Newsletter

Week of Sunday, December 17th, 2023

Dear Parents,

How is it already winter break?!? This week our students spent time learning about Torah stories and talking about who wrote the Torah. The Ilanot class focused on the story of Joseph and his brothers. The Parparim class focused on how the Torah scroll is made and what makes it kosher. The Devorim and Nesharim classes examined who wrote the Torah and how we, as a people and individuals, relate to Torah.

It was a fun and educational morning learning about Torah together.

Parents, please remember, we do not have Shul School the next two Sundays, December 24th and December 31st. Shul School will resume on January 7th, 2024. Have a wonderful and relaxing winter break!

B'Shalom,

Chaviva Sands

Classes

Gan

2s & 3s Class

Ilanot

PreK & Kindergarten

Parparim

1st & 2nd Grade

Devorim

3rd & 4th Grade

Nesharim

5th & 6th Grade

Ilanot Update

Substitute Teacher: Chaviva Sands

This week the Ilanot class learned about Joseph and his brothers. They thought it was unfair that Jacob favored Joseph and gave him a beautiful new coat, but they also said it was not nice of the brothers to sell Joseph into slavery because of what his father did. The Ilanot students had a short discussion about how they would feel if their parents said their sibling was the favorite and how they wouldn't blame their sibling for what their mom or dad said. After their short discussion, the students decorated an Ilanot coat of many colors to symbolize that each of them have something important they bring to the table and there are no favorites.

Once the Ilanot class completed their coat of many colors, Rabbi Hoffman came in and played "Shimon Omer" (Simon says) with them and taught them the Hebrew for various body parts like our heads, shoulders, belly, and hands.

Parparim Update

Teacher: Scott Hart

This week the Parparim class began their lesson with a blessing for Torah study. They continued studying the basics of the Tanakh and learned more about how Torah scrolls are made. Each student had a great time with each activity whether it was Isobel reading about individual Parashot, Zachary enjoying learning about the Tanakh , or Ezra loving the video they watched about Israel. Throughout class the students listened to harpist Rachel Van Voorhess play Jewish music.

Devorim and Nesharim Update

Teacher: Ali Perez

Today the Devorim and Nesharim classes answered some challenging questions the students had about Torah. Who wrote the Torah? Did everything in the Torah really happen? But more importantly, they spoke about how, whether they choose to take the Torah literally or figuratively, they should always take it seriously. Some of the characters in the Torah are historical, while others are based on legends. Mabel put it well at the end of class when she said "They're still important! They're the stories of our people!"