Morah Levinson Hebrew Update

Dear 4th - 6th grade families, 

Sunday was a fantastic day! The kids were all "on" and did an excellent job of staying focused. We played "Hebrew Baseball" in both classes using flashcards. 

The 4th graders were stumped several times on words that included some of the "look-alike" letters that we have been working on, but like I said before, this can be tricky. We will work on recognizing their differences over and over until it becomes second nature.

Some of the 5th and 6th graders also had a chance to video tape each other reading lines in their books which they enjoy doing. This allows them to monitor their progress as the school year progresses.

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. Enjoy the holiday break with your amazing children!

B'Shalom, 

Dona Levinson

Kitah Gan Katan Update

Dear Parents,

Last Sunday Kitah Gan and Gan Katan had so much fun at Shalom Street! The JCC's exhibit's theme was on the Jewish home and Jewish inventions. Two special guests taught the kids (and their parents in the audience) about how to write a book and illustrate one! The author and illustrator read the book to us! Here is the book information: 

The Animals' Great Football Game by Dr. Jeff London  illustrated by Howard Fridson 

We are looking forward to seeing your kids in class next week as we continue the lesson on the Sabbath and introduce another Hebrew letter!

Morah Emma and Morah Ariana

Morah Levinson Hebrew Class

Dear 4th - 6th grade families,

We had a great week of learning and reading in our classes!

On Sunday the 4th graders worked on recognizing and differentiating between the many "look alike" Hebrew letters. It can be quite confusing at times, and they are quickly catching on. We use several different nicknames and silly, catchy ways to remember their differences. Once the students master this, the reading process will become much easier.

The 5th and 6th graders played "Hebrew Baseball", and we used the prayer Aleinu for the game. Most of the kids were sure that they knew the prayer perfectly already since we sing it with Cantor Gutman every Sunday and Tuesday, but they quickly learned that this was not the case! I used this as a perfect example of how when we don't follow along in the Siddur during Tefillah and simply sing along with the tune and the words "we think we hear", we often times end up mispronouncing words and ultimately learning the prayers incorrectly. The students were  surprised to see just how many words they thought they knew but didn't! Everyone enjoyed playing the game - it is one that we will be playing many more times during the year with various reading lessons in our books as well as different prayers. It's a great way to make reading fun!

On Tuesday in both classes, we divided the kids up into 3 separate groups and together with Edna and Aliza we worked on several reading lessons in our Hasefer books. The kids always seem to enjoy working in small groups together.

Wishing you a peaceful and restful Shabbat with your families. Stay warm!

B'shalom,
Dona Levinson

Morah Kleiman Update

Dear Parents,

"May God make you like Ephraim & Menashe, like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel & Leah. May the Lord bless and protect you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face toward you and grant you peace."

There is a beautiful family custom to bless one's child and family on Friday night after the  Shabbat candles are lit. This past week our class studied the blessing. The kids learned that the blessing brings a special closeness, gratitude and adds spirituality to the family. Ephraim and Menashe ( sons of Joseph) grew up in Egypt, despite living in an area where there were no Jews, they held fast to their religious beliefs and commandments. They also were the first brothers mentioned in the Torah who lived in peace and harmony with each other.  Our Matriarchs also were exceptional role models. They did not come from the best of families, but lived a life of committed Jewish values.

 Ask your kids if they enjoyed tasting the different breads and Challah this week. We had fun learning all about the Mitzvah of eating Challah on Shabbat. Before they were allowed to taste they did the ritual washing and Blessing.

If you are interested in incorporating any of these rituals into your homes. Feel free to contact me, I would be happy to help you.

Shabbat Shalom

Cillia Kleiman

Kitah Aleph Update

Dear Parents,

We had such a great time on Sunday at Shalom Street at the JCC. The students really enjoyed themselves. They loved listening to the story that was read and answering questions. Most of them did a project that they took home and several of the kids walked around the book fair and were ready to purchase several books.

Tuesday we began learning G'milut Chassadim. We talked about what it to be a Jewish Hero. The students know that a Jewish hero is someone who lives by Jewish values. Someone who reaches out to others and treats people with respect and love.The students learned that doing the right thing is the best way to live their lives. They gave examples of what it means to them to be a Jewish hero.

One of the examples I used was our Fall Fix Up day last week and how that is an Act of Loving-kindness. I asked the students what are some Acts of Kindness they do at home.

Ariana- Pick up branches outside and rake the leaves
Justin-Listen to mom and dad, help feed the dog and cat
Evan-Help the cleaning lady pick up my clothes from the floor

The students were introduced to the concept of tzedakah. They learned how important it is to give charity and how much it helps other people. We try to do acts of g'milut chasadim (acts of kindness) in our everday lives. We care for people who are ill, help others in the community; show patience, and compassion to others. I will be talking about this for awhile and we will do some worksheets to explain how doing kind things for others makes us feel good.

Attached our pictures I took at Shalom Street so you can see how much fun your children were having.

Hope everyone has a great week and I look forward to seeing your students on Sunday.

Thank you,
Morah Dresner Wais

Kitah Zayin Class Upate

Hello 7^th Grade Families,

This past week our class has been examining the Jewish value of Tzar Ba’alei Chayim (ethical treatment of animals). We took the class to the zoo this past Sunday, and the learners were challenged to examine all forms of life. In fulfilling the Jewish value in question, it is important that we connect to the life forms we are charged with protecting. We looked at butterflies and the miraculous transformation they go through during their life spans. How can metamorphosis from a plain-looking caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly apply to our lives and the values we put into practice? We visited the chimpanzees and observed their behavior which is so similar to ours on a primal level.

This past Tuesday we started watching the documentary entitled Blackfish, in which the inhumane practices of institutions such as SeaWorld are revealed. What is our obligation in regard to institutions such as these? How can this apply to the idea of not standing idly by?

Next Sunday we will conclude the documentary which will close out our Tzar Ba’alei Chayim unit. After we finish, we will start talking about our next project within the framework of the ADL’s “No Place for Hate” program. On Tuesday, we will introduce our next unit which is the Jewish value of Tzedakah. A text study will reveal that although charity is a major component of the idea of Tzedakah, the actual translation of the word is justice. How do these two ideas relate to each other? How can we take an active role in bringing justice into the world?

Rachel and I look forward to continuing our very important curriculum, and we hope to see your children in class next week.

We wish you all a peaceful Shabbat! 

David Lerner 

Morah Katz Hebrew Update

Dear Fourth - Sixth Grade Families,

Your students continue to make great progress in their Hebrew reading and prayer. They are truly little sponges for information and seem to exhibit great insight and opinion  on the meaning of the blessings and prayers that we cover. 

We are working on improving reading speed and accuracy without memorizing, but actually reading.  

I wish you and your family a Shabbat Shalom  full of peace and happiness.

Donna Katz

Kitah Vav Holiday Update

Dear 6th Grade Parents,

This week we continued studying Chanukah. We started by reviewing the details of the story of Chanukah. Then we attempted to piece together pieces of pottery which we believe were used as either an oil or wine jug in ancient Israel. As we tried to figure out what we had before us we disused what it may have been like for the Jews to try to piece together the בֵּית־הַמִּקְדָּשׁ (Beit Hamikdash or Holy Temple) in Jerusalem after the Assyrian-Greeks  had desecrated and abandoned it.

Best,
Morah Hollenberg

Morah Schlussel Hebrew Update

Dear Parents,

I was not in school this last Sunday,but the substitute continued with our book Kol Yisrael and our review using the "Hasefer" pamphlets.

On Tuesday, we bagan our day with Teffilot with Cantor Gutman. He is preparing, the students that are interested, to be part of the choir that will help lead services in the upcoming weeks on Shabbat in the main sancturary.

He is introducing many new melodies to the traditional prayers. He distributed CDs a few weeks ago. Encourage your child to listen to the CD and familiarize him/her self with the melodies.

We are continuing to make good progress with our reading in all the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades.

On Wednesday evening we had our grand opening of the new Berman Religious School wing of Congregation Shaarey Zedek. It is a beautiful state of the art facility with the most up to date educational equipment and furniture. Our own Rabbi Starr along with the Arnie Eisen, Chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary, and Mr. Mandel Berman , who generously funded the new renovations, spoke eloquently. Our assistant director, Allison Gutman worked tirelessly on the planning of the renovations and she did a magnificent job. Take some time and come in when you drop your children and have a look!

Have a good Shabbat and I hope to see you all on Sunday.  

Toby Schlussel

Kitah Vav Update

Hi All!

We had a FANTABULICIOUS Sunday.  The kids were on task, excited, and learning.  Always fun. 

Our fearless madrichim, Sam Squared, led us in a fun mifgash, and the kids played 3 lies and 1 truth.  They also had some cool quotes on lying.

Then I led the kids in a little mental logic puzzle.  Annie was the first person to get the right answer. See if you can:

A logic problem: What question should the princess ask? A princess visits an island inhabited by two tribes. Members of one tribe always tell the truth, and members of the other tribe always lie.The princess comes to a fork in the road. She needs to know which road leads to the castle so as to avoid the fire-breathing dragon and rescue the prince from the wizard holding him captive in the castle. (Although the princess doesn't know it, the south road leads to the castle and the north road leads to the dragon.)Standing at this fork in the road is a member of each tribe, but the princess can't tell which tribe each belongs to. What question should she ask to find the road to the castle? Simply asking which road leads to the castle won't help. The answer won't tell us which native is lying and which native is telling the truth. However, we really only need to talk to one of the natives. The trick is to ask a question where the response will be the same from both natives: a question that incorporates how a member of the tribe not answering would respond to the same question. For example, what if we say to one of the natives, "If I asked a member of the tribe you don't belong to which road I should take to get to the castle, what would he say?" If we ask a truthteller, the response will be: "He would say to take the north road." The road to the castle is the south road so the liar will tell us to take the north road, and the truthteller will faithfully report this to us.  If we ask a liar, the response will be: "He would say to take the north road." The road to the castle is the south road and the truthteller will tell us to take the south road, but the liar will not report this faithfully to us - he will say the opposite. In both cases we'll get the same response. We should do the opposite of what we have been told because, regardless of whether we are speaking to a liar or a truthteller, our question will always produce the wrong answer to which road we should take. It brings back really scary GRE memories of logic problems.  But, it also helped frame our day, which was about JEWISH LIES.

• Lying to preserve the cause of peace, not to hurt another person’s feelings, or to provide comfort.

• Lying in a situation where honesty might cause oneself or another person harm.

• Lying for the sake of modesty or in order not to appear arrogant.

• Lying for the sake of decency

• Lying to protect one’s property from scoundrels.

 We practiced our MAD TORAH SKILLZ and the kids had to find a line and chapter number in the Chumash.  It took a few minutes, but each group was successful! We will practice this skill each week.  The line they were looking up was the one in our narrative, where Sarah lies to God: " Sarah lied, saying'I did not laugh,' for she was frightened.  But HE replied, 'You did laugh.'"  We talked about why Sarah laughed: she was scared, and why God was not angry?!  We then went on to discuss lying and lying in Judaism.  According to a Cornell research group, people lie on average 2x a day, and people lie most often on the phone, least often via email.

So wait… this the part where I say that my children are perfect, my house is tidy, and I only eat nutritious food?!  Because via email, I can't lie? :)

We learned the times in Judaism where it is "ok" (of course, as always in Judaism, there are TONS of strings attached) to lie.

The kids loved the decency one. This is where your child is upstairs pooping and a friend calls on the phone and we say that they are outside/doing homework/busy with chores and will call back.  The kids were on board with parents not using any kind of radical honesty in this situation. See: it is a JEWISH thing for us not to say the kids are in the potty :)  

We also did a little Talmud study. So, if your best buddy is getting married to a woman and she is not so beautiful, do we say that she is beautiful?!

"The Rabbis taught: How does one dance before the bride [i.e., what does one say in praise of her]? The School of Shammai says: We praise the bride as she is. The School of Hillel says: We say that she is a beautiful and graceful bride. The School of Shammai said to the School of Hillel: If she was(ugly), does one say about her that she is a beautiful and graceful bride? But the Torah said (Exodus 23: 7): "Distance yourself from a false matter." The School of Hillel said to the School of Shammai: According to your opinion, if someone made an inferior purchase in the marketplace, should one praise it or deprecate it in his eyes. Surely, one should praise it. From here [the latter statement of the Hillel School] the Sages said: A person’s disposition should always be pleasant with people.

This brought us back to 2 weeks ago and our mitzvah of being CHEERFUL.  In Morah Gawel's class, we go with the school of Hillel: The bride is beautiful.  That is why I am going to ask the kids every week if I look gorgeous :)

Finally, we watched a small video clip from the show Lie To Me.  I talked to the kids about the micro expressions that show if we are telling the truth or not. Don't worry, I will share them with you too, so that if your kid says he brushed his teeth, did his homework etc…, you will know if he is lying!

I can't wait until next week to finish the lesson. The kids were excited and interested.  Hmm.. 6th graders want to know about lying more. Who knew?!?  I'll blame it on that undeveloped frontal lobe :)

Looking forward to another week with some good psychological forensic scientists with a Jewish twist. We will have a Lying Lab :)!

Be well and see you Sunday.

Morah Leah

Kitah Bet Class Update

Dear Parents,

As many of you know, our "soft opening" did not happen today. We will continue to be in our old room until we get "official " word we are ready to move.

During t'feelot today we practiced the havdallah brachot. We are looking forward to leading the Havdallah service next Saturday night at the bowling event. Please RSVP to the school office to let them know if you will be there.

In our torah study today , we learned about parsha "Chaya Sarah". A part of the parsha is  about Isaac finding a wife. I asked your children what qualities they would look for in a husband or wife. I  was so very impressed by heir answers. Overwhelmingly they told me they want to marry someone who is kind, respectful and nice. Hopefully they will keep these qualities in the forefront 20years from now! We did another page in our Torah we are creating.

We began our unit of G'milut chassadim today. I shared the book, "Have you Filled a Bucket Today". Many of your children were familiar with this book from their public school class room. Ask your children what they know about this story. We are going to try and take note of times when we are bucket fillers during our time together. Being a bucket filler is being a partner with God to make our world a better place for each other.

We did some Hebrew writing and will finish our lesson on Tuesday. We missed Bella on Sunday.

Davida

TAKING RISKS AND FEAR OF FAILURE

When studying Torah we always take one step backward to review the prior lessons, and one step forward to tackle the next lesson.  These discussions often bring new questions to light, and our students are often left to work through some internal struggles as our week comes to an end.  Such was the case with this week’s discussion.  Our discussion started out with the basic question of failure.  Why did GOD put the tree of Knowledge within reach of Adam and Eve, tempting them to break the rules? Our students offered some wonderful insights into breaking rules, and doing the right thing.  We talked about wanting something, working towards something, and ultimately failing to achieve success, or hitting obstacles along the way.  To push our students to collaborate and to critically think about the effect their actions have on others, we talked about ways to problem solve.   Is it OK to fail, or is it better to achieve success at all costs?  Do our parents push us to be the best we can be at all costs?  Are we responsible for our failures, and is it OK to fail if we learn from our mistakes. Our students seem to know the right thing to do in many instances, but are often confronted with temptation, I guess we all can relate.  

Morah Katz Hebrew Update

Dear 4-6th Grade Families-

It was so nice to see so many of you last Friday night at our service, dinner and program. The kids did a phenomenal job on their blessings and prayers and made all of us very very proud.  Additionally, thank you to all of you who came out in support of Fall Fix-Up.  The homeowners we helped were so grateful to us and loved seeing all the kids.

In Hebrew, we continue to sharpen our reading fluency and speed.  The Fourth graders are learning all about the different blessings we say when we learn Torah and  light different candles.  The Fifth and Sixth graders are learning the blessings of the Torah Service and the Haftarah.

I wish everyone a happy and peaceful Shabbat. 

B'shalom,

Donna Katz

Kitah Hey Update

Dear Parents,

Our class enjoyed a grape juice tasting in honor of Shabbat Kiddush! The kids tasted and rated 4 kinds of juice. We talked discussed what elements make grape juice a holy drink to enjoy on Shabbat v. water, milk, orange juice, etc.  First place was Kedem Traditional Grape Juice! We had a lot of fun. The kids learned that the Kiddush is the "Kickoff" to Friday Night Shabbat Dinner. The nighttime kiddush consists of three parts: 1) Three verses from Genesis that recount how God rested on the seventh day and sanctified it. 2) The blessing for wine. 3) A blessing thanking G‑d for giving us the Shabbat.

This Sunday we will continue our Shabbat Unit with our focus being Challah.

Shabbat Shalom!

Cillia Kleiman

Fall Fix Up Flashback

Kitah Gan and Gan Katan

Dear Parents,

Morah Emma and Morah Ariana loved seeing our mitzvah doers at this year's Fall Fix Up! We made some great memories and an impact on our community! We will see you this coming Sunday at Shalom Street at the West Bloomfield JCC at Maple and Drake Rd. Shalom Street welcomes all to engage in a unique interactive experience in an exciting 4,500 square-foot facility. More than 30 exhibits enhanced by dramatic programming are designed to inspire a sense of wonder and exhilaration.The children will be learning about the role of games . Please see attached flyer to see exhibit details.

Our visit to Shalom Street will coincide with the JCC's annual Book Fair. In addition to exploring the Shalom Street Museum, we will have a chance to hear Book Fair, guest author Dr. Jeffrey London read his book, The Animals' Great Football Game.

Parents are invited but not required to participate in the field trip.  Please notify email me at agutman@shaareyzedek.org if you will be participating in the trip.

Please meet teachers promptly at 9:30 am in the lobby of the W. Bloomfield JCC.

West Bloomfield JCC: 6600 W Maple Rd, West Bloomfield Township, MI 48322

If you are not accompanying your child on the field trip, please pick them pick in the lobby of the JCC at 11:30 a.m..

Kitah Vav Update

Dear 6th Grade Parents,

This week we began a unit on Chanukah. We started by reviewing the details of the story of Chanukah. You should be proud that your children knew a lot of the basics. But we all benefited from putting the story into a modern context while discussing the authentic historical story of the destruction of the Holy Temple. We envisioned what it would be like if, G-d forbid, someone destroyed our Holy synagogue! Then we learned the song Hanarot Halalu and studied the text of this beautiful Chanukah song together, chevrutah style (in pairs).

Best,
Morah Hollenberg

Kitah Zayin Update

Dear 7^th grade families,

Last Sunday, CSZ religious school teamed up with Jewish Family Services and the larger community to participate in Fall Fix Up. Together, we helped more than 40 area seniors prepare their homes for winter, while also making an impact at important sites in our community. If you didn’t have a chance to participate this year, I definitely encourage you to get involved next year. It was a rewarding way to give back to our community – thank you to everyone who helped!

This week we also had a few visitors in our class. Larry Oleinick, founder and president of Heart 2 Hart Detroit, came to speak with us about his experience not only feeding but also truly getting to know those in need in Detroit. By asking questions, being active listeners and empathizing with those they serve, Heart 2 Hart embodies the Jewish value of B’tzelem Elohim – understanding that we are all made in God’s image. We packed bags of hygiene products to be delivered to individuals in need but also included messages of hope, such as “smile,” “you are special” and “have a nice day.”

Katie Triest, Animal Care Manager and Director of Education at the Wild Bird Fund in NYC, also came to speak with us this week. As part of our current unit, Tzaar Baalei Hayyim, or kindness to animals, Katie opened our eyes to the world of wildlife rehabilitation. We often think of kindness toward animals as treating our pets well, but we learned that everything we do has a direct or indirect effect on wildlife in our area. Katie taught us to see our responsibility toward animals more broadly – it’s important to care for all animals, even those that we can’t keep as pets.

As you hopefully know, this coming Sunday we will be going on a fieldtrip to the Detroit Zoo. As an extension of caring for animals, we will discuss animal behavior and what we can learn from different species. Wildlife rehabilitator Katie Triest will be joining our class at the zoo as well so come with questions about animals and conservation.

Have a wonderful weekend and a Shabbat shalom!

Rachel and David

Kitah Bet Update

Dear Parents,

I hope your children enjoyed the Shabbat together last Friday. As always , feedback about these programs is welcome so we can continue to improve and be mindful of your wishes and interests as we move forward in planning more programs.

 We shared our experiences from fall fix-up with the class. Your children all verbalized that they felt good about the work they did. Thank you for being part of this g'milut chassadim (acts of loving kindness )project. It was a great segue way for us as we begin an entire unit of "g'milut chassadim".

We continued in our "ivrit" books, learning two new letters, resh and chaf. We will complete this lesson  on Sunday. We are moving into our new classrooms this  Sunday, it will be a "soft opening" as we packed up again on Tuesday and are waiting  for the boxes  to be moved during the week  to our new class for school on  Sunday. We visited our new room on Tuesday. Your children were pretty excited about the new room. It looks new, clean and ready for some fun and learning!

We missed Levi and Ethan on Tuesday. Hope to see everyone on Sunday.

Davida!

Kitah Aleph Update

Dear Parents,

Fall Fix Up was a success! We had such a great time raking leaves with our students and their families. We are beginning our next unit on G'milut Chasadim (Being a Jewish Hero).  We will also learn about Derech Eretz (Respect) which will tie into our unit of Acts of Kindness and the students will understand the lesson since they participated in giving of themselves on Sunday. Experiencing acts of kindness is more meaningful when we actually participate in the act itself.

This Sunday we will meet at The Jewish Community Service (Shalom Street) for our field trip. Parents are welcomed to stay but its not mandatory. We will resume our letters and vowels and begin talking about our Shabbat Bear. Each student will take home the bear and have Shabbat dinner with the bear. There will be a worksheet with a few brief questions you and your child can do together. The bear will be sent home each Sunday and returned the following Sunday for the next student to take home. Looking forward to being in our new classroom next week! Your children are very excited as they have been watching the progress of the construction.

Have a great week and we will see you on Sunday!

Thank you,
Morah Dresner Wais (Lisa)

Kitah Gimmel Update

Dear Kitah Gimmel Parents,

I hope you have been keeping up with everything that goes on in Kitah Gimmel though my website. In case you have not, this email is a reminder to please check it out for ongoing activities, news, and HOMEWORK. Yes, please remind your child that they have reading homework due this coming Sunday. Details here.

You can always check out my website through a link in Allison's weekly eblast or here:

http://cszkitahgimmel.weebly.com

Thank you,

Morah Sherman

Morah Schlussel Hebrew Update

Dear Parents,

It was so nice to see so many of you and your children at Shaarey Zedek's TGIS this past Friday night. The children did a great job of leading parts of the service and blessings at the meal. Congratulations to all those that participated.

This past Sunday instead of having "regular" school, we joined Jewish Family Service for their annual FALL FIX-UP. We raked leaves and washed windows at homes of senior citizens who are unable to do the work themselves. The students along with their families deserve a pat on the back for doing the important mitzvah of Tikun Olam.

We started our day on Tuesday with Teffilot led by Cantor Gutman. We reviewed new tunes for some of the prayers.

We are continuing with our review and practice in reading. The students are making good progress. We learned how to recognize the letters that look very much like other letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Ask your children how they can tell the difference between a samech and a mem sofit (final).  We had a very short discussion on why it is important to learn to read fluently and to be able to pray in Hebrew. Ask your children to share with you what we talked about.

I will not be in school this coming Sunday. I look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday.

Shabbat Shalom,

 Toby Schlussel

Morah Levinson Hebrew Update

Dear 4th - 6th grade families,

I hope you had a wonderful time at the TGIS dinner and service last Friday and also participating in Fall Fix-Up. It definitely was an eventful weekend for CSZ! 

On Tuesday we began our day in Tefillah with Cantor Gutman. It is always such a pleasure to hear the children sing, and it's especially nice to see when some of them stand on the bimah and help lead the prayers.

We worked in our reading groups, and the kids are continuing to make wonderful progress. Dividing them into small groups is definitely helping them to focus on the lessons and activities.  At the rate that they are learning and improving, I am sure that by the end of the school year we will have some excellent readers! 

Wishing you a peaceful and relaxing Shabbat with your families!

B'shalom, 

Dona Levinson

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE RIGHT THING TO DO

Thank you to all of the families who participated in our Fall Fix-Up program Sunday morning.   The opportunity provided a wonderful and rewarding lesson for both the adults and children in our group, and our students experienced the true meaning of Gemilut Hasidim, performing a loving act of kindness.  They began to understand that being Jewish commands us to do things for others because it is the right thing to do, and we do these things not for recognition or rewards, but because we are a community and we help others when we are able.   

On Sundays we use the Torah as our textbook, and we have been talking about being created in GOD’s image and each of us has free will, the right to make the choices we choose.  This week we added in the concept of Yetzer Ha Rah and Yetzer Ha Tov, the inclination to do right, and the inclination to do wrong.  Our Tuesday afternoon students expand the discussion from a different perspective, and we have been talking about doing the right thing, ethics, values, and morals.  We continued talking about taking things that don’t belong to us, and added in different scenarios.  Ultimately, we decided that things are not always as they seem, and sometimes doing the wrong thing may not be as wrong as it seems.    Please ask you student to share some of the concepts with you.  

Kitah Vav holiday update

Dear 6th Grade Parents,

This week we reviewed the concept of הידור מצווה (Hiddur Mitzvah) which we define as enhancing our performance of a mitzvah (a divine commandment).  We then continued making center pieces which we will be using for the upcoming TGIS Shabbat dinner at Shaarey Zedek November 7th (this Friday night). As you know, in making these center pieces we are enhancing our upcoming community Shabbat celebration thereby performing a הידור מצווה.

We look forward to seeing you and your families for this special Shabbat service and diner.

Best, 

Morah Hollenberg

Kitah Aleph Update

Dear Parents,

We learned the letter Vet and Vav...The students are given clues to help them learn each letter. They practiced writing both letters and we read words that began with the "V" sound. We did a matching game where there were Hebrew letters in a row (not alphabetized) and a row of letters underneath and the students had to select which letters matched up. For example, There was an Ayin mixed in with other letters and in a row below that were letters also mixed up with an Alef hidden in there. I explained how even though two letters may not look the same, they are still pronounced the same way.

We did an exercise where I read the students a sentence and there were six pictures and they had to figure out what I was saying. Although, they didn't know what each sentence meant, they recognized a couple words and with a little help, they figured out which picture matched to the sentence I read to them. Lastly, I read the students  words that sound similar in Hebrew and English and they had to circle which objects began with the sound of the letter Vav. They did great and were able to identify each picture relating to the "V" sound.

I have attached some photos of your children working diligently and really understanding their assignments today. I also had each child go up to the board and pick a letter (in Hebrew) of their choice and add a vowel, then choose a student they wanted to call on to announce what the letter is and pronounce it correctly with the vowels.  They really enjoyed doing this and it gave them the opportunity to interact with one another.

Tuesday, We worked in our Torah workbooks. We talked about Joseph and the personal change and reconciliation. While Joseph was in Egypt, someone told a lie about him and Joseph went to jail. In jail, he became famous for interpreting dreams. We continued reading the story and how Pharaoh asked for Joseph to interpret his dreams. In the end, Joseph realized his brothers were sorry about what they did to him. He told his brothers that he was Joseph. The students were happy that he and his brother brought their father Jacob, to live with them in Egypt. We talked about how special it is to have parents or grandparents living with families and what it would mean to them.We finished the unit on Torah and will begin our next chapter of G'milut Chasadim (Acts of Loving Kindness).  Your children  received a certificate of completion in The Chai Level 1 Torah Workbook. They were very proud of their accomplishments and I hope they shared their certificate with you.

This Sunday is our Fall Fix Up. We will meet at Shaarey Zedek at 9:30 and we will be assigned a house where we will rake leaves and clean windows for home bound seniors. This will lead us into our next chapter we will be working on for the next few weeks about giving of ourselves without anything in return. The children understand we will be helping out elderly people who cannot do for themselves.

One example I would like to share on how effective this is with me personally. My daughter, Alexa who is my assistant on Sundays and Tuesdays is going to Tamarack this weekend with her youth group BBYO. I told her Sunday is Fall Fix Up and she asked me if I could pick her up at Tamarack Saturday night after Shabbat is over so she didn't have to miss Sunday because she did not want to miss it. She said it makes her feel good to help people. It made me realize how important doing for others can really affect young kids and teenagers who need to physically be a part of volunteering and get a "feel" for helping others.

Looking forward to sharing this Sunday with you and your children.

Have a great rest of your week!

Lisa Dresner Wais

Morah Levinson Hebrew Update

Dear Hebrew Families, 

I am very impressed with how hard the kids worked on their reading this week! It is wonderful to see the determination and motivation they have to improve their reading skills. We continued working with our Hasefer books, played reading "popcorn", and the students also challenged each other by working with flashcards in small groups.

During tefillah on Tuesday, we rehearsed for our upcoming Shabbat program together with Hazzan Propis and Assistant Cantor Gutman. The children have practiced very hard for this special evening; we hope to see all of our families this Friday, November 7th! 

B'shalom, 

Dona Levinson

Kitah Hey Update

Dear Parents,

As the students entered our classroom they were greeted again by our Matriarch Sarah. She brought along Abraham and Hagar. They offered the children food, drink, and a nice comfortable place to sit after Abraham washed their feet. They then proceeded in telling the kids a Story about 3 angels that visited them the week before. Each Angel had a specific missio: one to visit Abraham for he was recovering from Surgery (Teaching the Mitzvah of Bikkur Cholim), the Second to reveal to Sarah that she will have a Son, and the Third to warn Abraham about Gods plan to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gemorrah.

Abraham showed the kids how the Mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim ( hospitality) is a very important Jewish Value. Welcoming Guests is not just greeting someone who comes to your home, but also includes being inclusive with friends not tolerating bullying, being friendly and being happy and appreciative with what we have.

This week we began our Shabbat Unit focusing on Candle lighting. When then Shabbat candles are lit at home your kids shared their feeling of being Relaxed, Cozy, Peaceful, Happy, Calm, and Good. They learned that we light two candles because keeping Shabbat is mentioned twice in the Torah.

Wishing you and your families a Peaceful Shabbat and hope you can join us Friday night at TGIS!

Cillia Kleiman

Morah Schlussel Hebrew Update

Dear Parents,

As always we began our day on Sunday and Tuesday with Teffilah.

On Sunday, under the direction of Cantor Gutman, we included a review of the Teffilot (prayers) and Brachot (blessings) we will be chanting at the Friday night TGIS prayer service and dinner.

On Tuesday Hazan Propis was able to join us during Teffilah .We are making good progress in our reading program. My 4th grade students are continuing to work in our Kol Yisrael 1 book.

My 5th and 6th graders are working in their Kol Yisrael 2 book.We are continuing to review the letters and vowel combinations and slowly building them into words.One important vowel and letter combination we reviewed was the chet and patach vowel (the vowel that makes the "ah" sound) under it. Ask your child what sound it makes when it is in the beginning or middle of a word and what sound it makes at the end of a word.

We are looking forward to a very exciting and busy weekend at Shaarey Zedek. This Friday night is a special TGIS program. Our students will be leading the prayers and brachot at the service and dinner. We are fortunate to have a special sholar in residence, Dennis Praeger You can still make your reservations if you haven't. Sunday, our school will be joining Jewish Family Service for the Fall Fix Up. 

It is a wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning as a family and you will be doing an important mitzvah too!

 

Looking forward to seeing all of you this weekend.

Toby Schlussel

Dear 7^th grade families,

This past week we wrapped up our unit on B’tzelem Elohim. As we mentioned last week, our learners are participating in an Anti-Defamation League initiative called “No Place for Hate.” As part of this initiative, we will create three projects throughout the year that address inter-personal societal issues. Last week we spent time on our first project: filming short skits that show how hate has negative consequences. The students had a lot of fun making these videos that will be edited to form a public service announcement. We also came up with our other two projects and we look forward presenting our work to the community in the coming months.

This week we introduced our new unit, Tzaar Baalei Hayyim (literally, the suffering of animals) and began discussing the ethical treatment of animals in Judaism. We read about and discussed our responsibility toward animals in the contexts of animals we eat, animals that work for us, and animals in our possession. For example, not only are we commanded to rest on Shabbat, but we are required to allow our work animals to rest on Shabbat as well! Even though the students didn't love hearing about it, we also learned that animals killed for food according to the laws of kashrut are slaughtered in the fastest and most pain-free way possible. We finished the class with a debate about vegetarianism – if the first humans were given only vegetables to eat, does that mean that a vegetarian diet is the ideal? Students chose a side, researched their position and had a debate on the issue. Ask your kids about it!

As you may have heard, we are taking a field trip to the Detroit Zoo on Sunday, November 16. We are excited to learn about animal conservation and ethical treatment happening in our own city. See the flyer below with more details about our field trip.

Have a wonderful weekend and a Shabbat Shalom!

Rachel and David

TURN IT AND TWIST IT...

For those of you wanting a one word description of what we do in our class every week, I would have to say TORAH.  The Torah teaches us the skills we need to be a partner with GOD.    We learn Jewish values to help us live a Jewish life from the Torah, and most importantly, the Jewish people live for the Torah.  In our core class, we spend quite a bit of time turning and twisting the words in the Torah to help us understand the importance of living a Jewish life in a non-Jewish world.   The Torah challenges us to think and to take responsibility for our actions, and  no matter how often we study, speak, teach, say, learn, or live Torah, there is always more to explore.  We are teaching our students to turn the Torah over and over, in order to better understand the words passed on from generation to generation.  The take away every week, is we are created in GOD’s image, and we are here as GOD’s partner.   The stories are great, the imagery even better, but most importantly, it is the values we learn from the Torah that really stick with us.

We have been talking about being created in GOD’s image (Betzelim Elokim) and being created with the ability to make our own decisions.  We have free will and GOD has empowered us to use this freedom to make good choices.  Please ask your children to share the idea of doing the right thing even when they are confronted with wanting something that does not belong to them. 

Hiddur Mitvah (6th Grade)

Dear 6th Grade Parents,

This week we reviewed the concept of הידור מצווה (Hiddur Mitzvah) which we define as enhancing our performance of a mitzvah (a divine commandment).  We then continued making center pieces which we will be using for the upcoming TGIS Shabbat dinner at Congregation Shaarey Zedek November 7th (this Friday night). As you know, in making these center pieces we are enhancing our upcoming community Shabbat celebration thereby performing a הידור מצווה.

We look forward to seeing you and your families for this special Shabbat service and diner.

Best, 

Morah Hollenberg

Kitah Bet Update

Dear Parents,

Thank you for being part of our Havdallah workshop yesterday with artist Gail Kaplan. Your  children created beautiful Judaica. We will continue learning about the Havdallah service in preparation for our November 22 program. More details will  follow on this in the coming weeks.

We continued our Torah study yesterday learning about  parsha  Lech l'cha. I told your children I would begin e-mailing  a riddle  to you for them to answer and either e-mail the answer back to me or write it out on a piece of paper and bring it to class. These riddles will reinforce what we learned about  in class. They will be rewarded when they answer the riddles whether or not they are answered correctly.

I will send the riddles in another e-mail, subject will read kitah bet riddle.

We missed Bella and Sari on Sunday. Hope to see everyone on Tuesday.

Davida 

Kitah Vav - What do Monsters Inc and Judaism have in common?

Hello all! We had a FANTASTIC Sunday this week!  T he kids first got to talk about what they would bring if they had to suddenly leave home in the middle of the night.  We were discussing how in Lech Lecha (the previous Shabbat's Torah portion), Abraham was told by God to leave and go somewhere that God would show him. Where? What?  All he knew was he had to go.  It is funny to teach and ask the same question years apart.  About 10 years ago the kids said things like : my Gameboy or Walkman.  90% of the kids said "my phone."  Avery was perhaps the smartest. She added "and my charger!" :)  Hey: I can't judge. Let me be clear: the baby albums and wedding photos would not be on the top of my list. And this has nothing to do with my love for my children. I am a practical gal: my glasses, cash, orthotics (can't walk without em), and some chocolate.  I can roll with whatever comes my way as long as I can see, walk, and eat chocolate.!

The Sam Squared Dynamic Duo then taught us during mifgash.  The fellas had a great quote from Robin Williams and a funny joke.  They then had our activity as the "Hillel Challenge."  The kids had to hold the 1 footed pose for as long as they could.  Only 4 made it to 3 minutes: abs of steel!

We spent a brief minute going to the beginning of our text, and discussing the first few lines of Vayera.  Now we have been working on this since September, and we are only 13 lines in, but WOW do we know the text, and YET!  There was something new. Saturday, we will read Vayera in our regular Torah reading.  Last Saturday night, during Mincha, we began reading the text. Rabbi Starr told us that the first line says "God appeared" and a few lines in, we see Abraham rushing to help the Angels.  Why are these lines juxtaposed?  He said because when we help others, we are doing  God's work.  I had never heard this explanation o f the text, and it was wonderful to show the kids that we can ALWAYS learn something new in Torah. It is what makes it so wonderful.  And as a side note: Saturday night mincha/maariv service is lovely. It is about 1 hour and 15 minutes, there is a 15 minute study and nosh break in the middle, in which you have one on one clergy to congregant learning, there is a beautiful havdallah service after, and it is totally kid friendly. Try it sometime: you'll like it!

We revisited our section of text on Sarah laughing.  When we read closely, we saw that God relayed the story of what Sarah did to Abraham, BUT BUT God told the story a bit differently. He left out the portion where Sarah basically said "what: me have a kid with that old geezer! Like that's gonna happen!"  Why did he lie? The rabbis tell us: Shalom Bayit. Peace in the house.  Is it ok to lie? to tell a white lie?  There are texts upon texts of rabbinical literature on this, but all I can say is: God did it. And the next time the inlaws are over, that is my excuse ! "Why yes: lovely to see you!" :) The children were fairly divided on the issue of white lies.  Apparently, it is ok to tell them to parents.  You know: Shalom Bayit and all!

We then moved on to discuss the laughing and we began with how ridiculous it is for a woman of Sarah's age to be pregnant.  I  read them 3 ridiculous biblical stories! So ridiculous that they seem absurd. The kids had to find out which were the true ones and which was the lie.  Well: they were all in the TANAKH. The lie was that one was a lie!  The kids found this funny. Who knew?  Pooping and peeing and collecting foreskins to marry someone in the TOrah? That book reads like a Captain Underpants novel sometimes.  BUt hey: it is what gets the kids interested. :)  2 kids thought that Sarah laughed because she thought the whole thing was ridiculous, and they thought that she might be mocking God.  The rest of the class thought that she laughed because she was just uncomfortable and nervous and it was an involuntary emotional reaction.  We talked about how God LIED for Sarah to Abraham. So if he lied to make her homelife better, was God offended?  Probably not.  

Finally, we watched a little Monsters Inc.. and talked about the value of laughter and the value of laughter in Judaism.  One of our mitzvoth is cheerfulness.  Yes: it is a mitzvah to be cheerful.  So the kids had a mission to go out and this week, in the face of maybe not being so happy all the time, to put on a smiling face for others.  We shall see.

HAve a great week and see you Friday night for our wonderful religious ed Shabbat program.

On a final note: PLEASE ask your child to bring in Minecraft app on their tablets or phones for the next Sunday we meet. No kidding: we are going to do something with Minecraft. T he free version is totally fine!

- Morah Leah