Alef–Godly Play Shema, March 19, 2017
Posted on March 20, 2017
A busy, delightful day today! We began with tefillah with Cantor Ken. We are learning the melody and motions to the v’ahavta, thanks to grade 2. We also began singing the Four Questions with him. Our class will officially begin our unit on Pesach next week.
Thank you, Eliza, a grade 6 aide, for assisting us in our activities, today.
After singing in Hebrew about the weather and discussing our day’s plans, we began our Hebrew lesson. This week, we learnedנ. Some נ words are “ner tamid,” and “nerot” (candles). We also did a paper on locating some letters in the shema like alef, yud, dalet, among others. The children are doing so well recognizing the letters and sounds.
: We engaged in the story of The Shema: the Promise of Israel.
In Egypt, Israel (Jacob’s new name) feared that his children would become like the Egyptians in dress, in language, and religion. They assured their father with the shema: “Listen, Israel, Adonai is our G-d, Adonai is one.” Reassured that his descendants would remember the G-d of Abraham and Isaac, Jacob softly said the second line of the shema, “G-d’s glorious kingdom is forever.” Then Israel died. Though the Israelites remained in Egypt for 400 years, many of them as slaves, they kept their Hebrew names and their religion.
These words and the rest of the shema are on the klaf (parchment scroll) we place in the mezuzah we hang on our doorposts. We examined my mezuzah and its scroll. This scroll is parchment, written by hand by a sofer in the traditional way.
The children respond so well to the wondering portion: I wonder what part of the story you liked best, I wonder where you are in the story.
REINFORCEMENT activities included a description and illustration of what they think of when they say the shema. We also made a model of a mezuzah to hang at home.
Shavua tov! Have a good week!
Judy and Cheryl (Esther and Tzipporah)