Cookies and Seders

We've had quite an eventful week in our Edot class. Last Tuesday and Wednesday's sessions prepared poppy seed cookies to be served during our Shabbat Seder on Friday evening. Poppies were considered to be a luxury by the Ashkenazi Jews and were saved for very special occasions, one of which was Shabbat. They were a symbol of prosperity, but also symbolized the manna that God sent the Israelites to eat during the 40 years they wandered in the Sinai Wilderness. Often, the challah breads eaten on Friday evening and Shabbat afternoons were covered with poppy seeds. The cookies were delicious (not one was left, and people were asking for more!). Another success for our Edot bakers.

Rolling the dough into teaspoon-sized balls

Lining the dough balls in rows on the trays

How many dough balls can we fit on the tray?

Catching up on gossip while rolling the dough

Is this too big?

Now that we've rolled the dough, it's time to flatten it out

And now they're ready for the oven - will we get a chance to taste some before we go home? Yes, indeed!

And then came the big night - welcoming Shabbat at our Family Shabbat Seder. The evening was a success, thanks in very large part to all the participants. Families and individual students came up on stage to share the origins of the "Kabbalat (Welcoming) Shabbat" rituals performed on Friday evenings by Jews all over the world, and to share what our students learned about the Ashkenazi Jews of eastern Europe and the traditions they established for welcoming Shabbat. We sang two popular Yiddish Shabbat songs - "L'Cho Dodi" (an Ashkenazi version of the song written by the Spanish Jew, Solomon Alkabetz in the 15th century, describing Shabbat as a queen and a bride whom we are about to royally receive), and "Shabbos, Shabbos, Shabbos" (describing the Jewish vision of Shabbat, a day filled with light and joy and peace). Several students performed a Yiddish skit, sharing the Talmudic story of Joseph who valued Shabbat ("Yosif Mokir Shabbos"), a favorite of Ashkenazi Jews that was often shared around the Shabbat table. The meal at the end of the seder was a tremendous success. We ate roasted chicken, two kinds of chicken soup (Russian and Polish styles), carrot tzimmes, sweet and savory noodle kugels (non-dairy), and vegetarian cholent (the "stew" prepared by Ashkenazi housewives that cooked slowly and stayed hot in the baker's oven, thus fulfilling the Rabbinic command to have a hot meal for Shabbat lunch). We also enjoyed gefilte fish with horseradish, and mixed green salads and, of course, two wonderful desserts - mandelbrot (almond bread) and the poppy seed cookies prepared by our Edot students.These were all traditional eastern European Ashkenazi foods often served for the special Shabbat meal.

We filled the Social Hall (about 130 participants); Joel Siegel led us in chanting the blessings and singing the songs

Sharing the story of Creation with posters describing each day hanging on the wall

Sharing how we prepare for Shabbat each week

Why and how do we light Shabbat candles? And God said, "Let there be light."

And if the good angel sees the home is ready for Shabbat and there is peace among the family members, it wishes that all Shabbatot may be like this one, and the evil angel is forced to say, "Amen." Introducing the Shalom Aleichem song

Blessing the Children (and the parents as well!)

Why do we recite the Kiddush over a cup of wine? We begin the Shabbat meal with joy!

If we're so clean on Shabbat, why do we have to wash our hands before we eat? We make ourselves holy as the Kohaneem (priests) of the Holy Temple did in ancient times.

Why do we put salt on the Challah? To transform our Shabbat meal into a sacred ritual, remembering how the Kohaneem sprinkled salt on the sacrifices to God

Introducing the Yiddish Shabbat songs

The Yiddish skit: S'iz a groysse fish (it's a big fish)...

Mit a perle (with a pearl!).  Thus is Yosif rewarded for making sure the poor in his village have what they need to celebrate Shabbat  - "Oyb emetzer layt epes dem Shabbes, vet Shabbes dos obtzol'n."  (If someone lends to Shabbos, Shabbos will pay him back.")

B'Teyavon - eat heartily. The meal is about to be served!

As the saying goes in Yiddish, "Es los zich essen!" ("It lets itself be eaten!")

 As if our Shabbat Seder wasn't enough, two days later we celebrated Tu Bishvat (which actually began the evening of our Shabbat Seder). I started the session by reading the Talmudic story of "Honi Ha'Me'agel" (Honi, the Circlemaker), who planted carob trees throughout the Land of Israel. The students were then introduced to the teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria, a Kabbalist whose followers developed the rituals for a Tu Bishvat Seder. The name of the holiday itself is simply the date of the celebration (the Hebrew letters tet-vav equal the number 15; the holiday occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Sh'vat). Following the "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" dvd-rom program presentation about Luria and his teachings in Room 202 (including a multimedia presentation about the L'Cha Dodi song, a Yiddish version of which we sang at our Shabbat seder),  we moved over to Room 201 which had been set up for the seder (filled with flowers from our Shabbat seder!).

Notice the fruit on the plates - we ate three categories of fruit - fruit with peels or skins we can't eat (banana and pineapple), fruit with stones inside we can't eat (apricots), and fruit which is entirely edible (raisins)

As in every Jewish celebration, we collected tz'daka for the needy (in the cups set on each table)

We read from a Tu Bishvat "Haggadah" ...

...and discussed such questions as "How are people like trees?" and "Have you ever met a person who is "hard" on the outside, but if you take the time to get to know them, is actually "soft and sweet" on the inside?"

Joel came the final 20 minutes of our Seder to teach us Tu Bishvat songs

Notice the tree through the window - what an amazing backdrop for a Tu Bishvat Seder!

Early History of the Ashkenazim

This past Sunday, I shared with the students the early history of the Ashkenazim, the large group of Jews who have lived in western, northern, and eastern Europe. They took their name from "Ashkenaz," which was described in the Bible as being a land in the distant north. We are currently studying the eastern European edot (Poland and Russia), and the rich and vibrant Yiddish culture which they developed. We began our historic exploration of this group by going back 2,000 years, to when Jewish slaves taken by the Romans to Italy following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., formed the first Jewish community on the European continent. We also learned about the origins of Christianity, to understand how the earliest Nazarenes (as Christians were originally referred to, and still are in Hebrew) separated themselves from traditional Jews by refusing to follow Jewish rituals, since they believed the Messiah had come and there was no reason to continue these rituals. A great rift began to grow between the two religions during the first century C.E., with the Christians unable to accept the fact that traditional Jews refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, while traditional Jews became convinced that the Christians were ready to undermine the way of life Jews had developed over the preceding centuries, at times fighting to the death for their beliefs. We then took a close look at the relationship between the Christians and Jews in Europe, during the Dark and Middle Ages (ca. 500-1400), when Jews were the only non-Christian inhabitants of most of Europe. We learned how Jews were shut out of the guilds and not allowed to own land. They were only allowed to reside in areas where they had been invited by charter to settle. Since they were only allowed to work as moneylenders, and because the uneducated Christian peasants blamed them for the death of Jesus, they were forced to live behind walls built to protect them from the "insolent populace"(words used by Bishop Rudigar of Speyer in 1084, when he invited them to settle, "in order to increase the economy of the land."

We learned how in 1095-1096, Pope Urban VI called for a crusade to rescue the Holy Land from the Muslims, promising immediate salvation of the soul to any lord or knight who died fighting for the Church. When peasants heard about Urban's promise, they banded together and joined the Crusade, eager to leave their poor farms to seek adventure and spoils. This was not the Crusade that Pope Urban had wanted. The peasants had no idea where the Holy Land was or who their enemies were supposed to be. But there was one enemy they knew well in their own lands - the Jews. When faced with the choice of dying or converting to Christianity, thousands of Jews preferred to die "Al Kiddush Ha'Shem" (as martyrs) rather than convert. Still, the Jewish communities of the Rhineland region recovered.

But in 1347, the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) spread through Europe, killing 24 million people (1/3 of Europe's population back then), and it was the Jews who were blamed. They were accused of poisoning the wells.  This time, there was no refuge in any land in western Europe for them. Thankfully, the Plague didn't touch eastern Europe, which was still a frontier of thick forests, for the most part. Polish princes, who had invited Jews to settle on their lands (to "increase their economy") back in the 12th century, now re-issued their invitations, and this time the majority of Ashkenazim accepted their invitation. It was in the lands of eastern Europe that the Yiddish culture truly flourished, and great centers of Jewish learning developed.

We covered all this history in just half an hour, thanks to the "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" dvd-rom program, which helped bring the history and culture to life for the students. At the very end of the lesson, I shared with them a wonderful multimedia presentation from the Heritage program, which shared the history of the Yiddish language, and gave the class the opportunity not just to listen to how Yiddish sounds, but to "feel the roll of the language on their tongues" as we read Yiddish phrases out loud.  Try out some Yiddish yourself in the Origins of Yiddish section of the website.

During the weekday sessions, I divided each class into 8 groups, each of which was assigned to create a poster depicting one of the six days of Creation, Shabbat, or one of the Shabbat Seder (welcoming Shabbat) rituals.  One group each week day session also worked on decorating a large fish which will be used during the Yiddish skit part of our family Shabbat Seder. As always, I put out lots of materials for the students to use, gave them a few directions, then stood back and watched the creation process. It never ceases to amaze me how children can look at a huge, blank piece of posterboard, and, without any hesitation, plan and execute an amazing work of art. We'll be using these posters during our Shabbat Seder, not just to decorate the walls, but to share the meaning of Shabbat and the rituals which developed to welcome it each Friday evening.

Preparing the "Shabbat, A Day of Rest" poster

Decorating one side of the "groysse" (large) fish for the Yiddish skit

One side of the groysse fish

Preparing the "Sabbath Meal" poster in foreground, with other groups busy at work in background

Preparing the "Second Day of Creation" poster

Working together to design the "Fifth Day of Creation" poster

Hard to tell at this stage, but this will become an impressive poster depicting the "Ha'Motzi" blessing over the Challah

On the fourth day of Creation the sun and moon and stars came into being - and they're about to be "re-created" here

Everyone is involved in this "creation" process

Mourner's Kaddish and the Language of Holiness

Our Edot class is back in full swing following a two-week winter break. I missed the first Sunday class, as I was attending the annual meeting of the Commission for the Preservation of Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries and Landmarks in the West of which I'm a Trustee, and which oversees, among others, the Sonora Pioneer Jewish Cemetery which we visited during our November field trip. Under the very able direction of Yardena, one of our Isaiah Religious School substitutes (first session), and Ariel, my co-teacher second session, the students continued working on their Shabbat Seder booklet projects. Joel Siegel visited the class, and taught two Yiddish Shabbat songs which we'll be singing during the upcoming family Shabbat Seder (Friday evening, January 25th, from 6:30-8:00 p.m. - be sure to rsvp as soon as possible, even if you can't join us!). The two songs are, "Shabbes, Shabbes, Shabbes" and "L'Cho Doidi."

During the weekday sessions, we took a break for a bit from our Shabbat Seder booklet preparations, to take a close look at the Mourner's Kaddish prayer. This semester, three or four children from each 3rd-6th grade track will be helping to lead a prayer during our week day t'fila service. Our Edot track has been assigned to help lead the Mourner's Kaddish. We began our in depth look at the prayer by looking at the "koof-daled-shin" shoresh (root) of the word "Kaddish."  We learned that every word built from these three letters must have something to do with "holiness."  After reading through the English translation of the prayer, we discovered that not one mention is made of the person who died, of death, or even of life. Instead, the entire prayer, which is written in Aramaic (a very close cousin to Hebrew, sharing the same roots as Hebrew words) praises God. This led us into an animated discussion as to why there is no mention of death or the deceased person in the "mourner's" prayer. Most of the students came to the conclusion that we praise God who holds the power over life and death, and several students thought that since Judaism teaches that time will eventually end, and we will enter an era of "absolute time" (a Rabbinic term) when there will be no past, present, or future and we will exist in the dimension in which God exists (also referred to as the Messianic era), that everyone who dies will exist again, and so we praise God for this rather than "mourn" the person who is temporarily lost to us.  Obviously, this is a very complicated issue in Judaism, but I'm impressed with the thinking process these students went through, using information they have already learned to try to solve a question that philosophers, rabbis, and many others are still grappling with. Not everyone agreed with this conclusion, but that is no different than about 3/4 of the Rabbinic arguments and discussions in the Talmud. In fact, there was one point during the discussion when I realized the discussion was so animated and so many wanted to have their voices heard, it must be similar to Talmudic discussions through the ages.It's during discussions like these that I wish we had more time in Religious School. It's frustrating for me to have to stop a discussion because we've run out of time. 

Before the end of the session, the students wrote a very special blessing to include in the booklet (which they'll share with you at the family Shabbat Seder or at home, if they can't attend), so I won't give away any information about it now. We also took 10 minutes, as we do each week day session and sometimes on Sundays, for the "Hebrew Through Movement" program. I'm happy to report that the two week vacation did not erase most of the vocabulary we learned during the first semester, and that after just a short review, most of the students were recognizing all the commands again. During the coming months, Tammy Helman (our Hebrew specialist) and I will be introducing Shabbat and holiday vocabulary, which will allow us to give such commands in Hebrew as "Walk to the table; pick up the Shabbat candles; put the Shabbat candles into the candle holders; light the Shabbat candles; cover your eyes; say the blessing over the Shabbat candles, etc."

The students are already familiar with the blessings we say over the "Welcoming Shabbat" (Shabbat Seder) rituals, which they have been copying to include in their Shabbat Seder booklets.

I'd also like to welcome a new boy into our Edot class - Austin, whose family has recently moved to the Bay Area from San Diego.  B'roocheem Ha'Ba'eem (literally "Blessed are those who come," and used as a welcoming greeting in Hebrew).

Coloring in a Bracha (Blessing) page for the Shabbat Seder Booklet

Deciding on which game to play during recess

Getting in formation for the game

Waiting for more players to join

Watching the game (and maybe cheering them on?)