Torah Lesson 1 Introduction: What Is Torah?

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1 Torah Lesson 1 Introduction: What Is Torah? INTRODUCTION In this lesson, students will be introduced to the concept of the Torah as the book of the Jewish people, similar in some respects to other books, but far different in many important ways. The lesson introduces the theme of Level 1 discovering myself in the Jewish story by helping the students to make a connection between their own personal stories and the stories of the Book of Genesis. To do this, the students will need access to their baby books, if they have them, or parents will need to supply several pictures of the student from various ages/stages of his or her life. In working with the baby book or the baby pictures, it is important to be cognizant of the fact that there may be children in your class who have been adopted. For this reason, you may want to use phrases that reflect the child s coming into his or her family as well as phrases that may connect to the birth event itself. In any case, a letter requesting that these materials be sent to class should be given to the parents at least one week prior to this session. Two significant elements, which will serve as unifying factors throughout the Level 1 Torah strand, are also introduced in this lesson. These elements are a welcome song and a good-bye song, preferably in Hebrew, and the traditional blessing for the study of Torah. It is important that you are able to teach the blessing correctly, so if you need assistance with this, speak with the educator or the rabbi to make the necessary arrangements. Finally, you may want to review the Torah Alive! curriculum developed by the Union for Reform Judaism for early childhood classrooms, as well as the revised CHAI Level 2 Introduction to Torah lesson ( to help you prepare to teach this lesson. ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS Torah is an ongoing dialogue between the text and its students. Torah is real in our daily lives: it goes with us wherever we are. Developing the skills to study Torah is essential to integrating Torah into our lives. I am part of the ongoing story of Torah and the Jewish people ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS 1. What does the Torah have to say to me and my world? 7

2 8 Torah Lesson 1 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life 2. How can Torah study help me in my everyday life? 3. Why is the Torah different from other books? 4. What is the story of Torah? 5. What does it mean to be part of the story of Torah and the Jewish people? 6. How can I play an active role in the story of Torah? QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED 1. How is the story of Torah different from other stories I might read, and how is it the same? 2. How is the Book of Genesis like a journey? 3. What do I have in common with the people in the Torah? EVIDENCE OF UNDERSTANDING Students will begin to personalize their Genesis Traveler, which will take them through their Genesis journey. Students will become familiar with the blessing for the study of Torah. LESSON OVERVIEW Set Induction (10 15 minutes) Singing Torah (5 10 minutes) Blessing Torah (10 minutes) Beginning the Genesis Journey (10 15 minutes) Conclusion (5 10 minutes) MATERIALS NEEDED CHAI Level 1 CD, track 3, The Torah. A baby book or multiple baby books. (You can bring these from your own home and/or ask parents to bring in their child s baby book. Please see the introduction to this lesson.) A small Torah scroll, if possible (a children s size is fine, if it is written in Hebrew). (If this is not available, a picture of a Torah scroll can be used.)

3 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Introduction: What Is Torah? 9 Blessing for Studying Torah (page 12). Letter to parents (page 13). The Jewish Parent Page: Blessings for Torah (pages 14 16). READING RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS Arcus, Lorraine Posner. Torah Alive! An Early Childhood Torah Curriculum. New York: URJ Press, Steinbock, Steven E. Torah: The Growing Gift. New York: UAHC Press, LESSON VOCABULARY,h Jt r C Genesis/B reishit Torah scroll journey The first book of the Torah and of the Hebrew Bible, Tanach. B reishit comes from the Hebrew word for first or beginning. The Book of Genesis takes the student of Torah from the creation of the world through the stories of our Matriarchs and Patriarchs, to Joseph (and later, his family) in Egypt; it ends with the deaths of Jacob and Joseph. The Torah is written by hand on a scroll, a long piece of parchment wound around two poles or rollers. Going from one place to another place; usually describes a physical change, but can also reflect personal growth or development. SET INDUCTION (10 15 MINUTES) LESSON PLAN 1. The purpose of this Set Induction is to orient the students to the idea of personal growth and to introduce the concept of the Torah as the book that tells about the story of the Jewish people and that gives us the rules God wants us to follow in our lives. 2. Assemble the students, and sing or play the Hebrew welcome song, if you have not already done so (See page xiv for more information on the welcome song). Tell the students they are going to be starting each class with this song in order to welcome them. They will also play a song at the end of each class to say good-bye. 3. Ask the students to hold up the baby books or pictures that they brought to class. 4. Ask the students what these books are and what kind of story the baby books tell (the story of a child getting older/bigger and growing up). Ask the students how this book is the same or different from other books that they might know. (Possible answers: Same: has words and pictures, tells a story, has pages, etc. Different: usually belongs to only one family, is written by hand rather than printed.)

4 10 Torah Lesson 1 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life 5. Give the students a few minutes to look through their own baby books and to offer any comments or reactions they may wish to share with the class. 6. Print the word Torah on the board or flip chart, and ask the students if they have ever heard of a book called the Torah. Encourage the students to describe the Torah or to guess at what it might be like or contain. Be careful not to correct wrong answers or to praise correct ones. 7. Show the students the Torah, and point out some of its important aspects, including the following: the words of the Torah are written on a scroll; the Torah is very big; the words are in Hebrew, the special language of the Jewish people; the words of the Torah are considered holy by the Jewish people. Mention that the Torah contains five parts, also called books, and the first book is called Genesis, which tells the story about the beginning of the world and about the first Jews. Tell the students that the Jewish people study the Torah to learn how God wants us to live and how to be a good person. LEARNING ACTIVITIES Singing Torah (5 10 minutes) 1. Tell the students that they will now be hearing a song about the Torah and that they should listen carefully to the words so that each of them can tell the class one thing about the Torah they learned from (or heard in) the song. 2. Play The Torah, track 3 on the CHAI Level 1 CD. 3. If you think it would be helpful in terms of student learning, you may want to play the song again so the students can hear if the ideas they shared about the Torah are actually mentioned in the song. Blessing Torah (10 minutes) 1. Ask the students if they know what a blessing is. (Possible answers: special words we say, words we say in Hebrew, something we say before we eat bread.) 2. Explain to the students that we say a blessing to thank God for the wonderful things that we have. Hand out the student workbooks for the Torah strand and ask the students to put their name on the cover. Tell the students to turn to page 1 in their workbooks to see some of the things for which we say blessings. Point out the blessing for Torah study and tell the students that we say a special blessing before we study the Torah, because the Torah is special to us it teaches us about how God created the world and how God wants us to live in it. 3. Begin to teach the students the blessing for studying Torah. This blessing will be recited in each lesson, and not all your students will be able to learn it well enough to speak it. The goal is to have them hear it each time they are going to study Torah and to become familiar with it to the extent to which they are able. Reassure them by pointing out that they can say Amen after you have said the blessing, and that means they agree with the blessing. We have included the blessing on page 12 for you to hang up in your classroom.

5 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Introduction: What Is Torah? 11 Beginning the Genesis Journey (10 15 minutes) In this section of the lesson, you will be introducing the students to the framework through which they will experience the Torah lessons in this strand the notion of the Genesis Journey and their part in it. 1. Tell the students that in the weeks to come they will be hearing stories from the Torah about people who lived a very long time ago, but who have important things to teach us about our own lives today. 2. Ask the students to open their workbook to the My Genesis Traveler activity (between pages 16 and 17). If you are going to hang the My Genesis Travelers on a bulletin board, have the students take them out of the workbooks now. Using markers, crayons, and other decorative material that you may have available, ask the students to make the face look more like their own face. Tell the students to decorate the Traveler s clothes and body, but not the surrounding space. Explain to them that over the next few weeks they will be studying Torah stories. With each story that they learn, they will have the opportunity to add an image to their pictures. Every image they add will reflect something they learned about both the Torah and themselves. CONCLUSION (5 10 MINUTES) 1. Ask the students to come back together as a class, and review the concept of the baby book as a record of a person changing over time. Tell the students that their Genesis Traveler will also change over time, as they study Torah stories and learn new things about themselves. 2. Thank the students for their hard work! End the class with singing or playing the good-bye song. This can be the same song as the welcome song, or it can be different. 3. Hand out the parent letter and a copy of The Jewish Parent Page: Blessings for Torah (pages 13 16).

6 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Blessing for Studying Torah Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the universe, who has sanctified us through Your commandments and commanded us to engage in the words of Torah. Ub«J S e r J t 'o kig v Q k«n Ubh«vO t '²h±h v T t QUr C /v ri, h r c s C eix g k «²U m± Ubu 'uh,i m n C Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, asher kid shanu b mitzvotav v tzivanu laasok b divrei Torah. Copyright 2007 URJ Press

7 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Dear Parents, Today our class began our study of the CHAI curriculum Level 1 Torah strand. Over the next eight sessions, the children will be learning important stories from the Book of Genesis that have shaped our destiny and our mindset as a people throughout our history. In our lesson today, we looked at baby books and pictures as a story about ourselves, and we thought about the Torah as the story of the Jewish people. We learned that there is a blessing Jews say when they study Torah, and we will be saying the blessing (as best we can!) each time we study Torah together as a class. You can help reinforce your child s learning and strengthen your family s Jewish life by engaging in Torah study in a variety of ways offered through our Reform Movement, including online study, available at no cost. Register for the following: 10 Minutes of Torah, daily Torah study sent to you via Eilu V eilu, an interactive Torah study discussion, with commentaries by two Reform Movement rabbis: The Jewish Parent Page informs and educates about the Jewish holidays and their customs. It includes blessings, historical background, recipes, family activities, and other creative ways to celebrate the Jewish festivals: Attached please find a sample Jewish Parent Page. Sincerely, Copyright 2007 URJ Press

8 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Copyright 2007 URJ Press

9 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Copyright 2007 URJ Press

10 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Copyright 2007 URJ Press