Dear Parents, Do animals have bechira (freedom of choice)? I would say not! However, the

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1 ISSUE 15 Parshas Va eira Hadlakas Neiros: 4:36 PM Havdalah: 5:55 PM YBHighlights January 16, 2015 CALENDAR Sunday, January 18 Sunday, January 25 Winter Vaca on NO SESSIONS Monday, January 26 SESSIONS RESUME ******* SAVE THE DATES: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3 YBH/ OHEL PARENTING PRESENTATION SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15 1G B & 1G P CHUMASH PLAYS SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22 7G PRODUCTION Please encourage your daughters to par cipate in our vaca on program of davening and reviewing hilchos brachos for our upcoming Brachos Bee MESSAGE FROM OUR MENAHEL Dear Parents, Do animals have bechira (freedom of choice)? I would say not! However, the מוסר medrash says the frogs who were and jumped into the hot ovens נפש מקדש because Hashem said so, were Their reward was that they.שם שמים remained alive, but the frogs who ran in different direc ons eventually died. Was it really mesiras nefesh if Hashem commanded them to do so? Rav Shimon Schwab, ל,זצ says that since Hashem commanded the frogs to go different places, including into the ovens, it was mesiras nefesh, because He didn t specify which ones should go where. Therefore, those who went into the hot ovens remained alive. The gemara says that Chananya, Mishoel and Azariah were also מוסר נפש when.נבוכדנצר of צלם they didn t bow to the How was this being נפש?מוסר They were not allowed to bow to avoda zara! Rav Schwab answers that a) they could have run away, and b) since it was a צלם for s נבוכדנצר personal kavod, it wasn t a real avoda zara. They had op ons, but instead were שם שמים,מקדש so this was true mesiras nefesh. Now we can understand a chazal that says that Chananya, Mishoel and Azariah learned a kal vachomer from the frogs. If the frogs (who are not required to מוסר make a kiddush Hashem) were same. surely they should do the,נפש Just as the frogs had op ons and could have jumped anywhere other than into the hot ovens, Chananya, Mishoel and Azariah also could have run away but chose not to. Rav Schwab explains that when Hashem performs miracles, part of the is that other living creatures have נס bechira. Not only living creatures, but also the water of the סוף,ים when it was angry at the בנ י who had brought avoda zara מיכה) (פסל with them, it says להם חמה. והמים This can mean the water became a wall (חומה) or the water became angry.(חימה) The source for this is from בראשית,מעשה where we see that un l the בריאה was complete, inanimate objects, i.e. the sun and the moon, the פרי,עץ fruit trees,* etc. had bechira, as we know from chazal. (*The bark of the fruit trees were originally supposed to be fruits, but the trees didn t listen, therefore, they went from being עץ פרי to (.עץ עושה פרי Let us hope that we learn from all of Hashem s crea ons to make the right choices, even during vaca on! Have a wonderful Shabbos & vaca on. Rabbi Berel Leiner, Menahel

2 Parnes Hayom Learning was dedicated on the following days: Monday, 21 Teves (1/12) L iluy nishmas Chaim Ben Shmuel great grandfather of Atara (7G) Ilana (4G) & Laila (K) Zoldan Sponsored by Sara and Sammy Zoldan Wednesday, 23 Teves (1/14) In memory of Rabbi Heshy Wieder's son, Gershon Sponsored by middle school parents, students & faculty Thursday, 24 Teves (1/15) In commemora on of the yahrtzeit on 28 Teves of Zalman ben Moshe, Sam Sus n, great grandfather of Chaim (5B) Kira (5G) & Geula (K) Rothberger, sponsored by Dan and Sally Hoffman Friday, 25 Teves (1/16) In memory of Rabbi Heshy Wieder's son, Gershon Sponsored by middle school parents, students & faculty Friday, 25 Teves (1/16) In commemora on of the yahrtzeit on 27 Teves of Yisroel Zev Moskovitz great grandfather of Atara (7G) Ilana (4G) & Laila (K) Zoldan Sponsored by Dr. and Mrs. Fred Moskovitz MAZAL TOV TO Rabbi & Mrs. Ari Schonfeld (8B rebbe) on the birth of a daughter PTA CORNER Anyone who did not yet pay for or return the KidStuff coupon book, please be sure to do so before winter break. A special thank you to Rusi Kruter and Perl Weinstein for all their help with the a er school programs. The PTA wishes everyone a res ul and safe winter break. INTRODUCING CAMP HABIMA Summer Performing Arts Program for girls leaving grades 6 8 July 27 August 20 See a ached flyer for details HIGHLIGHTS OF THE GRANDMOTHER Dear Parents, The annual Grandmother Mother Daughter Brunch was a most memorable event for the grandmothers, mothers and daughters of YBH. Weeks of planning, prac cing, prepara on and an cipa on crystallized into a magnificent event that shines as one of the highlights of the year, with Mrs. Leiner gracing us with her presence. The girls performed beau fully against a backdrop of breathtaking scenery. The theme of we are all a link in a chain emerged through song and dance and a heartwarming slide show. Of course a produc on of such magnitude would be impossible without the input of countless individuals who gave so willingly of their me and talents, which we so appreciate.

3 MOTHER DAUGHTER BRUNCH We extend a tremendous hakaras hatov to the chairwomen, MRS. PENINA GOLDMAN AND MRS. ELANA SUDWERTS, who once again dedicated hours of their me to ensure the success of the event. May we con nue to shep nachas from all the girls at YBH. Wishing you a wonderful Shabbos and a res ul and enjoyable vaca on. Mrs. Chana Frumit Stern Assistant Principal, Girls Division

4 A Peek Into Our Week Morah Weiss s Kitah Daled: The fourth grade girls have learned almost sixty shorashim this year! We have an exci ng review ac vity or game each day, culmina ng in a grand chidon for which the girls spent lots of me preparing. Everyone did an excellent job, Morah Weiss had a hard me choosing a winner, but in the end, the winner was Daniella Hahn and the runner up was Tirtza Rosenthal! Mazel Tov! You may have no ced as you arrive to school in the mornings that you are greeted with a cheery "Good Morning" from a fourth grader. This is because we have ins tuted a "makdim b'shalom" program in which every girl who greets at least two people with a hearty good morning before class begins is entered into a raffle. We're sure that this admirable middah will last long a er the contest is over. Mrs. Gelber s Second Grade Class: Our class has used the first part of the school year to pack in much learning. Heading in to the break, the girls are much more capable readers, writers, mathema cians, scien sts and historians than when school began. Our budding scien sts have been focusing on animals and their life cycles as well as contras ng animal and plant cells. Our historians have been exposed to famous explorers, such as the Pilgrims, na ve Americans and immigra on. Some useful reader strategies that have been mastered include iden fying cause and effect, the author s purpose, drawing conclusions and inferring from the text. Their lessons have enhanced the girls paragraphs as they fine tune structure while u lizing the wri ng process. They have learned so much about place value, addi on and subtrac on strategies, double digit addi on and subtrac on as well as cri cal thinking skills needed for problem solving. These skills are crucial not only for math but for all areas, as our second graders blossom into independent learners. Mrs. Kot s Middle School Ivrit classes: Learning to speak, write and understand the Hebrew language and dikduk (grammar) fluently is the primary objec ve in Mrs. Kot s middle school Ivrit classes. The seventh and eighth grade girls are learning smichut (possessive nouns) as well as pronouns in masculine and feminine versions. The sixth grade girls have learned the different forms of shel (of) as well as versions of mine, yours, and ours. We will begin learning past tense, numbers and pronouns. We integrate artwork and songs, among other crea ve lessons, into our learning. The eighth graders have tried Israeli foods and the other classes will be enjoying falafel in the next several weeks. I have seen a lot of progress in the girls comprehension, speech, and wri ng. One of the projects the middle school girls are working on is an imaginary trip to Israel where we will visit many interes ng places. The girls have decorated the walls in our classroom with beau ful, colorful collages that they made highligh ng the most recent places we visited, such as Yam Hamelach and Yam Kineret, and we will add more places as we visit them. We look forward to the girls con nuing to flourish and enjoy their knowledge of Ivrit. ECD HIGHLIGHTS K R kindergarten students have been learning about pa erns, among many other interes ng topics. We discovered pa erns in places we did not expect to see them. The students created their own unique pa erns using snowflakes and also glued paper cut outs onto paper mi ens using their understanding of pa erns. Mrs. Aisenman s Fourth Grade Class: In science we completed our unit on ma er and a er the winter break we will be learning about laws of mo on. The girls have learned how to complete the Scien fic Method including wri ng a hypothesis (an if., then. statement) and that it does not need to be correct, but rather an educated statement about what they think will happen. We started our large wri ng project of the year and have been learning about descrip ve wri ng to help the reader visualize what is being described. The girls are working on their character development and will be crea ng one of these characters in the upcoming weeks, when we will focus on the se ng. In math, we have been focusing on beginning algebra, including order of opera ons. A er the break, we will start mul plying with larger digits and then move on to long division. In social studies we are con nuing to learn about New Jersey and recently completed a project on our state. We went to the computer lab and the girls created amazing mobiles based on their research. Library class started this week and the girls enjoyed their library session. In addi on to selec ng books to take out, they enjoyed reading books while relaxing on bean bags. Morah Rabinowitz s Kitah Beis: We are learning about different me periods in Jewish history. In Chumash, we are learning about Avraham, Sara and Lot s travels. We also learned about Yaakov and the shva m and the story of Yosef in Mitzrayim with Paroh. In Yahadus, we learned about the neis of Chanukah. In order to put all these in the proper me frame, we composed a me line from Adam Harishon un l the me of Chanukah. We were surprised to learn that the neis of Purim took place before the neis of Chanukah. Morah Pollak s Kitah Gimmel: As we learn chumash and get closer to the end of the parsha, kitah gimel is happily learning Rashi le ers and reading Rashi s explana ons. We are also enjoying crea ve wri ng in Lashon Hakodesh and then reading and transla ng the adorable stories the girls are wri ng. Mrs. Weissmann, YBH Librarian: I am excited that the school library is now open. Once every two weeks, your child will be able to come visit the library and take two books home. I am sending out reminders on the day before your child visits the library, so that you can remind your child to bring the books back to school. Please have your child return library books to me in the library, or place them in my box in the office, so we can make sure the books are returned safely. If you would like your child to take out Jewish books only, please let me know. If you have any other ques ons or concerns, please me at dweissmann@ybhillel.org. I'm looking forward to ge ng to know your children and providing a wonderful library experience for them.

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7 Multi-Family Social Skills Group FOR BOYS A past participant parent said I found this group beneficial on so many levels: my children learned skills, I was able to able to continue coaching them on the skills at home and I made strong connections with other parents. About the group: A Multi-Family Group is where a child comes accompanied by at least one parent or caregiver. Group will include discussion, family activities, skits and art activities to help children develop better social skills. Parents are key to helping their child develop these skills as they are the experts on their child and the child s social skills coach. The group experience provides support for parents and children. Topics covered include: self-esteem, anger management, conversation skills, tolerance, handling difficult situations such as teasing, non-verbal language, and self-awareness. Call Anne Marie Ramos at x143 if you have any further questions about this program. Jewish Family Service and Children s Center of Clifton-Passaic Supporting and Strengthening Family Life and the Mental Health Needs of Children Who: Boys ages 7-13 and at least 1 parent/caregiver When: Boys Age starts Monday February 2 nd at 7:00 PM for 6 weeks Boys Age 7-9 starts Tuesday February 3 rd at 6:00 PM for 6 weeks Where: Jewish Family Service 925 Allwood Avenue, Clifton, NJ To Apply: Call Sharon Zwickler at x151 Cost: $30.00/session or copay if insurance covers the service. (Whatever amount is less.) 925 Allwood Road Clifton, NJ

8 YBH-PTA COOKBOOKS! On Sale! 1 F o r $ f o r $ 10.00! To order please call or Amanda Lyman, , amandaslyman@gmail.com