The students continued their exploration of Gevurah (strength—especially inner strength) and learned a bit about Israel's national anthem, Hatikvah. They also saw a video about the Gevurah demonstrated by an Israeli athlete who quickly took charge when her national anthem did not play at a pre-Olympic event for which she won first place. The students came to realize that, Jewishly speaking, qualities of true inner strength include persistence, patience, confidence, and resilience. Later, the students started learning about Achrayut- responsibilities, including the responsibilities we have toward future generations and the world we leave them. We then saw a video about Honi the Circle Maker, who demanded that G-d make rain fall (and it did!). We also saw the story of a woman who planted carob trees even though they wouldn’t produce fruit for 70 years-- her grandchildren could enjoy it! They also saw a video about people planting all kinds of things in Israel, and how the activity helped them to grow as people. Then, each of the students imagined an important value that they could “plant.”
