Persumei Ha'Nes

This year Hannukah is special for American Jewry because the first night of Hannukah is Thanksgiving. Exciting! This will be the first Thanksgiving for my family, so the uniqueness of this, once in hundreds of years anomaly, is lost on them. Because this is their first year in the US, it will also be there first time witnessing the holiday which usually occurs near Hannukah, Christmas.

You may be confused as to how this is their first Xmas. If you are not American and have never been here in December, it is impossible to understand the complete sensory assault coupled with this holiday. You have to be in solitary confinement to avoid the overwhelming experience. And if you have always been in the US, it is hard to conceptualize how people in other countries can make it through December without 'Jingle Bell Rock' stuck in there heads.

I need to prepare my children. Hannukah and Xmas are not meant to be a competition, but the lure of latter is intense. According to the very recent PEW population survey of American Jewry, one in three people identifying themselves as Jewish have a Christmas tree!

If you ask the average person what was the miracle of Hannukah, they will tell you that it was because the oil lasted for eight days instead of one. Which was miraculous, as recounted in the Gemara. But when we say "al hanisim' in all teffila over Hannukah, there is no reference to the oil. It is about the militaristic battle, the victory of the Maccabees and the Jewish people over the Greeks. What caused this war? According many historians, the battle grew out of a civil war between the Jews and the Hellenists. The Hellenists were the Jews who had strayed from religious life and had embraced the popular culture and lifestyle of the Greeks around them. 

Kind of like putting up a Christmas tree if you are Jewish. The miracle of Hannukah is that the Jewish people overcame assimilation. And as part of the celebration, we light a big candelabra and place it outside our homes. Persumei Ha'Nes Make the miracle known. We had this in place long before Xmas lights.

Putting something outside, to publicize the miracle of our dedication to Judaism (and our rededication of the Temple), is part of Hannukah.  The chanukiyah is only for 8 days and leaving it to burn outside isn't done everywhere. 

The girls and I made 'mobiles' to hang outside to show the miracle of Hannukah.

First we made bakers clay.

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
  1 1/2 cups water
  1 cup salt

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (160 degrees C).
2. Mix the flour, salt and water. Knead dough until smooth. Roll out dough and cut into desired shapes. Bake at 300 degrees F (160 degrees C) for 1 hour.

Armed with Hannukah shaped cookie cutters, we got to work. Since we don't have rolling pins we used cans of soda. After each shape is made, you must poke a hole with a straw for threading. I thought a straw hole would be too big and I tried other things. But the holes got smaller during baking and a straw hole would work well. The girls worked nicely. Ruti proudly made a tower of clay and cutters, announcing "Tower! Tower!"

You'll notice these look a lot like cookies. I left them to cool on parchment paper where I always leave cookies. Any my husband tried to eat them.

I planned to get paint in traditional blues and silvers, but neon is more fun.

We painted and left them to dry. This activity took more days than usual. 

Finally, with some beads and lanyard, we strung the pieces.

Seeing Stars- Lech Lecha

It has been a busy week, so the girls did not have an opportunity to make something for Lech Lecha.  We talked a lot about what Hashem asks of Avraham in leaving his land, birthplace, and his father's house to an unknown place. We spoke about our own journey and how it makes us feel. My big girls have now lived in 3 continents!

Last year we did make something but I never blogged about it.
So here goes:

There are countless beautiful elements in parasha Lech Lecha, first and foremost getting to know Avraham and Sarah. But the moment which most makes my heart sing is when Avraham stares into the night sky and Hashem promises him as many offspring as there are stars. It is no coincidence that my eldest’s name is Cohava, ‘star’.
In order to capture the majesty of those countless stars and be able to look at them night and day, we made star globes. Like snowglobes, but of the night sky.

Tools required:
Empty glass jar with lid
baby oil
water
glitter
hot glue gun
anything starry/sparkly, like sequence


I had fun collecting random star things, like these clear plastic stars. Cohava colored them with gold permanent markers and I hot glue gunned them to the lid of the jar.

Then the girl filled the jars with glitter and sequence. And put star stickers on the outside. Who doesn't love sparkles?!?

Then the baby oil is added. You could probably use something other than baby oil, but it worked. We filled the jar about 75% with oil, 20% water, 5% air.

On went the lid with hot glue (glue it really well), and walla! A star globe!
It is hard to capture the beauty on camera. You have to make one yourself.
Maybe next year we will make a telescope and enjoy the real deal.

Noach- Keeping Afloat

I really wanted to take the family to the zoo for Parshat Noach. It is a great way to appreciate the awesome
variety of Hashem's creatures and the envision the miraculous way they all fit on the ark.
However, the rains started before we had a chance, so it was too wet to go to the zoo. I waited for it to dry for a few days, but then realized I was missing the chance for other projects.

It was time to do some scientific research.

1) Rainfall study.
 We set a baking pan outside to see how much rain it would catch. During about 6 hours of rain, one inch of water was collected.
Cohava charted the progress.
Before we were able to move onto the next part of the experiment, Ruti dumped out all of the water!
We were going to estimate how much more could be collected and multiply for 40 days and nights non-stop. Next year we'll try again.

2) What floats?
"What did Noach build his boat out of?"
"Wood!" Cohava replied.
"Why?"
"Hashem told him to," Gabi said, offhandedly.
"Does wood float?"
"Yah."
"What else does?"
"I dunno."
"When we went on a boat with Sam and Reggie, was it wood?"
"Nope. It was plastic," Cohava said.
"Maybe metal," Gabi added.
We collected an assortment of materials to see which would float. Gohava was keen to include actual fabric. The girls talked about when Curious George made boats out of newspaper and tried that too.

They added a wooden teapot, plastic container, metal coins, glass bowl, and a few other odds and ends.  They were surprised but what did and did not float.
"Why do metal coins sink and metal boats float?" Gabi asked.
We made a 'boat' out of aluminium foil and floated it.
"Why does the foil float? It is the shape? It it lighter?"
Hmmm...

Shabbat Shalom!

Back to the Beginning

I hope everyone is having a wonderful season of chagim. Sorry for the hiatus, but if there is ever a time to start something anew it is Simchat Torah and parashat Beresheit.

Beresheit is one parasha where everyone knows the story.  God creates the world, Adam and Eve sin and are banished from the Garden of Eden, and so on. 

I have taught the creation story many times, each time with a different project, posters, books, etc. My favorite was last year (which I missed blogging about). It was a box where each side was decorated with a picture of a different day of creation. Inside the box were candlesticks, a kiddush cup, and a challah cover.

As I said before, everyone knows the story but if you ask the average person, "What did God create on day three?" they are stumped. They will probably try to count on their fingers. And that leads us to this years project: Beresheit nails! This way, all week (more or less) my girls will be looking at an image which is on the corresponding digit.

There is a someone, Midrash Manicures, who already decorates nails for each parasha and blogs about it. But I am not a good nail artist, so that isn't for me. My plan was to use this very cool method of making your own nail decals. I collected a variety of images for each day. Unfortunately, I don't have a printer to try the process. :(

But I painted the girls nails white. 

Then I got the primary colors I used to for milk/meat/pareve in the kitchen and attempted to paint the first three days. Light looks like an omelet, but the girls know it is light and that is what counts.

 A blue stripe at the top and bottom of ring finger is for sky and water. 'Tall man' has a flower. But sun moon and stars is going to be really hard to free hand. Hopefully I will find a printer tomorrow. I made lots of those little images for a wide margin of error. If others try this, please let me know how it goes.

Fingers 1-7 are pretty self explanatory. The snake is for 8. Nine and ten are the Torah and the 'bet' for Beresheit.

Moadim B'Simcha!

Amen! Ki Tavo

There are many interesting things in Parashat Ki Tavo. Last year, we wrote the Torah on rocks.
This year Gabi wanted to make bikkurim, baskets of first fruits to bring to the Kohanim in the Beit Hamikdash.
"And the baskets will be beautiful, with sparkles. And everyone will be wearing purples keters [crowns]..." she began describing her plans. I love her enthusiasm! Making pretty baskets certainly avoids the very heavy tochecha, the rebuke described in the lengthy sixth aliyah.

But I wanted to teach the girls something which has a impact on their daily lives.
Every day we [should] make brachot. And whenever we hear a bracha we [should] say 'amen'. The word 'amen' is very significant. In the gemara (Brachot 53b), it says that answering 'amen' to a bracha is even greater than actually saying the bracha. Devarim Raba states that nothing is more precious to Hashem than the answering of amen. There was a book written a few years ago, Just One Word, with trues stories of the impact of saying amen, with an excerpt here.
We have know that 'amen' is important, but it is actually only in the Torah fourteen times. Twelve of those are in this weeks parasha. Those twelve times, the entire Jewish nation is uttering the word together. Pretty powerful.
I thought about making something for the project, like this:

It is pretty, made out of a spoon (connected to eating), you wear it and look at it...

But 'amen' needs to be a constant. Not just a pretty box for bikkurim once a year, or a nice bracelet you might misplace. A physical project does not do it justice.

The goal this week was a refresher in saying brachot nicely.

Before I eat or have another opportunity to make a bracha, I stop, concentrate, and make the bracha nicely and loud enough for everyone around to hear and say amen. This isn't something special for Ki Tavo. It should be a constant, but this parasha is serving as a reminder for me. When the girls do not say a bracha, I remind them by saying something like, "I am sad that I didn't get to say amen. Can you please give me the chance to say it?" And they appreciate it a lot more than, "Where is your bracha?"

Cohava likes to report at dinner how many brachot she made that day, and how many times she said 'amen'.

While I was explaining the importance of 'amen', Ruti began saying 'amen' over and over. I went to capture it on film but I was too late. So Cohava made up a bracha for Ruti to reply to. Ruti cannot make brachot yet, but is very enthusiastic about saying "amen!"

I'll get better at this video thing soon. :)

Shabbat Shalom!
[Amen!]

Send it away-Ki Tetzei

Parashat Ki Tetzei is chocked full of mitzvot. Some are things to stay far away from, like marrying a female POW, and some to keep close, like tzitzit. One that I have always found interesting is shiloach ha'ken, sending away the mother bird before taking her eggs. The Torah states that the reward to this is a long life. There is a great Torah debate as to why this reward is stated, and if it is for this world or the world to come. 
Without the great halachic debate, the message is still of universal importance. Everyone has feelings. Even animals. Try to avoid hurting feelings.

I had a baking project planned for this, but while at a children's museum, I was inspired by something which could be done in the classroom more easily. This is dedicated to everyone in Australia, where this parasha falls out during the school year.


On paper I free handed pictures of a bird, nest, and eggs and gave each picture to one of the girls to color in. With advance notice these would be printed from clip art and colored in.
 Each girl cut out her picture (Ruti had some help). And then a drinking straw was cut into one inch sections. Two straw pieces were taped to the back of the bird, parallel, about half an inch apart.

I taped to the wall the bird's nest with the eggs placed inside. 
On the wall were also two long lanyard strings, tried together. 
A piece of lanyard runs through each straw piece.

 Cohava pulled the strings apart and watched the bird 'fly' out of the nest. 

+

Gabi hurried and retrieved the eggs. 

 No birds, eggs, or feelings were hurt in the making of this parasha project.

Shabbat Shalom!

Shoftim - A real yarn

Parashat Shoftim is one of the parshiot where the subject matches the title. Most of the parasha deals with leadership; who, how, when, and what. Towards the end of the Torah reading there is the mitzvah of giving the first shearing of your sheep to the Kohanim. This does relate to spiritual leadership, but the theme of giving to Kohanim is not unique to this parasha. The wool given must be sufficient to make at least a small article of clothing. We can't all make ourselves great leaders of Israel (some of us must be the sheep) but we can all make something out of wool.
I planned to finger knit scarves with the girls for our project.

I had begun teaching them last month, but misplaced the yarn before we finished our scarves. I went to Target to buy more yarn, but they don't sell yarn :(. The week went by with no project :(.

On Sunday we went to my aunt and uncle's beach house. There were many lovely surprising waiting for us. One was cardboard weaving looms and yarn!!!
My aunt made a loom for each girl, equipt with beautiful thread and safety needles (definitely not from my Target)!
She left the instructions. We have our work cut out for us.













At the fair we saw the wool and the loom to turn in into yarn. The girls have tried that before.