Sign In Forgot Password

December Blog

12/30/2019 10:10:20 PM

Dec30

Sitting in a circle in our darkened classroom and, by the light of a single flashlight, the students heard what seemed at first to be a fairy tale. But the class eventually realized that there were hidden Jewish meanings in the story. It was as if it was written in code. Everyone took turns trying to figure it all out-- and did pretty well, at that. This all related to Chassidism, a shocking reform movement that took hold in Europe in the late 18th century, which began with the ideas of just one man: Israel ben Eliezer (known as the Baal Shem Tov, or Master of the Good Name), who believed that study wasn't the only way to get close to Adonai, who could also be found through dance, song and merriment--as long as one had the right attitude. One didn't even have to know the words to a song to get into the spirit of it-- nonsense syllables worked just as well ("Bim...bam...bim bim bim bam!") Later, they listened to more classic stories, but this time, made up their own secret messages. Finally, they created their own stories with hidden meanings and created codes and wrote the title of their stories in their codeā€”just to see if the other students could crack them! As a review, the students played a game with which they are very familiar and helped them review the past year: Each team selects different images that previously appeared on our whiteboard over the course of the past year. 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 all gained, but more likely it was the fun of our friendly competition and, perhaps most of all, some chocolate gelt!

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784