January 28, 2021
Parents consider question: If we could ask the Biden/Harris administration to focus on one are of tzedek, what would it be?

After a rousing Birkhot haShachar in which all families participated (kol ha cavod!) parents wasted no time coming up with a list for the new administration:

  1. making sure everyone has high quality health care throughout the country no matter their background;
  2. economic justice: fair distribution of wealth
  3. same access to education no matter background;
  4. criminal justice reform, police reform and social services; even the language of criminal justice;
  5. tzedek for the planet, the environment and the animals: hold companies responsible who are polluting our planet

All these ideas got our students thinking for the rest of the morning. It helped their thinking them to hear what was important to the parents!

After we said goodbye to our parents, we looked at and listened to children in our age group in NYC. These kids were asked what kind of tzedek they wanted to see from President Biden and Vice President Harris. (From the NY Times 1/17)
HEBREW AT HOME:
Our work on our Alef Bet and vowel sounds continue. Joon wondered about the "hey" that shows up at the end of the word and has no vowel sound-- or does it get melted into the previous letter. Ryan and Katie practiced saying "clothe the naked" in Hebrew in preparation for their piece of the Bikrhot HaShahcar. Elliot and Violet both showed their annotating skills with some of the Hebrew letter games.Jasper continued to sharpen his Torah reading for Ki Tissa!
TALMIDIM THINK ALOUD: WHERE DO WE THINK OUR WORLD NEEDS MORE TZEDEK?
Morot Emma and Alex made us a series of visuals to help us think together on line about where in the world we need more TZEDEK.

Starting in our own houses, we looked around at what we had and what we need to survive. Some of us got to do this by going on a scavenger hunt!

Using the visual above, we zoomed out and thought about tzedek needs in our town, our country and our world. Below are some examples of our thinking:

Tova brought up Black lives. She said that Black people are treated unfairly by white people, and get schools that are less nice and less money.

Rohin said that "we need to have fairness and to have everyone do their job in my town."

Jacksanna said that the tzedek she wants to see in her town is the same as what she wants to see in the country: no more racism. "Police are beating up Black people! Not OK!"

Elliot pointed out that white women and Black men and women all get paid less than white men. "Wealth should be evenly distributed to all types of people."

Noa thinks we can have more tzedek by making sure all people have healthy and fresh food choices near where they live. (Her group pondered the benefit of having potato chips for dinner, and agreed that it would be delicious at first, but not forever.)

Aviva wants equal education, nice teachers, clean parks without trash.

Sage picked homelesness as a place where we need more tzedek.

Lemi said not everyone has their basic needs because of covid. Kids needs books and internet to go to school, and not everyone has that.

Zevi: make sure people have food, houses or hotels. They also need books, schools/knowledge
and a clean Environment.

Lucy and Hazel said we should all be picking up trash.

Rose every person being equal and having equal money.

This coming Sunday we will review our ideas, and start exploring about what Judaism (texts from our ancient past) and Jews (tzaddikim in our present) have to say about each of our tzedek choices!
How do we show respect
-to others?
-The place we are in?
-Ourselves?


Zevi and Rohin listened to one another. 

Zevi asked for more think-time when he needed it. 

Lilly, Aviva, Joon, and Violet all had moments where they said “I don’t know,” but when I came back to them, they offered their thinking, connections, and answers. They showed cavod to their own processing and learning. 

Cavod to Hazel for speaking in front of the group
Cavod to Gabe for helping Julia with annotating
Cavod to Alex and Emma for making the slideshows

Cavod to parents to being okay with their kids running around the house during the scavenger hunt
Tova asking her mom for help thinking of how to draw justice in different ways.
Talmidim think about Torah in 3-2-1....

The Talmidim will be studying in chevruta with Rabbi Lewis next Sunday (no class on Saturday). In preparation, they thought about one word that has come up a lot for them. After going through the greatest hits of the Shabbat morning, with leadership from Alex on the Birkhot haShachar, MIriam on the Shema and Jasper on the V'ahavta and Erez on the Amidah, students considered the word TORAH. They each got a pallet in which to write 3 words, two questions and one metaphor about Torah. The questions were then forwarded to Rabbi Lewis, who will base his study with them off their inquiry. The most repeated question? Who wrote the Torah? If it wasn't God, then who? Tyler combined the Hillel quote with his question- Who is for God? If not God, then who?

VISUAL MIDRASH ASKS:
What was Sarah's problem with Ishmael?
What was the AKEDAH like for Yitzhak?
As our exploration of the Avot and the Imahot named in the Amidah continues, we spent last week thinking about Sarah and this week thinking about Yitzak. We also practiced leading the explorations to hone our chevruta skills. (n.b. chevruta skills are attuned listening, questions and cavod for the people in our chevruta and the text itself. In short- the skills you need to be in a community with anyone anywhere!)

Lilly went first, led the session and asked the questions. We used the See Think Wonder protocol for this.

We broke into groups based on our preferred way to express our ideas: ripped paper collage or acting. Soli made a ripped paper collage (SEE ABOVE) of Sarah watching her son and Ishmael play. Notice the stern hands on the hips. The watching carefully gaze.

This week we used a "from where I stand" protocol to think about what Yitzhak might have been thinking during the Akedah (binding).

Joon as Yitzak wondered "why would (Abraham) listen to God and kill me, and why would he kill me For God?"

Violet as Yitzhak asked: "I was confused Why was he talking to that person, was that person telling him he was going to kill me?"

Erez helped to facilitate these exercises as part of his Jewish Leadership Training. We thought about how this kind of exercise helped us to understand Yitzak more.

"Erez asked me questions about it, which made me think about it more; about more stuff that happened in it." -Soli

Next up: What was My Dad THINKING?
The Sylvia Cohen Family Learning Project
of Temple Ahavat Achim
Director: Phoebe Potts
taagloucester.org