Monthly Archives: November 22, 2016

The Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah and Rashi commenting on Bereishit 24:67) tells us that the Shabbat lamps lit each week by Sarah Imeinu continued to burn from Erev Shabbat to Erev Shabbat, and her home was full of blessings. Sarah was known to honor Shabbat. We are sure she cooked the most special meals to honor this special day from Hashem. She must have chosen the most special grains and beans and vegetables as a way to teach those around her this special mitzva. We remember Sarah now and find ways to make Shabbat special, too. This week we decided to take some special beans and grains to make a Shabbat candlestick. We wish our Shabbat candles would be as bright as Sarah Imeinu.

Also in this week’s Parsha we find that Yitzchak, Avraham’s son, is grown up.  Avraham wants to find a wife for him and wants the girl to be kind, caring and a good person.  He chooses his trustworthy servant Eliezer to go to Charan to find the right wife for Yitzchak.  Eliezer takes camels and gifts. He davens to Hashem to help him figure out a way to find a girl who has a kind heart and will be hospitable like Avraham and Sarah.   Eliezer decides to stop at a well where he knows girls come to fill up their pitchers with water.   He decides that if he meets a girl who offers water to him and his camels then this would be a sign that she is kind and would be the right girl for Yitzchak.  He prays to Hashem to help him.  Rivka is that girl.   She not only gives Eliezer water but she runs back and forth filling up her pitcher to give […]

“Take now your son… and go to the land of Moriah; bring him up there as an offering upon one of the mountains which I shall tell you.” (Bereishit 22:2)

The great Rav Chaim of Tzanz, author of the Divrei Chaim, points out that God chose two mountains to play a significant role in Jewish history: Mount Sinai, where the Torah was given to the people of Israel, and Mount Moriah, where Avraham bound his son Yitzchak, and upon which the Beit Hamikdash was eventually built.  Both of these mountains were made holy, but it was specifically Mount Moriah, and not Mount Sinai, that was chosen to be the site of God’s house in this earth.  But why did God choose Mount Moriah?  One can certainly argue that Mount Sinai, where God revealed Himself to the people of Israel and gave them the Torah, is a more appropriate location for the Beit Hamikdash!

Rav Chaim answers this question with an extraordinary statement.  “A place where a Jew once stretched forth his neck to be slaughtered, as Yitzchak so willingly did at Mount Moriah, is holier in God’s eyes than a place where God’s presence was revealed to the world and where the holy Torah itself was given!” (Otzar HaMachshavah shel Hachassidus)

In only a few months from now, on Yom Yerushalayim, Jews all over the world will mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Yerushalayim, and the six miraculous days that changed the course of history.  With God’s help, many of us will join the Mizrachi World Movement’s Yom Yerushalayim mission, where together with hundreds of thousands of our fellow Jews, we will march through the streets of the Holy City, our eyes and hearts directed […]

In this week’s Parsha, V’yeira, Avraham sat in his tent and always loved to welcome guests. What a special mitzvah this is. The mitzvah of hachnasat orchim. One hot and sunny day in the desert, three people came to visit Avraham. But they were not just any three people. They were angels sent from Hashem to tell Avraham some very special news; that his wife Sarah was going to have a baby. Sarah was 90 years old, too old to have a baby. She could not believe it, so she laughed when she heard the news! That is why she named her baby boy Yitzchak. Yitzchak means “to laugh” in Hebrew.
The yeladim had the opportunity to be “angels” themselves. They walked in sand pretending to be on their way to meet Avraham in his tent. They took of their shoes, rolled up their pants and enjoyed feeling the sand on their feet.

After that, they walked on a long piece of paper with brown paint and made footprints all over the paper.

We expanded our conversation about hachnasat orchim, welcoming guests. We spoke about how sometimes on Shabbos our families invite people over for lunch. We made a special sign with footprints on it. We added the words, Bruchim Habaim. Now you can show everyone that your home always welcomes visitors.

Yesterday we baked cornbread!

We counted each cup of flour, cornmeal, and sugar as we took turns pouring them in. The children even cracked the eggs themselves.

Baking together is a wonderful time to practice being patient as we go around the table giving each person a chance to add an ingredient. We count to 10 as each child mixes the batter and then passes it on.

It smelled so good when it came out of the oven. Our Thanksgiving feast is going to be delicious. Next up in the Butterfly Kitchen: turkey shaped cookies!

We are also learning all about the Native Americans. When we need new clothes, all we have to do is go to the store and buy them. Lucky us! But they had to make all their clothes themselves! They dyed their own fabrics, just like we made our tie dye shirts last week. Today the children helped cut fringes on the bottom of each shirt to look even more like the Native American clothing. (But they know it’s not real clothes like the shirts we wear every day – it’s just a costume that we’re making! That’s why we can cut it. We should never ever cut our clothing. : ))

The Native Americans were also known for the beading they did. The Butterfly Class is going to be known for their beading too! In addition to the beading project we did last week, we designed bracelets to wear. With our careful pincer grasp, we choose which beads we wanted. Look at us using our expert fine motor skills to thread the beads onto pipe cleaners! Such concentration.

We looked at a picture of some Native Americans and noticed that the hats they […]

In our research about Native Americans we noted that they used the things they found in their environment for all their needs. Through looking at pictures of Native Americans we noticed that they used the skins of animals for very many things including blankets, clothing and even to build their homes. We brought into our classroom different fabrics with patterns of the different animals. During circle time the yeladim were able to examine, feel and compare the different textures and skin patterns that different animals have.

We continued our discussion of how the Native Americans dyed their clothes. Earlier in the week we took the corn kernels and separated them into different bags. We added a different color of food coloring to each bag and mixed the color and the kernels together. We let them sit for a few days and waited to see what would happen. At the end of the week we took out our kernels to look at. Our corn kernels that we dyed with food coloring looked so different than what they looked like before we added the food coloring!

Our exploration about using color to dye things was not over. We really wanted to feel what it was like to live at the time of the Native Americans and Pilgrims. Morah Rachelle explained that since there were no stores to buy certain items, the Native Americans had to use what they had; very often it was different plants, vegetables and fruits. The Native Americans honored the land by using as much as they could of what would grow. So we thought about the colors we knew and brainstormed together what foods we knew of that could be used […]