Shabbat, Thanksgiving, and Hanuka

We used this past week to conclude our unit of study about the American Jewish edah (with a focus on the Jewish participation in the westward migration of the 19th century and the development of new, uniquely American Jewish institutions).  Students who participated in last Sunday's Gold Rush field trip were given the opportunity to share what they had learned on the trip with the rest of the class, and volunteers read the "letters home" which they had written on the bus. I prepared a bulletin board in the hallway which documents both what we learned in class and what we experienced on the trip. 

We now turn our attention to the eastern European edot - the Polish and Russian Jews, most of whom belong to the Ashkenazi umbrella group of Jews in the world. I'll be sharing more detailed information about the history and culture of Ashkenazi Jewry, as we study it in class over the coming two months. Because of our very limited time in Religious School, I'll be using the holiday of Shabbat as a focus for introducing the students to the Ashkenazi culture of eastern Europe. We'll learn about their Friday evening "Kabbalat Shabbat" (greeting Sabbath) ceremony - the foods they ate, the songs and prayers they sang, the stories they told, and the Yiddish language they spoke - as we prepare to conduct our own family "Shabbat Seder" to be held on Friday evening, January 25th.
 
We began this unit of study yesterday by focusing on the holiday of Shabbat. We reviewed what Judaism teaches about the purpose of time and the Jewish concept of "Tikkun Olam" (repairing the world). I then shared that one of the commandments God issued to the newly formed and freed nation of Israel, after the Exodus from Egypt, was to prepare for themselves a calendar, and on that calendar to mark  "special days."
We made a list on the board of what those special days were, which were specifically mentioned in the Torah - Rosh Ha'Shana, Yom Kippur,  Shabbat, Sukkot, Pesach, and Shavuot - and then I asked the students which of them they believed Judaism considered to be the holiest. Yom Kippur is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar; interestingly, it is also referred to as the Shabbat Ha'Shabbatot" (the Sabbath of Sabbaths), indicating that Shabbat is considered so holy, that Yom Kippur was considered to be "Shabbat" by the Talmudic era Rabbis. In fact, Yom Kippur and Shabbat are the only two holidays which are allotted 25 hours (from sundown until the third star can be spotted in the night sky the following night).

I then introduced the class to the Hebrew grammatical concept of the "shoresh" (the root). In Hebrew, the shoresh is composed most commonly of 3 letters (sometimes 2, and occasionally 4 letters), from which words can be built. All the words built from the same shoresh have a common meaning, and it's this fact which often helps linguists understand the mentality and culture of the people speaking the language. Since the roots of the Hebrew language were developed at least 3,000 years ago (and are used even today when new words are added to accomodate our modern times), the shorashim (plural of shoresh) allow us to look back in time at how the culture and environment of the ancient Israelites influenced their language.

The first shoresh I introduced the students to was "sh-v-t" (the shin, vet, tav letters), from which the word "Shabbat" can be built. We learned that all the words that can be built from these three letters must have something to do with "rest". Shabbat is the day of rest. (La'shevet, one of the words we have learned during our "Hebrew Through Movement" lessons, means "to sit" - we rest when we sit).  We discussed the meaning of  resting when the question arose as to why God had to rest after 6 days of creating the universe. Our conclusion was that the understanding of what resting meant to the ancient Israelites might have been very different from our understanding of it today. We think of resting as not working, perhaps as sleeping or simply not doing what we have to do during the rest of the week.  Could it be that the ancient Israelites looked upon rest as the opportunity to stand back and have the time to appreciate what they had worked on all week?  When the Torah tells us that God rested on the 7th day, could it mean that God stopped creating, and took the time to appreciate Creation?  ("And God saw that it was good.")  We concluded our discussion with the decision that when we are told to rest on Shabbat, perhaps we are being given the opportunity to stop focusing on the details of life during the week, and take a day to "step back" and appreciate what we have accomplished, as well as what God accomplished during the six days of Creation.

We used the quarter of an hour or so that we had left before Joel came to lead us in singing songs, to fill in the dates on the Cheshvan and Kislev calendar pages, using the Hebrew letters as numerals. Students were quick to note that while the month of Tishrei was filled with one holiday after another (Rosh Ha'Shana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot,  Sh'mini Atzeret, Simchat Torah and Shabbat), the month of Cheshvan had no holidays except for Shabbat. Talmudic era Rabbis actually added on "Mar" to the name of the month (Marcheshvan), to denote its lack of holidays. "Mar" in Hebrew means "bitter."  Thankfully, the month of Kislev which began this past Thursday, has a very joyous historically-based holiday, beginning on the 25th of the month: Hanuka!   So it wasn't surprising that Joel led us in singing some favorite Hanuka songs. And since we are the Edot class, studying the cultures of Jews all over the world, he shared with us that one of our favorite songs, "Oh Hanuka, oh Hanuka" was originally written in Yiddish (which we'll be studying following our winter break), and we sang it both in English and Yiddish. We then sang another favorite Hanuka song, this one written in the Ladino language of the Sephardi Jews - the Spanish/Portuguese Jews - called "Ocho Kandalikas" ("Eight Candles").  And we couldn't have a Hanuka song session without singing one of the more recent Hanuka songs sung by the Maccabeats, called  Candlelight .

Joel shared with us that the upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving was the Pilgrim's attempt to re-create the Jewish Sukkot harvest festival. The original Thanksgiving feast was to have lasted 7 days, just like Sukkot. Unfortunately, the native Americans invited to the feast left after only 3 days and, over the centuries, the holiday evolved to the one day (and long weekend!) that we celebrate today. Interestingly, when Judah Maccabeus created a celebration for re-dedicating the Holy Temple once it was reclaimed from the Syrian Greeks, he also declared it was to be the Sukkot harvest festival celebration which they had missed celebrating in the Temple a few months prior to its recapture.

With this in mind, I'd like to wish you all a very enjoyable Thanksgiving cum "second Sukkot" holiday, and don't forget that Hanuka is not far behind (we light the first candle the evening of December 8th - less than 3 weeks from now!).

Singing Hanuka songs, with the shoresh for Shabbat on the board behind Joel

Everyone sang with lots of ru'ach (spirit)!

More ru'ach, and we haven't even learned about the Hasidim yet!

Hebrew and Yiddish lyrics to a favorite Hanuka song

Ladino lyrics to this Hanuka song written by Flory Jagoda

Gold Rush Field Trip

The day of our field trip to Sonora and Columbia in the Mother Lode country finally arrived yesterday. The weather was perfect all day long - sunny, in the mid-50's (except for the evening - when the sun set at 4:42 p.m.,  and it turned very chilly very quickly!). The information sent out to all the participants promised that we would leave precisely at 9 a.m., and that's exactly what we did. Everyone arrived in good time...

Except for these two who had to make a run for it !

and we settled in for the 2-1/4 hour drive to Sonora on the comfortable coach (the air-conditioned, motorized kind!). I introduced everyone to the background history of the Jewish pioneers who eventually settled in northern California, with the help of readings in the information packet given to each family. First, we got into the proper mood for the day by singing a couple of Gold Rush era songs ("Oh California" sung to the tune of "Oh Susanna" and "Clementine"). Parents were then asked to read excerpts to their children from the memoir of Moses Bruml and from a letter written by Hannah Hirschfelder, describing their sea journeys to California from Europe. A third excerpt they read to their children was from I.J. Benjamin's description of the boat and wagon trip to Sonora from San Francisco (a two-week journey in those days!).

Then it was time to sit back and watch a 42-minute film directed by Bill Chayes, a local filmmaker, called "Birth of a Community: Jews and the Gold Rush." It's a terrific documentary film, which really shared a lot of information that the students could use for the assignment I gave them as soon as the film was over.
I asked each student to "become" a Jewish pioneer buried in the Sonora Pioneer Jewish Cemetery that we would be visiting that afternoon, and to write a "letter home," describing their journey to California, how they earned their living in Sonora, and how they maintained their Jewish identity there. Some students were assigned pioneers whose lives were very well documented, so they had a lot of material to work with for writing their letters. Other students were assigned pioneers whom we know so little about that only their gravestones provided information. In those cases, the students were encouraged to make up information to bring the pioneer "to life" by using information we learned in class and in the film to fill in the gaps.
I'm always amazed at the quality of the letters the students write in the hour or so left before we arrive in Sonora. This year was no exception. Here's an example:

November 3, 1869

Dear Mother and Father,

It has been ten years since I have landed in the Gold Land, but all of my memories still seem young. Since I traveled alone on my treacherous journey, I was very lonely on the way over. Life didn't seem complete without my sister, so I decided to make this long journey.

As you know, our life in Germany was OK. They did not let us practice some customs, but the real reason I left was because I missed my dearest sister so much, and needed to see her.

I sailed first from Germany to New York. Then, I took a steam boat named the "New Orleans" from New York to Panama. We had to hike and take a canal boat to get through the Isthmus to the Pacific coast. We then had to wait for two weeks for another boat to come and pick us up. The maximum people allowed on the ship was supposed to be 400, but 1,000 people were crammed into one ship. We finally arrived in San Francisco in 1859. I didn't stay there long, and I almost automatically moved to Sonora. There, I met my husband, Mayer Baer, and now have seven beautiful children. One died.

My life is amazing in Sonora. I make a good living, selling hand-knit hats, and we are the Jewish center of the town. I am still very  religious. My husband takes the role of a rabbi. He leads services, marries people, etc. My children help in the store, and I get to see my dear sister often.

I wish to see you soon, mother and father. I do miss you.

With much love from your dearest daughter,
Helena (Oppenheimer Baer)


We reached Woods Creek Rotary Park in Sonora around 11 a.m., and enjoyed a picnic lunch. Since we still had 1-2-3-4 cakes left that the students had made the previous Sunday, I "sawed" a couple of them into enough pieces for us all (they're that dense!), and we enjoyed their sweet taste. Somehow they seemed to taste even better outdoors on a sunny day in Gold Country.  We boarded the bus again (and those who drove themselves got back in their cars) around noon, and headed to Columbia State Historic Park where we were met on Main Street by Frank Cimino, who has been docenting at the Park for a number of years. He shared a general history of the Gold Rush times with our entire group (57 of us in all), then we divided into 3 smaller groups for three stations. While one group learned about the Jewish pioneer merchants in Columbia, people like Shalom and Harris Levy, Joel Levy, Phillip Schwartz, and Rose Levy, the second group climbed the hill up to the old Columbia school house and were taught a lesson that children back in 1861 might have been taught, using slates and chalk. The third group had time to themselves to explore the stores along Main Street. Or, if they wished (and some did!), they could ride the Wells Fargo stagecoach or pan for gold (that water was really COLD!).

By 3 p.m. it was time to drive back to Sonora, to visit its pioneer Jewish cemetery, the earliest Jewish cemetery in the area (the first burial was Hartwig Caro, a 17-year old boy, who died and was buried in 1853).   After I gave a brief introduction about the Commission for the Preservation of Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries and Landmarks in the West, which maintains seven pioneer Jewish cemeteries in the Mother Lode region including Sonora's, I handed out a treasure hunt. Families had to find symbols on the gravestones like wilting flowers and broken tree limbs (representing people who died too young), certain Hebrew letters like "pey" "nun" at the top of almost all the gravestones (initials standing for the Hebrew words "poh nikbar" meaning "here is buried"), lambs (representing children who died), and fraternal organization symbols for the Masons and Oddfellows, to which many Jewish men belonged in those days (and still do today, for that matter). Up until a few years ago, we used to do gravestone rubbings, but the stones are now much too fragile for that activity, so the treasure hunt replaced it.

Students shared what they had learned about the people buried in the cemetery and finally, before we left, we all said the Mourner's Kaddish together and put pebbles on the gravestones as a sign that we remember and care about the people buried here. Some members of our group, according to Jewish law, washed their hands before leaving the cemetery in the washbasin provided. Then it was time to head back to Lafayette. We said goodbye to the families who drove on their own, and headed back to the bus.

During our drive home, we watched the two-hour film, "The Frisco Kid" starring Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford. It was a perfect wrap-up for our day. The film tells the story of a Polish rabbi who is sent to San Francisco with a Torah scroll, to become the newly formed Jewish community's rabbi there in 1850. On the way, he encounters many difficulties, not the least of which is trying to preserve his Jewish beliefs and rituals in the wild west. Harrison Ford plays the bank robber who befriends him, and gets him out of quite a few situations. The film ended just 10 minutes before we arrived back in Lafayette, the end to a perfect day.

Frank, our docent, with the hat

Frank with one of the three groups - notice the Wells Fargo stagecoach in the background

Phillip Schwartz's "New York Fancy Dry Goods Store"

Inside Phillip Schwartz's store, you can buy things that the pioneers bought back in Gold Rush days

Girls and boys lined up separately back in 1861 to enter the classroom (they also had separate play areas for recess)

History  Lesson

If you can't behave, you sit for an hour or more with the Dunce Cap on (notice the map in the background - only 33 states back in 1861)

Misbehave a second time, and get your palm slapped hard with a ruler

Gathering at the Sonora Pioneer Jewish Cemetery

Looking for the letters "pey" "nun" as part of the Treasure Hunt

Continuing the search for symbols on the gravestones

Discovering Felix Edgar Dreyfous' gravestone, whose wife had inscribed on it, "To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die."

So as not to end this post on a sad note, I thought I'd share the following  photo I took of a sign hanging in one of the saloons on Main Street in Columbia. It wasn't only during the Gold Rush days that times were rough!

Making Hardtack and 1-2-3-4 Cake

Yesterday's two sessions were two of the messiest I can recall - and the most fun!  Forty-one of the Edot students between the two sessions managed to go a step further than the "hands-on" activity I had planned - they turned it into an "elbow-deep" activity. Hands, elbows, entire arms were involved in the preparation of what turned out to be quite a sticky 1-2-3-4 cake dough.

So what are hardtack and 1-2-3-4 cake?  We've been studying about the pioneer Jews of the American west, and one of the best ways to bring the past to life is to re-create recipes that come from whichever era and geographical location we're studying. Many Jews who participated in the Gold Rush earned their living by becoming peddlers. The peddlers had to carry as much as 100 lbs.on their backs, traveling 300+ miles until they had sold off enough of the goods they carried, to go back to their supplier and re-stock. Much of the time they were alone on the road, and often had to walk 50-100 miles between farmhouses or settlements. They had to carry their own food. Obviously fresh food didn't last very long, so dried foods were what they carried. One of the staples of their diet (and especially for peddlers trying to keep kosher) was hardtack - a very hard biscuit that could last for months and wouldn't mold easily or attract bugs. The hardtack was so hard, that you couldn't just bite into it-  you had to suck it or dip it in water to make it edible. It was also referred to as "teeth dullers" and "sheet iron." And if a peddler ran out of it, it was easy to make - he just threw together flour and a bit of water to make the dough, a little bit of salt for taste if he was lucky enough to have some, and then baked the dough over the hot rocks left from the campfire overnight, while he slept. By morning, it had cooled down and was hard as a rock, easily carried in his pouch.

The 1-2-3-4 cake was originally referred to as "Cup Cake" and for good reason. Back when most people couldn't read, it was important to create recipes that were easy to remember. The recipe for the 1-2-3-4 cake was simply to throw into a bowl 1 cup of butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, and 4 eggs, mix it altogether, and bake it 'til it turned brown on top. If a pioneer housewife was lucky enough to have sugar on hand, this was a very popular recipe. The result was a dense, but tasty treat.

I'm going to put one or two pieces of hardtack into each student's "gold pouch" (see my October 18th post), for them to take home, or on our gold rush field trip if they're participating. We'll enjoy pieces of the 1-2-3-4 cakes we made during this week's Tuesday and Wednesday sessions.

Below are some shots I caught: (I had to clean dough off my camera, but thankfully the lens stayed clean!)

Step 1: Roll the dough (prepared by me at home) into a square shape...

Sometimes two arms were needed to roll - not necessarily from the same person!

The dough should be rolled to about 1/2" thick

Step 2:  Measure 3" squares to cut out  (this was obviously a 4-man job!).

Once you cut the dough, and pierced each square with holes on both sides, it was ready to bake.

Oh oh - this isn't a 1-2-3-4 cake; it's a 1-2-3-4-5 cake (5 fingers to get the dough off your arms and fingers)!

Who said baking was easy?  This is back-breaking work! Hopefully the result will be well-worth the effort.