How do we as teachers celebrate these Jewish holidays in a manner that is meaningful? Today was one example as we met in the sanctuary to unroll the Torah and examine the Torah with gentle hands and focused eyes. One can not 'love' what one doesn't know, after all. The children noticed many things about the Torah lettering: it was different than our letters it is written in Hebrew, straight columns, there were sheets of paper that appeared stiched together. Then some contribution which was based on previous knowledge; it was written with a quill and that Hebrew is read in a different direction than English. All great contributions based on their interation to date with the Torah. We brought in a feather quill for exploring.
After looking at the quill, Teddy Fox asked:
1) Does only one person write the scroll at the same time?
2) How long does it take? (because he thought it would take a long time)
As we move forward in celebrating Simchat Torah we will be looking at the Torah as G-d's gift to the Jewish people, with stories and rules to help us be better people. To this end we will be creating our own classroom Torah scroll with ideas of how we can take care of this beautiful world we have been blessed with.
Great questions! I had the honor of meeting Rabbi Eric Ray, who was a very well known sofer (torah scribe) and it was so interesting to hear him speak about these details of how the torah is made. I can understand why the kids are interested in all these things- I find it fascinating, too. I'd love to come to your class and share the book about writing the torah that Eric Ray wrote.
ReplyDelete