Chanukah House Photos!

Ezra, Eliyahu, and the Yitzhaks.  What a team!  

Kulam b'yachad.  My favorite class. 

Yehudit showed huge talent in cookie house design.

Eliyahu found the food coloring...

A Chanukah Sukkah!

Lili and Shmoosh got creative with some extra special ingredients. 

The Kitah Zayin B'nai Mitzvah Gift

Shalom Kitah Zayin Parents! 

Happy Chanukah to all! I hope your winter break has been relaxing and regenerative!  

Now that the holidays have passed and there is a minute to breath, I want to send an email updating everyone on the status and details of our class B'nai Mitzvah project.  

As you know, we have been spending our Wednesdays critically examining the Jewish value of tzedakah.  To do this, we have been following the American Jewish World Service's "Where Do You Give? A Tzedakah Curriculum".  "Where Do You Give?" provides the class the tools to think about giving tzedakah in a thoughtful, responsible, and impactful way.  It has been my goal to inspire this year's 7th grade class to make life-long commitments to giving in the pursuit of social justice.

As the culmination of our tzedakah unit, Kitah Zayin has chosen to make a class donation to Special Olympics Maryland (http://www.somd.org/).  

In addition to the money that the kids are raising in our class tzedakah box, we are offering an additional and optional tzedakah project for your families.  If you would like to take part, instead of giving an individual B'nai Mitzvah gift at each class Bat or Bar Mitzvah, send a "lump sum" check to Oseh Shalom. These checks will be put into our class tzedakah account and the money will be presented to Special Olympics Maryland as a group gift from all the 7th grade families.

Please give according to how much you are comfortable.  Giving tzedakah is a very personal act and one that should be made from the heart and with joy.  I strongly encourage you to include your 7th graders when deciding how much to give. The giving will be confidential.

Here is how it will work:

1) Please send in a check made out to Oseh Shalom in whatever amount you choose. This "lump sum" will take the place of giving individual Bat/Bar Mitzvah gifts to each student.

2) Every time your student attends a classmate's Bar or Bat Mitzvah, please have your student create a special card for that classmate that states that "a gift as been given in honor of your Bar/Bat Mitzvah to Special Olympics Maryland as part of the 7th grade B'nai Mitzvah gift."

3) The deadline for checks will be Sunday, March 29th. This will give the class enough time to prepare and present our gift before the end of the year.

As always, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to email me!

B’Shalom,

Morah Mikey

Happy Chanukah Kitah Zayin!

Happy Chanukah to all!  May this holiday of lights be warm and bright, and may you find peace in family and latkes. 

Be on the lookout for photos from our evening of Chanukah House decorating!

B'Shalom,

Mikey

הודו וחג ההודייה - Turkey Day Hebrew to Impress Your Guests!

The secular holiday of Thanksgiving is one celebrated by all sects of American Jewry. This holiday, based on the expression of gratitude, resonates strongly with the Jewish emphasis on acknowledging our blessings.

As Rabbi Shavit Artson says in the article Expanding Circles of Thanks (see article below), "The term Jew comes from the Hebrew word Yehuda meaning thanks, joy, and gratitude. At the core of the Jewish way is a resilient joy that directs our attention toward the blessings we already have, those we need to work toward to realize, and the need to share those blessings in community."

So, in recognition and celebration of Thanksgiving, we learned some Hebrew vocabulary to help us celebrate. Most important for this day is the Hebrew word for gratitude (הַכָּרַת טוֹבָה). The class also especially loved the words for sweet potato (בָּטָטָה) and cranberry (חֲמוּצִית).

הוֹדָיָה or חַג הָהוֹדָיָה - Thanksgiving (non-vocalized spelling: הודייה)

Surprisingly, the word "turkey" in Hebrew looks similar.

הוֹדוּ - turkey 

הוֹדוּ מְמוּלָא - stuffed turkey
(and speaking of stuffing, the same word ממולא is used for the gefilte fish: דַג ממולא)

Other words to know for Thanksgiving:

Gratitude: הַכָּרַת טוֹבָה

Pilgrim:  צַלְיָן

Pie: פַּשְׁטִידָה

Sweet Potato: בָּטָטָה

Cornucopia: קֶרֶן הַשֶּׁפַע

Harvest: אָסִיף

Corn: תִּירָס

Pumpkin: דְּלַעַת

Gravy: צִיר

Pecan: אֱגוֹז פֶּקָן

Meal: אֲרוּחָה

Food: אֹכֶל, מָזוֹן

Full (satisfied): שָׂבֵעַ

Delicious: טָעִים

Hungry: רָעֵב

November: נוֹבֶמְבֶּר

Autumn: סְתָו

Squash: קִשּׁוּא

Thankful: אֲסִיר תּוֹדָה

Family: מִשְׁפָּחָה

Cranberry:חֲמוּצִית

Expanding Circles of Thanks - A Reading for Thanksgiving

Expanding Circles of Thanks

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson

Click here for full article

It is common among Jews to assume that Thanksgiving is really a Jewish holiday. Quoting nameless "historians," the inspiration for the Pilgrim's thanksgiving feast was the Biblical Festival of Sukkot -- a fall festival that expresses gratitude for the harvest, for the land, and is celebrated in booths adorned with fall bounty and color, complete with feasting on seasonally appropriate fare. At the core of the Sukkot observance is the recitation of Hallel (psalms sung as expressions of exultant thanks), and the shaking of the lulav and etrog (a bundle of plants symbolizing life, abundance and thanks).

Puritans were deeply immersed in the Hebrew Bible. They saw themselves as the new Israelites -- hence many took Hebrew names, gave their new settlements names from the Land of Israel, saw themselves on a new exodus journey to a new promised land. Their knowledge of Scripture was deep and personal -- they would have resonated to a celebration of autumnal bounty conducted by a people journeying from oppression to freedom.

The Sukkot theory of Thanksgiving is really great. And it could even be true. The only challenge is that I couldn't find any colonial Puritan authors who made that claim. What is charming about it, nonetheless, is the resonance that so many Jews feel toward Thanksgiving. It is a very "Jewish" holiday, even if it wasn't a Jewish holiday to begin with: Great meal, great company, celebrating life and joy and resilience and freedom in community. All values embedded deeply in Jewish tradition.

The term "Jew" comes from the Hebrew word Yehudah meaning thanks, joy, gratitude. At the core of the Jewish way is a resilient joy that directs our attention toward the blessings we already have, those we need to work toward to realize, and the need to share those blessings in community.

...

Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles. A member of the Philosophy Department, he is particularly interested in theology, ethics and the integration of science and religion, as an advocate of Process Thought. He supervises the Miller Introduction to Judaism Program and mentors Camp Ramah in California. He is the author of 10 books and over 250 articles.