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This is the Ta Shma Weekly Newsletter, a publication for the Beit Rabban Day School Community.
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May 18, 2018/4 Sivan  5778
Head of School 
Weekly Message

Dea r Beit Rabban Community,

Shavuot has so many different traditions, stories and minhagim associated with it. Our children have been studying many of these and connecting them to their personal lives. The story of Rabbi Akiva's disciples treating each other without compassion has led to a friendship focus throughout the Omer period in some classes. The midrash about how Har Sinai was chosen for Matan Torah inspired our Pre-K class to dedicate their own special "Har Sinai" on the highest hill in Central Park. Some of our older students studied Bikkurim, the ceremony in which farmers would bring their first fruit to the Beit Hamikdash in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. They then made their own "Bikkurim" baskets representing the learnings and accomplishments they have amassed this year.

I especially connect to the tradition of the Bikkurim ceremony when I prepare for Shavuot. Bikkurim is a biblical requirement, and the Book of Deuteronomy instructs that upon bringing first fruit to the Temple, each person would offer a standardized recitation to the priest: " My father   was a wandering   Aramean,   and he went   down   to Egypt   and sojourned  there,   few   in number;   but there   he became   a great,   mighty   and populous   nation..." This story is just as much ancient history to us today as it was to the Jewish farmers of the Second Temple period. How could it have seemed remotely relevant to these farmers after traveling distances to to recognize God's blessings in the first fruit of their harvests? Maybe the mitzvah of Bikkurim is not exclusively meant to appreciate the role God plays in our successes. It may also be intended to help us appreciate all those who came before us, whose investments allowed us to reap the fruit of a bountiful harvest. In the case of Second Temple farmers, they were meant to appreciate all those ancestors upon whose shoulders they stood, starting from the very beginning of the Israelite community with a wandering Aramean.

Like our Second Temple ancestors (and the Beit Rabban third graders) who use the holiday of Shavuot as a moment to appreciate all the bounty they have amassed over the year, I also reflect back on a year of plenty. It try to be mindful that my successes are built on the investments of so, so many others and to be grateful for all they have done to bring me to this day.

Wishing all a restful and rejuvenating Shabbat and Chag Sameach,
Stephanie
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Mazal Tov!
  • To Irit Langer, Ivrit teacher in Garinim Lavan and beyond, on the college graduation of two of her children!
Thank You!
  • To Marty Fine for generously welcoming Gan Katom to Amsterdam Burger to learn about the restaurant business as part of their emergent curriculum focused on cooking!

We pray for the complete healing, refuah shelemah, for:
  • Shira Ilana bat HaRav Dina v'Eliezer, Beit Rabban alum Shira Cohler-Esses.
  • Sarah Leah bat Yocheved Ruth, mother of Jennifer Taviv and grandmother of Ariela in Shorashim and Temima in Alim.
  • David Uri ben Aviva, father of incoming Gan Adom student.
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