B'nai Mitzvah Prep Workshop

Yesterday morning, during first session, the fifth graders and their parents from all three tracks met in the Social Hall for the first of two B'nai Mitzvah Prep Sessions scheduled for this year. Some families have attended the workshop in previous years with older children, but for most this will be the first leg of their journey through Temple Isaiah's Bar and Bat Mitzvah preparation process. 

Following Rabbi Greninger's introduction, all the students joined the teachers and Avodah TA's in the Oneg Room, while the parents met with Rabbi Greninger and Cantor Korn, who shared important information, not the least of which was the process relating to the choosing of Bar and Bat Mitzvah dates. They were also given a checklist and timeline in order to know what is expected of them beginning a year before the service up through 1-2 weeks before it.

In the Oneg Room, students and teachers began our own "journey" - this one looking back at the past, reviewing Torah stories taught in the 3rd and 4th grades. The focus of this workshop for our students was the Torah itself, since very soon each student will be assigned a "parsha" (portion) of the Torah to chant and explain during his/her Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Our review took the form of a "Torah Olympics."

Erin, our Shira teacher, introduced the purpose of the activities, then divided the students  into 4 groups: their first task was to decide upon a "team name" relating to the Torah.

The team names decided upon were the Maccabees, the Escapists, the Patriarchs and the Matriarchs. (OK - we didn't quibble with the fact that the Maccabees aren't in the Torah - in fact, they're not even in the Hebrew Bible, and we didn't ask how the "Escapists" got their name.) Maimone, our Y'tzira teacher, is looking over the 4 teams, like a general reviewing his troops.

The first contest reviewed the story of Abraham's journey to the Promised Land (as told in parshat "Lech L'Cha" which we just read this past Shabbat). It's doubtful that Abraham raced to follow God's command to "go to a land that I will show you," but some liberties were taken here in order to have as much fun as possible during our review!

Abraham's wife, Sarah, lived to be 127 years old. So to represent each year of her life, our next competition asked each team to try to be the first to complete 127 jumping jacks, either having each member of the team doing 127 of them, or sharing the responsibility.

The Torah tells us that Abraham's and Sarah's son, Isaac, became blind in his old age. What better way to review this fact than to have a Blindfold Race!

Isaac's servant, Eliezer, was sent to Haran to search for a wife for Isaac. As soon as he reached a well there, Rebecca came and gave him and all his camels water to drink. He chose her to be Isaac's wife. The important question for us in our review was "How did she carry all that water?" In a wheelbarrow of course!

Our third patriarch, Jacob, had to flee his twin brother, Esau, after he stole Esau's birthright inheritance by fooling his blind father, Isaac, into thinking he was Esau, and receiving Isaac's blessing as his firstborn son and rightful heir. As he fled, he stopped overnight in a place named Beth El, and there he had a dream of angels ascending and descending a ladder that reached up to the heavens and down to the Earth. Our students were asked to assume the role of the ladder and to "pass an angel up and down the ladder." (The angel took the shape of a JQuest staff T-shirt.)

Leaving the Book of Genesis, in which all the above stories are written, we held a Book of Exodus "Trivia Contest" during which I asked the entire group questions relating to stories in that book, then offered multiple choices for the correct answer. Almost everyone knew the answers without even waiting to hear all the choices!

Since we were beginning to run out of our allotted time for the Torah Olympics, we quickly segued into the Book of Leviticus. In the middle of the book (which itself is in the middle of the Torah, being the 3rd of the 5 books of the Torah), is a passage called the "holiness code," which teaches us how to be a holy people. For this part of the Olympics, one person from each team was given an act of holiness written down on a strip of paper, and was asked to act it out charades style (no words - no props!).

DO NOT DO MAGIC! (Tell that to Houdini, a very famous Jewish magician!) 

When it was finally time to return to the Social Hall and join the parents, a very special gift was handed out to each fifth grader. It was "The Five Books of Moses", an easy-to-read Torah translation by Sol Scharfstein, which will hopefully prove to be helpful to our students as they prepare their assigned Torah portions.

In order to familiarize our students and parents with how to find passages in book forms of the Torah, we held "the World's Shortest Torah Scavenger Hunt," in which families were given specific passages to find using the "Book Chapter: verse" method (e.g. Genesis 1:1-31 = the Book of Genesis Chapter 1: verses 1-31 is where you can find the story of Creation).

Torah Scavenger Hunt worksheets were given to each family to fill out together.

This is my favorite part of the workshop - getting to see my students together with their parents.

It provides an added dimension for me to watch parents and children interacting, to help me form a more complete picture of each of my students.

I'm happy to report that almost all our Edot fifth grade families participated in the workshop.

Finally, we all moved into the Sanctuary for our usual 3rd-6th grade tefillah session led by Cantor Korn and Ben.

Our sixth graders and their families met during second session, for the first of their 3 scheduled B'nai Mitzvah Prep sessions this year. The goal of this workshop was to give the students and parents an opportunity to share their ideas of what becoming an adult entails, as well as to review the schedule for requirements. While the students moved into the Oneg Room with the teachers for community games which would allow them to get to know each other even better, clergy and parents met to discuss the importance of community building, the Kiddush luncheon and partnering of families sponsoring the Kiddush together, as well as to share ways to get more involved in our Isaiah community.

Please be sure to keep the following dates open for the upcoming fifth and sixth grade family B'nai Mitzvah Prep workshops this year:

Saturday, February 3 - 6th grade
Sunday, February 4 -   5th grade
Sunday, April 29 -       5th grade family visit to Contemporary Jewish Museum
                                     6th grade BMP Workshop

If You Don't Know the Way, Even a Plain is Like a Jungle

I used our weekday Edot time together to discuss Beta Yisrael proverbs. The dictionary defines a proverb as a short saying that is widely used to express an obvious truth. More often than not, the truths expressed in these proverbs reflect the core values held by a society.  This is certainly true of Beta Yisrael proverbs.

I reminded the students of some proverbs we had encountered in "The Storyteller's Beads" novel that I'm reading to the class, and we went over them, discussing the truth expressed in each one as well as how the proverb conveys the message using metaphors. These metaphors, we discovered, are reflections of the environment in which the Beta Yisrael lived for centuries in the mountain jungles of the Gondar Province of Ethiopia. I then shared 4 proverbs of the Beta Yisrael with the class:

"If you don't know the way, even a plain is like a jungle."
"One string braided with others is strong enough to tie down a lion."
"Slowly, slowly, the chicken's egg will get on its feet and walk."
"When two elephants fight, the grass beneath them is bent and broken."

We discussed the "obvious truth" conveyed in each proverb, identifying the metaphors used to convey the message in each one, and how the metaphors reflected the physical environment of the Beta Yisrael. Then, as a closing activity for the lesson, the students worked in small groups to write short skits that would dramatize the message of each of the above 4 proverbs. These skits will be performed at our upcoming Sigd Festival * on November 12th. The skits also provide me with evidence that the students understood the "truths" conveyed by the proverbs and why these "truths" were valued by the Beta Yisrael.

As all good writers know, finding a comfortable position is the first step to producing a work you can be proud of!

To start the process, each group was given a worksheet with questions to fill out. The answers create an outline for the skit they've been assigned to write.

And once the group had determined the characters and scenario that would convey the truth of the proverb they had been assigned, it was time to brainstorm the dialogue:

Now that the holidays of the month of Tishrei are behind us, I began to introduce new holiday vocabulary during our Hebrew Through Movement session:

After reviewing basic nouns, verbs and prepositions which we have been using up to this point, I introduced a new movement - "leekpotz al regel achat." ("jump on one leg" - i.e. hop)

Then it was time to introduce the new holiday vocabulary. I directed the students' attention to what has become our "shulchan shel chageem" (holiday table), and asked them which holiday we would be focusing on for the next few weeks. The answer is, of course, Shabbat - the holiest holiday on the Jewish calendar after Yom Kippur (which itself is referred to as "Shabbat ha'Shabbatot" - the Sabbath of Sabbaths).

Much of the vocabulary associated with Shabbat is already familiar to the students - challah, kiddush, and, for most of the students, ner (candle) and "l'hadleek" (to light) from the blessing we say over the candles. Using our Hebrew Through Movement props, we reviewed this vocabulary and I introduced "kos" (cup), bakbook (bottle), ya'een (wine) and l'varech (bless).

 We also reviewed two of the blessings we say Friday evening, at the start of the holiday - "...l'hadleek ner shel Shabbat" (...to light the Shabbat candle) ...

...and ..."borei p'ree ha'gafen" (over the Kiddush wine):

(Once the students show me that they can successfully recite the words for the candle lighting ritual blessing, I'll teach them the chant melody for it that we use at Temple Isaiah.)

Now that we're focusing our attention on Shabbat vocabulary, I hung up new Stumpers and Challenges relating to the holiday on our Holiday bulletin board

Challenges:
Name all the things that were created on each day of Creation. (without notes!)
Name the 10 parts of the "Shabbat Seder" (Kabbalat Shabbat) by heart.

Stumpers:
1.  What is "Kabbalat Shabbat" and when was it first introduced?
2.  Where exactly in the Torah are we commanded to observe Shabbat?
3.  Name the 6 "Special Sabbaths" and tell why each is "Special."
4.  What is "Lechem Mishneh" and what does it remind us of?
5.  Why is it important for Dr. Arpadi to honor Shabbat?

* Please note that a letter will be sent to all Edot families very soon with details relating to our upcoming Sigd Festival. I'm  hoping that as many of our students as possible can attend to make it as meaningful a ceremony as possible, as this is our concluding event for this unit of study. Please let me know ASAP if your child will attend or not, so that I can assign those who come roles to play.

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").