tbhrich

Hello Everyone,

    As a reminder, we are still looking for volunteers from all our families to assist with the Purim Carnival, which will take place on March 24 from 12:00-2:00 p.m.  We especially need help with set-up on the 23rd from 1:00-3:00 p.m. and overseeing the booths and bake sale the day of the event.   Let’s all strive to have 100% participation from the Religious School to show our dedication to the community of TBH! The B’nai Mitzvah class will actually be running the popcorn machine at the Carnival and the kids are excited!  To volunteer, please reach out to Wendy and Jane at purim@tbhrichmond.org.

       And now for the recap.  Cantor Marney and Rabbi Dean led our Tefillah Services as always before heading to the classroom.  For the B’nai Mitzvah class, we welcomed the middle grades to collectively work on the Ain Camocha and Ki Mitzeeon prayers.  The kids worked hard and were starting to master both prayers even after only just one session.  For the second half of class, we continued our gematriyah study by looking at the months of the year along with the seasons.  No surprise, the highest valued month was Tishrei, with all the High Holidays, although there were some surprises that appeared.  All of the spring months ended up being 6th, 7th, and 8th in value while spring itself was the lowest value among the seasons.  It is amazing the different patterns that emerge with gematriyah!

  And that about covers it for now.  We look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday.

Best,

David

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!

Hello Everyone,

First of all, a huge shoutout for all the families who were able to attend Scarlet’s Bat Mitzvah this past weekend.  She did an amazing job and we are all so proud of her.  At our next session, this Sunday on March 3, let us all welcome our newest Jewish adult into our community.  Also, let’s all strive to have 100% participation from the Religious School for the Purim Carnival on March 24 to show our dedication to the community of TBH! The B’nai Mitzvah class will actually be running the popcorn machine at the Carnival and the kids are excited!

  And now for the recap.  Cantor Marney led our Tefillah Service and we also got to celebrate all our new families with certificates and gifts.  In the B’nai Mitzvah class, we combined with the middle grades to continue our discussion on the mysteries of gematria.  After practicing the Ain Camocah prayer, all the kids learned the gematria values of the days of the week and the colors of the rainbow.  No surprise that Shabbat ranked highest but incredibly Tuesday is the second highest value day while Wednesday is the least valued.  And after figuring out the values of the colors, all the kids drew a “Gematriyah rainbow” with the higher valued colors on top.  Such a rainbow has orange at the top, followed by green, and red at the very bottom.  Everyone had fun discussing these mysteries.

  And that about covers it for now.  We look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday.

Best,

David

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!

Hello Everyone,

     First of all, we wanted to thank all our parents for braving the rain and wind to come to Religious School last week to fill up our classes.  Our next session will be this upcoming Sunday, February 11, and two weeks from now we will have a break on February 18.  As a reminder, the New Member Shabbat will take place on February 16 and we encourage all of our families to attend ( along with the Family Shabbat which will take place earlier that evening).  We will also be having our second field trip in April to the Oakland Zoo.  I will send out more details when I have the exact date.  And the big day is approaching when Scarlet will have her Bat Mitzvah on February 24 (all are welcome to come to the service).  Finally, please remember to sign up for bringing snacks one week for the kids along with one Oneg for a shabbat this year.  The sign-up sheets are in the Religious School hallway.

     And now for the recap.  We started off with our regular Tefillah service, led as always by our own Rabbi Dean and Cantor Marney.  While the younger kids went to Jenny’s class, the middle and upper grades all gathered together with me for a special project.  Since we will be going to the Zoo in April, I wanted the kids to start learning the Hebrew names for all the animals.  We therefore spent our day playing a game of Guess the Animal.  The kids had a lot of fun with it and now have full lists of about two dozen animals with their Hebrew names.  They also utilized gematriyah to determine the values of each animal’s name according to Hebrew tradition.  Incredibly, the majestic swan had one of the highest gematriyah values!  We will be practicing saying the Hebrew animal names so we can identify them all when we get to the field trip.

    And that about wraps it up for now.  We look forward to seeing all our families this upcoming Sunday, February 11, after which we can all enjoy the Super Bowl.  Thanks everyone!

Best,

David

Hello Everyone,

     First of all, we wanted to thank all our parents for braving the rain and wind to come to Religious School last week to fill up our classes.  Our next session will be this upcoming Sunday, February 11, and two weeks from now we will have a break on February 18.  As a reminder, the New Member Shabbat will take place on February 16 and we encourage all of our families to attend ( along with the Family Shabbat which will take place earlier that evening).  We will also be having our second field trip in April to the Oakland Zoo.  I will send out more details when I have the exact date.  And the big day is approaching when Scarlet will have her Bat Mitzvah on February 24 (all are welcome to come to the service).  Finally, please remember to sign up for bringing snacks one week for the kids along with one Oneg for a shabbat this year.  The sign-up sheets are in the Religious School hallway.

     And now for the recap.  We started off with our regular Tefillah service, led as always by our own Rabbi Dean and Cantor Marney.  While the younger kids went to Jenny’s class, the middle and upper grades all gathered together with me for a special project.  Since we will be going to the Zoo in April, I wanted the kids to start learning the Hebrew names for all the animals.  We therefore spent our day playing a game of Guess the Animal.  The kids had a lot of fun with it and now have full lists of about two dozen animals with their Hebrew names.  They also utilized gematriyah to determine the values of each animal’s name according to Hebrew tradition.  Incredibly, the majestic swan had one of the highest gematriyah values!  We will be practicing saying the Hebrew animal names so we can identify them all when we get to the field trip.

    And that about wraps it up for now.  We look forward to seeing all our families this upcoming Sunday, February 11, after which we can all enjoy the Super Bowl.  Thanks everyone!

Best,

David

Shalom Everyone!

After our series of breaks over the last few weeks, we are now set for a more regular schedule for the next month.  We will be having religious school classes for the next three weeks into February.  We also encourage all of our families to attend the New Member Shabbat on February 16.  And thank you to all the families who brought in fruit for our Tu B’shvat celebration!  Finally, please remember to sign up for bringing snacks one week for the kids along with one Oneg for a shabbat this year.  The sign-up sheets are in the Religious School hallway.

  And now for the recap.  We started off with our regular Tefillah service, led as always by our own Rabbi Dean.  We also had the pleasure of having Scarlet assist in leading the service in preparation for her upcoming Bat Mitzvah in February.

   Afterwards, all the kids engaged in Tu B’shvat activities.  Heather’s and my class together prepared the 7 species along with the fruit brought in by the families and teachers.  We ended up with 16 fruits to sample along with all 7 species.  As in years past, the kids got to taste fruits they had everyday along with a few they had never tried before, expanding their palates.  Afterwards, everyone went to the meditation garden to help plant fava beans.  Finally, the kids got to watch a video about Tu B’shvat before assisting the teachers in cleaning up.  

    And that about wraps it up for now.  We look forward to seeing all our families this upcoming Sunday, January 28.  Thanks everyone!

Best,

David

Shalom Everyone!

After our series of breaks over the last few weeks, we are now set for a more regular schedule for the next month.  We will be having religious classes for the next three weeks into February.  We also encourage all of our families to attend the New Member Shabbat on February 16.  And thank you to all the families who brought in fruit for our Tu B’shvat celebration!  Finally, please remember to sign up for bringing snacks one week for the kids along with one Oneg for a shabbat this year.  The sign-up sheets are in the Religious School hallway.

  And now for the recap.  We started off with our regular Tefillah service, led as always by our own Rabbi Dean.  We also had the pleasure of having Scarlet assist in leading the service in preparation for her upcoming Bat Mitzvah in February.

   Afterwards, all the kids engaged in Tu B’shvat activities.  Heather’s and my class together prepared the 7 species along with the fruit brought in by the families and teachers.  We ended up with 16 fruits to sample along with all 7 species.  As in years past, the kids got to taste fruits they had everyday along with a few they had never tried before, expanding their palates.  Afterwards, everyone went to the meditation garden to help plant fava beans.  Finally, the kids got to watch a video about Tu B’shvat before assisting the teachers in cleaning up.  

    And that about wraps it up for now.  We look forward to seeing all our families this upcoming Sunday, January 28.  Thanks everyone!

Best,

David

Hello Everyone,

We hope your families had a nice MLK Jr. Day.  The Zimring-Lesch family spent the morning helping to weed and plant lavender at Unity Park in Richmond, a perfect example of Tikun Olam as well as the upcoming celebration of TuBshvat.  For this upcoming Sunday on January 21, we will be having a potluck seder for all the kids and parents featuring the 7 species and at least 15 different kinds of fruit, based on the TuBshvat tradition.  Please email me back which kind of fruit your family would like to contribute (either typical or exotic) and I can add it to the list.  We will also have the kids assist with tending and mulching the trees around the grounds.  It will be a solid day of preserving the earth! 

  Also, please remember to sign up to bring snacks in February and March (and thank you to those who have signed up for January!)  And the Zimring-Lesch family will be hosting Oneg this upcoming Shabbat on January 19 so please join us if you would like to see what will be involved for your own Oneg later in the year (please add your name to the sign-up sheet in the Religious School building).

   Thanks everyone and we’ll see you on Sunday!

Best,

David

Shalom Everyone!

And welcome back!  It was so wonderful to see all our families back together again after our long break.  As a reminder, we will not have Religious School on January 14 because of the MLK Jr. holiday weekend but we will return on January 21 and continue for four straight weeks afterward.  Also, please remember to sign up to bring snacks one week in January and February along with one Oneg for a Shabbat service between January and June.  My family will be hosting the upcoming Shabbat Oneg on January 19 so if you like you can attend this upcoming Shabbat service next week and see how it works.

And now for the recap.  Rabbi Dean and Cantor Marney led us in our first Tefillah service of the secular year before the kids went to their classes.  In the lower grades, they started the day by thinking about a quote from Midrash Tanchuma Nitzavim: “A bundle of reeds cannot be broken by a person; but, taken one by one, even a child can break them.”  The class then talked about what this quote can mean and how it applies to us.  Later on, students continued learning about Kehillah (community); Tzedek (justice); Arevut (mutual responsibility); and Tikkun Olam (repairing the world).  Finally, for the second hour they learned about how Martin Luther King Jr. tried to heal the world, partly by working with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heshel.

For the B’nai Mitzvah class, we spent the first hour continuing to practice the Torah Service prayers and have now moved on to learning the Haftarah prayers.  The kids are catching on very quickly to the melodies and can already chant the Blessing Before Haftarah and the first paragraph of the Blessing After Haftarah.  For the second hour, we continued our research into the students’ family trees, adding more relatives and archiving more documents.  We are planning to gather as much information as we can for everyone’s heritage up to great-grandparents before starting on the next phase of the project.  The kids are excited!

And that about covers it for now.  Since our next Religious School on January 21 will be celebrating Tu B’shvat, I will be sending a sign-up sheet next week for families to bring one fruit to share for a Tu B’shvat feast.  Thanks everyone!

Best,

David 

Hello Everyone,

      And a Happy New Year to you all!  We will resume our regular Religious School this upcoming Sunday, January 7.  Also, please remember to sign up to bring snacks one week in January and February along with one Oneg for a Shabbat service anytime between January and June.  Everyone, have a wonderful new year and we’ll see everyone on the 7th!

Best,

David