HEY 1 & 2 (Sun/Wed)
MARY’S LETTER
Dear Hey 1 and 2 (5th-grade) Parents,
I hope that this communication finds you all well.
It is my pleasure to provide you with a recap of what we have been learning.
Ivrit (Hebrew)
We continue to practice our Hebrew reading with the goal of improving accuracy and fluency. Our texts are both in modern Hebrew (short Hebrew stories as well as t’fillah Hebrew (Kedushah and the Kiddush).
Some of the things we have learned are the days of the week, the Hebrew months, numerical values of Hebrew letters, reading the Hebrew date, and answering the question “How are you,” with a variety of answers. We have also learned Hebrew numbers up to 2000, and we have even done some simple math problems, saying the solutions in Hebrew. Additionally, we have focused on discerning root words and saying simple Hebrew sentences.
Chanukah
Please ask your child what the word Chanukah means.
We have reviewed the Chanukah story and spoken about its historical context. Our discussion included why wars are fought and what kind of a war was fought in the Chanukah story. I asked my students what they would do if someone told them that they could no longer practice Judaism.
I am also beginning to work with my students on the timeline of Jewish history. Where does Chanukah fit? How long ago did it happen.What is BCE and what is CE?
Thank you for entrusting your children to us and for partnering with us.
We have much for which to be grateful. I wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families, and may this Chanukah bring you much light and joy.
L’hitraot,
Mary
SUSIE’S LETTER
Dear Parents of Hey 1 and 2,
Thank you for your participation in Multi Generations Day on Sunday!
It was very nice to see so many grandparents, parents and loved ones with our students sharing stories of their experiences in Jewish education and what their hopes were for our students’ education as well.
We were very happy to see you all and were delighted by the number of out of town grandparents and special guests who could participate in the morning because it was on Zoom.
We also loved how many of you played our Kahoot games and expressed your enjoyment and thanks for the experience!
You are all very welcome, it was our pleasure!
In Torah class, Adam and Eve have left the Garden and life has become difficult.
We learned about their two sons Cain and Abel and about the first murder/killing. I call it both a murder and a killing because some students felt that Cain might not have intended to kill his brother since no one had ever been killed before so he hadn’t known that it could happen. That is a fair point.
We have had very interesting discussions on God’s words warning Cain that he should learn to control his anger, otherwise things would not go well. The students shared some tips with each other on what worked for them in controlling anger and changing their mood from angry or sad to neutral or even happy. We all learned from those very helpful tips.
We will be continuing in our text study with Noah’s story next.
One of the questions we will discuss is “Is it more difficult to be a righteous man when you are surrounded by evil people? Many rabbis comment on the fact that Noah was “righteous in his generation”-implying that, compared to the others around him, he was righteous but he was only righteous relative to them and in any other generation he would not have stood out. On the other hand, there are those commentators that say that it is more difficult to be a righteous man when surrounded by evil.
This usually generates good discussions and I hope my students will bring that home and you can weigh in on it with your thoughts.
As always, if you have any questions or comments on anything, please feel free to call me (late mornings and early afternoons are best) 612-916-8799. Or email me at schalom@talmudtorahmpls.org.
Happy Thanksgiving and Hanukkah !
Susie Chalom
HEY 3 (Tues/Thurs)
Dear Hey 3 (5th-grade) Parents,
I hope that this communication finds you all well.
It is my pleasure to provide you with a recap of what we have been learning.
Ivrit (Hebrew)
We continue to practice our Hebrew reading with the goal of improving accuracy and fluency. Our texts are both in modern Hebrew (short Hebrew stories as well as t’fillah Hebrew (Kedushah and the Kiddush).
Some of the things we have learned are the days of the week, the Hebrew months, numerical values of Hebrew letters, reading the Hebrew date, and answering the question “How are you,” with a variety of answers. We have also learned Hebrew numbers up to 2000, and we have even done some simple math problems, saying the solutions in Hebrew. Additionally, we have focused on discerning root words and saying simple Hebrew sentences.
Torah
It has been very exciting to begin our study of Torah. We spoke about what Torah is, what Tanach (Bible) is , and we learned the names of the 5 Books of the Torah in Hebrew and in English.
We also learned the first verse of the Torah by heart, in Hebrew.
Our focus this year will be the Book of Breishit, Genesis.
Some of the topics we have been speaking about so far are: being created in the image of God, the first mitzvah in the Torah, jealousy and our being the caretakers of the earth.
We have also spoken about midrash and its role in studying Torah.
Students have particularly enjoyed doing role plays of different scenes involving Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel.
Chanukah
Please ask your child what the word Chanukah means.
We have reviewed the Chanukah story and spoken about its historical context. Our discussion included why wars are fought and what kind of a war was fought in the Chanukah story. I asked my students what they would do if someone told them that they could no longer practice Judaism.
I am also beginning to work with my students on the timeline of Jewish history. Where does Chanukah fit? How long ago did it happen.What is BCE and what is CE?
Students have very much enjoyed some of the games we do at the end of each session.
Thank you for entrusting your children to us, and for partnering with us.
We have much for which to be grateful. I wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families, and may this Chanukah bring you much light and joy.
L’hitraot,
Mary