Weaving Baskets

We used most of our session yesterday learning to weave baskets. You may recall that when the Beta Yisrael lost their "Jewish Empire" back in the early 16th century, eventually losing their wars against Christian tribes, they were thrown off their lands and forced to earn their livelihood through various crafts, such as blacksmithing (which earned them the reputation of being servants of the buda - the evil eye), ceramics, weaving cotton and flax threads into cloth, and weaving baskets.

Rather than just having the students read about the skills and artistry of the Beta Yisrael in these crafts, I wanted to give them a chance to experience the patience, concentration and skill that it takes to produce them. Often, they had to work 10-15 hours a day to produce enough wares to earn the money needed to buy food and other raw materials from the farmers. And it wasn't only the adults who worked so hard - children were taught their family's craft from the age of 3, so that by the time they were the same age as our Edot students, they were already highly skilled artisans, working side by side with their elders.

Basket weaving seemed to be an ideal craft to introduce to the students, since all of them have had the experience of weaving simple projects, such as pot holders. For one hour, the students learned the basics of producing woven reed baskets, and the results were very impressive for the time we had available. Even before beginning the lesson, I made sure the class understood that no one expected them to produce high-quality baskets. Instead, the point of the lesson was to give them the opportunity to understand how much skill and effort is required to produce just one basket, let alone many.

Before the session started, I prepared two large bins filled with water to soak the reeds we would be weaving into baskets. The reeds had to soak at least an hour before they were pliable enough for weaving.

Once our lesson began, each student received a round, wooden base with 11 holes drilled around its circumference. Each student was also given a bundle of eleven 10-inch "spokes" which they inserted into each of the holes, leaving about 2-1/2" sticking out of the bottom of the base.

The reeds had to be kept wet, or else they would begin to dry and crack or even break. Every now and then the spokes would need to be dipped into one of the two large containers of water.

Once all the spokes had been inserted, it was time to "anchor" them to the base by bending each one down to its right   around the outside of the next spoke, then tucking it into the inside of the following spoke.

Once this step was completed, it was time to begin the weaving process.

This looked to be the simplest step, yet the students quickly realized you had to focus on several things as you wove: keeping the spokes wet enough to be pliable, making sure to hold up the spokes so they weren't woven into the basket by mistake, and making sure that the weaver reed didn't miss a spoke or get woven around the inside or outside of two spokes in a row.

Never once did I have to remind the students to concentrate on what they were doing, and their facial expressions show how focused they all were on the task.

Each "weaver" reed was coiled by me ahead of time, so it was easy to pick out of the water bin. (Each weaver was about 4' long, and about 4-5 weavers were needed to complete each basket.) 

Once one weaver had been woven into the basket, the next one would be uncoiled, then simply inserted over the end of the previous weaver to continue the weaving process.

Each student quickly found his or her own rhythm and comfortable position for weaving.

Some preferred to stand, while others sat, and some changed positions as their mood suited them.

Once the basket was about 2 inches high, it was time to add some decoration and color by putting a bead on each spoke before continuing to weave the rest of the basket.

Some of the students took quite a bit of time deciding on the colors to use...

while others kept life simple, and chose to use the same color bead for each spoke.

And throughout the process, they all focused completely on their baskets.

The shape of each basket was determined by how tightly the weaver was woven around the spokes.

The tighter the weave, the taller the basket.

When it was time to go up to the Sanctuary for tefillah, I had the students place their baskets on the counter, in front of photographs of the Beta Yisrael in their home province of Gondar, taken by the French photographer Frederic Brenner in 1983. These photographs are part of his book called "Diaspora," which includes photographs he took of Jewish communities all over the world.

None of the students had a chance to finish their baskets since we ran out of time. After the session was over, I came back to the classroom and packed a bag for each student containing his or her basket, any materials still needed to complete the basket and an instruction sheet for how to do so. I 'm  hoping they'll take them home and complete the process there.

One thing I can be sure of, is that my students are now very aware of how skilled and creative the Beta Yisrael basket weavers were, and can appreciate what it must be like to sit or stand for hours working at one's craft to produce enough to provide for the family's needs. Who knows, but we may have one or more skilled craftsmen-in-training at JQuest!

Seemaneem Fruit Salad

We enjoyed the second of the seven cooking sessions with Karen these past two weekday sessions, preparing a "Seemaneem" Fruit salad. "Seemaneem" means "symbols" in Hebrew, and each fruit in this salad is meant to remind us of the fall harvest of first fruits (Sukkot) which we just finished celebrating a little over a week ago.

Karen began each session by introducing the students to the Hebrew terms for all the ingredients.

She then had the children gather closer around her "model" kitchen counter, so she could demonstrate the best way to seed the pomegranate:

After demonstrating how best to core the apple, peel the orange and "de-pit" the dates, the students went to their own tables and proceeded to follow her instructions.

Seeding the pomegranate pieces in a bowl of (very cold!) water

Everyone found their own rhythm for getting the seeds separated as quickly as possible, either with 4 hands...

...or just with two.

There was some teeth gritting involved, as fingers began to get very cold from the ice water.

Once the seeds had been separated, it was time to scoop them out of the water...

...dry them a bit on paper towel, then toss them into the fruit salad bowl.

Meanwhile, other members of the group were busy trying to figure out the easiest way to peel the orange.

It looked so much easier when Karen was demonstrating how to do it.

Once peeled, the orange was cut into small, bite-size pieces to add into the salad bowl.

Coring and dicing the apple proved to be a much easier task.

The final fruit to be included in the salad were the dates. Step 1: Contemplate the best approach for de-pitting them.

Then get the job done and dice them into the smallest pieces possible!

The next step is to add in the lemon and orange juice, mix everything really well, and finally...

...divide the salad into bowls for every member of the group and...

...after saying the blessing over fruit that grows on trees (...borei p'ree ha'etz), enjoy (quite literally) the fruits of your labor!

After enjoying the refreshing afternoon snack, we had 15 minutes for hafsaka (recess) before joining the 3rd and 4th graders for tefillah with Rabbi Greninger in the Beit Knesset.

After tefillah was over, we had about 20 minutes in our own Edot classroom together before it was time to go to our music session with Ben in the Shira track's classroom. During the very little time I had, I reviewed what we had learned to date about the Beta Yisrael of Ethiopia, then described how, in 1984, a civil war in Ethiopia caused a terrible famine which took a great toll among the Beta Yisrael. At this point, the Israeli army, the American C.I.A. and Sudanese State security forces worked together to evacuate as many of the Beta Yisrael as possible. Within a month and a half period, "Operation Moses" was able to take about 6,000 of the Beta Yisrael to Israel without letting other Arab nations know. Unfortunately, once the news leaked, in January, 1985, the Sudanese government was forced to abandon the operation. Seven years later, in 1991, "Operation Solomon" was able to very dramatically evacuate another 14,000 or so Beta Yisrael to Israel and, very recently, about 9,000 "Falash Mura" (Christians who trace their origins back to the Beta Yisrael) were allowed to immigrate to Israel as well.

The story I've been reading to the students, "The Storyteller's Beads" is a dramatic recounting of the difficult journey many of the Beta Yisrael had to take to reach the Sudan and the "iron eagles" waiting there to fly them to the "Promised Land" in 1984.  It's estimated that some 10,000 Jews died along the treacherous route from hunger, thirst, and bandits who took what little they carried with them. Just before we had to go to our Music session, I shared a YouTube video of a 6th grade class of new Jewish immigrants re-enacting the terrible journey the Beta Yisrael had to make to reach the Sudan. The story is told through a song composed in 1991 by an Israeli musician, Shlomo Gronich, and sung by his Sheba Choir, composed of Beta Yisrael children. The song (and video) is called "Ha'Masa L'Eretz Yisrael" ("The Journey to the Land of Israel"). The video begins with children making fun of two Beta Yisrael girls, telling them they're not Jewish and that they should go back to where they came from. Sadly, I had to share with my Edot students how Rabbis in Israel refused to accept that they were Jewish, forcing them to convert to Rabbinic Judaism, and how they were, and still are, discriminated against in Israeli society. Nevertheless, they are contributing much to Israeli culture, including  their  unique holiday celebrating the giving of the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. In 2008, the Sigd Festival became an official Israeli holiday. I'll be sharing more information about this Sigd Festival very soon!

Finally, we ended our weekday sessions with Ben, our music director, reviewing songs we sang at our first session two weeks ago with him:

Am Yisrael Chai:

Hinei Mah Tov:

and Oseh Shalom:

This coming Sunday, we'll be starting to take a more "hands-on" approach to our studies about the Beta Yisrael culture. Stay tuned!

Introducing the Beta Yisrael

Yesterday morning, I formally introduced the first edah (Jewish Diaspora community) that we'll be studying in our Edot class this year, the Beta Yisrael (House of Israel) of Ethiopia. I say "formally introduced" since in a way we've already become somewhat familiar with the group from "The Storyteller's Beads" novel that I've been reading out loud at the start of each session.

Yesterday, I began the lesson by reminding the students of the list we generated during our first weekday session of the school year as a response to my question, "How can you tell if someone is Jewish?" We re-created the list on the whiteboard again, this time with many more details relating to types of foods that are kosher, Jewish symbols and ritual clothing, holidays and prayers and blessings.

Then I proceeded to cross out items on the list as follows: synagogue, siddur (prayer book), b'rachot (blessings), tallit, tzitzit, keepa, peyot (curled sidelocks), mezuzah, chamsa, Star of David, mixing milk with meat, Hanuka, Simchat Torah, Tu Bish'vat (holiday of the trees), bar/bat mitzvah, Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Torah, blowing the shofar, hanukiya (Hanuka menora), apples and honey, latkes, challah, and hamantashen. I immediately asked the students, "If someone never even heard about any of the crossed-out items, could you say s/he is Jewish?" Most of the students didn't think so, though a few asked qualifying questions, like "Are their parents Jewish?" and "Where do they live?"

That last question was a perfect segue to the YouTube video I then shared with the group called "Falasha! The Saga of Ethiopian Jewry." I showed the first 7:48 minutes of the film, though it took only a few seconds for the class to realize that I was referring to the Beta Yisrael when I asked if someone could be considered Jewish if they didn't know about many of the laws and customs we immediately associate with being Jewish. This film segment shares the belief the Beta Yisrael teach their children about their origin, and was a perfect summary for what we've learned about them so far from the novel. Most importantly, the segment explains why the Beta  Yisrael did not follow "Rabbinic Judaism" as most other Jewish edot do (though they slowly began to adopt some aspects of Rabbinic Judaism since first being exposed to "white Jews" who visited them in the 17th century). We also learned how they venerate Moses (they even have a book called "The Death of Moses" which they read at funerals), and how they value the Sabbath above all else. What surprised the students most was that the Beta Yisrael believed they were the last Jews on Earth, and were suspicious of the "white people" who claimed to be Jews, not only because they were white, but because they didn't practice Judaism in the same manner as the Beta Yisrael did.

We spent our final 15 minutes of the session before going up to the Sanctuary for tefillah by reviewing our Hebrew Through Movement holiday and foundational vocabulary.

After our usual warm-up commands, we tried some "weight lifting." Will, l'hareem sefer Torah gadol me'al ha'rosh. (Will, lift up the large Torah scroll over the head.)

Myles, l'hareem sefer Torah gadol leefney ha'rosh. (Myles, lift up the large Torah scroll in front of the head.)

Callen, l'hachzeek sefer Torah katan; Myles, leef'to'ach sefer Torah katan. (Callen, hold onto a small Torah scroll; Myles, open a small Torah scroll.)

Continuing with upper body exercises: Callen, leetol lulav v'etrog. (Callen, shake lulav and etrog.)

And even had some time for some throwing and catching: Josh, leezrok et ha'etrog; Brody, leetfos et ha'etrog. (Josh, throw the etrog; Brody, catch the etrog.)

We ended the Hebrew Through Movement session with some deep breathing exercises. (Taking deep breaths to blow on the shofar!)

Tomorrow and Wednesday, we'll have our monthly cooking session with Karen and the other 5th and 6th graders at the very start of each session. This time, we'll be preparing a "fruit harvest" salad commonly served in Israel this time of year called "Salat Seemaneem" (literally: "Symbols Salad").

Simchat Torah

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, I introduced the students to the Torah. During our Hebrew Through Movement session, they became familiar with vocabulary relating to the Torah (sefer Torah, yad shel torah), and immediately after our tefillah time with Rabbi Greninger, I read a book to the students about the laws and customs a scribe must follow when copying a Torah, called "A Torah is Written".

The final holiday of the Hebrew month of Tishrei is Simchat Torah (celebrated by Reform Jews following the 7th day of Sukkot). This year, the celebration of what is essentially the constitution of the Jewish People and its earliest history text fell on Wednesday evening, and it was my hope that before the students joined the rest of the congregation in celebrating the holiday, they would have enough information to appreciate the skill and patience a scribe must have to copy a "sefer Torah" (a Torah scroll). In just one or two years, the students will be chanting from the Torah on the bimah as they achieve an important milestone in their Jewish lives by becoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah. As they learn to read each letter and word and line of their parashot (Torah portions) on the scroll itself, I hope they can appreciate the love and joy and pride in our heritage, transmitted through the ages through the pens of the scribes.

We reviewed previous holiday vocabulary first - Josh, leet'ko'a ba'shofar. (Josh, blow the shofar.)

Lee'tol lulav v'etrog. (Shake lulav and etrog.)

Then we practiced Simchat Torah vocabulary I had just introduced - Gabe, l'hareem sefer Torah me'al ha'rosh. (Gabe, lift up a Torah scroll over the head.)

And finally, we put all the Simchat Torah vocabulary I had introduced together with new basic Hebrew vocabulary I also introduced this week: sefer Torah gadol, sefer Torah katan, yad shel Torah gadol, yad shel Torah katan, l'hatzbee'a, and leen'go'a. (a big Torah scroll, a small Torah scroll, a big Torah pointer, a small Torah pointer, point to, and touch.)

Immediately following our hafsaka (recess), which unfortunately had to be held indoors on Wednesday due to the poor air quality resulting from the fires raging in the counties north of us, I read from "A Torah is Written."

The students seemed to be fascinated by the process of copying a sefer Torah: learning how the skin of the kosher animal is soaked for 9 days in lime water, then stretched on a rack before being sanded for a smooth surface...

...how gall nuts (from the Kermes Oak) are ground and added into the ink mixture to give the ink a shiny gloss, and how the scribe must continually make new ink - just 2 teaspoons at a time. And what really took their breaths away, was when I read how a scribe must go through the process of proofreading each letter and word of the entire Torah he has just copied with the aid of another learned scribe THREE TIMES before the separate parchment pieces can be sewn together to create a sefer Torah that is fit for the community for which it was copied.

This coming Sunday I will formally introduce to the students the first edah (Jewish Diaspora community) we will be studying this year - the Beta Yisrael (House of Israel) of Ethiopia.

Thanks to the novel I've been reading aloud to them ("The Storyteller's Beads"), they will already be familiar with where and in what conditions the members of the Beta Yisrael were living in the year 1984, when this novel takes place. They know how the non-Jewish tribes of Ethiopia felt about the "falasha" (aliens) which is what they called the Beta Yisrael, and how these superstitious tribes believed that the Beta Yisrael were "sons of the buda" (the evil spirit) and could morph into hyenas at night and poison food by just looking at it.

And we've been learning Amharic vocabulary as well, spoken by the Beta Yisrael and all other Ethiopians. And here everyone thought we would only be learning Hebrew in our Edot class! In a few weeks, we'll be learning Amharic phrases as well as individual words. Stay tuned!

Rick Recht Concert

Yesterday morning, during what would ordinarily have been our tefillah service at the end of first session, we enjoyed an hour-long Rick Recht concert in the Sanctuary. Rick had already performed for our Spring Fling (last day of school) back in 2013, and I can happily report that his concert this time was just as energetic and engaging as in 2013.

What was most enjoyable for me was the fact that he included us all in singing his songs. For each song he performed, he asked one of our JQuest grades to join him up on the bima. From the moment he was first introduced by Cantor Korn, to the final song, he engaged the entire audience.

Here's his rendition of "Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu" with the sixth graders:

He performed a very moving "Halleluya" with our Shira track students as, in the background, images were projected of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his peaceful protest movement:

He even managed to include his own son, Tal, as he sang the song he wrote about him:

And our own music director, Ben, joined Rick onstage for a beautiful rendition of "For All You Are, For All You Do":

In class, before the concert, I introduced the students to the concept of the "Edot." Many of the students, when asked to offer their definition of "edot," said that the word meant "culture." It's not surprising they came up with this definition in that our school description of the Edot track uses the word "culture" as translation for the term. Actually, the Hebrew word "edah" (singular of "edot"), is best translated to English as "an ethnic group," and, even more specifically, as a Jewish Diaspora community.

Once we had established the definition of "Edot," I handed out color photographs of people from different parts of the world:

These photos represented people from almost every continent, and I asked the students to try to figure out what part of the world each person came from.

 After they shared their guesses, I asked if anyone could tell me the one thing all these people had in common as far as where they came from. A few students had already guessed that all these people were Jews living in different parts of the world. I then asked the students the same question I had asked them the very first week of school: "How can you tell any of these people is Jewish?" A few photos showed men wearing a tallit (prayer shawl), keepa (skullcap), and/or studying a Hebrew text, so we started by listing those clues. But when it came to a female Israeli soldier or a Yemenite woman wearing a traditional Jewish wedding headdress, or an Afghani man wearing a turban and sporting a very wild beard, it was much harder to say why they thought s/he was Jewish.

At this point, I introduced the fact that because Jews live all over the world and have so many different customs, three "umbrella" groups have been defined over the centuries to include "edot" following similar customs: Ashkenazeem (European Jews) originally came from the Rhineland region of Germany and eventually most moved to Eastern Europe; Sephardeem (Spanish/Portuguese Jews) came from the Iberian Peninsula; and Mizracheem (Eastern Jews) never left the Middle East or North African areas where they settled over several centuries following the Babylonian and Roman exiles. I explained to the students that as we learn about specific edot this year, they'll come to understand how all the Jews everywhere read the Torah and followed the commandments and upheld similar values, but developed different cultural customs depending upon where they lived.

To end the lesson, I asked the students to suggest specific edot that would fit under each of the three "umbrella" groups, which they did very well.

Before it was time to go to the Sanctuary for the concert, we had about 20 minutes for our Hebrew Through Movement session.

With all the Tishrei holiday vocabulary that I had already introduced, this was a good time for a review, as well as to introduce Simchat Torah vocabulary in time for this coming Wednesday evening, when Reform congregations begin its celebration. Before class began, I had set our "holiday table" (shoolchan shel chageem, in Hebrew) with the major symbols for each holiday.

As always, we began the session with some basic vocabulary review and a chance for everyone to move around after sitting for the first part of the session:

Then it was time to introduce Simchat Torah vocabulary:

Maddie, l'hareem sefer Torah me'al ha'rosh. (Maddie, lift up a Torah scroll over the head.)

Billy, l'hatzbee'a al Michael eem yad (shel Torah) gadol; Ella, la'seem shofar al ha'rosh shel Michael; Michael, la'seem yad (shel Torah) katan al ha'rosh shel Ella. (Billy, point to Michael with a large Torah pointer; Ella, put a shofar on Michael's head; Michael, put a small Torah pointer on Ella's head.)

And finally, putting it all together:

Hopefully, your family can join us on Wednesday evening at 6 p.m., after our regular Wednesday JQuest session, for a free pizza dinner followed by our Simchat Torah celebration with the entire congregation. We'll all have a chance to welcome our kindergarten and other new students to our JQuest community, and see several of our Isaiah sifrei (plural for sefer = scroll) Torah completely unscrolled as we listen to Cantor Korn chant the final line of the Book of Deuteronomy, then, immediately after, chant the first line from the Book of Genesis.

As a postnote, one of the Edot students asked me yesterday how long a Torah scroll is, after I described to them how we unroll the scrolls during our Simchat Torah celebration. I finally found this website that answers the question as best as possible. At the very end, there is an excellent suggestion:  

The next time your Temple’s Torah is re-scrolled you should ask someone to measure the length of a sheet and count how many sheets were used to make your scroll!

It may not be convenient, but someday it would be interesting if some of our clergy and/or congregants (or perhaps our Noar Night students) could do so with perhaps just one of our sifrei Torah.

Chag Sukkot Sameach

The holidays of the Jewish month of Tishrei are racing by. Beginning with Rosh Ha'shana (which is actually just one of 4 Jewish new year celebrations!), and followed ten days later by Yom Kippur, we focused on our connection to God, God's universe and to our Jewish community. These were somber days of reflection about our roles as individuals and as Jews, and how we could work to improve our own lives and, in so doing, help to repair the world.

Now it's time to look around ourselves and appreciate God's universe in a more joyous fashion. Last night, the first of three major harvest festivals began - Sukkot. It's the harvest of the first fruits and a time to look forward to the start of the rainy season both in Israel and in our own California.

I introduced the holiday to the students by asking them to define what a "symbol" is and to name important Jewish symbols. We reviewed what we had learned about the major symbol for Rosh Ha'shana - the shofar (see 9/18 post). We then began to discuss Sukkot and its two major symbols - the lulav (a bundle made of a palm, willow and myrtle branch tied together) and etrog (a citron), and the sukkah (a 3-walled hut with a roof made of branches through which we are able to view the stars in the sky at night).

Showing the students the three types of branches making up the lulav

Discussing the date of the holiday - the 15th day of the month of Tishrei

While still in the classroom, we discussed the meaning of each of the two symbols and how the Rabbis determined the rituals associated with them, based upon the commandments in the Torah to sit in the Sukkah for 7 days and to take the lulav and etrog and be joyous. I shared with the students that the Roman-era Rabbis (at that time new leaders of the Jewish People, who had taken over from the deposed Judean monarchs and from the kohaneem - the Temple priests) were not only responsible for clarifying confusing or missing pieces of information in the commandments (how do we use the lulav and etrog to show our joy, for example), but also took up the burden of keeping the nation together by creating a sense of common history and purpose.

We visited the Sukkah built by the Bonim students and their parents this past Sunday, and continued our lesson about the symbols of Sukkot there.

Thus, the sukkah (plural = sukkot, the name of the holiday) became an important symbol to keep our earliest history fresh in the minds of the people. After we escaped from Egypt and crossed the Reed Sea, we wandered in the Sinai wilderness for 40 years, they taught. During that time, God commanded the ancient Israelites to live in sukkot. At this point, I asked the students to describe what a wilderness (arava in Hebrew) is like. Not surprisingly, they all described a desert. I explained to them that a desert (meedbar in Hebrew) is different from a wilderness in that a desert is land that was once fertile but became barren thanks to humans cutting down trees and never re-planting, and draining the land of all its resources. A wilderness, on the other hand, is land that has always been mountainous and stony, and where only the hardiest of plants and animals can survive. I described how people have drowned in flash floods in the wilderness, and how they have to watch out for snakes and scorpions and other dangerous animals there.

So why did God command the Israelites to build sukkot with only 3 walls and a fairly open roof? A few students realized that it would build faith in the Israelites for a God they couldn't see or hear, but knew only through Moses, their leader. God would protect them from flash floods and other dangers. Thus, the sukkah becomes a symbol of faith in God, even as it's reminding our people of our earliest history as a nation. It's also a reminder of when we finally settled in the Land of Canaan, where many of us became farmers and harvested fruits and grains in their seasons. During the seven days of the harvest, the farmers slept and protected themselves from the harsh sun in sukkot. Here, the sukkah reminds us of a time when we were farmers in our own land. When we are commanded to live in the sukkah for seven days, it is to remind us about what life was like when we were farmers and dependent upon God's nature for our survival.

This is where the lulav and etrog symbol comes into play. How do we show our joy with the symbol? The Rabbis determined we should shake the lulav and etrog in the four directions and up and down. Originally, the shaking was to re-create the sound of rain falling, since the farmers depended upon the rainy season beginning around the time of the Sukkot holiday. But over a period of two or three hundred years, Rabbis who taught both in Roman Palestine (as the Romans had re-named the land) and in Babylonia (where a very large Jewish community existed by Roman times) suggested other reasons behind the symbol of the lulav and etrog.

One Rabbi and his disciples taught that the palm branch represented the human spine, the myrtle leaves represented human eyes, the willow leaves represented the human mouth and the etrog (the citron) represented the human heart. Thus, with all our body we praise God.

Another Rabbi taught that each part of the lulav and etrog symbol represented a geographic area in the Land of Israel, reminding us where we came from and that we would return there once again.

A third Rabbi taught that each part of the lulav and etrog symbol represented a different type of Jew: one who studied Torah but didn't do good deeds; one who did good deeds but didn't study Torah; one who did neither and one who did both. Thus, by shaking the lulav holding all the parts together, we are united as one nation, praising God together.

Different Edot (Jewish Diaspora communities) developed their own customs for following the commandments of living in the sukkah and shaking the lulav and etrog, but these rituals were an annual reminder of who we were, where we came from, and of our role as partners to God in tikkun olam - repairing the world.

As we go through the Jewish holiday calendar during the school year, I'll be sharing other symbols and the rituals associated with these symbols that the Rabbis devised relating to each holiday, all designed to keeping a dispersed nation together by reinforcing a memory of a common history and purpose.

This week, we ended each session with learning songs taught by our new music director, Ben. 

Y'tzira and Shira students joined us in our Edot classroom...

...which filled up very quickly!

Of course, Sukkot songs were on the menu. Ben introduced the students to the songwriter and folk singer Woody Guthrie, and to a song he wrote back in the 1930's. We learned the chorus quickly, and then Ben led us in singing the verses, the lyrics to which he changed to describe the Sukkot holiday:

Then Ben, at my request, taught us a song that many of the students already knew from previous years, but which I wanted to be sure all my Edot students would know - "Am Yisrael Chai." He taught us a version sung in Africa, and I wanted to be sure all my students knew it since we'll be singing it during an Ethiopian Jewish Sigd Festival we'll be re-enacting on Sunday, November 12th on our Isaiah campus. Much more information to come about this event in a few weeks!

I'm looking forward to seeing you all this coming Sunday, when we will have a regular session, but then enjoy a special concert by Rick Recht, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. (half an hour longer than when our tefillah session usually ends, at 11:00). I hope everyone can stay for the full concert!

And for those students who are participating in the Stumper/Challenge program, I hung up 2 new Sukkot stumpers and 1 Simchat Torah stumper, as well as two worksheets - one for Sukkot and one for Simchat Torah.

    

 Stumpers:
1.) Which American holiday, founded in 1621, is based on Sukkot?
2.) Who is the "Hatan Torah?"  Who is the "Hatan Berayshit?"
3.) What is another name for Sukkot in the Bible?

 CHAG SUKKOT SAME'ACH!

HAPPY SUKKOT HOLIDAY!