After seeing this drawing on the board, the students tried to guess which Jewish values were represented. Then, they took a look at some text attributed to Isaiah to see which of these values G-d may have been referring to. Each student then took a look at a list of some Jewish values including celebrating Shabbat, giving money to the poor, helping someone find a job, keeping kosher, being nice to others, attending services, studying Torah, respecting parents, and fasting on Yom Kippur. They then tried to rank them by importance to their lives. They also came to learn that the prophets of Israel demanded that we pursue justice, seek peace, and establish good relationships among all of G-d's creatures. This suggested an agenda of social action which many of us still follow today. In secret, each student wrote down an issue plaguing the world today, and then brainstormed solutions! Now, if only we could implement some of those great ideas...We began our introduction to a closer look at those known as the "literary prophets," so-called because we know the less by the stories people wrote about them, and more by their own words. Next, we took a look at Biblical poetry and how it uses rhyme and beats, similar to, yet a bit different than English-language poetry. As an example, they listened to a brief reading from a Dr. Seuss story and compared it to some Biblical verses. As a review, the students played a game with which they are very familiar and helped them review the past year: Each team selected different images that previously appeared on our whiteboard over the course of the past few months. One team had to describe to the other team what the drawing meant. They also had the option to bluff an answer or pass the drawing and turn to the other team. Points were awarded based on the choices and responses. Not only did students have a chance to review some of the material learned during prior class sessions, but, if they happened to miss a particular class session, they got to finally hear the information. I'd like to think that the reward was the knowledge they gained, but more likely it was the fun of our friendly competition and, perhaps most of all, some chocolate gelt!
