January 24th, Torah Stories and Tu B'shvat

We were so happy to welcome our wonderful students back to the building on Monday. We also got the chance to welcome a brand new teacher! Though we are sad to say goodbye to our beloved Leilah who is heading off to Israel for the next few months, we are thrilled to welcome Emily, our new Hebrew specialist! 

Seekers students are embarking on a new unit of Torah stories in the book of Genesis or Bereshit. This week, Arielle's class learned about the creation stories in the Jewish tradition, and each took turns in crafting their own. 

Adira's class learned the story of Parshat Noach and discussed how they could wash away evil from the world through personal actions like recycling or taking care of our mental health. Javi compared the idea of building a perfect world in the story of Noach to the book The Giver, a fictional story that claims to have a perfect world. However, he noted that even that world wasn't perfect as it was rigid and planned. Leora made the point that in order to build a more perfect world we need to make decisions that promote equity over equality.

Grace's class learned Tu B'Shevat related Hebrew and did Hebrew through movement activities with their new vocabulary. They went on scavenger hunts for different types of trees and fruit in Hebrew and concluded the activity with learning the blessing over the "fruit of the tree." Students were able to identify the words fruit (pri) and tree (etz) directly in the prayer! Nice Job!

Rabbi Elster filled in for Tali this week and explored Parshat Bereshit (the story of creation and first parsha of the Torah) with Tali's students. They started with the 6 days of creation, learning what happened each day with a bit of Pictionary. They also learned that the Torah is not a science book or a history book, but teaches us meaning from its stories and it is our job to figure out the meaning by studying Torah. They also compared the two different accounts of the creation of humans in the Book of Genesis and what values are expressed by each. We explored the ways in which creations myths of different cultures and religions inform and shape their value systems. Ask your child what letter the Torah starts with and how humans were created in Bereshit.

We had such a ~fruitful~ session with our students this week, and we can't wait to see them again next week!

L'hitraot!

P.S. Check out this video from Family Shabbat this weekend! It was so energizing to celebrate Shabbat with our community in-person again!