Take a close look at the 4 Species used on the fall harvest holiday of Sukkot!

Using your knowledge of the holiday, can you figure out all of the clues for this Hebrew Vocabulary Puzzle?

Can you find all of the Sukkot Hebrew Vocabulary words?

Celebrate Simchat Torah!

Are you a fly by the seat of your pants type or a carefully organized multi tasking calendar keeper?

I work meticulously to keep track of my time with multi colored calendars for this and that on my phone and computer along with a number of time management tools and reminders.  I do this so that I don’t miss a deadline.  But does it help me  to answer the question, where was I last week at this time? Where was I last year?    Am I supposed to be able to remember the year behind me, or just resign myself to clicking for it?

Recently I found myself clicking through last year’s calendar.  As I went back through the year, month by month I felt like I was discovering a story about myself.  There was a lot of, “oh yeah… remember that?”  The more calendar pages I read about where I had been and when, the more I was also reading the story of who I was last year.

My computer can tell me in a “click” where I was yesterday and where I need to be tomorrow. But, to actually understand all that I’ve been, all that I’ve done, to really move forward, not just repeat patterns I’ve spotted in my calendar for years, to do this I need the High Holiday Season.

I need the shofar blast to lift my head from the daily grind.  I need the melodies and prayers that magically trigger the work of my heart and soul.

No amount of detailed calendar keeping can do this work for us. We gotta show up.

Join me this year for the High Holiday Season. Lab/Shul is an “Everybody friendly experimental community for sacred Jewish gatherings based in NYC and reaching the world.”

Make a “Portrait of the Divine” based on the Zohar… 

Teacher Review
Exodus 24: 9-11 (translation by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan)
9Moses then went up, along with Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders.
10They saw a vision of the God of Israel, and under His feet was something like a sapphire brick, like the essence of a clear [blue] sky.
11[God] did not unleash His power against the leaders of the Israelites. They had a vision of the Divine, and they ate and drank.

Lesson – part I

9Moses then went up, along with Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders.

Shavuot celebrates the revelation of Torah at Mt. Sinai. The Torah stories seem to reflect many different goings ups and downs the mountain. Sometimes just Moses, sometimes this particular group, the “70 elders of Israel.” They are considered to be representative of the entire community, the 70 different faces or voices of our people.

Ask: Which one of these voices are you?
With younger children, try using this sentence “I use my voice to..” and then echo back to them, “You are the voice of…”

10They saw a vision of the God of Israel, and under His feet was something like a sapphire brick, like the essence of a clear [blue] sky.

The beauty of 70 different faces is (at least) 70 different visions!
Ask: What was your vision? And what could that sapphire brick possibly have looked like? Some call it, “the footstool of God.”

11They had a vision of the Divine, and they ate and drank.

Why not have a delicious snack in honor of the moment?!

Lesson – part II   (more…)

A little messy, a lot of fun.  A hands-on Shavuot art project and lesson for ages 2-5.

* This holiday is sponsored by the numbers 7 and 10*

Teacher Review
Exodus 19:14 -17 Moses climbs up the mountain, the people prepare, the mountain shakes with excitement
Exodus 20: 2-18  Ten Commandments

For the art project
Supplies:  sturdy paper, glue, glue bowls and brushes, fine sand, tissue paper cut into squares

Lesson
Begin with a quick reminder of our path out of Egypt, across the Sea of Reeds. And here we are now in the desert wilderness surrounded by…  sand! Where are we going? How will we get there? What does it feel like to have the sand under our feet and the sun over our head?

Paint the bottom of the paper with a light brush of glue, start sprinkling sand onto it to be the desert ground.

Open a Jewish calendar and count together (in Hebrew!) from the days of Passover to the holiday of Shavuot, 1(echad)  2(shtayim)  3(shalosh) 4(arba)  5(chamesh)  6(shesh)  7(sheva)  and again 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 etc. 7 times over until you reach Shavuot. 

That’s how long our great great great great…great grandparents walked on the sand in the desert.
Sprinkle some more sand. Until… we reached Mt. Sinai.   (more…)

On Shavuot we gather together the Spring Harvest and decorate our sanctuary (both in our Temple and in our home) with flowers and wheat and all kinds of beautiful growing things.

How to make this a personal practice?

Look back at your year… Gather memories, accomplishments, photos, meaningful moments. Capture these images all together and take the time to reflect on the seeds you have nourished all year.

Shavuot also celebrates the moment we received Torah on Mt. Sinai.  How to honor Torah with our children?

With my youngest students, I like to collect mitzvot all year long. At the start of every class we think back over the week and each child tells of a moment when she or he took action to make the world a better place, to help another, to take care of the self.  We write their mitzvot on a construction paper leaf.  By the end of the year, we have quite a collection!  Here are a few examples,

Paying attention by saying a “thank you” Bracha for the food we eat
Making the world “right” by contributing Tzedakah
Lighting Shabbat candles to take time in life to rest and spend time with each other
Sharing, helping, noticing, loving
See? These are things we do every day! 

In celebration of Shavuot we gather our Mitzvah leaves.  We look at a year’s worth of efforts and hard work.

We study the different kinds of Mitzvot we have done as listed in the Eilu D’varim prayer below.

When God Made Moms
by Erma Bombeck
 

By the time the Lord made mothers, he was into his sixth day of working overtime. An Angel appeared and said “Why are you spending so much time on this one”? And the Lord answered and said, “Have you seen the spec sheet on her? She has to be completely washable, but not plastic; have 200 movable parts, all replaceable; run on black coffee and leftovers; have a lap that can hold three children at one time and that disappears when she stands up; have a kiss that can cure anything from a scraped knee to a broken heart, and have six pairs of hands.”

 

The Angel was astounded at the requirements for this one. “Six pairs of hands! No Way!” said the Angel.

The Lord replied, “Oh, it’s not the hands that are the problem. It’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers must have!”

“And that’s just on the standard model?” The Angel asked.

The Lord nodded in agreement, “Yes, one pair of eyes are to see through the closed door as she asks her children what they are doing even though she already knows. Another pair in the back of her head, are to see what she needs to know even though no one thinks she can. And the third pair are here in the front of her head. They are for looking at an errant child and saying that she understands and loves him or her without even saying a single word.”

The Angel tried to stop the Lord. “This is too much work for one day. Wait until tomorrow to finish.”

“But I can’t!” the Lord protested, “I am so close to finishing this creation that is so close to my own heart. She already heals herself when she is sick AND can feed a family of six on a pound of hamburger and can get a nine year old to stand in the shower.”

The Angel moved closer and touched the woman, “But you have made her so soft, Lord.”

“Yes, she is soft”, the Lord agreed, “But I have also made her tough. You have no idea what she can endure or accomplish.”

“Will she be able to think?”, asked the inquisitive Angel.

The Lord smiled and replied, “Not only will she be able to think, she will be able to reason, and negotiate.”

The Angel then noticed something and reached out and touched the woman’s cheek. “Oops, it looks like you have a leak with this model. I told you that you were trying to put too much into this one.”

“That’s not a leak.” The Lord objected. “That is a tear!”

“What’s the tear for? the Angel asked.

The Lord said, “The tear is her way of expressing her joy, her sorrow, her disappointment, her pain, her loneliness, her grief, and her pride.”

The Angel was impressed. “You are a genius, Lord. You thought of everything! Truly, You do all things well… Moms are truly amazing!”

Happy Mother’s Day!

..Erma Bombeck

from the site, www.angiesrealm.com

By Shira Kline, based on a folk tale, origin unknown.
Please let me know if you have the source!

Chana was just about that age. That age when she wanted to know everything, felt like she should know everything, and sometimes got a little mad if someone else knew everything. Chana did very well in school and was often heard saying, “I know, I know.” When her mom asked her if she would like to go to the museum to see the new exhibit on ancient Egypt, Chana just said, “I already know about all that stuff.” And when Chana’s dad asked her if she would like some help with her writing homework, she said, “Dad! I know how to do this. I don’t need any help!” And so, Chana’s mom and dad let her do her thing and sometimes tried to stay out of her way.

One day, something came up that Chana did not know.

Her Religious School teacher asked, “How can we see God?” At first Chana thought, “Well everyone knows that God is everywhere. That’s a weird question.” And when one student suggested, “Maybe we can see God in heaven,” Chana thought, “You can’t see heaven!” She listened to a few other answers from her class mates, but none of them seemed to make sense. See God in a mountain? See God in the ocean? This started to make Chana feel upset! How do we see God?

Later that evening at home, Chana told her parents about her dilemma. She was truly puzzled by this question.

Chana’s mom smiled and said, “Well, what do you think God looks like?” The last thing Chana wanted to do was admit that she didn’t know, so instead she crossed her arms, furrowed her eyebrows and pursed her lips.

“Well,” said Chana’s mom, “I’ll tell you what I know. God looks like love.” Chana’s eyebrows shot up with surprise and her chin pushed forward. She looked away, silently considering what in the world her mother could be talking about. “I think,” Chana’s mom continued, “ that God looks like shining light and warmth.” Slowly Chana’s lips formed a frown as she doubted that her mother even understood the question. Chana’s mom didn’t seem to notice. “God looks like life!” she went on. “And life is full of color and questions and laughter and even crying. God looks like all of these things.”

Finally Chana could hold it in no longer. “But Mom! How? How do we see God? That’s the question!”

“Oh! That’s the easiest part” Chana’s mom said with a smile. Chana sighed and looked up at her mom impatiently. She watched as her mom got up from the table and went into her bedroom. She came back with a mirror in her hand and offered it to Chana. With a slight roll of the eyes, but curious eyes at least, Chana accepted the mirror and did what anyone does with a mirror. She gazed into the mirror and saw her own reflection. Chana’s mom sat back and smiled an even bigger smile. “See?” she asked.

“See?” repeated Chana. “See what?”

Her mom looked patiently over Chana’s shoulders so that she could see her daughter’s face in the mirror. “See the shining light in your eyes?” Chana’s eyes widened and she held the mirror closer. “See that expression? Wondering, questioning, guessing? See how your face is so full of life?” By this time, Chana was holding the mirror so close to her face that her breath fogged the mirror just a bit. “See that? See your breath?” her mom asked excitedly. “That’s how we see God! We see God in our ourselves!”

Suddenly Chana burst into laughter and she smiled a big wide grin up at her mom. “How did you know all that?” she asked. Her mom’s eyes twinkled and she answered, “Oh, these are the things that a mother knows.” Together they looked into the mirror and saw as their own reflections radiated love and warmth and color and questions and laughter and even some crying.

“Thanks mom,” Chana said quietly with a hug.

Happy Mother’s Day!