Week 10 - December 24, 2020

This week in Seekers we continued our Theology unit with further discussions about God.

In Tamarim with Batya, we had a special activity in finding gratitude for the creator (God) even in "dark" and scary circumstances. One Tamarim student said, "Thank God that I get spend more time with family." Another student said, "Even though the Corona virus is dark and scary, I get to spend more time with my grandparents and I'm so thankful for that!"

In Anavim with Stephanie, we discussed the question: If there is a God, what is God's role in our lives? One student said, "Maybe God is just a big alien," and continued with, "If there is a God it created life and then peace'd out to create life somewhere else." Another Anavim student wrote, "I think there’s a God and a goddess."

In Te'enim with Rabbi Nadia, students used Padlet and went "God shopping" for various Jewish opinions on God and we expressed what we agreed and disagreed with. One Te'enim student said, "You don't always know God is there but you would know if it wasn’t." Another student said, "God lets everything happen but humans cause events."

In Rimonim with Leilah, we looked at several different names for God and realized that a lot of them were totally new to many of us. We went through just a handful and talked about what it would mean to think of God as a Rock or as a Divine Presence, to name a few. In reference to God's name as Tzur or Rock, one Rimonim student said, "I don't like that name for God because a rock just sits there. Now if it were a mineral or geode - that would be a totally different story". Another student said that if God were to be a "Supporter of the Fallen", "God would make someone happy when you are sad or calm you down when you are angry."

The conversations were so meaningful and allowed the students to explore ideas for how to construct their views on God using Jewish language, text and imagery.