2nd Grade: Our Bodies and Judaism
The Netivot Second Grade takes four deep dives into “Judaism and Our Bodies:”
1. Our Eyes
2. Our Feet
3. Our Hands
4. Our Ears
2nd Grade Deep Dive #1: Our Eyes
To the teacher:
Throughout the entire year, you will return over and over to the theme of how remarkable our bodies are, and how we so often take them for granted. In this first deep dive the focus is on our eyes, and how wonderful they are.
Too often, we forget to be thankful that our eyes work, and that we can see. We see beauty and ugliness, light and dark. Colors and shapes. With our eyes, during the day we see the sun and moon, which are very far away from us; and at night, we can see the stars, which are even farther.
We see people’s feelings in their faces. Often, we can see what people are thinking or feeling, simply by looking into their eyes.
Sometimes our senses help us perceive the world and things and people far away, and sometimes they perceive the world, things and people very close up. Taste, smell and touch work best close up. Seeing and hearing work well at a distance and close up.
If our eyes stop working, we need to rely more on our other senses; this is exactly what happens in the story of Isaac, the blind father, who wanted to bless his son, but uses his ears, and touch, and smell to figure out who is standing in front of him.
Primary text
Genesis 27: Jacob feeding his blind father Isaac, who touches him, smells him, kisses him and blesses him.
This important Torah story highlights the five primary senses of taste, sight, hearing, smell and touch while portraying a family struggling with parental favoritism and sibling rivalry.
The story offers a window into the ways in which we use each of our five senses, and what it might be like to be deprived of any one of them.
Primary mitzvah:
Taking Care of our Body This Deep Dive should highlight the important mitzvah of taking care of our bodies, and specifically, our eyes.
Enduring Understandings:
1. Through our five senses, we experience the world around us—our environment and the people around us.
2. When our eyes stop working, we are forced to learn about the world and other people using the other four senses.
3. The Torah tells a story about a family of our ancestors in which the father Isaac was old and blind, and what happened between him and his family
4. Our bodies, including our eyes, are strong...but also delicate. Our body is a gift from God, and God trusts us to take care of this gift.
5. Ways of taking care of our eyes include: wearing sunglasses when the sun is really bright, not getting objects or substances in our eyes, not looking directly at the sun
6. The leaves of the myrtle branch, which is part of the Sukkot lulav, look like eyes. They represent “seeing clearly” and also the animals, who have eyes
Guiding questions for teachers
· If you were blind, what sights would you miss the most?
· Have you ever injured your eye(s) and worried that you would not be able to see again?
· Is your eyesight good, bad or fair?
· Give examples of times when it feels important to you to make “eye-contact.”
· In the story of Isaac and his sons, who do you think Isaac thought he was blessing?
· Was he really tricked by Jacob, or did he know it was Jacob?
Choosing the project:
The most important considerations in choosing a project are:
1. It should be age appropriate, that a 7-year old or group of 7-year olds can complete successfully.
2. It should require learning, practice, time, and attention to complete
3. It should be something the student will want to take home and keep (unless you create one project as a whole class, in which case the final project would stay at CBB, but each student could receive an album with photos of the project)
4. It must feature the story of Isaac’s Blindness and Blessing
5. Incorporate the ethical message of taking care of our bodies
6. Incorporate saying the shechiyanu on coming once again to an annual festival
7. If the project is going to be individual art projects, you should prepare for the unit by making one for yourself, and adding your own personal touch, and being ready to share with the kids what it means to you.
Possible projects:
· create a “Museum of the Five Senses,” in which visitors move through focused experiences of different types of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell…and also various sensory deprivation
· learning to use basic elements of American Sign Language (CBB member Eric Brody is an excellent and always willing teacher of ASL)
· visiting the Braille Institute and perhaps creating braille signs around the synagogue
· creating a play acting out the drama of Genesis 27
· creating a photo book in which students dress up and act out the story of Gen 27, and add text and commentaries
· create a book or poster or video or play focusing on the mitzvah: “Taking care of our bodies/our eyes”
2nd Grade Deep Dive 2: Our Feet
To the teacher:
There is so much to say about our feet!
Without them, or when they are injured, we lose the ability to move. One of the most important moments in the life of a small child (and of their parent) is when they stand up and start to walk.
And the soles of our feet are sensitive. When we walk outside, we usually wear shoes…to protect our feet from injury. But our shoes also insulate us; shoes “cut us off” from the earth (as in the Moses story), and so we enjoy taking off our shoes and feeling the sand, or the grass, or the mud, or the water of the ocean. In many cultures there is a strong custom to remove shoes when entering a home, so as not to bring the “dirt” of the outside world into the home.
Our feet carry us places…to do good things or to do bad, and our feet are a part of our body where we feel pain and pleasure especially strongly.
Primary text Exodus 3 Moses at the Burning Bush
When the Jewish people were slaves in Egypt, Moses ran away from Egypt and married Tziporah, Jethro’s daughter. Moses was watching over Jethro’s sheep and goats. And he took the animals far out into the wilderness, And he came to the mountain of God, Mount Horeb.
There a messenger of God, an angel, appeared to Moses, in a flame of fire, in the middle of a bush. Moses looked closely and he saw that the bush was burning, but it did not burn up. Moses said to himself: “How strange! How can this be? The bush is burning, but it does not burn up!”
When God saw that Moses had stopped, and was looking, God called to him out of the bush: “Moses, Moses!”
Moses said: “Here I am.” God said: “Do not come any closer. Take off your shoes from your feet, because the place you are standing on is holy ground.”
Primary mitzvah/mitzvot:
Providing Shoes for the needy
And one of the most important articles of clothing that we can give to a poor person is a pair of shoes, which will protect their feet against the cold, the wet and the dangerous sharp objects in the world.
Standing for the Amidah
Our feet are our foundation when we “stand up”…both literally standing up, but also when we “take a stand.” In Jewish prayer, we sometimes sit, but then at important moments in prayer we “stand up before God.” This is the meaning of the word Amidah.
Enduring Understandings:
1. We often take our feet for granted, but they are basic to our lives, giving us our foundation for standing upright and walking, and giving us pleasure and pain.
2. In the story of Moses at the Burning Bush, the Torah makes us think about our feet and how sensitive they are and the way that they connect us to the earth
3. We can make a big difference in a person’s life by giving them a pair of shoes.
Choosing the project:
A key decision which we leave up to you is choosing the project for the unit.
Choose a project which will ideally extend over the course of five 30-40 minute sessions but which could be completed by a student who misses one of those sessions.
Possible projects might include:
· An art project or a dramatic presentation of the story of Moses at the Burning Bush.
· Collecting shoes from the entire congregation to donate to Alpha Thrift store (or some other organization which can direct the shoes to the needy)
· Create a “barefoot exploration room”, with many different types of surfaces to walk and bring different groups of people (children, adults) through and have them share in writing or art their experience of the different experiences.
· Take barefoot walks around the Temple and record, in writing or photos or art, the experiences of the different parts of the Temple as experienced through our feet
· Create some kind of album or art project featuring all the references in Torah and Tanakh to feet and/or shoes: the Burning Bush, Abraham washing the feet of his guests, the cohanim in the mishkan washing their feet in the laver, the prophet Amos blasting the rich of his time for “buying the poor with a pair of shoes” (Amos 8:6)
The most important considerations in choosing a project are:
8. It should be age appropriate, that a 7-year old or group of 7-year olds can complete successfully.
9. It should require learning, practice, time, and attention to complete
10. It should be something the student will want to take home and keep (unless you create one project as a whole class, in which case the final project would stay at CBB, but each student could receive an album with photos of the project)
11. It must engage the students deeply with the story of the Moses at the Burning Bush.
12. It must take the students on an exploration of our feet, and the essential part they play in our lives.
13. If the project is going to be individual art projects, you should prepare for the unit by making one for yourself, and adding your own personal touch, and being ready to share with the kids what it means to you.
2nd Grade Deep Dive #3: Our Hands
To the teacher:
We are probably more aware of our hands than of any other part of our body.
Our hands are right in front of us, all day long, and we use them constantly: to eat, to make things, to break things, to hug or to hit, to dig, plant or to pick, to communicate (adding gestures to our words), to wave hello and goodbye, and to make music. And so much more.
Our hands are the part of our body we use to reach out and make a change in the world around us….for good and for bad.
The Torah describes people “sending forth their hand”….for example to eat from the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:22), or to hurt someone (Genesis 22:12), or “opening their hand” to help them (Deuteronomy 15:8).
Primary text: Moses dropping/smashing the Tablets
Moses went up Mount Sinai and stayed there with God for forty days. When the people saw that Moses was taking so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will lead us Because we do not know what has happened to Moses.”
Aaron said to them, “Take off all your gold jewelry and bring it to me.” And all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold, melted it, and poured it into a mold, and made it into a golden calf. And they shouted, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron announced: “Tomorrow shall be a festival of the LORD!”
Early next day, the people offered up burnt offerings; they sat down to eat and drink, and then rose to dance. Then God said to Moses, “Hurry down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, are doing wrong! They have made for themselves a molten calf and bowed low to it and sacrificed to it, saying: ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’”
Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two stone tablets of the 10 commandments in his hand, tablets written on both sides. The tablets were carved out of heavy stone, but because God had written on them, the magical letters made the stone tablets light enough to carry.
As soon as Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his hands began to shake. The letters which were written on the stone tablets flew off of the tablets and the tablets became too heavy for Moses to carry and he dropped the tablets from his hands and they broke at the foot of the mountain.
Primary mitzvah:
Learning how to perform the ritual candle-lighting on Shabbat, with hand gesture with the blessing Baruch atah Adonai eloheinu melech haolam asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu l’hadlik ner shel Shabbat
Enduring Understandings:
1. We spend our lives using our hands, looking at our hands, but often forget to think about our hands. It is good to pay attention to our hands (and all parts of our body) and how they work, and to be grateful for them.
2. We use our hands to reach out and make a change in the world around us….both for good and for bad. All the good ways we change the world are called tikkun olam, “repairing the world.”
3. We use our hands to send a message to other people: when Aaron lifted his hands to bless, or Moses lifted his hands to give the people courage, or to signal to everyone that he was passing the leadership on to Joshua. We speak with our hands when we wave hello or goodbye. People who are deaf have an entire language of hand signs, which we can learn.
4. We use our hands in a graceful gesture of “gathering” light when we light the Shabbat candles
Guiding Questions for Teachers
1. For you personally, what are the activities for which you depend most on your hands? If you lost the use of one or both of your hands, how would it change it your life?
2. How do you use your hands to communicate with other people? Do you have any hand “signs” which you use often, and which add meaning to your words?
3. Does the story of Moses and the battle with Amalek feel realistic to you? Can you imagine that Moses’ hands were really a source of courage and inspiration to his people? Can you think of any situations in real life when a leader, a teacher, or a performer arouses strong emotions in people with their hands?
4. Have you ever used the traditional hand gesture when lighting Shabbat candles? If so, does it add meaning to the ritual for you? If not, will you try it for the purpose of teaching this Deep Dive?
Choosing the Project:
The most important considerations in choosing a project are:
1. It should be age appropriate, that a 7-year old or group of 7-year olds can complete successfully.
2. It should require learning, practice, time, and attention to complete
3. It should be something the student will want to take home and keep (unless you create one project as a whole class, in which case the final project would stay at CBB, but each student could receive an album with photos of the project)
4. It must feature the text from Exodus 17
5. Incorporate the mitzvah of blessing the Shabbat candles with hand gesture
6. If the project is going to be individual art projects, you should prepare for the unit by making one for yourself, and adding your own personal touch, and being ready to share with the kids what it means to you.
Possible projects:
· Learning a set of basic signs in American Sign Language and using them in a performance
· Creating beautifully illustrated signs with instructions for candle-lighting and blessing for Shabbat candles. Or laminated sheets to be used at home.
· Individual art projects focused on our hands: tracing the outlines, taking photos and making a hand collage, etc etc
· A full class art project with handprints of the whole class…to be displayed in the classroom, or??
· A tikkun olam book or art project or presentation that presents a series of choices for using our hands, dramatizing how we constantly are choosing to use our hands for helping or hurting.
Enrichment ideas
· When Moses was old and appointed Joshua as his successor, Moses placed his hands upon Joshua in front of all the people (Numbers 27:18-23). This became the way in which new rabbis were ordained, called semichah (meaning “laying on hands”). See also Deuteronomy 34:9 (near the very end of the Torah): Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands upon him.
· In the Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 3:8), the sages say: And did Moses’ hands really win the battle? No. As long as the Children of Israel were looking up toward heaven, and trusting in God, then they were stronger. But if they looked down, then they fell.
· The pointer for reading from the Torah, called a yad (hand), always in the shape of a hand….
· A teaching about the 4-letter name of God: yud-heh-vav-heh teaches that this name depicts the act of one person giving tsedakah, financial assistance to another. The yud is a coin. The two heh’s are the hand of the giver and the hand of the receiver. And the vav is the arm of the giver, stretching out toward the receiver.
2nd Grade Deep Dive #4: Our Ears
To the teacher:
This entire year has been about recognizing and appreciating the many hundreds (really, thousands) of miracles that take place every day in our bodies. Our eyes which look out and see the world, our feet which support us and move us and which feel pain and pleasure, and our hands which help and hurt and hold, and finally our ears.
Two of the greatest miracles of all are our ears, which are able to feel huge or tiny vibrations in the air, and then turn them into electric impulses which race to our brain, where the impulses are received as messages: noise, or music, or words.
Some of the messages tell a story. An explosion or the crunch of a footstep can warn us of approaching danger. The voice of a babbling brook can alert us to the presence of life-giving water. Words can tell us what someone else is thinking or feeling. Music can make us remember emotions that we felt long, long ago.
Most of the time, we are surrounded by sounds and noises which we do not even notice. Birds chirping, cars and trains going by, the sounds of the television or the radio, or people talking in the distance. Most of the time, we are hearing but not listening. “Listening” means “paying close attention” to a sound. It might be a bird chirping or a frog croaking. It might be someone speaking. It might be some music. By really listening, we can connect our mind and soul to the animal, or the person, or whatever the source is of the sound.
Sometimes, God comes to us through our ears. Sometimes in extremely loud sounds like thunder. Sometimes in beautiful music. Sometimes in the softest possible sound….like a breeze blowing, a murmur, or a whisper.
Our most important Jewish prayer begins with the word “Shma,” which means “listen.” Listen for God, listen for other people, listen to the world. Open your soul up for connection.
Primary text: Elijah and the Still, Small Voice
Elijah was a prophet.
He could hear the voice of God.
One day, he walked far out into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a tree.
He lay down there and slept.
Then, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Get up Elijah. Have something to eat.”
He looked, and saw a cake and a jar of water at his head.
He ate and drank, and lay down again.
The angel of God came again the second time, and touched him, and said,
“Get up Elijah, and eat; because you have a long journey before you.”
Elijah arose, and ate and drank, and with only that one meal,
he walked for forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mountain of God.
There he came to a cave, and went into the cave for shelter.
Then the word of God spoke to him, and said to him,
“Elijah, go out, and stand upon the mountain.”
Then God passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains.
The wind smashed the rocks of the mountain into pieces;
but God was not in the wind.
After the wind came an earthquake;
but God was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake came a fire;
but God was not in the fire;
and after the fire a still small voice.
Primary mitzvah:
Kavanah in prayer
Reciting the Shma, the first word of which means “listen”
Enduring Understandings:
1. Our ears are amazing: they send messages to our brain about the world around us: birds chirping, waves crashing, babies crying, dogs barking, thunder, music, and a parent whispering “I love you.”
2. Often, we hear but do not listen. “Listening” means paying attention. When we pay attention, we receive messages that we might easily have missed.
3. The word “Shma” means listen: listen to other people. Listen for God. Be ready to receive a message.
4. The prophet Elijah went into the wilderness, where he saw and felt the mighty powers of nature—wind and earthquake and fire—but then he heard the still small voice of God
Guiding Questions for Teachers:
· Name a sound you find comforting. A sound you find irritating. A sound you find alarming. A sound you find mysterious.
· Name a time that you hear but without listening. Name a time when it is important to you to not just hear, but to listen. How do you do that?
· Do you ever say the Shma with kavanah? When? Why?
· What do you think Elijah heard, that the Bible describes as a “still, small voice?”
Possible projects:
· Create a Shma pillow case (Jen has project lesson plans)
· Create a collection of recordings of many different sounds in the world around us
· Create a drama or music project acting out the story of Elijah and the still, small voice
· Learn more about the truly incredible miracle of how our ears work…create a science project presentation about the parts of the ear and what happens in each part