Sigd Festival

Yesterday morning, we re-enacted a Beta Yisrael Sigd Festival as we "climbed the mountain" to receive the Torah from God and recalled the terrible trek many Beta Yisrael members had to endure in order to reach Israel, the Promised Land, in 1984 (Operation Moses) and 1991 (Operation Solomon).

The morning began in our Edot classroom, as the students dressed in costumes and reviewed their scripts.

We then filed down to the courtyard, where the Shira and Y'tzira students and teachers joined us.

After a brief procession down the stairs by the driveway, we all gathered on Risa Road in single file, led by five Kessim - the religious leaders of the Beta Yisrael community.  And then our ascent "up the mountain" began, as we listened to a recording of "Ha'Masa" ("The Journey"), describing the difficult trek the Beta Yisrael had to make through the desert in Sudan to reach the El Al cargo planes waiting to take them to Israel.

As we "pass through a Beta Yisrael village," we see the basket weavers plying their trade.

But danger is lurking - these shiftas (robbers) are ready for the attack. And just as the song on the CD describes how the robbers attacked at night, we are attacked!

Finally, we arrive at the "summit of the mountain" (our Oneg Room), and, led by our Kessim, we praise God.

Then it's time to break the "fast" of the morning with Ethiopian breads - injera, the pancake-like bread used to scoop up Ethiopian "wats" (stews); Daabo bread ( a honey-coriander yeast bread), and Dabo Kolo, the sweet dough snacks we prepared in class during the previous weekday sessions. And to slake our thirst from the "climb," some delicious Ethiopian beer (which translated to apple juice for us).

After filling ourselves with the bread and juice (and a big thank you goes to our Edot parents who took time out of their busy schedules to prepare the Daabo and injera for us - Caren, Casey, Claire, Larry, Adina, and Rachel!), it was time to enjoy the "Beta Yisrael Proverb" skits our Edot students had written - 8 skits in all, wonderfully acted out by our Edot students.

The following skit's plot teaches us how "One String Braided Together can Tie Down a Lion." 

As the final skit was coming to a close, Maya, our music director, joined us, and led us in the singing of "Al Tir'uni," a song from "The Song of Songs" in the Bible, traditionally considered to have been written by King Solomon.  The English translation to the words is, "Do not stare at me because I am dark-colored, because the sun has gazed upon me; I am black and beautiful and pleasant, O daughters of Jerusalem."

And when we finished singing the song, Maimone, our Y'tzira teacher, led a drum circle (in our case composed of 3 Yemenite or dumbek drums, and the African djemba drum which he played).

And then, once we established a steady beat with the drums, Maya led us in singing the African version of "Am Yisrael Chai" ("The Nation of Israel Lives").

By this time, everyone was moving around to the beat on the floor, so it was a smooth transition for everyone to get up and begin shoulder dancing to the beat. Since the Shira and Y'tzira students might not have had a chance to view an Ethiopian shoulder dance (which we had practiced a few weeks ago in our Edot class), I projected this YouTube video of a Shoulder Dance onto the wall in the Oneg Room, so all the students (and parents) could learn how to shoulder dance and follow along with the music on the YouTube track.

Now you know what everyone is looking at on the wall.

And still our drummers kept up the beat! 

Then it was time to form a processional line to go "down the mountain" back to our classrooms, following Maya playing the guitar as we all sang "Am Yisrael Chai" one last time. In the classroom, the students took off their costumes, gathered their things together, then joined the 3rd-6th graders for Tefillah in the Sanctuary.

We have now ended our unit of study about the Beta Yisrael of Ethiopia. Our next unit of study, beginning just before our winter break, will be about the Jews of Iraq - Babylonian Jews, as they call themselves. They were the very first Edah, who created a pattern of existence in exile which other edot would follow for centuries after.

HAVE A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY!

Dabo Kolo

We used these final weekday sessions before the Sigd Festival to prepare a Beta Yisrael treat - Dabo Kolo. This is basically small pieces of sweet, oily dough, fried over a high heat until each side is lightly browned. Since we only had half an hour to make it each day, I prepared the dough ahead of time; this allowed the students more time to roll, cut and shape the dough into pieces ready to be fried. It occured to me after Tuesday's class, that with the high content of oil in the dough, this was, coincidentally, a perfect treat for Hanuka if you tire of latkes (is that even possible?!).

First, take a piece of the dough and roll it into a golf ball sized ball.

I had to get more detailed in my directions, as there was a question as to the size of a golf ball!

Then came the major part of the operation - rolling the ball into a cigar-shape, 1/2" thick. Here's where different rolling techniques came into play.

Once the dough was rolled to the desired thickness, it was time to use scissors (carefully washed beforehand!) to snip off 1/2" sized pieces.

You could cut all the pieces, then press your thumb in the center of each piece to flatten it slightly...

...or you could use the "cut and press" technique.

And finally, into the frying pan they go, giving off a sweet aroma that wafted through the second floor hall of the school building, attracting quite a few inquisitive JQuest'ers!

 At the start of our weekday sessions, we played Hangman with the other 5th and 6th graders, focusing on Jewish holidays and ritual objects. On Tuesday, the students "breezed" through the first 3 words they had to guess (hanukiya, Tu Bishvat, and seder plate), until Erin, our Shira teacher, had them guess "lulav." That stumped them until it was just about time to return to our classrooms. On Wednesday, I kept everyone on their toes and guessing with "Purim" and "haggadah."

We almost had Haman completely hung before they guessed "Purim."

We finished off the game with "Haggadah," which a lot of students thought was "hafsaka" (recess).

 During our weekly Hebrew Through Movement session, I reviewed vocabulary from previous holidays, and then began to introduce Hanuka vocabulary. Now that most of the students recognize the foundational vocabulary words (everyday nouns, verbs and prepositions), I thought it might make it more interesting to introduce a few more interesting verbs into the mix, to allow me to vary my commands more. A few weeks ago, I introduced the verb "l'galgel" (to roll), having the students roll Shabbat candles and candlesticks on the tables and floor. Now, it's not just objects I'm having the students roll....

Seth, l'galgel al ha'reetzpa. (Seth, roll on the floor.)

Of course, we don't always have to have "moving" commands - Leo, la'amod al yad ha'shoolchan. (Leo, stand next to the table.)

Then, I introduced our first Hanuka nouns - ner shel Hanuka (Hanuka candle) and Hanukiya (Hanuka menorah). I also took the opportunity to begin teaching the ordinal numbers, in this case relating to the Hanuka candles. Teaching the students that we put the Hanuka candles in the Hanukiya each night from left to right, and we then light them from right to left (lighting the most recent candle first), we learned how to say first (reeshon), second (shaynee), third (sh'leeshee) and fourth (r'vee'ee), as I had different groups and individuals come up to the table and put in the candles, then "light" (l'hadleek) them. After "lighting" them, I had the entire class chant the first blessing over the candles (Barooch ata Adonai, Eloheynu melech ha'olam, asher keed'shanoo b'meetzvotav, v'tzeevanoo l'hadleek ner shel Hanuka - Blessed are You Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and has commanded us to light the Hanuka candle.) 

As we do every other week, we finished the day with "Music with Maya," who began to teach the students the Hanuka light blessings (a nice reinforcement for our Hebrew Through Movement session).

B'nai Mitzvah Prep Workshop #1

Last week, while I was away at my son's wedding in Washington, D.C., my two very able substitutes, Alison W. and Joanne P., guided the students as they wrote skits relating to Beta Yisrael proverbs which I introduced in my last post. I've just finished typing up the skits, and they're wonderful. Yasher Koach to our Edot writers! We'll be performing them this coming Sunday at our Sigd Festival.

We took a break from our Edot studies yesterday, when the fifth graders and their parents (first session) and the sixth graders and their parents (second session) participated in our first B'nai Mitzvah Prep workshop of the year. Fifth graders and parents were introduced to the checklist and timeline for choosing a date and preparing for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony at Isaiah, and were presented with a special gift from the Women of Isaiah - an abridged English translation of the Torah, which they will hopefully make good use of as they prepare for their ceremony.  Sixth graders and their parents had a chance to interview each other about becoming adults, and shared what they looked for in adults they respected the most and how being a teenager is different than being an adult.

Here are some of the highlights of the sessions:

Cantor Korn welcomed the fifth graders and their parents, and introduced the focus of the workshop

While Cantor Korn spoke to the parents in the Social Hall about choosing B'nei Mitzvah dates, Rabbi Miller led the students in "Torah Olympics" activities.

This was a fun way to review the personalities and stories they've studied in the Torah over the past few years. First, we reviewed the Book of Genesis. Abraham made a journey to Canaan, so the students, divided into 3 teams, had a race to see which team could run across the Oneg Room and return the fastest.  Ready, set....

....AND GO! These kids are fast!

Rebecca, Isaac's wife, gave the camels of Abraham's servant who had come to seek a wife for Isaac, quite a lot of water to drink. So we had a wheelbarrow race.

To review the Book of Exodus, we held a Trivia contest to see which group could come up with the most correct answers to questions relating to personalities and stories in the book

The answers flowed right out onto the paper without any hesitation!

After the Olympic Games were over, it was time for each student to receive their special gift.

Families became familiar with how to find specific verses as we held the world's shortest Torah scavenger hunt - asking them to find specific verses in the books.

As the fifth grade families moved into the Sanctuary for our school tefillah session, sixth grade parents came into the Social Hall to mix and mingle, as they learned a little bit more about each other's backgrounds and interests. The sixth graders themselves joined us for the tefillah session, and some of our own Edot students led us in Creative Tefillah. Yasher Koach to Grace, Peter, Kyle, Jake S., and Gabby!

When tefillah was over, the sixth graders joined their parents in the Social Hall.

Unfortunately, plans to use cell phones to answer questions and project the answers on the wall fell through, when the best minds in digital projection  (thank you to our parents for trying to work out the bug!) couldn't figure out what was wrong. Thankfully, lo-tech options were available!

Parents interviewed children, and vice versa.

Now, it's time to look forward to this coming Sunday's Sigd Festival. We'll be preparing a Beta Yisrael treat - Dabo Kolo - during our coming weekday sessions. Keep an eye out for my next post to see our Edot students "rolling in dough!"

As the Saying Goes...

We focused our Edot studies this past week on introducing Beta Yisrael proverbs. First, we started with a definition of a proverb as a short saying that is widely used to express an obvious truth, such as "The apple never falls far from the tree" or "You reap what you sow." I shared several Beta Yisrael proverbs such as "If you don't know the way, even a plain is like a jungle" and "One string braided with others is strong enough to tie down a lion." We talked about the language of proverbs, and how the local environment can influence the sharing of a universal truth. So Beta Yisrael proverbs reflected their world (lions, plains, jungles) but the truth they taught is true the world over - more can be accomplished when you cooperate than if you try to do it alone; if you don't know what you want to do or haven't planned ahead, even the simplest decisions can be difficult. 

Over the next two weeks, the students will work in groups to develop skits reflecting their understanding of 4 of the Beta Yisrael proverbs we discussed in class. They will be asked to create a situation and characters in the Ethiopian environment relating to the proverb, and the last line of each skit will have one of the characters saying the proverb. The skits will be performed during our Sigd Festival on November 22nd.

Yesterday, we painted posters which will be used as backdrops for the skits. First, we brainstormed a list of animals and plants that are found in the Gondar province, home of the Beta Yisrael, and I listed these on the whiteboard. As always, I put out all types of materials for the students to choose from, including paints, textiles, plastic leaves, vines and flowers, tissue paper, yarn, feathers - whatever I could find in our supply room that could be used to create a poster.

The process and results are recorded below:

Group discussion to plan the poster

Blending paints to get just the right color for "If you don't know the way, even a plain is like a jungle."

Looks like a lost soul in the middle of a wide open plain!

A lone tree in a field of grass?

Aha - the symbolic "jungle" justaposed next to the symbolic "plain." Another take on "If you don't know the way, even a plain is like a jungle."

There's a braided string on the poster - could it be...

...Indeed, it is - "One string braided with others is strong enough to tie down a lion."

And another take on the same proverb, using the plastic leaves and flowers...

Voila - the finished poster.

Everyone is in on the action - can you see the long trunks of the elephants?

"When two elephants fight, the grass beneath them is bent and broken."

No painting on this poster - instead, cutting out the animals from construction paper and creating the grass from felt

This poster (almost finished) depicts quite a battle going on in this group's take of the elephant proverb!

Using paints and materials to create...

"Slowly, slowly, the chicken's egg will get on its feet and walk."

And here's a second take on the above proverb, entitled, "Egg Evolution."

Who knew that the feet came out of the egg first?! Works for me!

During our weekday community-building session, we had fun with a game called, "In the Manner of the Word." Since Hannuka is the next holiday coming up on the Jewish calendar, I wrote 10 sentences on the whiteboard in the Beit Knesset having to do with the story and customs of the holiday. Then I wrote 16 adverbs on the board. The game is played by having one volunteer go out of the room, then another volunteer chooses one of the 16 words. The goal is to have volunteers, chosen by the first volunteer who went out of the room, act out one of the sentences "in the manner of the word" chosen. The volunteer who went out of the room gets 3 tries to guess the adverb chosen - each time s/he chooses another volunteer to come up and act out a different sentence (no words allowed - only gestures!). As you may well imagine, the actors can get into a lot of silly situations!

Bowing down to a Greek idol "clumsily"?

Lighting the Hannukiah "hungrily"?

The Jews entered the Holy Temple "idiotically"?

Try playing this game at home - maybe this coming Hannukah. It's a lot of fun!

And finally, I'd like to remind all the families that a notice was sent out last week about our Sigd Festival. Please let me know asap if your child(ren) can join us or not on November 22nd (the last Sunday session before our Thanksgiving holiday break). The session will run from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. (just one session for all the school that day!). We'll be dressing up in costumes, and will "climb" the mountain from Risa Road up to the Oneg Room, where we'll re-enact the celebration of receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai as the Beta Yisrael community has done for centuries. It's the culminating event for our Beta Yisrael unit of study.