crypto-Jews". The Inquisition had its own army and network of spies, who studied Jewish belief and ritual in order to help identify secret Jews. Passover was a very busy time for them as they searched for evidence of seder rituals in homes (matza, koshered meat, etc.). They were also known to raid seder ceremonies. During the trials of accused Crypto-Jews, detailed notes were taken by the Inquisition, and it is from these notes that we learn about details relating to the Crypto-Jewish seder ceremonies such as the new rituals created by Crypto-Jews to replace those they had forgotten, and even recipes they used for their seder meals.

Our Edot class Crypto-Jewish seder will be a "living reenactment" of one such seder ceremony, using the information garnered from Inquisition records. Our meal will consist of roasted lamb, chickpeas in honey and cilantro, haroset balls, and huevos haminados, along with fresh and dried fruits. In preparation for the seder, each of our Edot students has been assembling a "Crypto-Jewish Haggadah," which includes symbolic drawings representing the parts of the seder ceremony, the blessings for the seder plate foods, and paragraphs they have written, imagining how they feel as Crypto-Jews living in Saragossa, Spain in the year 1591. The Haggadot will also include the "Dayeinu" song, which is a summary of the major events of the Exodus story, the "Adon Olam" song, which praises God and which the Crypto-Jews sang directly after the seder meal, adding their own praising words to God after they had forgotten the original words, and the Ladino version of "Chad Gadya" ("Un Cavritico"), the last song in the Passover Haggadah, which assures Israel that God will destroy all its enemies. This last song was especially important to the Crypto-Jews, who dreamed of being redeemed by God.

The students also painted "Dayeinu" song posters (one poster for each verse of the song), which we will use during our seder on Saturday evening, pointing out the illustration for each verse as we sing it.  As always, the students rolled up their sleeves and worked together to create amazing art work. I am always so impressed with the results, given the very little time we have in Religious School. Bravo to our Edot artists. 

Stay tuned next week for my  blog about our Crypto-Jewish Seder!

Making Menena for Purim

Our Edot class has recently completed its unit of study about the Iraqi Jews, the very first Edah.  We began by studying the history of the Babylonian Jews, going back to King Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of the Kingdom of Judah and destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem in the year 586 B.C.E., when he forced the elite of Judah's society - its craftsmen, political and religious leaders - into exile in his capital city of Babylon. We learned about how the Prophet Jeremiah advised the exiles to "...seek the welfare of the community in  which you live, for in their welfare you will find your welfare." (Jeremiah 29:7) We learned how over the ensuing centuries, the Babylonian Jewish community thrived, how they became famous for their institutions of Jewish learning known as "yeshivot," and even had a chance to study a page of the Babylonian Talmud relating to when the "Sh'ma" prayer should be said in the morning. The Edot students were introduced to the basic beliefs of Islam, and to the culture it nurtured in the Middle East and North Africa. We learned how by the mid-8th century C.E., 9 out of 10 Jews lived in Muslim-ruled lands, and it was thus not very surprising that Jews should have borrowed elements of Muslim art, cuisine, music, dance, and literature.  We learned how to make the Muslim amulet, the Chamsa, out of copper foil, and finally, last week, we prepared "Menena" in class - the Iraqi Jewish name for the Arabic pastry called "Ma'amoul".  These are "tartlets" filled with crushed nuts or date fillings (we used date filling, since our school is a nut-free zone!).  Our timing was perfect, since Menena pastries are popularly used by Iraqi Jews to fill their "Shalo'ach Manot" Purim baskets, and we were just a week away from celebrating the Purim holiday.

Preparing food, especially tasty desserts, is always fun, and our "Menena" activity was no exception. To prepare the pastry, you have to shape a walnut-sized piece of dough into a small cup, with very thin walls. This is easy for an experienced baker, but this didn't keep our "baker's apprentices" from having fun trying to come as close as they could to preparing the dough to put in the date filling.  A lot of interesting shapes resulted and the end results were very tasty!  We even had some mixing of the Jewish cultures, when a few Iraqi menena's came out looking very very similar to Ashkenazi hamantaschen!

Chag Purim Sameach!  (Happy Purim Holiday!)

Origins of the Chamsa

On February 7th and 8th, I shared with the Edot class how by the year 750 C.E., most Jews were living in countries controlled by Muslims.  We learned how the religion of Islam was founded by Muhammed, and that originally Muhammed borrowed a lot from Judaism for his new religion.  Muslims were ordered not to eat pork, and to fast on Yom Kippur.  But because most Jews refused to agree to convert to Islam, Mohammed ordered his armies to kill them or force them out of territories he conquered.  He ordered Muslims not to face Jerusalem when they prayed, but instead to face the City of Mecca, located on the Arabian Peninsula.  Now, instead of fasting on Yom Kippur, Mohammed ordered his followers to fast for an entire month – the fast of Ramadan.

          Fortunately for the Jews, after Mohammed died his followers, the Caliphs, established warmer relations with the Jewish communities living in their countries.  Jews remained second-class citizens, having to pay a special tax to the Muslim rulers, but they were not persecuted by most of the early Muslim rulers. By the mid-700’s, Jewish communities had been established all along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, along the shores of North Africa, the Middle East, and even as far west as Spain, and as far east as India and perhaps even parts of China.  Nine out of ten Jews at this time lived in Muslim-ruled lands.

          Jews in these communities maintained their Jewish identity by reading from the Torah and other Jewish religious texts like the Mishna and Talmud, and by following Jewish rituals and the commandments.  But they also borrowed a lot from the Muslim communities in which they lived.  They saw how beautiful the Arab Muslims decorated their palaces and other public buildings with calligraphy – the art of using letters for decoration – and how they painted the color blue on buildings and graves and other important objects, to ward off evil spirits. 

          One of the first ideas that Jews began to borrow from the Arab Muslims, especially in the Middle East and North African countries, was that of using amulets – charms that could ward off evil spirits.  Jews, of course, believe that God will protect us. But in the Arab Muslim lands, they began to also use amulets to protect women during pregnancy and childbirth – when women were considered to be very vulnerable to evil spirits hurting them or their unborn child. Soon a specific amulet – the Chamsa – was used everywhere in Jewish homes.

          Chamsa is the Arabic word for the number 5.  In Hebrew, the word for 5 is “chamesh,” so you can see how close the Hebrew and Arabic languages are related to each other.  According to Arab Muslim belief, the daughter of Mohammed, whose name was Fatima, was killed as she fought to help spread Islam.  They believe that her hand was cut off during the fight, and it rose above the battle scene to bless the Muslims and curse the infidels.  The Chamsa is in the shape of a hand to reflect this story.

          When the Jews began to use the Chamsa, they gave it a “Jewish twist” by decorating it with Jewish symbols such as the tree of life, the Magen David (Jewish star), the Hebrew letters, “chet” and “yud” which spell the word, “Chai” meaning “life”.  But they also borrowed symbols from the Arab Muslims, often putting an eye in the middle of the palm to protect against the “Evil Eye” – evil spirits.  They also decorated much of the Chamsa, as the Muslims did, with geometric and floral shapes.  

         One of the important ways that Judaism and Islam are related is that the Muslims follow many of the commandments in the Torah.  The second of the Ten Commandments states, “You shall not make for yourselves sculptured images, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.” (Exodus 20:4-5)  This commandment was meant to keep the ancient Israelites from bowing down before idols.  But both Jews and Muslims began to believe that it was commanding them never to make any likeness of God – and because we are told in the Book of Genesis that God created man in God’s image, Muslims were forbidden to draw humans or even animals.  Instead, they decorated their art with geometric shapes and with floral designs. 

          On Sunday, February 12th, each Edot student began the process of making a chamsa out of copper foil. Even though the general form of a chamsa is that of a hand, there are many variations. Some have the thumb close to the rest of the hand; others have the thumb sticking out, and perhaps the little finger sticking out as well.  Some were designed to be hung with the fingers facing up and others with the fingers facing down. Some were simply the hand form, and others had beads attached to them.  Beads are also used by Muslims to ward off evil spirits. Supposedly, the spirits like round shapes and enter them, then get lost going around and around in them, and can’t escape to hurt anyone.  Again – this is a belief in magic, and has nothing to do with what Judaism or Islam teach. 

        As always, the process of creation is just as important as the end result. The students quickly discovered that engraving and embossing copper tin is hard work. They were advised that "if your hands don’t hurt and your mind isn’t numb from constantly focusing on what you are doing, you are not honoring the artist!  All artists work hard physically as well as mentally to create their masterpieces!"  Here are some photos of our Edot artists hard at work, and apparently enjoying the process!

 

            And here are some beautiful examples of completed chamsas.