Grade 7-GESHER CELEBRATES AN AMAZING SHAVUOT!

Shavuot was amazing!  Our day together began with the kindergarten as Gesher students guided, mentored and coached the 5 year-olds in the art and activity of making butter (and by the way, it was delicious!)  We made butter to represent the tradition of eating dairy at Shavuot.  Gesher students were amazing with their young partners—encouraging them as they shook, shook, shook the containers of cream until they became whipped cream and eventually butter.

We joined the congregation for the singing of Hallel  and the Torah reading.  We rose for the Aseret haDibrot, the Ten Commandments.  After the Torah reading we experienced the Aseret haDibrot in other ways; first seeing, hearing and wondering about the revelation experience and then wondering about the commandments themselves through Torah Godly Play.  We did a text study and considered two categories of commandments.  Commentators have suggested that commandments 1-5 are between people and God, and commandments 6-10 are between people.  We considered philosophical relationships between the commandments 1 and 6 (I am the Lord your God who took you out of Egypt & Do not murder, 2 and 7 etc…)

Our celebration together of Shavuot was a wonderful culmination to an amazing year!  I will miss Ben, Daniel, Sam, Max, Adam, Kayla, Naomi, Hannah, Hana and Leah. Best wishes for a fantastic summer and I can’t wait to hear about your next experiences on your Jewish journeys.  May you go from strength to strength!

Grade 7-GESHER'S AMAZING SIYYUM!

It has been an honor to learn with this amazing group of young people; Hana, Kayla, Hannah, Naomi, Leah, Max, Sam, Adam, Ben and Daniel. They are a group of ten extraordinary individuals, each on his or her own unique Jewish journey.  As a group they are very social, enthusiastic, funny, sensitive, compassionate, bright and creative thinkers.  

Our learning focused on Jewish holidays, Jewish life cycle, Tefillah and Pirkei Avot.  Two thousand years ago, the rabbis shared their ethical teachings in Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Sages, one of 63 tractates of the Mishna.  And, while their teachings are influenced by the times in which they lived, much of what they shared continues to have meaning for us today. 

During our study of Pirkei Avot, we unpacked the traditional meanings and then worked to construct meaning for ourselves by creating short videos.  One mishna from Pirkei Avot states, “Make for yourself a teacher, acquire for yourself a friend.”  Gesher students worked together on their videos as friends and through the process of creating videos together or sharing their videos, they became teachers.

During their siyum, our students taught selections from Pirkei Avot. First, the creator or creators introduced his, her or their video by explaining the mishna and then they shared their videos.  These videos are varied: some are touching, others are silly or funny, and some are profoundly meaningful.  Each demonstrates our students’ creativity, thought, insights and the fun that they had learning this year.

It has been an extraordinary year and I hope to remain part of their Jewish journeys as each finds her place in the Jewish community and the Jewish world. Mazal tov!  May you go from strength to strength!

Grade 7--GESHER IS AMAZING!

Gesher students were reflective and contemplative as they prepared their introductions to their Pirkei Avot video commentaries for their Siyyum (Commencement) next Sunday.  They explained why they selected the mishna, what it means to them, what viewers will see and how these images explain their interpretation of the mishna.  Their insights and wisdom are remarkable!  I can't wait for you to hear them!

Since Lag B’Omer (the 33^rd day of the Omer) will be celebrated on Thursday of this week, we saw heard and wondered about a Torah Godly Play story, The Fox and the Fish.  In this story, Rav Pappas asks Rabbi Akiva why he insists on learning and teaching Torah even though the Romans have forbidden it.  Rabbi Akiva responds with a parable, The Fox and the Fish. 

     Once upon a time there was a clever fox and the fox thought that he would catch some fish. So the fox went to the edge of the water and saw the fish swimming quickly in the water.  The fox said to the fish, “Why do you always swim around so quickly?”

      The fish answered, “We are afraid of the fishermen who put their nets in the water to catch us.”

     The fox thought he could trick the fish and catch them.  He said, “Why don’t you just come out of the water onto the land and live with me.  I will be your friend and we will live together in peace.”

     The fish said to the fox, “Foolish fox!  If we are afraid and in danger in the water, which is our home and helps us to live, if we come out of the water, we will certainly be in even more danger!”

     

Rabbi Akiva then said to Pappos, “You are foolish like the fox.  For me and the Jewish people, Torah is life water for fish.  It is our home.  We cannot live without it.  If we are afraid of the Romans when we study Torah, we will be even more afraid if we don’t study Torah.  We will be like fish out of water!”

Grade 7-GESHER'S SUNDAY MORNING LEARNING

It was wonderful to welcome our Gesher students back to Sunday morning learning.  Highlights of this morning included i-pad video commentaries on mishnayot of the students’ choice; a beautiful dedication ceremony in which our school community affixed mezzuzot at an appropriate height for little people and wheelchairs, a discussion of Jewish death rituals and some learning in preparation for Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial day which will be observed on April 11 at Temple Beth Am.)  The following stories provided a spring board for the solemn tasks of remembering...

So picture an eleven-year-old child looking around his room, knowing his life is about to be destroyed:  what should he take?  And he was frozen in the dilemma of the choice.  And so he made himself two shoeboxes. In one shoebox he put pictures of his family, he put some poetry he had written, he put a postcard from a girl—his treasures, his autobiography in things.  And in the other he put an extra pair of shoes and some underwear and a hankie and a knife and a watch.  And I think he probably put in a toothbrush.  And he came home from school one day and he was told, “Now!  Run!”  And he ran in and grabbed the shoebox.  And they left.

When they stopped again, he looked into the box, and he had taken the wrong one.

·      WHICH SHOEBOX HAD HE TAKEN?

·      What is the value/meaning of this shoebox?  What is the value/meaning of the other shoebox?

·      WHY WAS THIS THE WRONG SHOEBOX?

He had the hankie and the shoes and the watch.

And he thought, what did I want this box for?  What did I want the other box for?  What did the other box mean—to anybody?  And he said, “It was as though I were standing at the edge of the sea, and I knew I would be pushed into the sea with my box, and the only thing that mattered was that I not sink with the box.  It was as if I would try to throw the box back onto the shore, and maybe someone would catch it.”

The Shoebox, Because G-d Loves Stories

Walking through the streets of Bremen in the 1930’s, anyone could easily see sign of the rising tide of hatred that was sweeping Germany.  Everywhere there were soldiers in brown uniforms, members of the new National Socialist (NAZI) Party.  Swastikas were painted on walls, and soldiers wore them on their sleeves. Mischievous children painted them on German synagogues.  Teenagers in much hated Hitler Youth Brigades passed by, marching in the famous goose step, kicking their legs up stiffly as they walked.

One gray afternoon, a rabbi walked sadly through the city, where everything was rapidly changing for the worse.  He was filled with sorrow at what he thought might lie ahead.  He hoped that the young generation would turn away from the Nazi movement that was taking over the country.  In an open field, he saw two young men dressed in the dreaded brown uniforms.  The rabbi could see the cruel mischief in their eyes as they approached.  One of them had his hands cupped, as if he were holding a precious thing that was twitching and turning, struggling to escape.  “What do you think I have in my hands?” snapped the young man.

The rabbi glanced at the Hitler Youth’s trembling hands.  He saw a feather drift gently from between his nervous fingers. “It’s not hard to see,” the rabbi said, “that you have a tiny bird cupped in your palms.”

“Yes,” said the young German, his lip quivering with anger and contempt.  “But is the bird alive or dead? Tell us the right answer and no evil will befall you or your synagogue.”

The wise rabbi realized that if he said the bird was dead, they would release the bird.  But if he said the bird was alive, they would certainly kill it.  In either case, wrongdoing was certain to befall both him and his congregation—and they would be the very ones responsible!  The rabbi saw the history of the Jewish people pass before his eyes.  How many times throughout history had they been put in a no-win situation?  Forced to choose between two dead ends?

But the wise soul looked straight into the young man’s eyes.

“You ask whether the bird is alive or dead,” he said.  “The answer is in your hands.  The answer is in your hands.”

In Your Hands, Because God Loves Stories