tbhrich

Hello Everyone!

 We will not be meeting this upcoming Sunday, November 10, because of the Veterans Day Holiday.  The following week, on November 17, we will have our first field trip to the Magnus Museum in Berkeley.  We are planning to meet for our regular Tefillah service at the Temple at 9:30 a.m. and then everyone will drive down to the Magnus Museum at 2121 Allston Way in Berkeley, where our tour will begin at 11:00 a.m.  Please let me know how many members of your family will be coming so I can get an accurate count to the tour leader.  It will be a fun trip!

 And now for the recap.  Rabbi Dean and Cantor Marney led our Tefillah service as always before the kids adjourned to their classes.  In the Bnai Mitzvah class, we spent the first hour continuing our study of Genesis in Chapter 11, which deals with the story of the Tower of Babel and more genealogies between Noah and Abraham.  The kids once again had a lot of fun calculating the gematriyah of each name listed and comparing their values.  Just like with Adam and Noah, in this case both Noah and Abraham, the most important individuals in the chapter, had names that were among the lowest gematriyah values.  We all agreed that some of the names listed could have some hidden importance.  For the second hour, we learned about the Jewish community in Bolivia, which started off really small but then soared to nearly 10,000 during World War II because Bolivia was the only South American country to accept refugees.  However, the numbers dropped off again with more emigration after the war and today the community only consists of about 500, with questions whether it can survive another 20 years.  We decided Bolivia represents a missed opportunity for a vibrant Jewish community in the heart of South America.

 And that about covers it for now.  We hope everyone has a nice long weekend and we will see you on the 17th for our field trip!

Best,

David

Hello Everyone,

  And L’shana Tovah!  As we head toward Yom Kippur and Sukkot, we will have a slightly different session this upcoming week.  We will not be having regular classes in the morning so all the adults can recover from our Yom Kippur fast the day before.  Instead, we would like all the families to come to the Temple at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 13, to assist in our annual tradition of putting up the Sukkah.  With everyone pitching in, we are usually done in a couple of hours and the kids get to have fun with the decorations.  We will resume our regular classes the following week.

  And now for the recap.  This past week Larry and Sol led us in our Tefillah service before going to our classes.  In the younger grades they finished learning about Rosh Hashanah and have started learning about Yom Kippur.  They have also been practicing the Shema prayer in ASL!  Finally, the kids are reviewing the first four letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

     In the Bnai Mitzvah class, the kids learned about the Torah Portion Haazinu and the poem recited by Moses to the Israelites on the eve of their entry into Canaan.  They mainly tackled the subject of working for the benefit of others even if we ourselves do not get to experience the reward, like when Moses learned he could gaze upon Canaan but not be allowed to enter it.  For the second half of class, the students put together their own T’Shuva, which they will carry out this week.  Each student focused on something they were sorry for this year and how they will atone for their actions.  The students also got to engage in a blindfold exercise to symbolize the trust we put in ourselves and our communities when we make sacrifices.  They all learned a lot today.

    And that about covers it for now.  We will see everyone at the Yom Kippur services on Friday and Saturday and the Sukkah building on the 13th!

Best,

David

Hello Everyone!

 First of all, thank you to all the families who were able to attend the first Family Shabbat of the year. We had a great turnout and the kids got to have a lot of fun learning about Rosh Hashanah, eating snacks, and watching a movie. Our next one will be on October 26 at 5:00 p.m. so hopefully we’ll see even more families that night. In the meantime, the coming weeks will be filled with celebration as we embark on the High Holy Days, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah.  Our next session will take place this Sunday, October 6, with the Golden family graciously providing our special snacks for the week. And if you have not received your registration forms for the High Holy Day Services, they can be found in the main hall of the Temple. Finally, I would like to remind everyone that on the following Sunday, October 13, we will not have classes and instead will all meet at the Temple at 1:00 p.m. to help set up the Sukkah.

     And now for the recap. We started our Tefillah service with Rabbi Dean leading our families in prayer with the assistance of Sol, who is practicing for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah in January.  The younger kids were practicing writing their Hebrew letters while the middle grades worked on special projects for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The Bnai Mitzvah class started the first hour reading through a part of the Nitzavim Torah portion and considered what it said, its deeper meaning, and what it meant for us. They were also able to consider what is most important for keeping the covenant in their personal lives and comparing that list with what is most important for the survival of Judaism itself. During the second hour, we learned all about the symbolism of the foods we eat during the Rosh Hashanah seder and that Rosh Hashanah is only one of four new years celebrated in Judaism. I then had the kids consider what new foods they would add to the seder dinner and what other dates in the secular year we could observe as new years along with January 1. The kids mostly chose the equinoxes and solstices because of their connection to nature.

   And that about covers it for now.  We will see everyone at the Rosh Hashanah services on Wednesday and Thursday and Religious School on October 6!

Best,

David

Hello Everyone!

It was so wonderful to see all of our new families join us for the last few sessions and we look forward to even more new families joining us in the future.  The coming weeks will be filled with celebration as we embark on the High Holy Days, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah.  Our next session will take place this Sunday, September 29.  And if you have not received your registration forms for the High Holy Days, they can be found in the main hall of the Temple.  Finally, we encourage all our families to attend the first Family Shabbat for the year, which will be held this Saturday, September 28, at 5:00 p.m.  There will be a special Havdallah service, challah, juice and snacks for the kids, an opportunity to practice blowing the shofar, performing a tashlich, and watching a short movie.  It will be fun!

   And now for the recap.  We started our Tefillah service with Rabbi Dean leading our families in prayer with the assistance of Sol B., who is practicing for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah in January.  The younger kids were practicing writing their Hebrew letters while the middle grades worked on a special art project.  The Bnai Mitzvah class started the first hour reading through a part of the Ki Tovo Torah portion and considered what it said, its deeper meaning, and what it meant for us.  They were especially intrigued by the list of prohibitions and how they compared to the ten commandments.  During the second hour, we learned all about the Jewish community of India, including historical Jewish settlements, the mass exodus of Indian Jews to Israel, and the customs of the remaining Jewish community in the country.  The kids were really excited with the idea about making Indian cilantro latkes!

  And that about covers it for now.  We will see everyone on the 29th!

Best,

David

Hello Everyone,

    And welcome back!  We had an amazing first day of Religious School and we were so glad everyone was able to come.  All of our teachers are so excited to be starting the year and all the projects and activities we have planned.  As a reminder, there will be no Religious School next Sunday, September 1 (because of Labor Day).  The following week on September 8 is the Solano Stroll so please remember to sign up for one shift at the Temple Booth that day to help spread the word about our community.  It will be an all-school project.  You can let either me or Larry know when you would like to volunteer.

   And now for the recap.  Cantor Marney led us through our Tefillah service to get us back into our groove.  In a twist this year, each student will get to help lead a Tefillah service later this year as practice for their Bnai Mitzvot.

   The younger grades spent their day talking about their summer activities, going over class rules and procedures, watching videos, seeing the projects they will do and the themes they will cover, etc.  In the Bnai Mitzvah class, we spent the first hour coming up with our collective class rules, picking the countries we want to study for our year-long Jewish Communities Around the World project, and previewing the prayers and Torah portions we will review this year.  For the second hour, the kids played Apples to Apples: The Judeaica version.  They all had a lot of fun!

        And that about covers it for now.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best,

David

Shalom Everyone!

 Our first session of Religious School is almost here.  It will take place on Sunday, August 25, starting at 9:30 a.m.  We will begin with our usual Tefillah Service and announcements.  As part of the announcements, I will be handing out sign-in sheets for Snack Volunteers and Oneg Hosts for the year.  This year, to provide more lead times, I will be sending out reminders in each weekly email about who will be bringing snacks that week and when your family will be hosting Oneg for a Shabbat service (only once for the year).  The rest of the day the kids will be sorted into their new classes and enjoy a day of introductions and games and projects.  We are so looking forward to seeing everyone!

 The beginning of the year is a little unusual for the schedule.  The following week, September 1, will be off because of the Labor Day weekend.  The week after that, September 8, will be the Solano Stroll.  SInce we are hosting a booth that day, the teachers and I decided that we will not hold class but instead have all the families come help spread the word about our temple at the booth and enjoy the festivities.  We will be passing out a sign-up sheet on the first day of class as well.  Starting on September 15, we will have a much more regular schedule all through October.

 Please let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks everyone!

Best,

David

Hi Everyone,

It was great to see everyone on Sunday.  Now that we are in the home stretch for the school year, we will have next week off because of Memorial Day, our final full session on June 2, and then our annual Mensch Ceremony/Ice Cream social on June 9.  For the last day, we will have our regular Tefillah service, an hour or so for the Mensch Ceremony, and then another half hour to an hour for the ice cream social.  We encourage all parents to stay for the ceremony and contribute one ice cream treat for the kids.  It will be an excellent finish for the year!  We also encourage everyone to stay for the membership meeting, which will start that day at 1:00 p.m.

 And now for the recap.  The younger grades were finishing up their lessons and completing end of year projects.  The B’nai Mitzvah class spent the first half of class learning about how Israel became a nation along with what was required to survive during the Israeli War for Independence in 1948.  We all agreed that cohesion, better planning, supplies from abroad, and division among the Arab combatants allowed Israel to win the war against long odds.  We then looked up fun facts about Israel and came up with a Top 10 list.  The list included that glue in Israel is Kosher, the largest sock mosaic (12,000 pairs) was created in Israel, and that at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a ladder has stood at a window for over 200 years because none of the six sects of Christianity that use the church have claimed it!  For the second half of class, the students worked on their Ancestry posters.  They will complete the posters on June 2 and be able to take them home to show their family symbols, roots, and history in visual form.  They will also be able to log into the ancestry site and show the family trees they created.  It should be quite illuminating.

 And that about covers it for now.  Everyone have a wonderful long weekend and we will see you in June!

Best,

David

Hello Everyone,

First of all, we wanted to thank all of our families who helped out and attended the Seder dinner this past Saturday.  The kids had a lot of fun finding the afikomen.  Our next Religious School session will be this Sunday, May 5, and then we will have a break the following week on May 12 for Mother’s Day.

   And now for the recap.  Rabbi Dean led our Tefillah service before the kids went to their separate classes.  The younger kids finished up their Passover packets and completed their matzah covers for their family Seders.  At the same time, the B’nai Mitzvah class explored how to modify Passover traditions to give them a 21st century twist.  The kids brainstormed what the 10 plagues would look like if they were based on disrupting life in urban areas dependent on technology (instead of rural areas dependent on agriculture).  The new plagues would include electrical power outages, device breakage, natural disasters, sun flares knocking out satellites, etc.  They also reimagined the lyrics to Chad Gadya.  For the second half of class, we reviewed the B’nai Mitzvah prayers and continued working on their ancestry projects. 

  And that is about all for now.  Please remember to sign up for bringing snacks for the kids along with hosting an Oneg if your family has not done so already.  We still have openings for one Shabbat in May and two Shabbats in June.  Thanks everyone and we’ll see you Sunday!

Best,

David

Hello Everyone,

It’s so amazing that Passover has finally arrived!  We encourage everyone who is able to come to the Temple Seder this Saturday, April 27, at 6:00 p.m.  We plan to have all the religious school families who are attending sitting at the same table so all the kids can play with each other during the service.  Our next Religious School session will be this Sunday, April 28, followed by another session on May 5 before taking a break on May 12 for Mother’s Day.  

And now for the recap.  As expected all the classes were working on Passover themed activities this past week.  The younger grades, led by Ms. Heather, were decorating seder plates and coverings for their families.  They also watched videos of the latest parody songs by 613, a great group of Orthodox students who sing about various Jewish holidays.  This year they have Passover songs sung to the tunes of ABBA, Lion King and Gilligan’s Island.  They’re really funny!

  Meanwhile, the Bnai Mitzvah class was delving deeply into the meanings of the 14 steps of the Seder.  They came up with themes of opposites: joy/bitterness, prepared/unprepared, etc.  They also realized so many of the steps could be up for interpretation, including the fact that the “Festive Meal” could technically be a dessert plate and the “songs” at the end of the Seder could be either joyful or sorrowful songs, depending on the mood of the table.  They all wrote down their thoughts for each step and will be ready to give their opinions at your family seders this year.  Finally, the students started making drawings of a proposed family coat of arms based on their research into their family histories.  By the end of the year, they will have completed a great visual project.  More details to come.

   Finally, please remember to sign up for bringing snacks for the kids along with hosting an Oneg if your family has not done so already.  We still have openings for two Shabbats in May and two Shabbats in June.  Thanks everyone and we’ll see you Sunday!

Best,

David

Hello Everyone,

The big day is almost here.  We are all set to go on our second field trip of the year, this time to the Oakland Zoo, this upcoming Sunday, April 14.  We will meet at the Temple at our regular time at 9:30 for a brief Tefillah service that should last approximately 20 minutes.  We will then carpool to Oakland and arrive at the zoo at 10:30 a.m.  I will be able to take 7-8 people in my van and we have paid parking for 2 other cars.  Please let me know if you would like to volunteer to carpool as well.  We will spend approximately 2-3 hours at the Zoo where the kids will go on a scavenger hunt looking for different animals based on their Hebrew names.  Please make sure the kids wear their blue TBH shirts so we can keep track of everybody and that they bring water bottles to stay hydrated.

Also, our annual Passover Seder will be coming up on Saturday, April 27.  We are looking for volunteers to help with set up, clean up, and other assistance in preparation for the event.  Please let me know if you would like to volunteer.

And now for the recap.  Rabbi Dean and Cantor Marney led us in our Tefillah service before each class started preparing for the upcoming field trip.  The kids learned the Hebrew names of the significant animals at the Oakland Zoo and will use their preparation for the upcoming scavenger hunt.  The B’nai Mitzvah class also did more work on their ancestry projects and are almost done with their research.  Soon they will be making initial drawings for a coat of arms and map detailing the journeys their ancestors took to get to California and the key features of their family history that symbolize who they are.

Thanks everyone and we’ll see you on Sunday!

P.S. Please take a moment to sign up for bringing snacks in March along with hosting an oneg in March, April, May, or June.  Thanks everyone!

Best,

David