Week 12 - Jan 14, 2021

This week we continued our unit on the Torah, exploring its unique content and significance to the Jewish people. 

In Anavim with Rabbi Elster, we began our class with a check in on our feelings about the dramatic political events of the last week and we shared our processing about it. We then continued to learn more about the Torah, going beyond how it is made into what it contains, how it is divided and read. We did a fun Kahoot to review all that we have learned about the Torah. We also began to explore the weekly Torah portion (parshat hashavua) beginning with this week's parsha Vaera the story of the 10 plagues in Egypt. One Anavim student said, "the Torah has rules about how to live." Another student shared, "It is a lot of work to make a Torah scroll."

In Te'enim with Rabbi Nadia, we discussed Midrash and what it means to fill in the gaps of a text. We used the poem, Jack and Jill to illustrate how a story has gaps.

The Te'enim students asked questions about Jack and Jill: "Why were they going up the hill? Who were Jack and Jill? Did someone push them?" This process leads to the creation of Midrash, a way to fill in the story that is missing from the text.

In Tamarim with Batya, we learned the first story in the Torah - The story of 6 days of creation. On Tamarim student said, "Great job God!! It would take a human a lot longer to create the world!" Another Tamarim student said, "I think that sea creatures and birds were created before land animals because it would take land animals longer to adapt to a new world..."

In Rimonim with Leilah, we learned about the story of Avraham and Sarah and talked about what it meant for Abraham and Sarah to leave their home. We listened to a new piece of choral music set to the words which God reassuringly tells to Abraham: "al tira avram" - "Don't be afraid Avram." One Rimonim student wrote, "I would not be ready to leave my parents home." Another student said, "it took bravery to go to the unknown."