SIHA Weekly for May 7, 2021

by admin | May 7, 2021 | Newsletter

Dvar Torah

Parashat B’har- B’chukotai [Yes, Two Parashot again!]
There is a lot in this week’s two Parashot. We will focus on one item. There is a law that if someone sold a field in Israel, that was originally proportioned for his family, it may not be sold for perpetuity. It is only sold until Yovel-the jubilee year [the 50th year of the shmita cycle].
Although this law is obvious to anyone who reads Torah, the Torah repeats it and commands the seller to make it very clear to the buyer that the sale is not permanent.
The Ramban [A Rishon, commentary from around the 1100s] explains this idea of the seller having the responsibility to make clear to the buyer that the sale is not permanent, in a psychological manner.
After we have “owned” and lived in a house for a long time, it can be quite difficult for us to “give it up”. We will feel that it is ours! It will be almost punishing to give it up and move out. But that is exactly what the Torah requires of us.
The Ramban explains that the Torah is trying to make it easier for us to give up that house. It is a Mitzva from the Torah to make sure that the house goes back to the original owner. The Torah actually wants to minimize the nisayon – the test, to be successful with this Mitzva.
We find the Torah minimizing the test in other areas as well; Yaakov was told by Hashem Himself that it was time to leave his father in law, Lavan’s house. His pious wives, our matriarchs would have acquiesced, nevertheless, Yaakov did not just tell them that Hashem said “it was time to go”. It might have been difficult for daughters to leave their birthplace and their father’s home, especially so suddenly. Instead Yaakov minimizes the test by explaining to them the difficulties he had endured with his father in law. Remember how Lavan had promised Rachel as a wife for Yaakov after working 7 years as a shepherd for Lavan, to earn her. The day after the wedding Yaakov found out the “surprise” that his father in law prepared for him. His wife was NOT Rachel, but LEAH! Lavan kept changing the monetary deal with him as well. He explained to his wives that their father had “ripped him off” time and again, but only after a long soliloquy, does Yaakov say “by the way.. G-d said we must go”.
Rav Simcha Zissel Brodie says, this is a great principle taught by Rav Yisroel Salanter [a great mussar sage]; we have many tests no need to make them difficult or more challenging than they are meant to be.
Just as if we are trying to lose weight, it is not wise to walk into a bakery where the delicious aromas are wafting through the air, and beautiful pastries are on display. This will only make the test of trying to lose weight more difficult.
The same idea can be applied to keeping the Mitzvot of our holy Torah. If we are hungry, we should NOT even enter a store where there will be a temptation to purchase not kosher food. Let us not take a family trip on Friday afternoon close to the time Shabbat is going to begin [sundown/sunset].
Let’s ask Hashem for being successful in keeping His Torah, but no need to make it more difficult than it was ,meant to be.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Y.S. Kuritsky
Judaic Studies Curriculum Coordinator

Special Announcement
Happy Mother’s Day!

Thank you PTA for your tireless dedication and hard work setting up a wonderful Mother’s Day sale for SIHA students this week! Students had a chance to choose from an array of adorable items to show their moms and grandmoms how much they love them.

Programming

Congratulations to our “act of kindness “ winners of this week!!
They are Alec R from 5th grade and Abe from 2nd grade
We are so proud !
Keep up the great work!!

Judaics

Second Grade
We had another wonderful week in 2nd grads. This Shabbat we complete the 3rd book of the the 5 books of the Torah. We reviewed the complete book by reading,explaining and then drawing the theme of each Parsha in Sefer V’ayikra-Leviticus. We practiced our reading daily and started to learn about the upcoming festival of Shavout also referred to as Zman Matan Torahtainu. The time the Jewish nation received the Torah. Shabbat Shalom

Third Grade
Third graders learned the beautiful story of Shavuot. How and when Hashem gave us the Torah and how we celebrate. We learnt the story of Ruth and how she was so committed to hashem, she gave up being a rich princess of Moab and became a Jewish princess with no money instead. She eventually married a rich landowner Boaz and became the matriarch of King David. We read her story on Shavuoth because King David was born on Shavuoth.
We continue mastering the Dikduk rules and learn more shorashim words.
In Parsha we learnt what free choice really means. Hashem wants us to choose the path of Torah which is the path of life but He leaves us the choice to decide to do it or not.
Shabbat shalom
Mrs Ivry

Fourth Grade
We had another wonderful and rehearsal- full week here in 4B! We’re preparing our minds and hearts for Shavuot, when we’ll celebrate our receiving of the Torah. How perfect is it that we’ll be receiving our very own Chumashim just five days before Shavuot?
Looking forward to seeing you all at our celebration!
Shabbat Shalom!
Morah Toba

5th and 6th Girls

Dear parents.

Thank G-d, we had a great week together in 5th and 6th grade Judaics. We continued on with the 4th Beracha of Shemoneh Esrei, asking Hashem for smartness, understanding and wisdom. We enjoyed decorating our scrapbook page in our shemoneh esrei notebooks.

We learned how a Jew puts on and takes off their shoes. The girls sent in amazing dance videos to our “Putting on Shoes” song. The winner will be announced on Monday.

We continued on in the Chumash of Shemot, Parshat Beshalach, learning about how the Egyptians chased the Jewish people who had just left Egypt a few days before, because they wanted to bring them back. We learned about the Jewish people’s reaction to the Egyptians chasing them, when they thought they were going to die just when they were finally redeemed. We all gave examples of how a Jew should act when something scary, sad or upsetting happens. We shouldn’t complain, but trust in Hashem that it is for our best and He is taking good care of us. 

We learned all about this week’s Parsha, Parshat Behar and Bechukotai. It speaks about the many beautiful miraculous blessings of a Jew who keeps Torah and Mitzvot energetically and with joy. It is truly unbelievable to see the reward for that, in this world (and of course, even more so, in the afterworld.) We know that the Jews were exiled from the land of Israel and now there is lots of pain and tragedy in the world because the Jews sinned and didn’t keep the Torah and Mitzvot with joy, love, feeling and energy. The girls gave great examples of what we can do to bring the Beit Hamikdash (3rd temple) back and end all tragedy and pain, living joy-filled lives with Hashem’s presence. 

The girls designed beautiful pictures as we learned. Great job!
We also began to learn about the Story of Rut, which is read in synagogue on Shavuot.
Shabbat Shalom! Have a wonderful relaxing weekend.

Best regards,
Miss Dershowitz

7th and 8th Girls

We had a fabulous week here, learning all about the wondrous going- ons at Matan Torah! Chumash class had us discussing the concept of doing Hashem’s will with strength and without fear, although that’s not always easy. Ariella Schindelman spoke beautifully about the concept of talking to Hashem as a means of connecting to Him, rather than just to get what we desire.
It’s been real.
Shabbat Shalom!
Morah Toba

7th and 8th Boys

7th and 8th grade boys learned about the Parasha.
Laws of Yovel-the jubilee year.
All houses sold in a walled city [from the time that Yehoshua bin Nun aka Joshua, the person who led the Jews after Moshe Rabbeinu Moses, conquered Eretz Yisrael aka the land of Israel] must be returned to the original owner in Yovel, the 50th year of the 7 year shemitah cycle.
All Jewish slaves are to be freed.
Laws of Shmita;
Shmita occurs every 7th year.
All produce in any field is considered Hefker – ownerless.
We learned that even now, that there is no Beit Hamikdosh, there is still a Mitzva D’rabanan -Mitzva from the Rabbis [not from the Torah] to keep Shmita. The farmers in Israel, today , do not; work the fields, plant or harvest them. We discussed how Jews the world over raise money to help these farmers who are keeping this important Mitzva have monetary support during the 7th year. We heard a great story about a man living NOW in Israel who was being prudent about the Mitzva of Shvi’it -Shmita, chased down his “cleaning help” whom his wife had given 2 apples. He wanted to make sure that the apples were treated with Kdushat Shvi’it – The holines of Shvi’it/Shmita and make sure that the apples were disposed of properly. When he caught up to her, she exclaimed “don’t call the police!”. She had stolen their jewelry! In the Zchut – merit of being scrupulous about this Mitzvah albeit NOT from the Torah, only from the Rabbis, he was saved from a terrible loss!
We continued learning about “identifying a corpse, in order to allow a wife to remarry. We discussed whether “signs” on the body/clothing are sufficient evidence. Whether “signs” are “from the Torah”. Whether a mole is a strong enough “sign”. We discussed the possibility that a mole can change after death.
We also began a new set of “Y’diot K’laliot.
Honorable mention to Noah Garber [brother of Zak and Sloan[, for his daily “good morning” to Rabbi Kuritsky!
This is a commendable midah tova – good character trait.

Elementary School

Kindergarten
This week kindergarten read a nonfiction story about how to find different places on a map. They learned how to spell bossy e words and they finished writing their own how to. In math they took their test on ordinal numbers and they all did amazing! They were very excited to begin learning about money. They learned all about the penny. In social studies they learned about more American symbols. They learned about the Statue of Liberty, the White House, and the president. They also went on a virtual tour of the Statue of Liberty. In science they learned that animals survive by hibernating, migrating, camouflaging, or by having special adaptation. They did a super fun experiment to learn about how animals are adapted to live in cold environments. They pretended to be an animal with and without blubber and they were amazed that the blubber kept their hands warm.

First Grade
This week the first graders learned about children who perform on symphony and dance company. They were interested to see how all sorts of instruments come together to create music. In Language Arts we brainstormed topics for writing stories. Students came up with great ideas! In Math we began telling time by the hour and half hour. The first graders love to read the time on the classroom clock. In Science we continue to. explore the properties of matter. We discovered that matter can be categorized and even tested by using our senses.
Lastly, we discussed all of the wonderful things our mothers do. Students were so proud to share how these amazing women work so hard to take care of them. To honor them, students made beautiful Mothers Day cards. First grade wishes each of you a Happy Mother’s Day.

Second Grade
This week, in math, the second graders moved on to learning the 3 times table. They’ve been practicing answering questions quickly and correctly! They’ve also been working on using arrays to solve multiplication problems. In ELA, the students have finished their grammar unit on adjectives and adverbs. We’ve also been reading and answering questions about poems. The second graders even worked together to write their own poem about a sunny day! In social studies, the second graders started a brand new unit all about government. This week, some students have worked super hard and finished their mobile book reports early. They’ve presented their projects to the class and they have all been amazing! Way to go Sarit, Ava, Ben, Olivia, and Ryan!
In science, students finished Chapter: “Matter” They enjoyed and learned so much about physical and chemical properties of matter.

4B
4B had a very eventful week. We took the math state test on Tuesday and Wednesday! We are very happy and relieved to be done with all of our state tests, however, the learning must go on! In math, we are finishing up our unit on decimals, and then continuing our unit in geometry, which we started before the state test last week. In ELA, we are wrapping up our unit on pronouns. On Thursday we went to the wonderful Mother’s Day sale, put together by our amazing PTA! It was a fun week!
In science, this week 4B learned and became familiar with different kinds of tools that we use in science labs to measure mass and volume. “Best science class” Sapir said while she was measuring the volume of an unknown object.

Fifth Grade

Fifth graders had a busy week! In grammar, this week was all about prepositions. We learned to identify prepositions and use them in our own sentences. In reading, students continued their novel study of the Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Students continued working on their character dossiers and had some interesting class discussions!

In social studies, students continued their study of the ancient Aztec civilization. Students took notes, saw pictures of artifacts, and completed their own map of the Aztec empire!

5th grade learned how to interpret scales on maps as proportions.
In science, students finished chapter: “Atoms and Elements”. They learned and understood the main concepts about atoms, elements, compounds and periodic table.

Middle School

Middle School ELA and Social Studies

6th Grade

Sixth graders had a busy week! In grammar, this week we continued our unit on modifiers by looking at comparisons with adjectives and adverbs. In reading, we continued our novel study of Milkweed by Jerry Spinneli. In writing, this week was all about author’s purpose. We read nonfiction articles and wrote beautiful paragraphs!

In social studies, students continued their unit on Ancient Greece.

7th Grade

Seventh graders had a busy week! Today was the last part of the state testing for 7th graders. Congratulations everyone for working hard!
In grammar, we reviewed adjectives and adverbs. In reading, we wrapped up our novel study of Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson. In writing, this week was all about using textual details from fiction. Students wrote beautiful paragraphs!

In social studies, we learned about the reforms to American society in the late mid 1800s, as well as challenges that American cities had to address with the influx of immigrants in the 1800s. Our next unit is the Civil War!

8th Grade

Eight graders had a busy week! In grammar, this week was all about gerund phrases. Students identified gerund phrases and wrote their own sentences using them. In reading, we finished our unit on Animal Farm! Students are preparing presentations on the important themes of this book. I look forward to seeing what they put together! In writing, this week was all about using textual evidence in short responses. Students read nonfiction articles and wrote beautiful paragraphs!

In social studies, we started our World War II unit by examining the rise of Nazi Germany and the spread of Fascism and totalitarianism throughout the world at the time. We watched a video, saw photographs at the time, and had some excellent class discussions.

Middle School Math

6th grade started their unit on geometry.

7th grade honors reviewed how to compare unit rate and slope of proportional equations.

7th grade review mean, median, mode, and range.

8th grade reviewed solving multi step equations with variables on both sides of the equation sign.

8th honors learned about factoring quadratic equations.

Middle School Science
6th Grade
In science, students started a new chapter: “Forces”. Students learned and described what forces are and what they do. Explain how the forces of friction, magnetism, and gravity act in our everyday lives.

As you all know, the 7th grade has been discovering how our body works.  The past couple of weeks, we have been diligently working to learn how our body obtains the nutrients from the things that we eat.  In addition, we have been learning exactly what happens to our food once we take the first bite of a piece of food.  

In this unit the eighth graders have been investigating the impact that an invasive species can have on an ecosystem. Students learned what it takes for an ecosystem to be balanced. Through investigation by way of articles data and videos they were able to make connections and discover the negative affects that zebra mussels have had on both abiotic and biotic factors within the Hudson River. 

Jewish History
7th grade is flying high as we explore many interesting topics. We covered spies, attacks and children among others this week! 7th grade is really looking forward to a special outdoor lesson coming hopefully next week.
8th grade is moving forward on our journey through the Roman Empire!

SIHA Weekly for April 30, 2021

by admin | Apr 30, 2021 | Newsletter

Dvar Torah

Parashat Emor
Parashat Emor is the largest Parashah in the Sefer-Book of Vayikra!
It discusses the Holidays and the laws of Kohanim.
Who is a kohen allowed to marry and to whom a Kohen may not marry.
A kohen may not marry a divorced woman, for example. A kohen may not marry a woman born from a union of a kohen and a woman he was not allowed to marry. A kohen may not marry a convert.
A kohen is on a higher level than another Jew and therefore is held accountable on a higher plateau.
Similarly, Jews are held accountable on a higher plateau than a non Jew.
Shall we complain about this?? No! A king wears a crown, as does a queen. A crown is not necessarily the most comfortable hat, a king/queen proudly wears his/her crown nonetheless. It is a sign of their royalty.
We, as Jews wear the crown of Judaism on “our heads”. Just as queen Elizabeth eats delicately, dresses “Tzniut” modestly, because she is a queen and her actions and dress, must be measured and highly respectable, so too are we Jews, kings and queens and must act the part. It may not always be comfortable to dress a certain way, but as queens/kings we must remember that he must hold the banner high and be proud. We are created more delicately than a non Jew, and therefore are not able to “tolerate” certain foods,i.e. ham/bacon and kosher animals not slaughtered and “koshered” properly. It is not always “convenient” to wear a kipa on our head, but it is the Jewish man’s crown!
Let’s try to always remember who we are and what we represent to the world.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Y.S. Kuritsky

Special Announcement

Dear parents.
Thank G-d, we had a wonderful week in Programming!
We are continuing to work on doing acts of kindness each day, as we count the omer toward getting the Torah on Shavuot. The students are filling out many cards about their acts of kindness.

Congratulations to this week’s winners who’ve won the raffle for the kindness cards!
Sofia Sandler from 5th grade!
Olivia Abramov from second grade!
We are so proud of you!!

Let’s keep up our wonderful acts of kindness!

Today, in honor of Lag Ba’omer, Rabbi Motty Katz from JEP (Jewish Education Program) joined us with his musician and we had a beautiful musical performance, along with his spectacular storytelling.

All of the students enjoyed s’mores that we made on the grill and delicious ice pops!

Have a wonderful Shabbat!
All the best,
Miss Dershowitz and Miss Weitzner

Judaics

Kindergarten and First Grade
We had a great week in Kindergarten and First Grade Judaics. We spent a lot of time learning about Lag Baomer and making projects. We learnt the story of Rabbi Akiva and of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and now understand the reason of Lag Baomer. We also now know how important it is to act kindly to each other, like we learnt from the story of Rabbi Akiva. Shabbat Shalom!

Second Grade
We had an exciting week in 2nd grade as there were two important days we celebrated this week. Monday was Pesach Shainei, during the exodus of Egypt there were some people who were not able to bring the Passover offering as they were busy taking Joseph’s remains out of Egypt (as Joseph had requested) These people felt sad that they were unable to partake of the special mitzva of bringing the Passover offering therefore, they were given a second opportunity to bring the offering on the 14th day of Iyar. Today many people eat matzo on Pesach Shainei. The 2nd graders were all given a piece of matzo in honor of the day. Friday we celebrate Lag B’omer, the 33rd day of the Omer. Ask your child why we celebrate this special day. This weeks Parsha Emor discusses sanctifying Hashems name.We discussed various ways we could make A Kiddush Hashem-making Hashem proud by sanctifying his name. The children thought of various ways of bringing honor to Hashem’s name such as standing up and offering their seat to an older person or as Liam said “If you are in line at the supermarket with many purchases, and the lady behind you only has one item if you choose to tell the lady to go in front of you, you are bringing honor to Hashem and to the Jewish nation. Shabbat Shalom

Fourth Grade
Happy Lag Bamoer, a celebration of the light of Torah. This is certainly a theme we can relate to here in 4B, being knee deep in preparing for our Chumash Mesibah. The excitement and enthusiasm in the air is tangible and we can’t wait to show you what we’ve got! Parshah class had us going through some Mitzvot, for example, the Mitzvah of honoring parents properly. Contradicting, we discussed in depth, would be an example of disrespect. Our Chumash sight words are becoming a part of us by now, thank you, dear parents, for your cooperation. Shabbat Shalom and thankyou for sharing your actors (well, narrators) ,singers and scholars with me!
Morah Toba

5th and 6th Girls

5th and 6th Boys
Dear parents,
This week Lag Baomer was in the air!
We reviewed the story of how Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai survived, despite being in a cave and running away from the Romans, who wanted to take his life.
We discussed the implications for every Jew, about the importance of being loyal to Hashem under all circumstances
We also discussed the importance of being grateful to Hashem for all the goodness in our lives, focusing on the human eye.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Levy

7th and 8th Girls
Parshat Shemot really came alive this week as the girls acted out various scenes that took place in it! We spoke all about unity, how the Torah can only be given over when there’s together-nes. We know that Lag Baomer is the celebration of the Torah that Rabbi Shimon gave over on the day he died. He only survived the death plague that so many of his peers were wiped out in because he was always careful to be respectful of everyone at all times and live in unity. Parshah class had us discussing the respect that is owed to anyone who is a descendant of Ahron, Moshe’s brother, and is therefore a Kohan. When Mashiach comes, it will be them who will do the holy work in the Beit Hamikdash. Shabbat Shalom and thank you for sharing your precious treasures who are overflowing with wisdom and good cheer!
Morah Toba

7th and 8th Boys

This week the boys studied, prayed and wore their T’filin really well.

Elementary School

Kindergarten
This week kindergarten practiced reading and spelling words with r blends. They independently wrote their own how to. They picked unique writing topics such as how to ride a bike, how to play soccer, and even how to take care of a unicorn! They learned how to identify the author’s purpose of nonfiction stories. In math they had a lot of fun playing games to figure out which ordinal numbers and positional words they can use to correctly describe which place their friend’s toys were in. They made a race track with animals and labeled their animals with ordinal numbers to show which one was winning the race. In science they learned about Earth Day, how to take care of the Earth, and what could happen if they do not take care of the Earth. They made really cool marble paintings of the Earth and they made Earth people. Then, they attached to their paintings a sentence about how they would help the Earth. In social studies they learned about the Liberty Bell, the Bald Eagle, and why they are symbols of the United States.

First Grade
The first graders continue to be amazing! This week we completed the Social Studies Unit on Life Ling Ago. Students learned how to make summaries while reading about a Super Crocodile fossil discovered in Africa. The best part of the week was the book report presentation. The first graders did an awesome job sharing their research about plants and flowers. Overall, it was a great week.

4B

4B had a very exciting week! In ELA we are learning about pronouns, and how to properly use quotation marks. In math, we are learning how to do the 4 operations with decimals. We are also learning geometry, and preparing for the state test next week! On Thursday we celebrated Ethan Shenkman’s birthday! We also enjoyed the beautiful weather and the new playground, when we weren’t hard at work.

Fifth Grade
Fifth grade had a busy week! In grammar, they reviewed for their grammar unit test. Everyone worked really hard! In reading, students continued their novel study of The Westing Game. Students took notes for their case files, and discussed their reading in class. In writing, students started working on their literary analysis essay by making an outline and taking notes.
In social studies, the fifth graders continued their unit on the ancient Aztec civilization. Students discussed pictures of artifacts, and took notes on the Aztec society.
In math, 5th grade learned how to apply unit rates to word problems.
In science, students identified a compound as a combination of two or more elements.

Middle School

Middle School ELA and Social Studies

6th Grade
6th Grade had a busy week!
In Grammar, we reviewed verbals and had a quiz on gerunds, participles, and infinitives. We also practiced using adverbs and adjectives in our writing! In writing, we also wrote compare and contrast paragraphs, and discussed author’s point of view. Students wrote a long response and everyone did a phenomenal job. Mrs. Hazen is particularly impressed with Madi’s writing! In reading, we continued our novel study of Milkweed.

In social studies, the students continued their unit on Ancient Greece. Students also took a quiz on Sparta and Athens, and everyone did a great job!

7th Grade
7th grade had a great week!
In grammar, we started our unit on adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions. Students did a great job writing descriptive paragraphs. In reading, we continued our novel study of Chasing Lincoln’s Killer. Students enjoyed visiting a virtual Ford’s Theater where President Lincoln was assassinated!

In social studies, students wrapped up our unit on the rise of Cotton as the major cash crop in the Antebellum South. Students also learned about slavery in America, and visited a virtual Plantation.

8th Grade
8th grade had a great week! In grammar, we reviewed gerunds, identified them in sentences and wrote our own paragraphs. In writing, today was all about writing excellent summaries and including key details. In reading, we continued our novel study of Animal Farm! We discussed narrative point of view, and the allegorical meaning of different characters.

In social studies,
8th graders started our unit on World War II. We discussed the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany. We also talked about Japan’s expansionism and the conquest of Manchuria. Students saw photographs and read primary sources!
Middle School Math
6th grade finished the unit on inequalities and equations.
7th grade practiced for the state test.
8th grade continued to review graphing linear inequalities.
8th honors learned how to factor trinomials using different methods

Middle School Science
Students learned and reviewed what a chemical formula reveals about a molecule. They were so excited to learn about the Periodic Table.

As you all know, the 7th grade has been discovering how our body works. The past couple of weeks, we have been diligently working to learn how our body obtains the nutrients from the things that we eat. In addition, we have been learning exactly what happens to our food once we take the first bite of a piece of food. Come and see what we have learned!

Ariella_Digestion Doron_Digestion Gary_Digestion Leam_Digestion Noah_Digestion Yaffa_Digestion Yisroel_Digesttion

I would like to give a special shout out to the seventh grade. Seventh grade had an in class project to do and they have made me exceptionally proud. All students did a fantastic job incorporating information that they have learned into technology via a PowerPoint presentation. Students were required to take a journey through the digestive system as a piece of food they had specific requirements to meet within this presentation or students met the requirements superbly. Excellent job, seventh grade!

Special thanks to Shai and Michael for taking the lead on concession. Always willing to help and fulfill the responsibilities of the Department Lead. Thank you boys!

Mrs. Belli wants to mention Orian Cohen and Ethan Azaraev for excellent participation during the science lesson and a very good score on the assignments.

Jewish History
7th grade finished the unit and is up to their final unit for the year! I am very proud of their progress.
8th grade just completed learning about the destruction and why it happened and is beginning to learn the lessons of the exile.

SIHA Weekly for April 23

by admin | Apr 23, 2021 | Newsletter

Dvar Torah

Parashat Ach’rei Mot-K’doshim
[2 Parashot again this week]
There are many Mitzvot in this week’s 2 Parashot. Amongst the many Mitzvot is the Mitzva of “Hochaiach Tochiach et ametecha” – rebuke your friend! We are obligated by the Torah to rebuke our friend if/when we see them transgressing the Torah! The famous k’tav Sofer [son of the famous Hatam Sofer] says that this is the the most difficult Mitzva! Wow! We might have thought honoring our parents, especially after they became elderly and challenging to care for, or perhaps keeping Shabbat.. Why does Ktav Sofer consider this Mitzva so difficult? You just say something like “hey bro/sis you goofed up. You better shape up or G-d is gonna punish you…” !?
The reason it is so difficult to fulfill this Mitzva is; because we have to do it correctly. We don’t want it to backfire etc. Sometimes it may even be more beneficial to “hold on to it” and say nothing at all!
Of course, as parents, teachers/Rabbis we must rebuke, but even as parents, teachers, and Rabbis etc. we really must be cautious when rebuking.
A story is told about the great Torah giant/leader, the famed Chofetz Chaim 1838-1933, who once visited a certain inn when traveling. He witnessed a shocking scene. A man burst into the inn and demanded a fried goose and a bottle of wine to go with it. He barked his order to the innkeeper and was rude to the other wayfarers. He gobbled down the fried goose and guzzled his wine with poor table manners and NO BRACHA!
The Chofetz Chaim was astounded. He was about to walk over to the man and rebuke him, when the innkeeper stopped him. The innkeeper said, “wait, let me tell you a little about this man”.
He was a “Cantonist”. a young child stolen from his family and his people at the tender young age of 7 or 8 years old to be drafted into the Czar’s army. His training was coarse peasants. Many Jewish children who were drafted were coerced to convert to Christianity, and totally left the beautiful Jewish faith. This man, explained the innkeeper to the Chofetz Chaim, although poor mannered and oblivious to Mitzvot and Torah, was adamant about staying Jewish!
When the Chofetz Chaim heard this man’s background, he went over to him and exclaimed “I envy your portion in the world to come-Olam Haba, after all that you went through you kept your faith and didn’t succumb to the pressure to convert to christianity! Wow! Your nisayoni-test was greater than that of Chananya Mishael and Azariya, who were thrown into a fiery furnace when refusing to give up their Jewish faith as opposed to worshipping idols”.
When this boorish man heard the sincere and soft spoken words of the Chofetz Chaim, he broke down crying. From that moment on he became very attached to the Holy Chofetz Chaim and became a complete Chozer Bitshuva- he became a totally religious Jew!
Every person has at least one positive attribute. Let’s focus on that one attribute. By doing so we will probably be more successful then if we focus on a negative attribute.

This is what happens when we rebuke properly. May Hashem help us rebuke ourselves and those who we are influential upon, properly, so that the rebuke can be beneficial.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Y. S. Kuritsky

Special Announcement

Happy Birthday to:

• Mia Portman
• Dalia Volfson
• Yosef Jehuda

Programming News

This week in programming …..
All the students are counting the omer on the beautiful charts we gave them. We are almost reaching lag baomer, which is next Friday and a special surprise is awaiting all students on that special day .

Congratulations to Daniella from second grade and Lilah from 4B upon winning this months “act of kindness “ contest by doing so many special mitzvot.
We are so proud of both of you!!

Thanks , Miss.Weitzner and Miss.Dershowitz

Judaics

Kindergarten and First Grade
This week we continued on learning about the mitzvah of kibud av veim. We know saying thank you to our parents for everything they do for is another part of kibud av veim. We made beautiful thank you Daddy and Mommy flower pots that we can’t wait to share! So many of the children in our class brought in Kibud Av Veim mitzvah notes this week and we enjoyed reading them in class. Morah is so proud of how everyone is working on doing this mitzvah!

As we discussed kibud av veim we turned to discussing other peoplewhoit is a mitzvah and important to help. These specific people love us, take care of us, daven for us, and lots of times buy us surprises and presents! You guessed it our grandparents! We know how important it is to be respectful to our grandparents, to say thank you, and to help them out. One way we can honor our grandparents is by sending them cards or presents, just like we did in class. Another way is to call them. They love hearing from us! We had so much fun calling Morah’s Grandma, who she calls BubbyJ! So many of the children shared that they call their grandparents to wish them Shabbat Shalom and to tell them about their week. Morah is so proud of how well the children are honoring their grandparents!

This week we also learnt about Pirkei Avot. Pirkei Avot is a special part of the mishnayos, a part of theTorah. That there is a special practice to read on the Shabbatot between Pesach and Rosh Hashana. This week we learnt about introductory and ending phrases of Pirkei Avot which tell us that every single Jewish person has a special section in the world to come. This gives us incredible faith in ourself to do a lot and acquire mitzvot for the world to come. In fact this is the whole reason that Hashem gave us mitzvot, in order for us to gain reward in the world to come. We discussed how even if we took all the good in the world and put it in the biggest treasure chest, the reward Hashem gives a person, in the world to come, for doing one mitzvah is even more than all that treasure. For one amen, one bracha, one kind act we get treasures of reward for our souls in the world to come. Morah told us an amazing story about a poor man who went to a far away island where there were jewels everywhere. However, on that island what valuable was chicken fat. So the man focused on making chicken fat. When it was time to come home he forgot all about the jewels and brought home tons of chicken fat. When his family met him they asked where all the riches were, all he had was chicken fat and a few small diamonds in his pocket. This story teaches us a lesson, we are like the poor man on the island, we have a chance to get tons of jewels, the mitzvot! We do not want to get distracted with silly things , or doing aveirot, like the chicken fat!

Second Grade
We had a super busy week in 2nd grade as we spent time practicing our reading skills and reviewing some of the exception rules in the Hebrew language. This week on Shabbat there is a double portion Torah Reading. We read Parshat Acharei Moit and Kedoshim. We learned about the service performed by the High Priest-Kohain Gadol on Yom Kippur in the Holy of Holies. Today since we do not have the Holy Temple we use prayer as our means of communication with Hashem. In Parshat Kedoshim we learned many Jewish laws such as: Honoring Parents, respecting elders, not taking revenge and loving our friends. Shabbat Shalom

Fourth Grade
4A
This week we continued learning in depth the story of our great Sage Rabbi Akiva.
We added on many new Shorashim to our shorashim ring, and we are catching along real quick! We also added on in Yediot Klalliot sefer Vayikra. The children now can sing all 12 parshiot in berieshit, 11 in shmot, and now can sing 10 from vaykra! our goal is to know all of the parshiot in the Torah. This week we even began learning inside the very first pasuk in the very first perek of sefer bereishit ! what an unbelievable mile stone!
Last but not least, we are practicing practicing and practicing some more for our major chumash mesiba on May 12th bezrat Hashem

Shabbat Shalom,
Mrs. Bistritz

4B
Compliments to us, Miss Yelena, our music teacher, was so super impressed by the sweet sounds of the Davening coming from our classroom. We are working with her in excited anticipation for our upcoming Chumash play! We spoke all about Rabbi Akiva, who was a great Torah leader, as we practiced a song about him. We will also sing about a parable that he taught. The topic of Rabbi Akiva is always a good topic to discuss, but especially now during Sefirah when we are mourning the loss of 24,000 of his students who passed away as a result of not treating each other with proper respect. What was Yom Kippur like in the Beit Hamikdah back in the day? We enjoyed discussing that too, as it came up in this week’s Parshah, Parahat Acharei Mot. A passionate discussion broke out one day about how it is Hashem who created everything that exists, even the items which seem “man—made”.

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Toba

5th and 6th Girls
Dear parents.
Thank G-d, we had a wonderful week!
We really enjoyed learning all about the 2nd blessing of Shemoneh Esrei – Gevurah, talking about the strength of Hashem.
G-d not only has every power in the world, life, rebirth, rain, freeing prisoners, healing the sick, supporting those in difficult times, bringing back to life; but He is also our father who loves us and cares about us more than we can imagine! Can we even imagine how lucky we are??
We continued on in Chumash, learning about the Jewish people’s exodus from Egypt. We even began to learn Rashi, a great commentary on the Torah from around one thousand years ago.
I’m so proud of all the girls! They are working hard on the Mitzvah Presentation/Project which they will be presenting on Tuesday. Keep up the great work? Looking forward to seeing them all!
A round of applause to Gabby Fishman and Eva who presented the Berachot that we make on food today!! They were amazing and we really got to an understanding of how important it is to make blessings on our food.
Have a wonderful Shabbat and a relaxing enjoyable weekend!
Best regards,
Miss Dershowitz

5th and 6th Boys
Dear Parents,
In light of the Holiday of Shavuot that is coming up, we have begun 2 new Topics.
We are learning the story of the giving of the Torah from the Chumash, with the commentary of Rashi and others.
We have also began to explore different Mitzvot in depth in order to gain a deeper appreciation of some of our priceless treasures.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Levy

7th and 8th Girls
The Mitzvot introduced in this week’s Parshah, Parshat Kedoshim, really came alive with the really well-done skits the girls’ made to break them out. By now we can almost read the mind of Rashi, whose interpretations of Chumash continue to enlighten us as we learn. We had a Chumash- Bee to test our general Chumash knowledge, congrats to Eliana Volfson upon being the winner. We continue to count the Omer in anticipation for Shavuot….

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Toba

7th and 8th Boys
This week we had our weekly Parsha test. We read and were tested on the story of Rabbi Akiva and his devoted wife Rachel. The reason that we focused on the story of Rabbi Akiva now is because, during these y’may s’fira-days of counting the Omer, Rabbi Akiva lost 24,000 students! We mourn for them by ; not taking haircuts/shaving our face, not listening to music or attending weddings. We also continued learning our Gmara lesson about identifying a dead husband so that his “widow” can remarry.
The boys are once again, proudly wearing their Talit and Tfilin during Davening. We also discussed the 7 species that are special to Eretz Yisroel.

Elementary School

Kindergarten
This week kindergarten practiced reading and spelling words with r blends. They independently wrote their own how to. They picked unique writing topics such as how to ride a bike, how to play soccer, and even how to take care of a unicorn! They learned how to identify the author’s purpose of nonfiction stories. In math they had a lot of fun playing games to figure out which ordinal numbers and positional words they can use to correctly describe which place their friend’s toys were in. They made a race track with animals and labeled their animals with ordinal numbers to show which one was winning the race. In science they learned about Earth Day, how to take care of the Earth, and what could happen if they do not take care of the Earth. They made really cool marble paintings of the Earth and they made Earth people. Then, they attached to their paintings a sentence about how they would help the Earth. In social studies they learned about the Liberty Bell, the Bald Eagle, and why they are symbols of the United States.

In Social Studies, we discussed how transportation and communication has been effected by technology. Students were surprised to learn that scientists are currently exploring the planet Mars. When asked what inventions they might imagine, students were excited about the possibility of flying cars and instant ice-cream machines. I believe these first graders can do just about anything!

Second Grade
This week, in math, the second graders have been learning about fractions. In ELA, the students have been working with adverbs and have been hard at work finishing their research reports. In social studies, the second graders are finishing up their unit on America’s Past with discussions about The American Revolution. Ms. Bronstein would like to commend Lielle Garber and Daniella Usubov for being such avid readers!

In science, students learned and discussed physical properties of matter.

Third Grade
This week Grade 3 students continued to develop their problem solving skills using all four operations. They also began to work on identifying elapsed time using number lines and solving multiplication equations vertically. During their Grammar lessons, students practiced combining sentences with the same subjects. During their Social Studies lessons, students began to learn about the early American communities. They explored the Navajo tribe, while also comparing it to the Aztecs we had previously learned about. During their Reading lessons, students dove into the adventures and misadventures James had come across in our class novel. While reading, they were able to locate many examples of imagery, personification, and onomatopoeia. This week they were also introduced to similes, so now they are hunting for this literary device too.

In science, students learned what makes up the atmosphere and the importance of it.
Students enjoyed labeling and forming layers of the atmosphere during art lessons.

Miss Sasha

Fourth Grade
4A
This week in math we continued to work in our Geometry unit. Measuring angles with protractor, identifying angles and shapes.
In ELA we completed our state test and will continue with our regular ELA curriculum.
In Social Studies we review chapter 9 Exploring the West as we will have a test on Monday.

In science, students learned and understood that matter is made up of tiny particles. Describe three states of matter.

4B
4B took their ELA state test this week! In math, we are having our test on decimals. Now that the ELA state test is behind us, we can buckle down and focus on math state test review!
In science, students learned and recognized how stars can be classified according to their size, color, temperature and age. They had fun hanging their planets on a hanger and forming the Solar System.

Fifth Grade

Greeting and Salutation!
In ELA students learned more about adverbs. They also learned about negatives. Lastly, they practiced using quotations by writing dialogue between characters.
The students also finished their novel, Moon Over Manifest. I am looking forward to the essays the 5th grade will write next week!

In Social Studies, we finished learning about the mighty Inca civilization. Students were amazed at the rope bridges the Inca used to make and at their vast wealth.

In math, 5th grade learned about unit rate, how to calculate unit price and compare items and find the better deal.

In science, students finished chapter 1: “Matter and its properties”. During this week students worked in groups performing a mini-lab: “Mixtures and Solutions”.Using different methods they were able to separate different mixtures.

Middle School

Middle School ELA and Social Studies

6th grade
Sixth graders had a busy week! In grammar, we started learning about verbals. We identified them in sentences, and wrote beautiful sentences of our own. In writing, this week has been all about evaluating arguments. We read arguments and discussed if the author did a good job supporting their claims. In reading, we continued our novel study of Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli.

In social studies, students continued their unit on Ancient Greece. This week they learned all about Sparta and Athens!

7th grade
The seventh graders took their ELA state test! Everyone worked very hard – good job! We will continue our regular curriculum on Monday. We did continue to read Chasing Lincoln’s Killer!

In social studies, this week we began our build up to the Civil War by discussing the differences between the North and the South. We also learned about the Atlantic Slave Trade and the effects it had on the three continents involved.

8th grade

8th graders had a busy week! In reading, we started our novel study of Animal Farm. Students did a great job reading the story as an allegory, and matching historic figures to animal representations. In writing, this week was all about supporting our claims with textual evidence, and reading nonfiction texts. Students did a great job!

In social studies, students made a timeline of events during the Great Depression. We wrapped up our unit on the Great Depression with a test. Students did a good job!

Middle School Math

6th grade learned how to write equations from tables and word problems.

7th grade is preparing for the state test.

8th grade learned how to graph linear inequalities.

8th grade honors reviewed chapters 1 to 6 and practiced regents questions.

Middle School Science

6th Grade
Students had a blast performing a lab about “Mixtures and Solutions”. Students worked as a team during the experiment. A lab report was assigned describing scientific methods.

7th Grade
As a part of our student’s academic journey through the human body and how the body maintains the state of balance through homeostasis; students will be investigating how nutrients actually get into our cells to give our body what it needs to undergo life processes. Students will be investigating through video, readings and by creating a story wherein they take the position of a piece of food as it travels through, the quite amazing digestive system and all of its organs. Students will learn the difference between mechanical and chemical digestion, the various organs of the digestive system and their function, what is needed to begin the digestive process and what our food is made up of and how it breaks down to get into our cells. They will be able to explain the role that carbohydrates, proteins and lipids have in the body.

8th Grade

Energy flows and matter cycles among organisms, and between organisms and their environment, creating interconnected systems. In this unit, students learn about the biotic and abiotic factors in a river ecosystem, using the Hudson River as a case study. They then investigate the impact of an invasive species (zebra mussels) on this ecosystem, using teaching case materials created by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History. Students then make hypotheses about how the presence of zebra mussels might affect specific biotic or abiotic factors. Finally, using data collected by the Cary Institute, students write scientific explanations confirming or rejecting their hypotheses, thus building an understanding of the role of data and collaboration in the scientific community.