AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?

Our Kitah Dalet students have been talking about responsibility to self, others, and the community at large. Our Torah gives us plenty of opportunities to think about our commitment to family, and the the importance of taking care of others.  Specifically, we examined the text in the Torah about Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve, and shared our ideas about birth order and family loyalty. Students participated in a lively debate about how much responsibility one has to take for the errors of others, and what they have to do to protect family.  Finally, we shared our ideas about learning right from wrong, and how we have to be taught what is right before we can do something wrong.  

Our Torah Talk discussions have expanded into our values lessons and we continue to talk about taking things that don't belong to us, and what is rightfully ours.  Our discussion has moved from taking things to finding things, and what we have to do to insure we find the rightful owner of lost items.  Please ask you student to share their thoughts with you.
 

THIS WHO WE ARE

When turning the words in the Torah we tend to look at the surface of the language, and don't always dig deep into the meaning of each passage. This week, we began to look at some of the reasons behind the stories in the Torah, and we pushed ourselves to think about our role in reaching for higher goals and living a Jewish life.  We talked about Free Will, and our ability to make good and bad choices, and having the power to resist temptation. Unfortunately, GOD tested Adam and Eve, and to their demise, they failed to live up to the test.  

On the other hand, we talked about our own urges to do bad over good, and took a look at some of our personal strengths and weaknesses.  Students shared their most positive and negative personality traits, and we shared our answers with our classmates.  We talked about how many of us struggle with the same inclinations to do bad and good, and all of us have to work hard to resist the urge to do bad over good.  In Hebrew, we call this the Yetzer HaRah and The Yetzer HaTov.  

We are nice, kind, holy, positive, funny, helpful, smart, and thoughtful, and we are mean, annoying, negative, questioning, judgmental,  selfish, rude, and loud.   WOW!  We are an interesting group! 

Have a great Shabbat, and a wonderful week!  

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE...

When studying Torah we always take one step backward to review the prior lessons, and one step forward to tackle the next lesson. These discussions often bring new questions to light, and our students are often left to work through some struggle as the week ends.  Such was the case with this week’s discussion.  Our discussion started out with the basic question of failure.  Why did GOD put the tree of Knowledge within reach of Adam and Eve, tempting them to break the rules?  Our students offered some wonderful insights into breaking rules, and doing the right thing. We talked about wanting something, working towards something, and ultimately failing to achieve success, or hitting obstacles along the way.  Ultimately, we talked about Free Choice, and GOD giving us the power to make choices based on our ability to do right and wrong.  We often see things differently than others, and things are not always as they seem. 

To bring the point home we spent some time looking at optical illusions.  It was very interesting to watch our students question the illusions they recognized, and share their interpretations with their classmates.  Finally, we took out our proof text in the Torah and left our students with some Torah to struggle with....Did it take GOD six days to create the world or seven?  

Please take some time to explore this age old question with your children.  They had some interesting thoughts, ideas, and interpretations.