Zoom Links for TI of Natick

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Grade 4 -

Another great night at Hebrew school! After busy electives, we diligently worked on our Hebrew.

Be on the lookout for our new December calendar on Sunday! The end of November marks the end of Ashrei! We are sounding so great! Next up is the Amida!

Grade 5 - Kitah Hey

Dear families,
On Tuesday in our Art elective, the students had a chance to draw or place printouts brought in from home on their boards. These drawings and printouts referred back to the students’ own interpretations of miracles. The students then spread modge podge all over their collages. While still wet, the students chose from a variety of different tiles to use in covering the top of their boards. Next week, we will begin grouting!:) These pieces of art look absolutely amazing and we are excited to continue discussing how this work connects back to the idea of miracles and courage. We can’t wait to see the finished products!
-Diana

Students continue to make progress on their Lego models this week! Their designs are now coming to life by adding people, plants, weapons, and more background to all four scenes. We are thrilled to hear the language being used among students. They consistently offer to share, help one another, and work cooperatively throughout this project.  Equally impressive is the attention to detail and concentration we notice students place on their work.

-Tali

Grade 3-Gimel Goings On

Shalom Gimel Families,


I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break!


In Hebrew students have been working on the Birkot Hashachar and have mastered the first 6 lines.  As part of our Sunday morning stations students have an opportunity to practice reading the blessings to a buddy, and to work in a small group with a teacher learning to sing them.


In Torah study students are still exploring the Jewish value of courage through the stories of the midwives in Egypt.  They have talked about how the midwives showed courage in disobeying the Pharaoh and extended their exploration of having courage in today’s world.  What do you do if you see someone being bullied?  How can you show courage to help them?  Does it take courage to make new friends or approach the classmate who is sitting alone on the buddy bench?  Students have shared many good insights on these questions.


In addition to this, students are also further exploring the value of kindness (chased) and bringing this into the classroom community. As part of our Sunday stations students listened to the story What Does It Mean to Be Kind?  Afterwards they were given 3 names of classmates to write compliments to them.  Lots of smiles were seen last Sunday when everyone read their compliments!  We will continue to do this on a weekly basis.  Our class motto:  Let’s be bucket fillers!


Please see the image of the December homework calendar below.


See everyone on Sunday!


L’hitraot

Elana

Grade 6 Update

Happy Thanksgiving from the 6th Grade Class! 

Last week, we joined with the 6th and 7th grades from Temple Israel and Temple Beth Am to continue our B'nai Telem (social justice service learning) curriculum. We got to know students from the various classes, explored the concept of poverty in Judaism, and discussed various opportunities in our community. 

We then had the opportunity to be joined by a representative from the Natick Service Counsel, who explained to us the amazing work being done to combat poverty in the Natick area. 

After these discussions, we made posters full of various ways in which we can help the community around us, and tangibly added to donations by writing cards for Natick Service Counsel recipients to have for Thanksgiving. We also sorted, checked, counted, and organized donations that the synagogues have been collecting, to be donated to families for Thanksgiving. 

Finally, we reflected on the whole experience in smaller groups, understanding how we are making an impact on our community, and reflecting on our power as Jewish youth. 

This week on Tuesday and Wednesday (with the 7th grade), we will be introducing a new unit: inclusion. On Sunday, we will continue to finish our Boston Haifa Expo projects, leading to our Expo in just a few weeks! We're excited to continue learning together throughout the end of 2017. 

Shinshin Update

Shalom!
Israel recently went through a change. We got new Israeli bills!

This week the kids learned about the 2 women in the bills, Leah Goldberg and Rachel (the poet).  Both had a major impact on Israeli society.

The kids learned about their lives and contributions to Israel.

Madrichim Update

The Kindergarteners have been focusing on learning their Hebrew letters with me. They have also been learning about Shabbat and made kiddush cups, candle holders, and challah covers. They loved that doing that project and enjoyed putting jewels on their candle holders. They also made a spice box and learned about when shabbat ends and doing havdalah with a special braided candle. We have been trying to focus on not being silly while learning in class. I have enjoyed being a Madricha in the Kindergarten class! -Bina Landis

Grade 6 - Trope Class


Update after class on November 28 and 29:
We reviewed the five trope families and worked on families 6 and 7, (tracks 1-7 here: https://tiofnatick.org/Torah), which give us the ability to chant about 90% of any Torah portion.
We’ll aim to finish up the trope next week and start working on portions to read for Junior Congregation in 2018.

Here's the assignment for this week:
1) Review the first 7 trope families, being sure that you can recognize each symbol, know the name, and be able to sing the tune.  Be careful of the pairs of trope that look the same (and are placed differently around the word) and also the trope that appear in more than one family, sometimes with a different tune.  (Most of you are doing well with this-- if you can't recognize, name, and sing the trope for the first few families, this would be a good week to catch up)

2) Go ahead and listen to trope families 8  and 9, on page 6 in the packet, which we'll work on next week in class.  You can go ahead and make flash cards for these trope.  (Azla Geresh, Gershayim, Zakef Gadol, Zarka, & Segol)

3) Practice the trope using the v'ahavta paragraph of the Shema on page 12 and/or the “tzitzit” paragraph of the Shema on page 14.  Read the words out loud, sing the trope names (for trope you know), and then put them together. You can use tracks 33, 34 (for page 12) and 36 (for page 14) on the website to check yourself.

Please aim for 10-15 minutes of practicing a day if you haven't started individual lessons yet, and 20-30 minutes for those who have.

Monday, November 20, 2017

Grade 2 Update


I hope that some of you have had the chance to see the words over the window in our classroom.  I started by putting up "KINDNESS", "RESPECT","GRATITUDE", "INNER STRENGTH", "FRIENDSHIP" and "JOY".  Some of the students then suggested we add "RESPONSIBILITY".

 For the last few weeks while the older kids are busy with their electives and class level prayers we have incorporated these themes into our midweek prayers.  We have discussed what each of these concepts means and I have been asking each student to think of which one of these concepts touched them that day.  We have heard about students acting kindly in school and about students who were the recipients of kindness.  Some students spoke about finding inner strength when they were able to meet an academic challenge, or finding strength in a social situation.  We have shared about being responsible and respectful, and always there are children who tell about being grateful or finding joy  (happiness) during the day.  The students have been very respectful to their classmates as everyone has a turn to share.  We then sing the Sh'ma and "Oseh Shalom" as a class.  It has been a great way transition from different schools and carpools and to come together as a class.

On Sunday we read "Molly's Pilgrim", the story of an  Jewish immigrant girl in the early Twentieth Century.  During the course of the story Molly learns that her mother is a sort of modern pilgrim, coming to this country from Russia to be able to live freely as a Jew.  We also read that the Pilgrim's may have had been inspired to celebrate Thanksgiving partly due to reading in the Bible about the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.  The kids loved that connection!  We all then wrote what we are thankful for, drew pictures and  put them up on the board.  One of the students said she was thankful for her stuffed animals-not because it was fun to play with them but because they make her clam and comfort her.  This comment helped me see the world through her eyes a little better, and for that I was grateful.

I wish everyone has a joyful, restorative and Happy Thanksgiving.


Sunday, November 19, 2017

Gan Class Update 11-19-17

Hello Gan Class Families!

Welcome to the month of Kislev!  Today was the very first day of this new month.  During Tefillah with Cantor Ken, we learned that Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of a new month, is a special holiday that happens at the new moon.  This is when there is only a little sliver of the moon visible.  We practiced some songs from the Hallel service which is part of the Rosh Chodesh observance and sang prayers of gratitude to thank God for a new month.  Because Kislev is the month in which Hanukkah takes place, it was time to start practicing the blessings we will say while lighting the menorah.  There are two more classes before Hanukkah begins so we will be pros by the time we light the first candle!

Today we created our illustrations for the story of Cain and Abel.  Students are doing an excellent job retelling our Torah stories each week.  Our next story is always a favorite one!  We will meet Noah and learn how he built an ark to save the animals from the flood God creates.

We had two new letters today, mem and aleph.  Mem makes the sounds m- and begins the word mezuzah.  Aleph is a tricky letter - it makes no sound on its own. Aleph is the beginning letter of the word ehad which means one and aron kodesh, the name for the ark where the Torah's are kept.  Students are continuing to practice all of the letters each week and are working hard to pair letters with their sounds.

Ann helped us learn about the importance of the mezuzzah.  She showed us pictures of ones in her home and explained that they are used to indicate that Jewish people live there.  She shared that inside the mezuzah is a special claf which includes the Shema prayer we have been practicing during Tefillah.  Then we became detectives.  We traveled around the building looking at all the different mezuzot.  As we explored the building, some students began kissing the mezuzot they could reach.  Other students did the same and by the time we returned to the classroom, ever Gan Class student had kissed at least one mezuzah (using their hands of course) in the building. Back in the classroom we talked about all the different shapes, sizes and materials of the mezuzot that we saw and realized that, though they all look different, the prayer on the inside is the same.  

Our Mystery Readers today were Kaleb's mom and dad.  Kaleb's dad read The Mitzvah Magician by Linda Elovitz Marshall. This story was about a boy named Gabriel and how he learned to use his powers to do good deeds.  We had time for a second story so Kaleb's mom read Sammy Spider's First Trip to Israel by Sylvia A. Rouss.  In this story, Sammy Spider travels to Israel and finds lots of things to see, smell, hear, taste and touch that he wants to share with his mom.

When we return to class on December 3rd we will enjoy our first experience with the story of Noah's Ark and participate in Aleph Bet Centers to practice the letters we have learned so far!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Michelle

Grade 7/GESHER IS AMAZING!

Most of our morning was a Service Sunday activity coordinated by Katie Hamelburg.  Kelsey Hampton from the Natick Service Council (“neighbors helping neighbors”) taught Temple Israel 6th and 7th grade students and 7th grade students from Temple Beth Am about the amazing work of the NSC.  It provides a food pantry, after school enrichment, and case management for 700 families in Natick. The students then created posters illustrating needs in our community and what they could do to help. They learned that NSC will be providing Thanksgiving meals for 220 families and the students made Thanksgiving greeting cards to enhance the gifts of food. For more information about the very good work of the Natick Service Council and to learn about how you can get involved, please go to https://natickservicecouncil.org/.

After our hands-on activities, we were reminded that Jews welcome new babies into the Covenant with blessings and by giving them names.  Students were invited to think about the origin of their names; for whom were you named?  What do you know about that person?  What attributes do your parents hope that you will share with your namesake?

We learned a new mishna from Pirkei Avot (4:13). 
Rabbi Shimon says, there are three crowns:
the crown of the Torah,
the crown of the priesthood
 and the crown of royalty,
and the crown of a good name rises above all the others.

We learned that keter is the Hebrew word for crown and the Hebrew expression shem tov means good name.

We also considered another text from the midrash:
In life you discover that people are called by three names:
One is the name the person is called by his or her father and mother;
One is then name people call him or her; and
One is the name one acquires for one-self.
The best is the name one acquires for one’s self. (Kohelet Rabbah 7)

We thought about what attributes and behaviors people would associate with our names and how we will achieve our own keter shem tov, a crown of a good name.


Kitah Aleph News

Today in Kitah Aleph the children learned a new Hebrew letter, the letter hay. It is hard to believe it but Kitah Aleph students now know a total of 7 letters: bet, shin, tav, lamed, mem, kaf and hay. The second grade teacher, Margie, was very impressed when she visited our classroom this morning and saw what the first graders can read!

In our time with Cantor Ken this morning, we celebrated the beginning of the new Hebrew month of Kislev. The children were very excited to learn that the holiday of Chanukkah begins in Kislev. We even began practicing the Chanukkah candle blessings and some Chanukkah songs including one of the Cantor's favorites, a song in Ladino entitled Ocho Kandelikas.

During torah class today, we reviewed the story we learned last week about  Abraham, Sarah and the three visitors. We then went over how Abraham's servant, Eliezer, went to find a wife for Isaac. Eliezer chose Rebecca because of her hospitality and kind heart; she gave water not only to Eliezer but to all of his camels as well.

Kitah Aleph students have continued to practice and expand their Hebrew vocabulary including various parts of the body and the colors. We have been talking about the mitzvah of welcoming guests, hachnassat orchim, and today we also began talking about the mitzvah of bikkur cholim, visiting the sick.

Best wishes for a joyous Thankgsiving! Joanne

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Grade 6 Trope Update from Ken

Great to see the 6th graders this week.  
We reviewed the first three trope families and worked on families 4 and 5, (tracks 1-5 here: https://tiofnatick.org/Torah), which give us the ability to chant about 3/4 of any Torah portion.

Here's the assignment for this week: 
1) Review the first 5 trope families, being sure that you can recognize each symbol, know the name, and be able to sing the tune.  Be careful of the pairs of trope that look the same (and are placed differently around the word) and also the trope that appear in more than one family, sometimes with a different tune.  (Most of you are doing well with this-- if you can't recognize, name, and sing the trope for the first few families, this would be a good week to catch up)

2) Go ahead and listen to trope families 6 and 7, on page 5 in the packet, which we'll work on next week in class.  You can go ahead and make flash cards for these trope.  (Darga, Tevir, Pazer, Telisha Gedola, Telisha Ketana, & Shalshelet)

3) Practice the trope using the v'ahavta paragraph of the Shema on page 12.  Read the words out loud, sing the trope names (for trope you know), and then put them together.  Note that my version of the trope melodies are slightly different from the most common trope variants used to sing v'ahavta, though I always lead it using my trope.  You can use tracks 33 and 34 on the website to check yourself-- in the first one I sing the words, and the second just the trope names.  Also spend a little time with the "Tzitzit" paragraph of the Shema on page 14 (track 36).

Note: I'm starting as of today to include the assignments (today's and future ones) in this Google Doc as well as emailing the update: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pzxa5vEIiE4trXcezzkYD1j4kFGak3D6EI0R_2EhPO8/edit?usp=sharing)

Please aim for 10-15 minutes of practicing a day if you haven't started individual lessons yet, and 20-30 minutes for those who have.

I'll see just the Tuesday class next week and will see both classes the following week.  Wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Grade 5

Good afternoon grade 5 families,

This past Sunday in Hebrew School, we continued discussing the idea of T’shuvah, returning to our “best” selves. Students were put into small groups and came up with different examples of how they might turn a specific situation into something positive and how they might turn the same situation into something negative. Students turned their ideas into skits and presented these to the class! We discussed how important it is to always try to make good choices.

In Hebrew class, students received the new prayer we will be working on, Vayehi Binsoa. Students worked in pairs to read the lines of this prayer and then practiced their Hebrew reading skills in a game of “Vayehi Binsoa” bingo!

Madrichim Update

Hi everyone!  I'm Ari Klawans and I help in the 2nd grade classroom, the class been learning their Hebrew letters and being able to make words with them. The kids are so full of energy and for the most part, having fun learning about Hebrew, the holidays, and Israel. It is very fun to ensure a group of kids that likes being Jewish, and wants to have fun being Jewish. We have been making cards to help remember the letters, and using to make words. Sometimes, I will help a student learn the letters that they missed while they were out. Even though I have been late a lot because of play rehersal this fall, it is most definately worth coming for what I can. -Ari Klawans

Grade 6 - Update

This Sunday was a busy day for the 6th grade at Temple Israel of Natick. 

We continued our Prophets, Hebrew, and Israel curricula, making big headways in all three sections. In our prophets section, we began discussing Samson, who many students were already somewhat familiar with. We watched a short clip about Samson, discussed how he was similar and different to the other prophets we've learned about thus far and discussed which prophet we find most relatable. 

We then spent time practicing the Hatzi Kaddish, making great strides with this prayer. Students began filling in their homework chart at home this past week, so we listened to the progress that we made, and continued to practice and learn together. 

Finally, we continued working on our "Boston-Haifa" Israel projects. By the end of last week, every group had written out what information they wanted to include in the presentation, and were given feedback to work on for this week. Each group is moving at their own pace, and is well on their way to creating exciting presentations for our Boston-Haifa Expo! Some groups began typing up their work, others finished their research, and others moved to practicing their presentations. We're really excited to see how these projects progress throughout the rest of the semester! 

Monday, November 13, 2017

Grade 2 - Second Grade Update

Another busy week in the Second Grade!  On Sunday Rabbi Liben came in to read a story about Shabbat to the class.  He also answered questions that we has been collecting in a "Ask the Rabbi" file.  The questions were very thoughtful and included things like "Do you have to believe in God?", "Who wrote the Torah?' and "Is God male or female?" Rabbi Liben discussed just how we can believe in things we can's see such love and a sense of justice we can believe in God who we cannot see.  We also discussed the ability to question God's presence and still to be able to pray as a way to express gratitude, to become more compassionate, and find inner strength. Quite a sophisticated discussion for Second Graders.

In out Torah studies we read the book Finding the Fruits of Peace, Cain and Abel by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso.  We decided that the story of Cain and Abel was very sad, and once again many of the students were in favor of a Biblical character receiving a less severe consequence or being given a second chance.

We also begin reading about Noah and did some role playing with Noah and the folks who must have seen the Ark being built.  Many of the students pretended to be people who didn't believe Noah's warning about the on coming flood and continued in their wicked ways. Others tried out being Noah who was perhaps concerned with saving his family and the animals but not the people around him.

In Hebrew we continued practicing the letters we have already learned and playing some games to reinforce the concept of a final letter which doesn't exist in English.   Be sure to ask your child about the only place in a word a final letter can appear.  We are all excited about going onto new letters this week.

Grade 3 - Gimel Goings On

Shalom Gimel Families,

Gimel students had a successful first week of electives!  After some Hevruta study about miracles students broke up into their different electives - food, legos, art (Tuesday) and technology.  At 5:30, when we regrouped as a grade, each student shared with their classmates how what they did in their electives made them think of miracles.

In Hebrew students have begun working on mastering the Birkot Hashachar.  So far we have completed the first 3 blessings.  After working for a few minutes as a whole group, students met in smaller groups to practice reading the 3 blessings to each other, while another group worked with me to learn the melody/ nigun. Our third station was a Hebrew Reading 4-in a row game.  We encourage the students to practice reading their prayers at home for 5 minutes each day. Please
remember to sign or initial your student’s calendar each time he/she practices reading.

As always students did a great job at morning meeting, enjoyed the counting game and at the end of the day loved sharing their favorite part of the day in Hebrew.

In Torah we are still exploring the value of courage.  Students shared that it takes courage to try new things, make new friends, and speak up for others.  They also learned when one should show courage and when one should be more cautious because something might be dangerous.

As part of our Torah lesson students participated in an extra challenge.  Each student was given a piece of paper to crumple, and then had the task of smoothing it out to have it look like it did when they got it.  Of course this was not possible!  This activity was used in a conversation about how we use words, and being aware that unkind words hurt feelings. Just like the paper that couldn’t be smoothed out 100%, this can happen to hurt feelings too.  Many students shared different bucket filling activities that they have done in regular school to show kindness to others, and we added a new idea to the care poster hanging in the classroom - “Let’s be bucket fillers!”  Over the coming weeks students will participate in some follow up “bucket filling” activities.

We look forward to our second week of electives this week!

Shavua Tov!

Elana



Grade 4 - Sunday November 12th

We had a fun week in Dalet this week!

We started our morning off with Hebrew practice, and they are really coming along! Some students have finished reading through all of Ashrei and are now working on reading it more fluently, and other students are continuing to work their way through the lines. Our goal is to be finished with Ashrei by November 20th, so remember to practice at home every day!

Since Bar was out sick today, we created a Jeopardy game about Israel. Our students divided up into teams and determined the categories: Talking Israeli, Holidays, Kids in Israel, Special Foods, Hit Songs of 100 Years, Soldiers and Agents, and Miscellaneous. Then, students collaborated with each other to come up with questions, and order them by level of difficulty. The students were very into it, and we didn't get to finish, so we will continue next week!





Sunday, November 12, 2017

Grade K - Gan Class Update 11-12-17

Hello Gan Class Families!

What a busy day! We spent time with the Cantor and the Rabbi, read a new Torah Story, learned a new letter, created something special and were joined by the mystery reader!  

It was so lucky that this morning, a congregant was looking inside the Torah in the Sanctuary as we entered to Tefilah.  This gave us the opportunity to learn about Hagbah and Gelilah.  We stood as Cantor Ken lifted the Torah, showing us three columns of the writing inside.  He sat down and one of the Aleph Class teachers helped him roll the scrolls together before they showed us how the Torah cover, breastplate, yad and rimonim were placed on the Torah.  Finally, we remained standing as the Torah was returned to the aron kodesh. This was an excellent way to learn more about how we treat the Torah.

Today's new Torah Story was about two brothers named Cain and Abel.  Cain was a farmer and Abel a shepherd.  They both gave gifts to God.  Cain gave God some vegetables while Abel gave God his very best sheep.  God liked Abel's gift best which made Cain very angry.  They fought and Cain killed Abel.  As a consequence, God told Cain that he would have to leave and be a wanderer. Next week we will create illustrations to help remind us about the main idea of this story.

Our new letter was caf.  Caf makes the sound k- and begins the words kippah and kelev, which means dog.  We practiced making this letter with our bodies which was pretty silly and then we reviewed all of the letters we already know.  We are getting really good at pairing the letters with their sounds.  

Rabbi Liben came to visit with us today.  We had so many questions to ask him but narrowed the list down to only a few.  We wanted to know how long it takes to build a pyramid ( a long time), how you become Jewish (you are born Jewish or you can choose to become Jewish) and how long it took to become a Rabbi (Rabbi Liben studied for six years before becoming a Rabbi but still studies Torah all the time).  In addition to our questions, we learned two Israeli dances.  Rabbi Liben LOVES Israeli dancing and he was thrilled to get the opportunity to show us some fun dances.  Everyone had a great time and we can't wait for him to visit again.

This week we made spice boxes which we use to help say Goodbye to Shabbat during Havdalah.  Students were encouraged to smell each of the spices individually.  Many students thought that the individual spices were not all that appealing but when they smelled all the spices together it smelled great!  Students are now prepared to welcome Shabbat and say goodbye with their very own set of Shabbat supplies!  

Today's mystery reader was Tali's mom.  She read us a story called Chik Chak Shabbat by Mara Rockliff.  This story was about a lady that makes cholent every Shabbat.  One Shabbat she is too sick to make it before Shabbat begins so her neighbors come together to make a Shabbat Dinner that keeps the spirit of her famous cholent alive.  None of the students in our class had ever had cholent before but maybe they will want to try it now.

Please remember to bring in stuffing for the Thanksgiving Drive next week.  I already saw two boxes of stuffing the the box.  Thank you!

As always, please let me know if you have questions or concerns about the Gan Class.

Have a wonderful week!

Michelle

Grade 7 - GESHER IS AMAZING!

Our Sunday session is three hours long.  Today we had a guest speaker, worked on our i-movie Pirkei Avot commentaries, wrote thank you note for two guest speakers and parsed out Jewish birthing traditions through a readers’ theater enactment of a short play.

What is a brit milah?

Dr./Mohelet Jennifer Novick was our honored guest speaker in the Gesher class on Sunday, November 12th.  Jen led a fascinating discussion of both the ritual and procedure of Brit Milah, ritual circumcision, for our students as part of our Jewish Life Cycle study.  Some of the content of our discussion follows.  For more information, ask a Gesher student!

The session began with a discussion of “brit” or covenant.  What is a covenant?  The Brit Milah is an agreement between God and the Jewish people. In Genesis, chapter 17, God promises to be our God and to give us the Land of Israel.  In exchange, Avraham promises, on behalf of all Jews, to let God be our God and to circumcise our sons as a sign of our agreement.  In fact, the mitzvah to circumcise one’s sons is a hok, a type of law for which there is no logical rationale.  We must do it because God said so.

The mitzvah of Brit Milah is specifically for fathers and if the father cannot circumcise his own son he must find somebody, a mohel (male) or mohelet (female), who can do it for him.   This mitzvah is so important that if the eighth day falls on Shabbat or even Yom Kippur, the brit milah often still takes place.

Some commentators suggest that circumcision offers humans the opportunity to partner with God in the process of Creation. Rabbi Lebo suggests that birth is a miracle and we are compelled to do something mysterious and powerful to honor that miracle.  Further, this ritual helps bring new parents closer to God.

We learned that the Brit Milah service has four parts:  
(1) Everybody and the baby are welcomed.  It is a special honor to bring the baby into the room in which the Brit Milah will take place and an even greater honor to hold the baby during the circumcision.  
(2) The circumcision which lasts less than 30 seconds!
(3) Naming the baby
(4) The seudat mitzvah or festive meal (all Jewish milestone events are punctuated by a communal meal).  Did you know that is customary to eat round foods at a brit milah to symbolize the cycle of life?

And we learned that the foreskin is not discarded.  It is buried.

Jen brought some of the tools: forceps and a Morgan clamp, used in the brit milah Students were fascinated!  They had the opportunity to touch and hold these tools and to understand their use.


Our session with Jen was extraordinary!  We were engaged, informed and brought closer to this significant ritual.  During the presentation, she suggested that like rabbis and cantors, mohelim are klei kodesh, holy vessels, who bring holiness into the lives of others.  This was certainly our experience!  Toddah Rabbah, thank you so very much.