March 28, 2024 |

ALEF LAG B’OMER, MAY 14, 2014

Posted on May 15, 2017

Dear families,
Thank you for making our class at Temple Israel part of your Mother’s Day today.  In class, we sang in Hebrew about it being cloudy and rainy “bahutz hayom” outside today.  We participated in tefillah with Cantor Ken and Robin.  Cheryl and I were thrilled to be honored, as mothers, to hold the flag of Israel during the singing of Hatikvah.  Today is the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer—Lag B’Omer.
We talked about Lag B”Omer customs: the bow and arrows to represent pretending to hunt and practice archery.  The bonfires remind us of the light of the scholars who carried on Jewish learning, rabbis like Akiba.
HEBREW:  The class learned the vowel sound “ay,” represented by . . under a letter, as in sefer and Yisrael.  Our Hebrew letter today is “sin” ש, with the dot on the left side—”sin is never right; sin salutes left”—the first letter in Simhat Torah.  We have almost finished the book.
BOOK:  For this “scholar’s holiday,” we read A Jewish Holiday ABC.  Students added to the letters like B is for brachot, betzah (egg), bisomim box, and so forth.  The children added so many suggestions.  They know so much.
SPECIAL ACTIVITY: Students in K-5 met in the social hall.  First our class decorated golf balls to be used at the mii-golf tournament in June.  Then on to the tie-dyeing of T shirts.  The shirts signify that all of us at the Temple come in various colors and sizes—everyone is different, but we are all part of the Temple community. See the photos of the fun.  Next week, students will get shirts (probably not the same ones they decorated.)

Shavua tov.  I hope that your Mother’s Day was as wonderful as mine was!  Have a great week.

Judy and Cheryl (Esther and Tzipporah)