March 18, 2024 |

Kitah Vav: Samuel

Posted on March 8, 2016

For the past two weeks, Kitah Vav has been focusing on the Prophet and Judge Samuel, beginning with his family (especially his mother, Hannah), and leading up through his time as a Judge of Ancient Israel, through the war with the Philistines and the loss and return of the Ark of the Covenant. Last week, we read through the original text together, working through difficult language and concepts as a class. The selection we read covered Hannah’s silent prayer for a child in the Temple at Shiloh, the eventual granting of her wish, and her dedication of the boy Samuel to G-d under the tutelage of the priest Eli. The students completed a worksheet asking them to think critically about the function and implications of silent prayer, Hannah’s great contribution to the Jewish religion; once they had worked on this independently, we discussed our thoughts and realizations as a class.
This week, we continued the story, from G-d’s first communication with Samuel to the return of the Ark to the Israelites. After reading the text, the students all chose a portion of the story and interpreted it in a method of their own choosing, which they then presented to the class at the end of the day: we had two skits, a comic book, a drawing, and a test-your-Samuel-knowledge quiz.

Next week, we will continue with the story of Samuel, moving towards the appointment of Saul and the beginning of the reign of the Kings of Israel.