Judaics: Mitzvot and More

Tzadik : A righteous person.  A person that does the right thing no matter what.

A few weeks ago, in honor of MLK Day, I taught a lesson about what it means to be a tzadik.  We spoke about Martin Luthur King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel being tzadikim, righteous people.  In addition we spoke about the ways that they can be a tzadik everyday, despite the fact that they are little.

Kippah

Contrary to popular belief, it is not a mitzvah to wear a kippah.  It is however a special act that allow many Jews to connect to G-d and mitzvot.  In class, we discussed that some girls don't wear one and some do.  Also, that some Jews wear them all day, everyday. While other Jews may wear one only to study or pray.  

Mezuzah

Last week, we learned all about the mezuzah. From what it is to what the scroll inside says.  Here are some important things to know about the mezuzah.

• It is a sign that a house is being dedicated as a Jewish Home.
• The ש shin on the mezuzah case stands for שדי Shadai (Another name of G-d) and not for Shema as many people believe.
• The parchment inside contains the Shema: including the V'ahavta.  It is called a klaf.

The mezuzot your children created were so beautiful.  Due to  excitement from parents and students to put them up, I will be sending home a photocopy of the klaf to place into the mezuzah cover your child brought home.  That way it can be put up and you can take your time getting a Kosher scroll, if you wish.

I have placed the copy of the Klaf along with pictures of our other treasures into your child's HW folder. Please be on the look out today or tomorrow, as they can be added to your child's treasure box.

We are on a roll...

גן  has been working hard on new letters and vowels.  They are reading so many words and having so much fun doing it.

The letter צ (TZADEE)

צ makes a "ts" sound. A way to remember צ is to look at the triangles that the letter creates. The triangles look like pizza slices that were removed. When you say the word pizza, the sound that is created by the "zz" sound is identical to that of the letter. Here are some words we learned:

Color     Tseh-va      צֶבַע

Bird      Tsee-por      צִפּוֹר

Turtle        Tsav           צָב

North     Tsa-phone     צָפוֹן

Frog    Tsfar-day-ah   צְפַרְדֵּעַ

Tzedakah                   צְדָקָה

Yellow        Tsa-hov       צָהֹוב

HOORAY!!! WE LEARNED A NEW VOWEL

We learned "chirik". The Hebrew vowel that makes an "e" sound. Think of "e" in the word "be". This vowel is found underneath our letters. There are 2 main ways to remember what sound this vowel makes.

1.) It's one dot so it's so "E"asy to remember.

2.) It looks like one "pea"

Sometimes this vowel is followed by the letter י (yud). Despite the addition of the י (yud) we still say only "e".  

קָטָן  and גָּדוֹל  

Little and Big

We have also spent time recently learning the words for little and big in Hebrew.  This is important working vocabulary to have, so we practiced hard and even did an object sort.  This activity also tied in with their Koof knowledge.  In Hebrew, we say the adjective after the noun.  So in the picture above, you would say דב קטן (Dov Katan). Where Dov is the noun, bear, and katan is the adjective describing the bear.

Say "Shalom" to.....ק (KOOF)

The first letter of 2017 is the letter ק (koof). ק (koof) makes a "k" sound and is the second letter we know that makes the "k" sound. We remember this letter by thinking of the top part as a קשת (keshet) rainbow. We also learned that קשת means headband. They do look a lot alike. Here are some great words we learned:

Rainbow    Keh-shet    קֶשֶׁת

Community  K-he-lah    קְהִלָּה

Monkey       Kof        קוֹף

Small          Ka-tan       קָטָן

Summer       Ka-yetz        קַיִץ

Cold               Kar             קַר

    Holy        Ka-dosh        קָדוֹשׁ

SHABBAT SHALOM

There's No Such Thing as too many pictures...

2016 # Throwback

#THROWBACK TO THAT TIME WE WENT ON AN ALEPH-BET SAFARI

Mrs. Weiser's Class

Mrs. Shell's Class

Ms. Solmson's Class

We were busy in 2016...Onward & Upward in 2017

We finished 2016 with the letter ו (vav).  ו is very close in its shape to the letter ר (reish).  However, it  has a much shorter roof and is very thin. In addition ו is used as a prefix meaning ""and".  Here are some words that we learned that start with ו.

Rose                 Veh-red                        ורד

Pink                  Vah-road                     ורוד

Curtain             Vee-lon                       וילון