February 7th,

We are moving along through our exploration of Bereshit, the first book of the Torah. 

This week, Grace's class learned about midrashim in their exploration of Bereshit. They played a game where they pretended they were all going on a trip to Israel and every student had to find an object that they wanted to bring. After they all showed their objects, they created a story together about why they were going on this trip and why they needed all their objects. This game became a metaphor to help them understand how Jewish people over the centuries create midrashim to better imagine the events of the Torah and the stories of our ancestors.

Then they read a midrash about Abraham and how he rejected the idol-worshipping culture he grew up in and left his home to follow God. The class used emoji cards to imagine Abraham's emotions throughout the story. Rafi imagined that Abraham felt both cool and collected because he understood reality better than other people around him. Charlie imagined that Abraham felt confused and maybe a bit freaked out realizing truths no one else could see and needing to leave home.

Adira's class performed the creation story together. Leora challenged Eve’s choices in Bereshit and sparked a discussion about female representation in the Torah. Selah noted that Adam and Eve are like brother and sister so we are all family we are all brothers and sisters if we all come from Adam and Eve.

Our students are hard at work continuing to learn Hebrew and the stories on which our tradition is built.

We can't wait to welcome you back again next week!

L'hitraot!