Tikvat Israel Congregation

Atid Learning Center Update Feb. 1, 2017

Shalom Atid Families,
 
Please remember to RSVP for Youth Shabbat by February 6!
 
Junior Congregation and Minyan Yeledim are this weekend, see you there! (Details, see bottom of email.)
 
This week I would like to linger on last week’s Parsha a bit longer to explore a timely discussion.  We read that God told Moses to speak to Pharoah and ask him to let the Israelites go and Moses responds “The Israelites would not listen to me; how then should Pharoah heed me, a man of impeded speech.( Exodus 6:12)”  Literally, the translation of impeded speech is uncircumcised lips which is a a synonym for slow of speech and slow of tongue.  Moses had a speech impediment!  How fascinating that the person chosen to lead the Jewish people had a disability.  There is much that can be parsed from this physical trait but what I take from it is that anyone can be a strong leader.  God calls upon Aaron to help Moses with the speaking roles.  How is this timely?  February is Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion month.
Your children likely know people with disabilities or may have their own disabilities. It is important to help children understand and have empathy for those with disabilities.
 
Family conversation:
Judaism teaches “Do not separate yourself from the community” (Pirke Avot 2:5), what does this say about how we treat people with disabilities?
How can we each be more accepting of those with disabilities?
Jewish books for children to stimulate conversations on disability awareness
 
Your partner in Jewish learning,
Luisa

Kitah Alef (K-2)
Teacher: Limor Dahan

Today we:
-we reviewed the shema
-decorated a framed Shema to put on your child’s nightstand
-talked about when we say the shema, every morning and night before going to bed
-The kids will use this be leading this prayer on Youth Shabbat on February 11.
-practiced prayers and songs for Youth Shabbat.
-learned the word

Kitah Bet (3-4)
Teacher: Meirav Shahar

Today we:
-recited the Shema and talked about the meaning of it.
-had a rehearsal for our Youth Shabbat that will take place on Saturday 2/11.
-worked on the Shema and the letter Ayin in our Hebrew books (pages 56-60).
-introduced a new vowel- the Chirik (ee sound).
-started to work on our arts and crafts project which will be a Shema prayer in a decorated wooden frame. Most of the children wanted to take their time with it, so we will finish in coming sessions.

Our tzedakah total as of today: $210.03!….Lets keep that going!

“cloud’ in Hebrew, (annan), we did an annan activity where the kids had to connect the Hebrew letters in alphabetical order
-explored more about the Torah – who writes the Torah? what kind of paper the Sofer (scribe who writes the Torah) use? We learned that in the Torah we have stories of the Jewish people and laws that God gave us to live a Jewish life.

Kitah Gimel (5-6)
Teacher: Yosef Landy

Today we:
 – recalled times when we felt jealous, and what we did about it.
-We brainstormed ways to avoid feeling jealous, as well as preventing others from feeling jealous of us.
-wrote on slips of construction paper things we appreciate in our lives. The strips of paper were then glued to a poster cut-out in the shape of Joseph’s coat. 
-We rehearsed the prayers for the Youth Shabbat.
-read in the text about the IDF 
-Each student was assigned a branch in the IDF to read about. Then they said out loud what each branch was responsible for.
-The students were asked to state their opinions about which branch they thought was the most important one, along with which branch they’d want to join.
-After reading through the text, the class continued working on the poster that promotes Sherut Leumi (National Service) in Israel.

Questions:

1. In America, many Americans live materialistic lives. It seems that each person has to have a bigger house and nicer cars than the next person. How can we encourage the next generation to be happy with what they have? What are ways to demote this materialistic lifestyle for future generations? (How can people avoid being jealous of others, to prevent materialism from continuing to the next generations?)

2. What do you know about the branches in the IDF? Which one do YOU think is the most important one? Why?

 Mark Your Calendar: