HALLOWEEN WITH A JEWISH TWIST

As a whole, the Jewish community does not celebrate Halloween, but we do celebrate Purim! So, save those costumes and think about adding a Jewish twist or a tzedakah piece to your Trick or Treat Traditions.

While it is important to support our neighbors in their celebrations, and equally important to not separate ourselves from the community, there are many ways of participating in a custom without observing it the way others do. Some suggest Jewish children share in the celebration by greeting their neighbors and giving out candy. It is certainly possible for our children to get excited about giving to others, and then the underlying theme for them is that Halloween is about giving, and not getting.

A noted Rabbi and educator, Rabbi Jacob J. Hecht, once noticed the similarity between Purim and Halloween. In both cases, children get dressed up and go door to door receiving gifts of food. The distinction between the two is that on Halloween, the children only receive, whereas on Purim, the emphasis is that the children learn to give. The fact that they might receive in return is of secondary importance.

To reinforce the value of giving, and to encourage the act of helping others, we will be collecting all extra wrapped candy you have this week. Please talk to your children about giving to others, and help them turn an everyday moment into a Jewish Experience.

Candy will be collected all next week, please send your donations to class on Sunday or Tuesday. Candy does not need to be kosher to donate. Have a Great Shabbat and a wonderful weekend!

Happy Hebrew Birthday

On Sunday, many of the students had the opportunity to use the new interactive SMART board under the watchful eye of our new media specialist, Shaindle Braunstein. After working together in the classroom and learning about the lunar and solar calendars, the cycles of the moon, and the relationship between the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars, students used a perpetual Hebrew Calendar to find their Hebrew Birthdays. We compared the solar and lunar calendars and learned how to convert the current year into the Hebrew year.

After completing a variety of classroom activities, students proceeded to the Board Room where they used the SMART board to navigate around a several Jewish Websites. lt was really quite interesting to see how the Hebrew calendar, the Jewish holidays, the seasons, and the cycles of the moon are all related. Finally, many of the students had the opportunity to use the Internet to find their Hebrew birth date.

For homework, students were encouraged to visit the website Chabad.org and print out a Hebrew Birthday Certificate for Sunday. This is the site we used.

chabad.org/calendar/birthday_cdo/aid/6228/jewish/Jewish-Birthday.htm

Please visit the site with your family, and spend some time on the computer together. Have a great week, and enjoy the last little bit of fall together.

The Kitah Vav Top Ten

Many of our discussions in Kitah Vav center around the moral qualities and Jewish values which are thought to be the essence of all human relationships. These middot are considered essential for building a successful classroom community, and more importantly, nurturing the souls of our Kitah Vav students. These life lessons help to mold our students into kind and caring adolescents and responsible and observant adults. In our weekly discussion, students were asked to personally rank the following moral qualities in order of importance:

Shalom - Peace
Kavod - Respect and Honor
Bikur Cholim - Caring for the sick
Derech Eretz - Doing what is right
Tikkun Olam - Repairing the World
Hachnasat Orchim - Welcoming Guests
Bal Tash'heet - Caring for the environment
Gemilut Chasadim - Acts of Loving Kindness
Talmud Torah - Studying as a lifetime commitment
K'lal Israel - All Jews are responsible for each other
Tzedakkah - Sharing with others as an ongoing responsibility
Mitzvot - Doing things to value and respect Jewish traditions
Tzar Ba'alei Chaim - Caring for animals and kindness to animals

After the rankings, we tried to come up with a group consensus, and needless to say, it wasn't possible to all agree, but the top five across the classroom were Shalom, K'lal Israel, Mitzvot, Tikkun Olam, and Tzedakkah.

Take some time and discuss the rankings with your families. Which were your top five?

5770...THE YEAR THAT IS

It was wonderful meeting as a complete Kitah Vav community this week. Although our rotation schedule is still being tweeked (not twittered), all of our students had a chance to spend time with all three teachers, and we davened together at our Learners Minyan, practiced Hebrew Reading, learned to chant the Torah tropes, and talked about the cycles of the moon and the Hebrew calendar.

Our Hebrew calendar is based on the lunar cycle and the moon serves as our guide through time. When we enter the world, we start life anew, and slowly we grow through the different stages of life. Just as the moon progresses, first new, then a quarter, a half, and full, we grow from infancy to childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. And as the moon starts to decline, we too decline, as we slowly age and begin different stages in life.

The Hebrew calendar provides us a wonderful visual aide as we begin our Life Cycle units, the first being the passing of time, and how we chose to spend our time as we embark on our Jewish adventure to Bar and Bat Mitzvah...and beyond.

This month in our Life Cycle Rotation, we will continue the journey through time and we will travel through the Lunar and Solar calendars, explore the structure of the Hebrew calendar and learn to calculate the Hebrew year.

Question of the Week? Does time keep you or do you keep time?
Are you controlled by time, or do you have control of your time?

THE HEART OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE

Wow!

We had an awesome time dancing with the Torahs and celebrating Simchat Torah together. Mazel Tov to all of our students, as we had almost 100% attendance. We danced, sang, prayed, ate Hershey's Kisses, and studied together.

It was nice spending some time together in the classroom. In our classroom discussions, we talked about the different ways to read and study Torah, and we learned that we never finishing reading the Torah, we just finish chanting the last chapter, in time to begin all over again, in a never-ending, seamless fashion. There is always something new to learn, and always another way to interpret our ancient law, to make it meaningful to each and everyone of us.

We had the opportunity to meet together as a Kitah Vav Community, and unrolled a Torah Scroll. With the help of many of our students, we stretched the Torah Scroll across the hallway looking for familiar words and passages. We found the last word in the Torah, Yisrael, and then started reading all over again at the beginning, looking for the first word in the Torah, Bereshit.

The last letter of the Torah is a lamed, and the first letter is a vet or bet. When we put those two letters together, we get the word lev. Lev, in Hebrew, means heart. From this, we come to the conclusion that the Torah is the Heart of the Jewish People, and the Jewish People are the Heart of the Torah.

What do you think this means? Take some time to share your answers with your children this week. I am sure they have some wonderful answers.

Our regularly scheduled classes begin on Tuesday. Have a great week, and I look forward to seeing everyone in Southfield on Sunday.

DO YOU HAIKU?

It was so nice so see so many of our students at our Sukkot Sunday Celebration. On Tuesday, after talking about the mysteries of the lulav and the etrog, and sharing stories about the different types of Jews and the four species, students had time to visit the sukkah, say the blessings, and have a snack, fulfilling the Sukkot Mitzvot. We also talked about the commandment of inviting guests to visit us in the Sukkah. Finally, students wrote Haikus, Limericks, and poems to share with the class. Here are just a few...

Etrogs smell so good
Our lulav is so cool
Sukkot is so fun.

Cookies and candy
Sukkah hopping is so much fun
I hope it won;t rain.

In the sukkah
We get wet in the sukkah
And have a good time.

Sukkot
Saying the prayers
And enjoying the great food
Shaking the lulac and etrog up and down.
Sukkot

All cultures inside
My sukkah filled with people
All my friends inside.

The lulav isn't wide
The lulav is made of trees leaves
The myrtle are barely poking out
They like to hide

Sukkah
takes to long to build
hours of labor and work
It was so worth it.

Lulav and etrog
date, myrtle, willow, citron
Smelling very good

The etrog smelled good
The lulac shook very hard
Today is sukkot

Sukkot has full moons
On the 15th of Tishre
I see it at night

We made a sukkah
We gorgot to make a door.
We're stuck inside, HELP!

The etrog smells good
The date treee has no good smell
The willow shows lips

Lulav and etrog
Shake together in all ways
They are both so great

In my own sukkah
I had my long green lulav
And my own etrog