Term 2, Week 1: Hebrew

We started off the term with a session focussing on Hebrew, to get back into the swing of things. We began with a discussion about why we should learn Hebrew, the main reasons being:

• So you can read the Torah
  
• So you communicate if you go to Israel
  
• So you can go to any synagogue in the world and still understand the service
  
• To carry on the tradition by using the same prayers as many generations before

At the beginning, they were convinced that you can only pray in Hebrew, so I challenged them on that and got them to reason it out. It occurred to them that Christians would have a problem if G-d didn’t understand English, and a parent suggested that a G-d who made the whole world and everything in it is likely to be able to understand more than one language! We digressed a bit into a conversation about creation and different ideas about how G-d went about making the world, before coming back to the idea of prayer. They were intrigued (and a few were frankly sceptical) when I suggested that you can just chat to G-d!

After this, I introduced the felt board, and we made our discovery about Jolly Phonics, which I've already blogged about.

From nothing more impressive than a total lack of inspiration, I’d come up with the idea of getting the kids to decorate a cardboard folder each for them to keep their homework and handouts in. As usual, though, the idea of free reign with paints, glue and stickers made the activity a hit, and I think they also liked the idea of something practical that they would be able to bring along each week.

When we were adding the labels with their names, I mentioned that in a few weeks’ time they would get a second label each for their Hebrew names. Most (or possibly all) of them had no idea they had such a thing, so we had fun telling them theirs and explaining the meanings and/or origins. As usual, it was good to have the parents there, because they could explain the family history behind several of the names. A couple of the children didn’t know theirs (or rather, their parents didn’t), hence putting off anything concrete based on Hebrew names until we’d had a chance to find out.

We finished off with the story of the uneducated man who prayed by reciting the Hebrew alphabet, explaining that “G-d knows what is in my heart, so I give him the letters and He will put them together into the right words for me”. Admittedly, I’ve heard that story interpreted as extolling the value of Hebrew over the vernacular for prayer, but I used it to illustrate that there’s no ‘right’ way to pray. They all left the session looking thoughtful, so I was satisfied.