SHABBAT SHALOM. Friday, March 23, 2018 Vol. 14 #25. 7 Nissan 5778 CALENDAR OF EVENTS. A Message from the Principal Mrs.

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1 Hasten Hebrew Academy of Indianapolis 6602 Hoover Road Indianapolis, IN Friday, March 23, 2018 Vol. 14 #25 SHABBAT SHALOM Friday, March 23, 2018 Saturday, March 24, Nissan 5778 Candle Lighting 7:39 p.m. Shabbat Ends after 9:01 p.m. A Message from the Principal Mrs. Miriam Gettinger The holiday of Pesach is fast approaching! It amazes me to see how many products are readily available for purchase from kosher for Passover pizza to barbeque sauce, pasta and cereals and even waffles perhaps due to the explosion of the gluten free consumer market. Childhood memories of matzah and jelly staples or the week s potatoes on steroids diet are a relic of the distant past, replaced by an unimaginable food fest! Spilling over to this trend is the explosion of toys and games marketed specifically for Pesach (remember I skipped kindergarten and have an arrested yearning for playing games and doing projects!) including Passover Bingo, card games, dominoes, Spot-It, Chutes and Ladders and even a Guess Who game wherein players compete to quickly guess the themed card from the Ten Plagues to the Four Sons etc. by asking only yes or no questions. Importantly, players are instructed to give only one of three responses to the queries- yes, no or I don t know. While we tend to think of yes or no questions as inherently basic and unsophisticated, in fact, an artfully crafted question yielding either a yes or no response depicts genuine critical thinking and is the stuff of legal cross-examination. Significantly, the last option given players in the game, that of answering I don t know is the most germane to the educational process. The quintessential hallmark of a student is that of being willing to admit failure and learn from mistakes, iterate and draft again, take risks and independently advocate for their learning. Humble and resilient, this type of student learns from diverse sources and resources akin to the rabbinical dictum in Ethics of the Fathers: Who is wise? He who learns from everyone. Moreover, Carol Dweck s classic experimentation on growth mindset pitted a group of seventh graders praised for their intelligence against a group praised for their perseverance and strategies and importantly proved that the former will avoid further challenge or risk in their learning to protect their self image of being smart and capable, while the latter group thrived upon such challenge and actually improved their scores on the original assessment. Indeed Rashi, the classic medieval commentary, often states that he does not know what the meaning of the text is or what its implication is viainenei yodaih However, we must be wary of the I don t know response which is not rooted in growth mindset but simply an impulsive laziness or initial unwillingness or anxiety to be nudged outside their comfort zone. One of my very favorite educational quips comes from Alan Mendler, psychologist and author of Discipline with Dignity, as he addresses this very phenomenon with the suggestion of asking students who retort I dunno to your pointed question, particularly younger children Well if you did know, what would you say?! There is in fact a very fine line between I don t know and I don t care. We endeavor to engender and empower our students to formulate and articulate intelligent questions as well as develop the patience and the CALENDAR OF EVENTS Homework Club for grades 6-8 will meet on Monday next week. NO HW club for grades 4 & 5 Grades 1-3 will meet on Monday. The next scrip order will be placed on April 10 Orders will be here on April 13. Please call Toni at ext. 158 to place an order. Pesach Break - No School March 28-April 6 Classes Resume April 9 70 Israel Wax Museum Presented by HHAI Students May 6 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm 47th Annual HAI-Life Awards Dinner May 23 Honoring Robert Schuckit Distinguished Teacher Nicole Mahern executive functioning tools to seek independent answers and not rely upon the teacher or parent to do the thinking for them. Are you ready for Passover? Doubtful that there are many I don t knows to this query!

2 Parshat Tzav By Rabbi Berel Wein Artist of the Week By Mrs. MaryEllen Fellegy The entire relationship between God and Israel is reflected in the opening verb of this week s Torah reading. The word tzav reflects an attitude of command and of subservience. Even though explanations for the command may be given and understood, the command itself remains viable and imperative no matter what. The Lord called the Jewish people an army of God. An army operates on commands and discipline, on following orders and executing them faithfully and accurately. Though individual initiative is always to be treasured and admired, an army that operates completely on that initiative is doomed to defeat and destruction. In all relationships in life a command structure is necessary in order for achievement and accomplishment to occur. By the nature of human society there must exist those who will command and those who in turn will obey and execute those commands. That is why the word for an imperative fulfillment of a positive act of spirituality mitzvah - has as its root the word for command. The difference throughout the ages, between traditional Judaism and those groups within the Jewish people who created for themselves new and different ways of Jewish thought and observance, has always been this concept of command. We are commanded to observe the Torah in a detailed and sophisticated manner. By substituting our own whims, ideas and political correctness for God s command we invariably slip down the road of historical extinction. At Sinai we declared that we would do and obey and only then submit the command to rational explanation. In an age when loyalty and obedience to any authority has become rare and even subject to being looked at askance, the triumph of traditional Judaism is based, now as always, on obeying commandments and executing them faithfully. Judaism has a moral code that prevents it from obeying the commandments and orders that are within themselves intrinsically evil and immoral. The explanation given by all of the Nazi war criminals for their bestiality and atrocities committed in World War II has always been that they were only following orders. Judaism does not allow for obeying immoral orders of murder and the deprivation of other human beings. Even at the risk of sacrificing one s own life, one is not allowed to kill others wantonly. The Torah therefore emphasizes that one is not permitted to add or detract from the Godly commandments ordained for us. Congratulations to the entire Ganon class! Ganon students have been very busy looking at photos of real frogs and were fascinated when learning about their different colors and patterns! They were very interested in the Poison Dart frogs which have some of the most brilliant and beautiful colors on Earth! These frogs live in the rain forests of Central and South America. They eat many kinds of small insects, including fruit flies, ants and tiny beetles, which are the ones scientists think may be responsible for the frogs toxicity. To begin, students drew patterns with oil pastels on white paper squares for the frog body and long strips for the legs. Next, paint crayons were used to fill in the bright colors and metallic watercolors were used to add additional detail and overall shimmer. Scissors were then used to create a more natural shape for the frog. Each student also designed a big leaf for the frog to sit on. All of the colorful pieces were then assembled, including a bright red tongue and wiggle eyes, to create a very lively frog! Please come see the Ganon frogs next to the EC Library! Menu Fare March The rabbis of the Talmud and of later generations built a fence around those commandments to protect them and preserve them. But there is no change in the value and method of observance of the commandments. A commandment that can be countermanded or ignored at one s own whim is in reality no commandment at all. In a society where there are no fixed commandments and all morality is relative and subject to change, chaos and immorality will undoubtedly eventually prevail. All of history, both Jewish and general, testifies to this immutable truth. We are sanctified by obeying God s commandments and Jewish tradition. Shabbat shalom The institution is an equal opportunity provider. Rabbi Berel Wein 2

3 By Sarah Snider The hard work of the fall paid off once again in the spring for HHAI Humanities students in the Letters About Literature contest! Every year the Library of Congress solicits letters from students to the author of a book that changed their life or world view. In the state of Indiana alone, 1,550 letters were written and submitted by students! Mrs. Berg and I are so excited and proud to have students win 1st place in the state for their division. In Level II (7th & 8th grade), Yael Cohen won 1st place for the second year in a row! In the years that I have been working with students, I have never seen any student even place two years in a row, much less win. Yael s letter to chef Marcus Sameulsson about his book Yes, Chef discussed the powerful role food and cooking plays in culture, identity and family. Yehuda Noff took 1st place in Level I (5th & 6th grade) with his letter to Sheila Cole about her book The Dragon in the Cliff. Both Yael and Yehuda s letters now move on to national level judging against the other state winners. Jano Vasquez-Jaffe won 2nd place in the state for his letter to Leon Leyson about his book The Boy on the Wooden Box and Shay Orentlicher followed up her 2nd place performance last year with an Honorable Mention, which means her letter was one of the 10 considered for 1st place. Shay wrote to Angie Thomas about The Hate You Give. Yael Epstein also received an Honorable Mention in Level I for her letter about Robert Munch s Love You Forever. Please see below for a list of the HHAI students who received Semi-Finalist (letters that made it to the last stage of judging.) To put it in perspective, out of the 1,550 letter received, 100 are recognized with awards. Fifteen HHAI students received awards, including two 1st place finishes and one 2nd place. Semi Finalists Eva Glazier Max Hill Tahlia Alkobi Yoav Ehrlich Brooke Fridell Shirel Moalem Lidya Solomon Kenna Sondhelm Gabriel Vasquez-Jaffe Scumble Story of My Life Real Friends Harry Potter and the Sorcerer s Stone Wonder Out of My Mind Real Friends Okay for Now Hiding in the Spotlight HHAI students were able to join their senior book club buddies at the movies. After reading A Wrinkle in Time this fall and meeting with the book club to discuss, we were happy to have a chance to see the movie together. "Is your family in need of a Seder? The Hull's have space. Please contact Chavah Hull " Please watch your speed when driving through the parking lot. 3

4 Early Childhood Passover in EC 4

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