Preparing Hamantashen

The Purim holiday is coming up quickly (it begins Wednesday evening, March 4th this year), so it's time to prepare lots and lots of hamantashen. And that's exactly what our 5th and 6th graders did during the first half hour of this past Tuesday and Wednesday sessions, during our monthly Hebrew cooking session. The focus of this session is to review and introduce commonly used Hebrew vocabulary related to cooking and baking, as well as to introduce traditional Jewish and Israeli recipes associated with specific Jewish holidays. It also provides us with half an hour of Hebrew Through Movement vocabulary review as we give directions for each recipe.

Since we only have the half hour to prepare the recipe, I mixed the dough ahead of time at home. The dough for this easy hamantashen recipe is made from a 15-oz. box of prepared moist yellow cake mix, one cup of regular flour, two eggs and two tablespoons of water. For the gluten-free recipe, I found a gluten-free yellow cake mix and used gluten-free flour with a 1/4 tsp. xanthan gum added in, along with the eggs and water.

When the students entered the classroom and sat at their tables, they found a ball of dough sitting on a small amount of flour and a rolling pin which I dusted ahead of time with flour, since the dough is rather sticky.

Reisheet kol, l'galgel et ha'batzek  (First of all, roll the dough) (to 1/8" thickness)

Achshav, leech'rot eegooleem me'ha'batzek... (Now, cut circles from the dough...) (using the 3" diameter rims of plastic cups)

...az la'seem et ha'eegooleem al ha'tavneet. (...then put the circles on the baking sheet.)

L'galgel et ha'batzek, ad sh'eyn yoter. (Roll the dough 'til there's none left.)

La'seem kapeet shel reeba b'emtza kol eegool. (Put a teaspoon of preserves - we used strawberry - in the middle of each circle.)

Achshav, l'kapel v'l'tzavet shalosh peenot shel ha'ooga. (Now, fold and pinch three corners of the cookie.)

Be sure to keep pinching the corners until they stick together!

Achshav zeh moochan la'seem ba'tanoor l'asara dakot. (Now it's ready to put in the oven for 10 minutes.)

U'va'sof, l'nakot et ha'shoolchan leefnei la'lechet l't'feela. (And finally, clean the table before going to t'feela.)

Practicing to become a master hamantashen maker can be a very enjoyable process...

... as you can tell from the expressions on the student faces!!!

The final results are definitely worth the effort!

 If you are a lover of hamantashen, I suggest you attend LAFTY's annual Purim Carnival on Sunday, March 1st, where truly amazing hamantashen will be available for sale.  See you there!

Shabbat Seder

Yesterday evening many of our Edot families gathered in the Adult Lounge (just over 100 people in all!), to welcome Shabbat. In Hebrew, this is referred to as "kabbalat shabbat" (literally, "the receiving of Shabbat"), and is also referred to as a Shabbat seder, since rituals are involved before and after the Shabbat meal itself.

Edot students had been studying about the laws and rituals relating to Shabbat, as well as the "language" of Shabbat (see previous posts for more details about what we learned). We also studied the early history of Ashkenazi Jewry and the beginnings of its Yiddish language and culture.

Now the students had a chance, with the help of other family members, to model rituals developed over many centuries to welcome Shabbat, as well as share what they had learned about Ashkenazi Jewry (with an emphasis on the eastern European Jews). Many of the rituals involved customs developed in eastern Europe, including singing Yiddish songs and acting out a story from the Talmud about "Yosef Mokir Shabbos" (Joseph Who Valued Shabbat).

The Shabbat Meal, which we enjoyed at the very end of the seder, consisted of eastern European recipes prepared by the families. There was plenty of food and thumbs up ratings for all of it (considering most people took second and even third helpings!).

Below are some photos I managed to take during the rituals and meal. More photos are always welcome!

The Introduction - Jack , Alex and Lauren share the meaning of Shabbat and recount what was created each day of Creation

Jennavive pointed to each poster as the day of Creation it depicted was being described by the students

Ari and Kyra share how we prepare for Shabbat

The Adri and Segol Families share the origin and meaning of the candle lighting ritual

Seth, Matthew and Zoe share the origin of the Shalom Aleichem song we sing, praising God

The Benenson and Corritone Families share the origin of the Family Blessing part of the seder

The Persin and Zaritsky Families share the origins of the Kiddush ritual - the Blessing over the Wine

The Heffan and Moss Families share the origin of the Washing of Hands ritual

The Paykel and Schell Families share the origin of the Ha'Motzi ritual- the Blessing over the Bread

Camille, Jennavive, Gabby, Jake and Seth share the early history of Ashkenazi Jewry and introduce the two Yiddish songs we sang - "Shabbos, Shabbos, Shabbos" and "L'Cho Dodi"

 S'iz a groysse perl in a groysse fish! (It's a big pearl in a big fish!) Joseph who valued Shabbat is rewarded.

Enjoying the Russian style or Polish style chicken soup (or maybe both!) and non-dairy savory kugel... ...as well as the non-dairy sweet kugel, roasted chicken, gefilte fish, carrot tzimmes, vegetarian cholent, poppy seed cookies and mandelbrot (minus the mandel in our nut-free school!), with a mixed green salad thrown in for good measure.

A very big thanks goes to Joel who came to help lead us in the chanting of blessings and singing of the two Yiddish songs, in spite of being severely "frog-in-the-throat" challenged; and to Rabbi Miller who joined us with Leo in arms to help lead us in singing Shalom Aleichem.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED TO MAKE THE EVENT SO SUCCESSFUL!

Date Chews

During the past weekday sessions, we again took a rest from our Hebrew Through Movement exercises to learn Hebrew vocabulary relating to cooking. Actually, we didn't take a complete break from HTM - as I introduce the cooking vocabulary, I use HTM vocabulary to give directions.

This month, we made date chews, a very simple and quick recipe to prepare.Tu Bish'vat, the "holiday of the trees" falls on February 4th this year, (the holiday's name literally means the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Sh'vat). Since Jews have traditionally celebrated this holiday by eating fruits that grow in Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel), and since dates were an important crop there in ancient days (used not only for eating but for making honey and wine!), it seemed an appropriate recipe.

Introducing the vocabulary

Offering a libation to the gods...actually, "l'hareem et ha' sookar" ("lift up the sugar") - showing an understanding of the vocabulary and instructions

L'hoseef et ha'sookar v'et ha't'mareem la'kemach, avkat afeeya v'melach b'toch ha'k'ara ha'g'dola (Add the sugar and the dates to the flour, baking powder and salt in the big bowl)

L'arbev et ha'markeeveem ha'y'vasheem b'yachad (Stir the dry ingredients together)

Achshav, leet'rof et ha'beitzeem ba'k'ara ha'k'tana eem ha'mazleg (Now, beat the eggs in the small bowl with the fork)

Az, l'hoseef et ha'beitzeem l'toch ha'k'ara ha'g'dola (Then, add the eggs into the big bowl)

L'arbev et ha'kol b'yachad eem ha'kaf (Stir everything together with the spoon)

La'avor et ha'batzek la'tavneet... (Transfer the dough to the baking pan...)

U'va'sof, leef'ros et ha'batzek ba'tavneet, v'zeh moochan la'afot ba'tanoor (And finally, spread the dough in the baking pan, and it's ready to bake in the oven

BE'TAYAVON!  BON APETIT!

We're on break for the Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday holiday all week. We're back in school on Sunday, January 25th, but even before then I'm looking forward to seeing many of you at our Edot Family Shabbat Seder on Friday evening the 23rd, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Back from Winter Break

We began the second semester during the past two weekday sessions by reviewing what we had learned about the "language of Shabbat." I reviewed the concept of the "shoresh" (the root word) with the students, going over the 3 letter roots of the words "Shabbat" and "Shalom." Thankfully, most of the students recalled the information they'd been taught and were ready to learn a third shoresh - "s-d-r." Hands went up very quickly when I asked for a word that was built from those three letters. "Siddur" (prayerbook) was the first word the students came up with, followed by "Seder." And what do all the words built from these 3 letters have in common?  Order. In Judaism, rituals must be performed in a certain order to have meaning. We hold Pesach (Passover) seders, performing rituals in a certain order. The same is true for Tu Bish'vat seders and Shabbat seders (also referred to as "Kabbalat Shabbat" - welcoming the Sabbath).

We made a list of all the Shabbat rituals the students could recall, then put them in the order in which we perform them on Friday evenings. On Sunday morning, the students painted posters reflecting what they had learned about each ritual, as well as teaching what was created on each day of Creation. These posters will be used during our upcoming family Shabbat Seder, scheduled for Friday evening, January 23rd. Below are some photos of the children making the posters.

Here, Ali and Alyssa are decorating a "groysse fish" - a big fish - which will be used in the Yiddish skit the students will be presenting at the Shabbat Seder, called "Yosif Mokir Shabbos" (Joseph Who Valued Shabbat).

Here is one side of the completed fish (now a "gefilte" fish - a stuffed fish!)...

And here is the second side.

And here are the finished posters, hanging on the hallway bulletin boards:

During our weekday sessions, the 6th graders joined the 7th graders up in the Sanctuary for t'fila (prayer service), which they will be doing until the end of the school year. Rabbi Shanks led the service on Tuesday; Rabbi Miller on Wednesday (Cantor Korn who usually leads the service is on sabbatical this semester).

Here is Jory, our 7th grade coordinator, welcoming the 6th graders

Sadly, upon returning from winter break, we learned that Josh, my satellite teacher during first session Edot class on Sundays, has been diagnosed with leukemia. He'll be undergoing several rounds of chemotherapy for the next few months. I shared this news with the students at the start of each session (many students in the second session know Josh from last year's Edot class and/or from the Simcha youth group activities and Camp Kefli). We discussed how it feels to be very ill and in the hospital and I gave a mini-lesson on the Jewish concept of "Bikur Cholim" (literally, visiting the sick). We then brainstormed ideas of what we could write to Josh, to let him know we're all thinking of him and miss him very much. I had prepared individual cards with each student's photograph glued onto the top of the card ahead of time. I'll be gluing the finished cards to one or two posterboards, which Rabbi Miller will deliver to Josh next week. 

Writing a first draft on a piece of scrap paper

Alyssa's card in progress

We all wish Josh a refu'a sh'leima (complete recovery) and look forward to the day he returns to Isaiah and our classroom. We miss his energy, humor, and ever-present smile. HANG IN THERE, JOSH!