On Tuesday March 20, Shorashim, Nitzanim and Anafim students shared their knowledge of Pesach with each other and their teachers at our annual learning seder. Nitzanim students unpacked the rich holiday symbolism in small illustrated booklets, intended as crib sheets for a seder, while the Anafim emblazoned t-shirts with thought-provoking slogans and ethical insights drawn from the Exodus story. One student explained that the ubiquitous Passover combination of bitter with sweet revealed their symbolic interdependence. As with chocolate, bitterness helps us savor sweetness all the more. The afternoon concluded with exuberant singing (accompanied by Rafi on guitar, of course!) as all looked forward to the real holiday.

Second, I’m still looking for a few helping hands for the next Shabbat dinner – let me know.

This week in the classrooms:

Our Yahadut curriculum this week has turned to the important topic of ‘Pikuach Nefesh’ – the saving of human life. The tradition teaches us (in Talmud Sanhedrin) that ‘One who saves a single human life, is as one who as saved an entire world’. The children like this idea, and assent to it pretty readily. So we spent a good chunk of the week problematizing it for them in order to deepen engagement with the concept.

The Nitzanim responded to written statements describing different scenarios, and were presented with the idea of a ‘ladder of values’ in which we may choose to compromise one value for the sake of a higher one. One particularly interesting discussion amongst the Nitzanim revolved around a hypothetical situation in which one had to choose between saving a single human, or all the remaining members of a particular species of butterfly. There were a surprising number of voices amongst the Nitzanim who felt that the loss of an entire species was a greater evil than the death of a single human. I certainly feel differently, and the classical interpretations of the tradition also maintain the primacy of the human life, but I also hear the idea of ‘an entire world’ behind the kids reverence for an entire species.

The Anafim also tackled some complex situations, and extended the material by considering situations in which lives may be weighed against one another, either in numbers, or other qualities. In many ways, these are the kinds of questions that we most commonly confront in our daily lives through matters of public and foreign policy. The Anafim were also practicing recording their own opinions, as part of a project that the teachers are working on around documenting work and ‘making learning visibly’ – a subject that I hope to return to in a later email.

The Shorashim’s exploration of the topic has focused heavily on pragmatic questions of how to keep our lives, and those of the people around us, safe. Young kids thinking is often heavily rule-bound, and so there is a great deal of practical value in helping them think about when a dangerous situation requires us to take action in spite of normative rules that tell us not to. Mom may have told me never to use her cellphone, but in an emergency perhaps one should etc. The Shorashim also took a brief field trip in the area, thinking about and assessing risks and coming up with ways to keep safe.

The Benayim, having lost a vital Monday, have shelved their democracy display, and instead are gathering their thoughts and explorations in comic book form – using the format as a kind of analog to the traditional page of Talmud with it’s multiple, interlocking commentaries… plus, where-else can you have the sages of the Living Torah meet and converse with Zombie Ben Franklin about forms of government….

Shabbat Shalom all,

Rafi ]]> http://www.kesherweb.org/life-and-death-and-butterflies/feed/ 0 http://www.kesherweb.org/this-week/ http://www.kesherweb.org/this-week/#comments Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:27:28 +0000 admin http://www.kesherweb.org/?p=1927 Continue reading →]]>

Some serious concentration

An exciting week, with news of David’s new baby daughter Dafna reaching us! Last Friday’s Shabbat dinner was a lot of fun, with good food, good company, and a good atmosphere. About 40 people turned up, which is a very respectable showing. It was especially exciting to see parents from the preschool coming together with the afterschool parents. Hooray for community!The next community Shabbat dinner is November 16th – and we need volunteers to help cook. Let me know if you’re interested. Having gathered the receipts and done the sums, the whole thing came to about two hundred bucks, so we are making the suggested donation $5 per head – feel free to add a couple of bucks to help cover costs for those who can’t stretch to the suggested donation. With the elections just around the corner, the Benayim are embarking on a mini-project examining different systems of government from the perspective of Jewish values, and we hope to have a display up by election day, so keep an eye out for it. Next week sees the launch of our new system of Ivrit proficiency awards, about which we are very excited. One last thing – if anyone amongst you has a photographic ‘safelight’ that you could lend us, we’d be very grateful – we have some bits and pieces together to try some ‘non-camera photography’ with the kids, but are missing that essential piece of equipment. This will be a fun way to extend our learning about images in the context of our unit on ‘B’tzelem Elohim’ ‘In God’s Image‘ Shabbat Shalom, Rafi

]]> http://www.kesherweb.org/this-week/feed/ 0 http://www.kesherweb.org/mazal-tov-david/ http://www.kesherweb.org/mazal-tov-david/#comments Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:26:30 +0000 admin http://www.kesherweb.org/?p=1924 Continue reading →]]>  

Just some of the images of G-d this week.

Hanging out in the Z’man Chofshi space Shorashim strikes a pose A Brand New Image of God IMPORTANT UPDATE: David and his wife Amberley have become parents to a beautiful, healthy baby girl who they are naming Dafna. MAZAL TOV!! David  will be out for about a month, and for that period we are glad to welcome back Orly Forman, who will take over David’s duties in Anafim and Kitah Bet. There are some (slightly out-of-date!) words from David below. B’Sha’ah Tova guys! Just as things seem to be settling into a routine here at Kesher (and they, in fact, are), we got a piece of exciting news: I (David) will be traveling this weekend to (b’ezrat hashem/G-d willing) adopt a soon-to-be-born child in Arizona! I will be taking paternity leave until shortly after Thanksgiving. While I’m really excited to meet our first child, I’m also a bit sad about leaving the Kesher kids for so long a stretch. Luckily, Rafi was able to bring Kesher Tzevet veteran Orly Forman (who I replaced last spring) This week, our Shorashim class embarked on the study of Betzelem Elokim. To help us understand and engage with this concept more effectively, we took a two-pronged approach. During the first half of the week, we worked with and discussed the concept of an image, taking pictures of ourselves and creating our own images in words. In the second half of the week, we began discussing G-d’s image. We started by reading “In G-d’s Name” by Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso. We then drew pictures of our “spirit selves,” depicting us when we are at our best. Next week we will work to recognize the Divine in our friends and family. Shabbat Shalom from Shorashim! This week in Nitzanim we explored the concept of “Image”: since we were dealing with being “In God’s Image” it is not clear what image is. The kids shared their ideas and thoughts like “An image is how other people see you” “And image is like a shadow” “An image is a picture” “An image is an imprint” and more. We then explored other images in a museum like room: Butterfly imprints on paper, Projector on the ceiling and we played with creating shadows. A four way mirror to create endless “ourselves” and more creative ideas, sunglasses to change our image, and a webcam with different cool applications to see ourselves differently. Now we are ready to think ahead, again, what does “being in the image of God” mean

Tell your friends to come see us in action – drop us a line at rafi@kesherweb.org,  give us a call at 617 576 0830, or just drop by!

Preschool Open House: Friday, May 11, 9:30 to noon… click here for flyer

Afterschool Open House: Tuesday, May 15, 4:30-6:00… click here for flyer

If you are a current member of the Kesher community… please tell your friends!  If you are a potential member… please come by!