Hamantaschen and the Shekel Game

 A little over a week ago, Ben, our music director, taught us a Purim song called "Mee'she'neechnas Adar" (see 2/8 post), which lyrics are translated to mean "Whoever enters the month of Adar is filled with much happiness." Since we were just about to enter the month of Adar (today and tomorrow we celebrate "Rosh Chodesh" Adar), I decided to take the song literally and make sure that by the end of each day my students would be filled with "much happiness." We began each session upstairs in the Oneg Room with Karen, our cooking teacher. 

Three guesses what was on the menu for this month's cooking session, and the first two guesses don't count!

As usual, we began by watching Karen go through all the steps of  the cooking directions, so she could share the best and easiest ways to accomplish the project.

Then all the students divided up so there were no more than 4 to a table, and immediately began to work the dough that Karen had prepared at home. 

At first, I was somewhat concerned. All my students were focusing so carefully on what they were doing, I couldn't get any photos of them "filled with much happiness" as the song goes.

Not only were they not "looking like they were filled with happiness," but they didn't even utter a sound as they shaped the dough!

Thankfully, the smiles began to appear once they developed a "feel" for how to roll the dough and form the dough circles into triangular shapes after filling them with strawberry preserves!

Which doesn't mean that they didn't go right back into "really focused" mode - just that I now realized they were enjoying the activity so much that they could completely focus on it!

And all the focus was rewarded with some very professional looking hamantaschen ready to go into the oven!

Once we had all washed off the flour dust, pieces of dough and strawberry jam that had clung to us during the cooking activity, the sixth graders went to the Sanctuary for tefillah with Cantor Korn and the seventh graders, while I took the fifth graders downstairs to the Beit Knesset for tefillah with Ben (Rabbi Greninger is in Israel this week with a group of Moms!). 

Following our half hour tefillah, we all met upstairs for hafsaka (recess) where a lot of "happiness" could be detected coming out of the Gaga pit and all around it. Then it was time to go to our Edot classroom for even more fun!

At the end of each of our Edot units of study, it's time to play "Meeschak Ha'sh'kaleem." (The Shekel Game) Here I am introducing the six categories of review questions, covering our recently completed unit of study about the Iraqi/Babylonian Jewish edah, as well as what we learned during the same time period in our Hebrew Through Movement sessions, in Jewish History in general, the holidays we observed (Hanuka through Tu Bish'vat), in our tefillah sessions (blessings and prayers), as well as what we read in "The Storyteller's Beads" (which we completed a few weeks ago), and "A Shout in the Sunshine" (which we began reading a few weeks ago). And I also include review questions about important aspects of what we've studied in all the categories from the start of the school year.

Just as we started to play, Karen came in with the hamantaschen the students had made (it only takes 6-8 minutes to bake them, and another 10 minutes or so to cool them down enough to package them for the students to take home - though as you can see in this photo, I don't think many hamantaschen lasted long enough to share at home!). You may also notice bags of the "Menena" pastries that we gave out at our family Chamsa workshop this past Sunday. Those students who couldn't attend brought their gift packages of menena home after the weekday session was over. 

I tell each group which category their question will come from, then they tell me how much they want to bet (never more than half the amount of money they have on the table when I ask the question!). 

Once I ask the question, they have 30 seconds to share what they know with each other, and then have the reporter tell me the answer they all agreed upon. And I can't repeat the question, so they have to listen carefully the first time I ask it.

They also have to keep track of how much they are betting, mostly to give themselves an idea of where they stand in relation to the competing group. Should they risk betting more to stay ahead or catch up, or be on the safe side if they're not 100% sure of the answer?

Some very serious decisions have to be made ...

... and only then can the reporter tell me the answer the group has agreed upon.

The treasurer is about to tell his group members if they have enough money to bet as much as they want to!

And when the game was done after the most difficult questions were asked in the final "All-or-Nothing" round, the victors were congratulated (no prizes - just the glory of knowing that by putting their heads together, they recalled the most important information that I had shared with them about our Jewish world in our Edot classroom! As a matter of fact, there was only one question that wasn't answered correctly in this game - and it was a trick question! ("What is the only nation in the world today that is older than the Jewish nation?" - Correct answer is "No other nation in the world today is older than our Jewish nation!")

Remember that there's no school this coming Sunday, or the following Tuesday and Wednesday, in honor of President's holiday. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at our next session back to JQuest on Sunday, February 25th, at which time the entire school will be celebrating Purim at our annual LAFTY PURIM CARNIVAL!!!

BE FILLED WITH HAPPINESS THIS MONTH OF ADAR, AND COME TO THE CARNIVAL PREPARED TO BE "CRAZY HAPPY" AS THE RABBIS COMMANDED!

Chamsa Family Workshop

Yesterday morning, our Edot students shared what they had learned about the Babylonian/Iraqi Jews (our second unit of study) with their parents at our Chamsa Family Workshop. The workshop took place in the Oneg Room, which afforded us plenty of space for a "stage" area where the students presented five skits covering the early history of this edah (Jewish Diaspora Community) - the very first edah in Jewish history!

The first skit described the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar's (pictured here with his General) siege of Jerusalem (capital city of the Kingdom of Judah), and his army's conquest of the City and the destruction of the First Temple.

Ella and Kyra, my T.A.'s, took turns filming each of the skits, though sadly our microphone was not working very well and so I apologize for the poor sound quality. Below, is a part of the first skit:

The second skit described the 500 mile march the Judahite exiles were forced to make from Jerusalem to Babylon, and how, according to Psalm 137, they were forced by their Babylonian conquerors to "sing to them from the songs of Zion." Part of the second skit involved leading the audience in singing the first two lines of this Psalm.

The exiles of Judah remembered what had happened to the inhabitants of their northern neighbor, the Kingdom of Israel, about 140 years before Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah - how they had been conquered by the Assyrians and exiled to the Assyrian capital, and had become assimilated, forgetting their Israelite identities. This, the leaders of the Babylonian exiles determined, would never happen to them. The third skit shared how the Judahites created new rituals to worship a universal God in their own homes, now that they had no Temple or priests to sacrifice to God. A new religion - Judaism - was born. And they had the Prophet Jeremiah to thank for giving them advice on how to lead their lives in exile in Babylon, "seeking the welfare of its inhabitants, for in their welfare they would find their welfare," even as they recorded their own history and laws and developed their own rituals to keep from assimilating into Babylonian society.

The fourth skit jumped ahead about 800 years in history, to the era of the great Babylonian Talmudic academies of Sura and Pumbedita. The skit shared a typical debate of Rabbis (over several centuries) over legal issues - in this case, when exactly to say the Sh'ma prayer in the morning.

Jumping ahead in time again, this time to the rise of Islam in the mid-7th century, and the adoption of an Arabic amulet by many Jews, the fifth skit shared the Muslim legend behind the "Chamsa" amulet, which was also called "The Hand of Fatima" (the Prophet Mohammed's daughter). This skit also served to introduce the art project we worked on for the remainder of the workshop - making copper foil chamsa amulets.

Between the third and fourth and the fourth and fifth skits, four student readers shared a connecting narrative, explaining what happened in the history of this edah during those eras not covered in the skits. Part of this narrative shared how, after 2,500 years, no members of this first edah are left in Iraq (still referred to as Babylonia by them), thanks to Muslim animosity against the Jews which arose in the early part of the 20th century. Most Iraqi Jews now reside in Israel, with more residing in the United States and other parts of the world. But they still maintain their strong connection to their edah's history and its traditions. One of these traditions is singing a song of praise to Adonai during their Simchat Torah celebrations - "Hallelu Avdei Adonai." ("Give Praise, Servants of Adonai") We joined in on the chorus of this song as we listened to Iraqi musicians and singers performing it on a CD.

And another Babylonian/Iraqi Jewish tradition is including a pastry called "Menena" (very similar to the Arabic "Ma'amoul" pastry) in their Mishlo'ach Manot Purim baskets each year. We prepared Menena in class last week, and I made little gift packages which each family took home following the workshop (after all, Purim is just a little over 2 weeks away!).

This was definitely a hit with the students!

And, in several cases, just too tempting not to take a taste right away!

When the final skit was over, we moved over to four long tables that were set up with all the tools needed for the art project.

Parents and children sat together, carefully reading the instructions for how to make a copper foil chamsa ...

... even as I was constantly reminding everyone to focus carefully on what they were doing, since the copper sheets were very sharp, and it was easy to cut yourself on them!

And focus they did!

Occasionally looking up to smile for the camera. 

There was even time for schmoozing.

One by one, the students and parents finished making the amulets, and proudly posed for photos with their masterpieces:

By the time the last chamsas were completed, it was time for us to move next door into the Sanctuary for our first Creative Tefillah service of this school year. Last Tuesday, Rabbi Miller came into our classroom near the start of the session to collect sixth graders who would work with her to find a theme for tying together the major prayers we chant and sing during our school tefillah. Three Edot students participated in this first Creative Tefillah session - Gabe, Will and Joseph.

By the time I entered the Sanctuary, Ben, our music director, had already asked all the sixth graders participating in this Creative Tefillah, to stand in front of the bimah, to lead everyone in singing "Hinei Mah Tov." ("How Good it is").

Rabbi Miller introduced the theme the students had decided upon - not surprisingly, it was the Winter Olympics, since the games had just begun a few days before.

Here are Gabe and Joseph introducing the "Barechu" prayer.

And here's Will helping to introduce the "Sh'ma" prayer.

Our other Edot sixth graders will be getting their chance to work with Rabbi Miller to find new themes to tie together our prayers during the month of March.

Now that our second unit is completed, we will take a break from our Edot studies to take a close look at Megillat Ester (the Scroll of Esther), which shares the story upon which the Purim holiday is based. Specifically, we'll be exploring the Jewish values which Talmudic era Rabbis (many from Babylonia!) found in the story, and which led them to include the scroll in the final canonized version of the Tana'ch (the Hebrew Bible). And, of course, we look forward to our LAFTY Purim Carnival which will take place in two weeks, on Sunday, February 25th. I'm already starting to think about my costume, and hope you're all doing the same!

Purim Stumpers

I've just put up a new holiday bulletin board for Purim, with more stumpers for the students to answer in order to get stickers toward the Toys 'R Us gift certificate (20 stickers).

What is Shushan Purim, and what day on the Jewish calendar does it fall this year?

According to Midrash, when may people create "Special Purims?"

Which two primitive instruments combined to make the "grogger" (noisemaker)?

There are also 3 worksheet puzzles on the board. Each one is worth 1 sticker if completed correctly.

ENJOY!

Making Menena

We had a busy two-hour session each week day this past week. Immediately after reading a chapter from "A Shout in the Sunshine," and after clearing the tables from snack, we began our Hebrew through Movement exercises. This week, I began to introduce Purim vocabulary, since Purim is just three weeks away.

Warming up with a run around the classroom - "Koolam, la'rootz mee'saveev la'keeta." ("Everyone, run around the classroom.")

Then I introduced several words related to Purim:  megillat ester (Scroll of Esther), keter shel melech (a king's crown), keter shel malka (a queen's crown), l'hareesh ra'ashan (make noise with a grogger), maseycha (mask), and l'heeshtachavot (bow down).

We had a lot of fun with the last word in the above list!

And with other words in the Purim vocabulary as well.

During the 3rd-5th grade tefillah in the Beit Knesset, our fifth graders used their new Siddurim (prayer books) with beautifully decorated covers for the first time. 

As soon as we walked into the BK, we could see the colorful array of Siddurim on the bookcase. Bill had brought them down from the Social Hall in time for our weekday tefillah.

I actually re-arranged the books before the session began, so that all 10 of our Edot 5th graders' books were standing next to each other, easy to find. 

And after tefillah and hafsaka were over, it was time to focus on our final preparations for the Chamsa Family Workshop this coming Sunday.

Our final project in this unit of study was to prepare menena, an Iraqi-Jewish treat modeled after an Arabic pastry called ma'amoul.  I took the recipe that we used from Claudia Roden's wonderful "The Book of Jewish Food." Traditionally, Iraqi Jews include this pastry in their "Meeshlo'ach Manot" baskets given out on Purim day to neighbors and friends. Since Purim is just 3 weeks away, our timing is near-perfect!

It's an easy recipe to prepare, though rather tricky if it's the first time you're making it.

Basically, you're preparing a dough cup, and filling it with a date or nut filling (in our case it had to be only dates since we have to maintain a nut-free zone at JQuest).

The tricky part is making the dough cup. After taking a walnut-sized piece of dough (which I prepared ahead of time at home, since we wouldn't have enough time for the entire process during class), you roll it into the shape of a round ball, press your thumb in the center to create a "well," then work the dough to build thin walls around the well, as thin as possible, in which to put the date filling. Sounds easy? Well, it's not as easy as it sounds!

After a few tries, each student found his/her own system for making the dough cup. It took a lot of focus and care not to make the walls of the cup so thin that they broke.

OK - no one says you can't have fun while you're focusing!

Once the cup was ready, it was time to add in the date filling.

I had made a date paste at home, together with the dough, which I put in bowls on the tables. The easy part of putting in the date filling, was taking a small spoonful of it from the bowl...

...The really tricky part was getting the very sticky date filling to stay in the cup without getting sticky yourself as you used fingers to push it in and keep it in. That's why I also put bowls of warm water and lots of paper towels on the tables!

At the start, figuring out how much date filling to put into the dough cup could be tricky as well. Too little, and you'd basically end up with a dough ball with just a tiny hint of  date.

Too much, and you won't be able to close up the cup into a ball again, per the recipe instructions.

Once the ball is closed, you put it on the baking sheet with the smooth side up, then press it slightly down. And voila - the menena is ready for the oven. I baked the pastries for half an hour, then sprinkled them while still hot with confectioner's sugar.

Near the end of each session, once the students had all developed their own systems for each step of the menena making process, I reviewed the two songs that we'll be singing during our workshop - "Al Naharot Bavel" (By the Rivers of Babylon), and "Hallelu Avdei Adonai" (Praise those who serve Adonai). We'll sing the chorus to this last song as we listen to the CD, so it's really the chorus (made up of the 3 words in the title) that we were practicing.

We had just enough time to finish making the menena pastries and to wash our hands, when it was time to go to the Shira classroom, to join them in learning a Purim song with Ben. It's one of my all-time favorites.

If it's Purim, it's time to be happy! And Purim is celebrated in the month of Adar. Hence the title of the song, "Mee'she'neechnas Adar, marbeen b'seemcha." ("One who enters Adar, is filled with happiness.")

I'm looking forward to our Chamsa Family Workshop this coming Sunday. There has been a change of venue. Since so many people have told me they will attend, we'll be holding the workshop up in the Oneg Room instead of in our classroom. A separate notice has gone out to all the attendees with this information.