Hebrew Update

Dear 4th - 6th grade families, 

 On Sunday, the 6th graders practiced reading the prayer Ain Kamocha - אין כמוך. This is one of the very first prayers we say leading up to the Shabbat morning prayer service. This prayer describes God as the eternal Ruler of the Jews, and also helps to set the stage for us to receive the Torah, as if we ourselves were at Mount Sinai with Moses. We had a discussion about why we praise God rather than the Torah, and the kids had very good ideas. Ask them to share their thoughts on this with you. After we practiced reading each line several times, we read and discussed their meanings. We sent a copy of the prayer home with each child so that they may practice it at home.

 We finished our first cycle of the Chugim (electives) and will start our new cycle next Sunday.

 The 4th and 5th graders continued reading and learning the blessings - ברכות that we say over various types of food and drink, and reviewed the 6 words that form the blessing "formula".  Afterwards, we learned an important rule -- most Hebrew words are built on "roots". A root usually is made up of 3 letters (not vowels) that form the foundation for related words. We read and reviewed many different words, and the kids then had to figure out what the words meant based on their roots. One of the words we learned was Amen - אמן, which is the root word in אמונה - "faith". The skill of identifying root words, is the foundation for understanding the meanings of many Hebrew words.

 On Tuesday, the 6th graders had another wonderful "Torah Lab" session. The Torah Lab is designed to allow each student the opportunity to become familiar with the Torah service and procedures, so that they will be prepared for their upcoming bar and bat mitzvot. This week the focus was on learning the different honors that happen during the Shabbat service: Gabaim (checkers, editors), Hagbah and Galilah (lifting and dressing the Torah), Aliyot, opening and closing the Aron Hakodesh, putting the tallit on the bar or bat mitzvah, and the Torah processional before and after reading from the Torah. The students really enjoyed learning about and participating in all of the honors, and we will continue to work on them over the next few weeks.

 The 4th and 5th graders learned and practiced reading several lines from different blessings that contained the 6 letter blessing formula. We also worked on reading different letter and vowel combinations in our HaSefer books. We will continue to incorporate this helpful book into our weekly routine, as it gives the kids a great opportunity to perfect their letter and vowel recognition. They all did great job, and with every day that passes it is obvious that their reading skills are improving :)

 Have a restful Shabbat with your loved ones, and we will see you on Sunday!