Robyn Faintich (@Jewishgps and JewishGPS) posted this piece entitled “Todah Rabah to our Educators!”on Davar Acher-On the Other Hand blog on Sunday. In it she celebrates the profession of Jewish educators and their role in building the Jewish future. As a Director of Education in a congregational school, I would like to say Todah Rabah […]
Commentary – T’rumah
From B’reishit on, we’ve experienced God as Creator, Guardian, Miracle Worker, Law Maker, Teacher. In this week’s Torah Portion, T’rumah, we see God in the roles of Fundraiser, Architect, Artisan, and Interior Decorator. With no Home Depot or Lumber Liquidators in sight, God commands the Israelites to build a portable Mishkan – “And let them […]
Finding Our Hundred Blessings
This morning I awoke wondering how I could face one more day of snow, rain, ice, sleet and cold. This winter has felt endless and all of the layers and boots and changes of clothing are certainly beginning to wear on me and my family. But in the midst of this internal rant I began […]
Highly Recommended – The Bedside Torah
Remember bedtime stories? Comforting, entertaining, perhaps even instructional. In the spirit of those appealing, memorable narratives, The Bedside Torah by Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson (McGraw Hill Publishers) features three of what the author calls “meditations” on each Torah Portion. These essays or meditations originated as weekly columns in the Orange County Heritage. Some also appeared […]
Yiddish Folktales, Home Renovation and A Gratuitous Jets Reference Thrown in for Good Measure
There are 3 types of Yiddish folktales (bear with me, this is going somewhere):
- Be nice to smelly beggars when they come to your door — not out of love or compassion, but because God might be testing you, and you could win a free chicken dinner and slammin’ new candlesticks.
- Look at the wily little Jew trick the big, bad Goy and save his village from certain destruction for at least a week.
- Life is terrible. Enjoy it before it gets worse.
This third category includes stories related to home improvement- of which the best one is:
A little Jewish couple live with their many children in a tiny run-down house in a quaint Eastern-European Jewish village that hasn’t yet been burned to the ground by Cossacks. The man, Shmulik is always being hassled by his wife, Tiffany, because the house is so small, loud and crowded. Finally, at his wits’ end he goes to the Rabbi.
Shabbat Commentary – Mishpatim
Mishpatim is the type of Torah Portion that makes B’nai Mitzvah students groan. No catastrophic forces of nature as in Noach. No dramatic family sagas like those of Jacob and Joseph. No cruel pharaoh, eye-popping plagues, or anxious flight into the wilderness. Mishpatim is mostly about laws which God tells to Moses who then tells […]
Shalom Kitah Gimel Students and Families #15
After students led the Blessings for Torah Study and cookies, we zipped through the attendance conversation, which students now know quite well. In order to review the words which students had studied at home over the past week, we played a game called “Back-Words.” Each student received a Hebrew word attached to a ribbon. The […]
From Sinai to Cyberspace, Pt. 2: Thawing out
As I reflect on the Jewish Educators Assembly conference that just ended, the lyrics of an old song pops into my head: “There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.” It’s not that we’re clueless when it comes to us knowing what Jewish education will look like in the future; it’s just that […]
Highly Recommended – The Teacher’s Big Book of Graphic Organizers
I’ve added a new book to my collection of teaching resources – The Teacher’s Big Book of Graphic Organizers by Katherine S. McKnight, published by Jossey-Bass www.josseybass.com Graphic organizers are formats for presenting information visually. If you’ve ever drawn a circle with lines coming out of it to represent a main topic (circle) and sub-topics […]
From Sinai to Cyberspace, Pt. 1: Preparing to freeze.
I’m sitting in a pizza joint in Palm Beach International, waiting for my flight to the frozen tundra of southern New Jersey. Why would I, a 17 year resident of tropical Florida be braving the Arctic cold of the North East? What would have prompted me to purchased a down jacket – my first since […]
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