Dear families:
It has been a wonderful
year. We have so enjoyed being with the
children for lots of learning and lots of fun!
Thank you so much for the Amazon gift card. As a book lover, I will put it to good use.
Cantor Ken began the day with
tefillah outdoors. The children
described what they enjoyed outdoors.
Then we recited our usual prayers, some with sign language accompanying
our words.
HEBREW: We finished the book, and we signed the
certificates in the back. The last letter in the book is ז“zion,” the first
letter in z’ayv” (wolf), and the cognate
“zebra.” We used our review packs to
show what we remembered about the Hebrew letters.
Later in the morning, we played
Hebrew bingo to show off what we remembered about the letters and vowel sounds. No prizes, but a lot of fun,
GODLY PLAY: It is traditional to read the story of
Ruth on Shavuot because of its harvest setting. Naomi and her husband went to
Moab to escape the famine in Israel. Her two sons married Ruth and Orpah,
Moabite women. After the three men died,
Naomi decided to return to Israel, which had abundant crops again. She urged her two daughters-in-law to return
to their own families. However, Ruth
protested, telling Naomi—“wherever you go, I will go; your G-d shall be my God,
where you live, I will live; and where you die, there, I shall one day die.” (Ruth is regarded as the first convert to
Judaism.)
The two women journeyed across
the Salt Sea (Dead Sea) to Israel. Since
they had no money, Ruth got food by gleaning. We discussed this way of helping the poor without
cash. Harvesters were not allowed to
pick up any crop that they had dropped or missed. They also did not touch the corners of their
fields. Poor people were allowed to pick
these crops. Naomi’s relative Boaz owned
the field where Ruth gleaned—he asked her to glean only in his fields; his
workers would let her eat and drink with them, and they would protect her. Naomi encouraged Ruth to go to where Boaz was
sleeping; he awakened startled and professed his love for Ruth. They wed and eventually
had a child; through this child’s family, Ruth became the great-grandmother of
King David.
In groups, the children discussed
these issues of family, loyalty, gleaning, helping others. We also worked on two word puzzles on the
story of Ruth.
Students concluded with books and
games, among them Circle the Year, a path game on the yearly cycle of
holidays.
The students took home their Hebrew
nametags and photos that I took the first class—See how much the students have
grown!
Have a wonderful summer.
Judy and Cheryl (Esther and
Tzipporah)
