Morah Gawel Class Update

Hi all -

It is hard to believe that we are closing in on Passover.  While I am happy for sunshine and some chocolate covered matzoh - the thought of cleaning the house for Passover and cooking is terrifying. How HOW HOW did we get to "almost Passover?" 

Luckily, we are - fortuitously, I might add (because it is our curriculum and not holiday based learning)- we are learning the Exodus story.  So the kids should be "on it" for the Seder.  Ask your son or daughter to tell the story of Moses and the Jewish people.

For a little change of pace, we went into the youth lounge for a Frozen sing off. the kids had to go up in groups or solo and sing the " Let It Go song."  I would like to add that while we had many brave and talented souls up on stage, NO BODY can send it home like Adam Arnold. Yasher Koach!  That boy has some lungs.

Why? you might ask did we have a Frozen Sing Off? No: we were not auditioning for the new Zoolander 2 movie, but we were getting in the spirit for our lesson.  We talked about how Anna and Elsa represent different kinds of people. One is a person of action and the other of inaction. Elsa is scared by her powers, so she locks herself up in a room and later she runs away. Anna, however, is a person of action.  She has NO plan, NO skills, and NO help at the outset, but she decides to go and save her sister.  She is brave. She has a goal. She believes in a higher power. Sound like anyone we know???

We read the parting of the Reed Sea story in our Torah.  There, the Jews are at the water's edge, the Egyptian army is closing in on them, and the Jews start complaining to Moses.  Moses, who does not know what to do, prays to God. God says, and I quote (not really.,.) " MOSHE: GET UP OFF OF YOUR  KNEES AND STOP PRAYING AND DO SOMETHING!" .. This is a very clear moment in the Torah where God says "DO DO DO DO DO something."  As Jews, we are a people of action.  We don't fall on our knees to pray, we do not lie prostrate on the floor to pray, we WRESTLE.. we DO.  God gives us mitzvot to make sure that we are reminded constantly to DO DO DO.

I told the kids the midrash (interpretative rabbinic literature) of Nachson. Ask your son or daughter to tell you about Nachson and ask them when the sea parted. How far in the water was Nachson?

Last year I remember a rabbi telling me about a sign he saw on the marquis of a church. It read "Pray to God. AND SWIM TO SHORE."  I loved this aphorism.  We must pray to God. And God will help us. But first, we must do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE that we can to achieve our goal. God is our partner, but we have our part in that partnership. We must be an active partner.

And with that, I am getting OFF OF MY DESK CHAIR to be productive.

Have a fabulous day,

Morah Leah