Things I've done yesterday and today:

[xiphias]

Met shadesong for the first time. And a whole bunch of other people whose LJ names I don't remember, although I do, more-or-less, remember their meat-names.

Discovered that the Rte. 1 miniature golf course was closed because of the rain, which was disappointing, because it looks like a really cool course.

Went bowling instead, with the aforementioned folks, and had a great time. It was the first time I'd ever bowled ten-pin --I bowled candlepin a few times when I was a kid, and enjoyed it, but haven't in decades.

Bowling is a whole lot of fun. I had a great time. I want to go bowling more often. And if I get reasonably good at ten-pin, I wanna switch up to candlepin. Because it's such a fun sport, at least when you're with a group of people who are just having fun and not worrying about if you're doing really well or not.

Then I tended bar for Reunion Week at Boston College. There were five bartenders at the event I worked, the Class of 1976. It was a WHOLE lot of fun -- all five of us were more-or-less in the weeds from 7 pm to 11:30 pm, and people were tipping. We pooled tips, and all five of us walked out of there with an extra $120. That's the second-best one-shift tip total I've EVER made.

And today was the last day of Hebrew school. Each class put together a little something to show what we've learned. My class put together a play. Although there were roles for all the kids in the class, Sam didn't show up, so Max ended up taking both the role of Narrator 2 and Narrator 3. (I always do that -- write roles for everyone, with some roles collapsible in case some people don't show up.)

The first hour of school we used to make props, go over lines, and so forth. Then, at 10:30 we all went upstairs and saw what everyone had learned.

Let me show you our play, and then I can tell you about some of the changes we made this morning. . .

*****************************

Kitah Bet/Gimmel Play about What We've Learned

Maddy: The one-footed jerk.
Jasmine: Mitzvah holder
Ben: Hillel
Jake Hat: Shammai
Jake Pencil: Narrator 1
Max: Narrator 2
Sam: Narrator 3
Gabe: Out-of-town person who isn't here

Narrator 1: This is a play about things that we know.
Narrator 2: It's a play about learning things.
Narrator 3: It's a play about knowing things.
Narrator 1: Some of it is true.
Narrator 2: Some of it we made up to make it a better story.
Narrator 3: Once, there were two rabbis named Hillel and
Shammai. They were best friends, and they disagreed
about almost everything.
Shammai: I think that, on Channukah, you should start with eight
candles, and take away one candle every night, so that
you always know how many days are left.
Hillel: I think that, on Channukah, you should start with one
candle, and add one every night, so you always get more
light as the holiday goes on.
Narrator 1: But they agreed about some things:
Shammai: Studying the Torah is really important.
Hillel: Yes, it is. And so is doing mitzvot.
Shammai: That's true. And you should show k'vod to the Torah.
Hillel: True. And you should also show k'vod to people.
Shammai: You're right.
Mitzvah: [MITZVAH]
Narrator 2: Once there was a person who thought it was really
fun to annoy people.
Jerk: You know what's really fun? Annoying people. Especially
FAMOUS people. And you know who's really famous?
Shammai. He's one of the best, most famous rabbis in the
whole world! Annoying him would be really fun.
Narrator 3: So the jerk went over to Shammai's house. He
thought about some ways that people show k'vod.
Mitzvah: [KVOD]
Narrator 1: You should try to not interrupt people when they're
really busy, unless it's an emergency.
Narrator 2: You should be polite when you talk to people.
Narrator 3: You should be respectful about important things.
Jerk: Hey! If I go over there when Shammai is busy, and then
I'm rude to him, and make fun of things which are really
important to him, I bet THAT will annoy him.
Narrator 1: So that's what she did.
Shammai: It's a nice day to be fixing my roof. Hey, if I fix my
house to make it all nice and quiet, does that mean I'm
doing Shalom Bayit?
Mitzvah: No, that's not what that means!
Shammai: I know, I was just making a joke. But it IS really
nice to have a roof that doesn't leak. It's hard work,
though -- I need to concentrate on this.
Jerk: It's very important to be respectful to rabbis -- it's
important to be respectful to EVERYONE, but especially
people who spend their whole lives learning and teaching
and helping people. So everyone treats Shammai with
respect. Not like this. .. HEY, SHAMMAI! GET YOUR BUTT
DOWN HERE! I GOTTA QUESTION!
Shammai: What?!? Grrrr! I should stay calm, maybe it's an
important question, and this person is just too upset to
be polite. . . Stay calm. .. .
Jerk: Hey, Shammai! Teach me the whole Torah while I stand on
one foot, and I'll become one of your students!
Narrator 2: Now, Shammai had spent his whole life studying
Torah.
Narrator 3: Shammai knew that he didn't know the whole Torah,
after years and years and years.
Narrator 1: This made Shammai very angry.
Shammai: You're just making fun of me! Not only that, you're
making fun of the Torah! Get out of here!
Narrator 2: And he chased the jerk away, using the cubit stick
in his hand.
Narrator 3: What's a cubit?
Narrator 1: It's this long [SHOWS A CUBIT]. But, because
everybody's cubit is different, because everybody's arms
are different, you choose one person's arm, and make a
stick that long, and that's what you use to measure
stuff. And that's why Shammai had a cubit stick.
Mitzvah: Shammai was angry, because the jerk wasn't showing
k'vod. [HOLDS UP K'VOD]. K'vod is like politeness, and
respect, and honor, and not embarrassing people.
Shammai: So, when I chased him away, that was Tzedek, right?
Because tzedek is justice and fairness and doing the
right thing.
Mitzvah: [holds up TZEDEK]. Well, maybe not. If you'd gone to
court and a court decided that you should chase him away,
that would be Tzedek, but because you were chasing him
mainly because you were angry, maybe it's not.
Shammai: Well, she was still a jerk.
Narrator 2: The jerk had so much fun making Shammai get totally
mad that she decided to do it again.
Jerk: That was fun! I got him so angry that he chased me with a
big stick! Well, a one-cubit-long stick, anyway. I
wonder who else I could do this to?
Narrator 3: Hillel's house was right nearby Shammai's, so the
jerk went over there.
Jerk: HEY HILLEL! COME OUT HERE! I GOTTA QUESTION!
Narrator 1: Hillel was taking a bath at the time, so he put on
his bathrobe and came outside.
Hillel: Hello. How are you? What is your question?
Narrator 2: Hillel was usually much calmer than his friend
Shammai, so the jerk knew that it would be harder to
upset him. But she thought she'd try, anyway.
Jerk: Hillel! Teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one
foot, and I'll become one of your students!
Hillel: Hmm. Give me a moment to think.
Narrator 3: Hillel tried to think about what he should do.
Hillel: She's not showing k'vod. To me, which doesn't really
upset me THAT much, but also to the Torah, and that DOES
upset me. Maybe I should get mad at her and chase her
away for not showing k'vod. But I bet that wouldn't
really help. Sometimes, Tzedek is the right thing to do,
but sometimes Chesed is.
Mitzvah: [holds up Chessed] Hillel wanted to show kindness, and
friendship, and mercy. So he wanted to give a good
answer to a rude question, instead of just chasing her
away for being rude. Sometimes, being nicer than the
other person is the right thing to do.
Hillel: Okay, stand on one foot.
Jerk: Um. . . .okay . . . .
Hillel: “If you wouldn't want someone to do it to you, don't do
it to someone else.” That's basically the whole Torah.
The rest of it is commentary. Now, you said that you're
my student now, so now I'm telling you to go and start
studying all that commentary!
Mitzvah: [holds up Talmid Torah] Studying Torah and Doing Torah
are both important.
Shammai: You have to study Torah so you know what to do, and
why.
Hillel: You have to DO Torah, because that's why you study it.
Jerk: Even if you know that the Torah is there to help make us
be better people, you still need to study it to find out
HOW to do that.

***********************

See, we knew Gabe was not going to be here -- he told us last week. Sam, we didn't know about, but, like I said, I prep for that situation.

So, during the morning, we made signs which said מצבה, קבוד, בית שלום, צדק, חסד, and תלמיד תורה. Except Maddy thought, and Jasmine agreed, it would be really funny if Jasmine also had a sign that said, "No, that's not what it means!" for her to hold up when she said that line. So we had THAT sign, as well. The kids made all the signs, except תלמיד תורה, which I made because we were running out of time. And because everyone had already made a sign by that point, except Maddy, who'd made two, since she did the "No, that's not what it means!" sign, as well.

They also made a cubit stick, and Ben used my trenchcoat as a bathrobe.

It went pretty well, although it would have gone better if the kids could Project From The Diaphragm, but that's okay, they're second and third-graders -- there's time for them to learn.

Comments

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's precious. I've yoinked it for memories.

[dancing-kiralee.livejournal.com]

It's depressing.

I don't have any way to take any one to court (even if I knew the rules)...

...and the only way I can think of to show kindness causes me a great deal of pain, and that can't be right.

Kiralee