November 1st, Sweet Brits!

This week all of our classes worked on creating a class brit to close out our unit on middot. The word brit in Hebrew means "covenant." Each class brit was a culmination of the last two classes where our students learned about key Jewish values, specifically the ones needed to create a holy community or kehilah kedoshah. Each brit will guide our year and our classrooms, reminding us how to treat one another in order to create an inclusive, supportive, and holy community. 

Grace's class formed their brit by thinking about the way a classroom should look like, sound like, and feel like. Her students wrote their ideas on sticky notes, and created a beautiful mosaic of their intentions for their community

Tali's class created presentations about which middot they wanted to be a part of their class brit. Hiram said that the middah of ahavat habriut (love of all God's creations) was important to observe in the classroom so that we can be respectful of ourselves but also the objects in the room, like the pencils! The class also decided on their class name which is...drumroll please...The Smart Cookies! Once they decided on the middot to include in their class brit, they all signed to show their agreement!

Arielle's class worked in teams to name as many middot as they could, and Frank, Anna, and Isaac created a wonderful list of 15 values that they considered to be important aspects of community. They then ranked these values in terms of how they understood their importance. At the end, they all came together and created a master list of their top five most important middot which are now included in their class brit.

Finally, Adira's class shared stories of moments in their lives in which they used the middot the class has been learning. Selah shared that he used the middah of leadership when he was the captain of his soccer team, and Julianna expressed that she wants to bring the middah of wisdom to class every week! Each student decorated a card with a middah that resonated with them, and the class connected all of their middot to create their brit!

And now...HEBREW HIGHLIGHTS!

• Charlie (Grace's class) learned all of the Hebrew letters from aleph all the way to zayin, and could identify randomized Hebrew flash cards like a pro!
• Theo (Grace's Class) stumped the panel in Hebrew Red Light Green Light (La'atzor v'L'lechet) with her super fast and impeccable pronunciation!
• Ariel (Arielle's Class) read Hebrew aloud beautifully for the entire class!

And just like that, another week at Seekers has come and gone. We can't wait to start our next unit with our students. We will spend the next three sessions learning about and exploring Jewish theology, including our ideas about God and mitzvot (sacred obligations).

L'hitraot!