5th Grade Torah Blog

Shalom!

The year started with a look at our Bible: The Tanach, and the class learned that it is made up of three sections: Torah (5 books in all), N’vi-im (Prophets) and K’tuvim (Writings). As our focus this year is N’vi-im, the students “interviewed” three prophets, Samuel, Hosea and Ezekiel, and used the information to create advertisements for an unknown prophet. Then students examined three texts from the Book of Joshua and became acquainted with different aspects of this prophet’s character. Next…it was on to one of our female prophets—the one who was also a judge: Deborah, and then the students then learned about two other prophets: Jeremiah and Jonah, both of whom were very reluctant to carry out their assignments. The students also began their introduction to the prophets Amos and Isaiah, who passed along God’s reaction to injustices in the world and did not attempt to avoid their responsibilities. Most of the class was familiar with Elijah as that mysterious one for whom we put out a cup of wine and open the door at Passover, but the class also investigated several texts about the prophet from the Bible as well as from various writings of Jewish sages and from old folk tales. Of course, there are many more Jewish prophets who passed along strong messages, and I look forward to the students becoming acquainted with some more of them in our upcoming classes..