The World Through the Eyes of Children - Joyful Art

Visions of G'd in The World - Through the Eyes of My Students

We began a new five week cycle of classes this week at HCRJ. My group will explore G-d in our lives and how we use prayer to connect to G-d, to the world and to ourselves.

Today we first talked about the key ideas that tie the Jewish communities all around the world together. That we believe that there is only one G-d. That we cannot see G-d. That G-d is everywhere in the world.

The students in this cycle include MacKenzie Aden, Francessa Farris, Maggie Sternberg, Shayna Brochstein, Anastasia Rabalias and Ruth Abramczyk.

The students were asked to create art to express how they pictured G-d in this world. We used a technique called torn-paper art. The only materials that the students could use were paper, and glue and a lot of imagination.

Each student captured a different aspect of G-d in her piece of art. For example, Ruth focused on the mitzvah of kindness. Anastasia depicted G-d as always being a presence in our lives, as an angel nearby.

Below are the wonderful results of this project in class today. Please enjoy.

Ruth Abramczyk

Anastasia Rabalais

Shayna Brochstein

Maggie Sternberg

MacKenzie Aden

Writings on A Wall - Disney World, Epcot, The Land Pavilion

The 4th and 5th Grade Kids Finish Their First Cycle: Our Exploration of Prayer and Our Beliefs about G'd.

The students of the 4th-5th grade class just completed the first group of classes. The five class sessions focused on important beliefs about G'd in Judaism, the role of Prayer in Judaism and the

ritual objects we surround ourselves with to remind ourselves about the celebrations, the holidays and the beliefs we hold to be important in our faith.
The following students form the 4th-5th Grade class: Eden Cooper, Gabriel Klurfan, Richie Lazear, Mandy Rosenfield, Max Sternberg, Ellie Hurwitz and Scott Hurwitz.

In the last two sessions of this cycle, the students learned to experience the symbols of Judaism, such as a Kiddush cup or a menorah, in new and different ways... to experience these objects in ways beyond just seeing them in the Synagogue or at home. In the last session, the students had to select the symbols that they thought were the most important ones for Judaism.

In fact, one of the kids really got into the spirit of the class when that student pointed out to Mr. Howard Fireman, their teacher for this cycle, that he had not included an important symbol in Judaism that they should have been allowed to consider when making their decisions: the two tablets with the Ten Commandments. Upon reflection, Mr. Fireman also thought that maybe he should have also included the Eternal Light in our sanctuary as a possible choice.

These wonderful kids have shown themselves to be bright and inquisitive students. Mr. Fireman would like these kids to know that it was a genuine pleasure to be their teacher for the last five weeks.

Inspector Gadget and The Case of the Search for Hashem - Part 1

Inspector Gadget got a new case and he did not have very many clues that he could use to solve the case. His new assignment was to find out about G'd [HaShem] and needed some help to get some ideas about what HaShem is. He needed to know what people knew about G'd.

So he called our synagogue and asked to speak to Rabbi Gross. Rabbi Gross told the inspector that he was very busy preparing for the High Holidays. However, he said that if talked to some of the students at our Sunday School, he could get help there.

We are going to help Inspector Gadget and we are going to work with him to get to the bottom of this mystery.

We Become Jr. Inspectors.

"Kids, I read that a long time ago, some people believed that there was a god of the sea and a god of the sky... that there were gods for all kinds of things, " said Inspector Gadget. "Do you think that is true?"

Let's think about how we want to answer his question.
We have a clue to the answer we want to give him:
When we recite the Shema together as a group at our services, what are we saying?
The words of the prayer are: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our G'd, the Lord is One.

Another bit of information that we can tell Inspector Gadget is the story of Abraham and the idols in his father's shop. Abraham was the first Jew. When he was a young boy, his father put him in charge of his shop while he ran an errand. Abraham's father made idols out of clay of the gods of his city, at a time when people believed in many gods. One of the idols fell off the shelf and broke into a thousand pieces. Abraham took a bat and put it in the hands of a much larger statue of a different god. When his father came back to the shop, he asked Abraham what had happened. Abraham told him that the smaller idol had made the larger idol angry. Also that the larger idol had punished the other statue by knocking it to the ground with the bat. His father believed him. Already, Abraham had trouble believing that the idols that his father made were gods. Now, when he heard his father say this, he thought that was probably the silliest thing he had ever heard. When Abraham got older he left home and gave up believing in a lot of gods and began to believe in the one G'd that we worship today.

There is something else that we can tell Inspector Gadget. We never talk about a god of the sky or a god of thunder or a god of the ocean, do we? We feel G'd is not just in the santuary at our synagogue, but everywhere that we can be. We believe that our one G'd is everywhere: in the sky, in outer space, in the ocean, in the forests and in the deserts. We have a clue here as well.

So kids, shall we tell Inspector Gadget that (1) we believe that there are a lot of different gods or (2) that we believe that there is one G'd? Let's give him an answer now.

"Okay, that tells me how many gods we are trying to track down," said Inspector Gadget. "I now have the first piece of evidence that I need."

Welcome to The Butterfly Tree

The Butterfly Tree is a very special place in the internet for Jewish children like you. We have created this place just for you to come to visit during the year while you are going to the Sunday School at HCRJ.

When you come here, we will learn a lot of very interesting things about being Jewish. We will include puzzles and stories about the holidays, the Shabbat and the prayers we say. We will explore the special things we do and the different kinds of Jewish foods we eat. We will learn to play some of the special games we play during our holidays and some of the really beautiful songs that we sing throughout the year. These songs help to make being Jewish a very beautiful and happy experience.

The best thing is that you are going to get to be a very important part of this place. You will create some of the things that will appear here. So this really is your very own special place to come to for Jewish fun and learning. We will include pictures you drew or a photograph you took or a photo of you and your family maybe celebrating the holidays. Also if you wrote a story about something we have talked about, we will put that in too. When you have something to say about the things we have talked about or done in class, you can put in the things you have to say about those things The Butterfly Tree, for everyone to read.

So as we get ready for Rosh HaShonah and Yom Kippur, remember that in the coming year, 5767, we are going to have a really good time here at The Butterfly Tree.

I wish you and your family a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

Howard Fireman