Hebrew school went well.

[xiphias]

Tamara had prepared a mosaic art project -- glue squares of paper to paper to make a sukkot related picture. I prepared a few other things. After the art project, we sat on the floor and I handed out fourteen sheets of paper, each with a name on it. It was the seven Ushpanizim and seven women who I chose as Ushpanot. So it was Avraham, Ytizchak, Yaakov, Yoseph, Moshe, Aharon, and David, and Sarah, Rachel, Leah, Rivka, Miriam, Ruth, and Esther. We talked a bit about who those people were, and then each kid chose a piece of paper and drew a picture of that person.

I was surprised at how well it came out. We got a picture of Avraham smashing some idols, David fighting Goliath, Miriam watching over a baby in a basket on the Nile, Aharon talking to someone, Moshe on the top of Mount Sinai with a voice coming out of the clouds saying, "Hey, dude," a picture of Ruth just standing there. And a picture of a goldfish in a bowl. Okay, they can't all be winners. "No. Ya'akov did not have a pet fish." "How do you KNOW he didn't have a fish? LOTS of people have fish..."

In the second half, we had the kids glue Sukkot-related words into their notebooks and copy them five times. For writing practice. Then I handed out some sheets with nonsense words in Hebrew to practice decoding, and then we played a game.

"Zeh eeparon." "Mah zeh?" "Eeparon." "Mah zeh?" "Eeparon." "Oh! Eeparon!"

It went over well.

After Hebrew school, people stuck around to decorate the Sukkah, but I just came home because I want to build one for myself.

Comments

[tikva.livejournal.com]

"Hey, dude."

Lo, I am slain. *giggles*

And I love the game. :)

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Lots of people have fish, but he had speckled sheep...

Why do I immediately picture the worried fish from The Cat in the Hat?

Next week, you could get them to write Jacob stories in the style of Dr Seuss.

Jacob and Esau:
"I am starving to death,
Jacob, what have you got?
Give me some of your dinner,
your stuff-in-a-pot."

Or the poly-friendly story of Jacob and Leah and Rachel:
"I have served seven years, Laban,
that was a bore,
and now you're telling me that
I serve seven more?"

Or the story about Joseph and his brothers:
"And that was Not Good,
not a nice kind of play,
selling brothers as slaves
on a hot summer day!"

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

:)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

If you write it, I bet you could sell it. . .

[papersky.livejournal.com]

It somehow doesn't seem kind, as it's part of lots of people's real religions but only stories to me.

I once wrote a poem about Mary Magdalene, in response to someone asking why she wasn't considered an apostle, (girl cooties) and what did she do anyway, after, and I put the poem on my web page, because that's what I was doing with poems round about then, and every Easter I get email from Christian ministers wanting permission to use it in their sermons, and every Easter I feel all weird about it. I feel as if I ought to back away saying "Sorry, sorry, I forgot this one was still alive when I poked at it..."

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

You're completely within the midrashic tradition, and I don't think there's any need for you to back away at all. You can let the Christian ministers quote you, or not, as you please. If it makes you feel better, you can tell them you're not a Christian, but that really doesn't matter. The story spoke to you, you responded with another story some Christian thought was worthwhile and wants to quote...nobody is likely to draw another conclusion from the situation.

A few years ago, I was involved with one of the rather free-form women's study groups that tend to spring up around vaguely liberal congregations. This is not your mother's Sisterhood. (Ian, this is why I have a copy of _Four Centuries of Jewish Women's Spirituality_) The group felt silly with ritual, and set out to write midrash, and stumbled to a halt right there. Because a few people knew how and why one wrote midrash...it was so obvious, you just...um...er...how to explain it? And the rest of the group was completely at a loss. And I happened to have _Hyperion_ in my backpack. (Dan Simmons, not John Keats.) So I marked Rachel's story and passed it around. "Oh, THAT'S what you mean!"

These days, of course, I'd probably go online and point people to Daegaer. But this was the early 1990s, and online information was less accessible most places.

[goljerp]

Midrash is great. For me, it's totally obvious why one would write midrash -- it's a way of explaining the Torah. Of expanding the Torah. Of looking at it from a different perspective. And that's what it's all about, isn't it? Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it (Pirke Avot)

Midrash can be contradictory. Midrash can be visual. In my opinion, Midrash is incredibly easy to do -- good Midrash is what's hard. In my opinion, any time anyone retells Tanakh, in their own words, it's midrash. (This is, admittedly, a quite expansive view of it...)

I could keep on gushing, but I've got to get going...

[mitchellf.livejournal.com]

Midrash is also weird and contradictory. So, do Jews believe in reincarnation or not? On Midrash says yes for the "soul is recycled by G-d," another Midrash says no for "once the soul leaves the body it rejoins G-d in the 7 Heavens" and a third Midrash recounts a story of a Rabbi who wanted to know what happened to the soul after death, and a "Bat-Kol" (a Heavenly Voice) calls down to him that people are never allowed to know what the after-life brings.

And while we're on the topic, how many Heavens are there? Some Midrashim say 7, some say 1, some say none, some are unsure, and some have an opinion but can't seem to express it in any way that people can understand. What's the catch-phrase here? 2 Jews = 3 opinions? ;-)

[goljerp]

Midrash is also weird [....]

Indeed, especially with my really broad definition. Even with more restrictive definitions of Midrash, it includes forms which we, as modern people, aren't really familiar with. Many people have a hard time getting into some of the traditional Rabbinic Midrashic forms. Perhaps that's because they were originally intended as some sort of sermon. Perhaps that's because the forms assume a far greater familiarity with the text than we have now. Perhaps it's just a matter of familiarity with the form. Then, on the other side of things, you get Modern midrash, which could be some off-putting postmodern thing which purports to be about, oh, the dream Abraham has after the weird passage with the cut-up sacrifices.

For me, though, weird is not necessarily a negative thing.

Midrash is also [...] contradictory

Now, the contradictory part of Midrash is part of what I love the most about it. Maybe I exposed myself to Gilbert and Sullivan too much growing up. Perhaps we can pin the blame on Douglas Adams (of blessed memory). Or on the Hitchiker's infocom game... but I love the fact that Midrash can be contradictory. That means that there can be no limit to new Midrash! There's a great Midrash[1] about how Sara died immediately after the binding of Isaac, crying out like the sound of a shofar. However, that shouldn't stop you if you've come up with a great Midrash about how Issac had one last, poignant meeting with his mother Sara before she died. And it doesn't stop me from writing a great Midrash about how Issac was so traumitized by his experience that he had to go off into the wilderness by himself for several years, to the point that his father Abraham became worried about him and so made arrangements to get a wife for him...

I don't read Midrash to get the answer. I read Midrash to get an answer. After all, this isn't law, where you can't have contradictory laws.[2]

So, do Jews believe in reincarnation or not?

Yes. Jews definitely believe in reincarnation or not. No, wait, some Jews don't definitely believe in reincarnation or not. Sorry.

To be less flippant, remember we're talking about a religion with thousands of years of history. And one with many different traditions, from rational to mystic. And one which was influenced by and reacted to the beliefs of surrounding people at various times. In general, Jews are more concerned with what happens now, in this life, and less with what happens after death. So I still haven't answered your simple, yes or no question. I think I'd have to say that it depends on the Jew, and it depends upon the definition of "Reincarnation" that you're using. Do the majority of Jews believe Reincarnation? I'd guess not, but I could be wrong.

how many Heavens are there?

That one I'm not even touching. :-)

What's the catch-phrase here? 2 Jews = 3 opinions?

Indeed. At least 3 opinions.

[1] Well, OK, actually it's three different Midrashes (Midrashim), with somewhat different details: Pirke d'Rabbi Eliezer, ch. 32, Tanchuma, Va-yera, 23, and Va-yikra Rabbah 20:2 -- I found these references in Avivah Zornberg's The Beginning of Desire, pg. 123.
[2] Well, OK, this is Judaism, and you can have contradictory laws. But I'm trying to make a point, here!

[mitchellf.livejournal.com]

All of this I am more than familiar with--especially after that class on Midrash I took at Midreshet Lindenbaum (girls version of Rabbi Brovender's Yeshiva) in Israel back in the 92-93 school year. I like Midrash, but I also find it hard to fathom (which was probably the point). I also know (from my study of the Talmud) that the rabbis of the Mishna (around the 6th century) created the Books of Midrash because they felt that all of these stories had divinely-inspired merit and should be considered, in some ways, holy--even if they do contradict themselves.

Not only that, but I know that the Midieval rabbis continued to create Midrashim (seeing them as Kabbalistic writings), and thus created the Agadata (Midrashic story) portion of the Gemara--containing stories such as the one about Titus dying because a mosquito eats out his brain (my favorite--it appears in the tractate of Gittin), and quite a few about Jesus (most of which were not very complimentary, and went through a name change due to some pesky Inquisitors and Crusaders). In a sense, giving us leave to create new Midrashim today.

The truth is, as has been pointed out to me several times by Vekson112, Judaism (like all the major religions) is filled with contradictions. Even some of our laws contradict one another (or, at least, seem to on many occasions). Part of the problem with our laws is that, with the exception of the few indisputable ones which were written in the Torah and are agreed upon by *most* authorities, most of the laws we uphold as "halacha" today were designated by rabbinical arguments in the Talmud, and, even though the resulting compromises of those arguments are never mentioned *in the Talmud,* the rabbis of the Shulchan Aruch and the Mishna Brurah were nice enough to write down the "laws" for us (granted, the two of them disagree quite often as well).

Unfortunately, this means that many of the laws we practice today are based off of arguments. Granted, most Jews have embraced this (just step into any Yeshiva's Bait Midrash, or watch people study the Talmud), however, as Vekson112 has pointed out, how do we know that the laws which we follow today are correct? And the answer is "we don't." How can we know? We can't. But, we *can* follow the laws that the Medieval rabbis set down, and hope that, since they were closer to the actual giving of the Torah, they might have been closer to correct. But, this is one of the reasons that Judaism is so contradictory (for instance: we don't turn on and off lights on Shabbat, however, it's okay to use a timer, and it's okay to turn a light switch into the "off" position, if the light is already off)--and I'm not even going to try to discuss Minhagim (Traditions).

if you write this

[deerdancer22.livejournal.com]

I think humor is G-d's gift to us to keep our heart open so Dr. Seuss Bible is great.

[goljerp]

I don't have the cite right now, but I used to have a book which was just silly poems about various bits of the Torah. And some art, as well. So it has been done before... so you could do it better!

[goljerp]

whups, this was supposed to be a response to Xiphius' response If you write it, I bet you could sell it. . .

teaching

[deerdancer22.livejournal.com]

You are truly an inspired teacher. If you ever want to take your blogs and turn them into an activities book for Hebrew Schools, I'd be happy to help!

Sorry! :-(

[mitchellf.livejournal.com]

I'm soooo sorry. I had meant to email you, or post, or something, just to get those Hebrew game ideas to you, and I forgot. :-(

Anyway, here's what I found when I looked back in my Rashi School notes: Rabbi R. really only did games involving Rashi script (since the 6th & 7th graders were just starting to learn the Rashi commentaries along with the Torah). So, my notes really only show some of the projects he did--like building a shul (the kids were split into groups, they had to build a shul--complete with floor plans--and label each part of the shul in both English and Hebrew. I was amazed to see that some of the kids actually included an ezrat Nashim (women's section) to their shuls. :-) But, then again, they may have done so for extra-credit), making models of the Teiva (Noah's Ark), and a model of the Bait HaMikdash (the Temple). They also made banners to represent the 12 tribes.

However, as far as Hebrew games go, I was able to find several in the largest of the local Jewish book stores (Shabsi's). The games are imported from Israel and range in price from $10-$15. I saw a matching game of opposites (in vs out; up vs down); a Hebrew letter board game; a bracha game; a holiday game; and a few others. If you want, I can pick up a couple for you and bring them to Boston when I get there at the end of October (29th - Nov. 1).

Oh, and I also had another idea for you: in order to teach them how to tell time in Hebrew, you could create a game. Make a large cardboard clock with moveable hands. Then create cards that show a picture of the clock hands in a specific position, but have the time written out in Hebrew underneath. Have the students read the Hebrew, then translate it to English and change the hands on the big clock to match the picture. Would something like that work for you? 'cause I'm sure I could come up with some other ideas, too, if I just put my mind to it. :-)

Well, good luck with the teaching, and the game you used is a great one! :-) Did you know that there's also a version of "The Wonder Ball" in Hebrew? And there's always "Ha Kosot Orot" (the Cups Rotate).

Anyway, let me know about the board games. Vekson and I will be driving up to Boston, so there will definitly be room for them in the car.