This week’s Parsha discusses a world gone awry that needed a reset. In order to avert bringing a flood, Hashem wanted the world to repent and change their behavior. He had Noach spend decades building his ark as a public relations campaign to encourage repentance by the rest of the world. Yet no one wanted to hear the truth of Noach’s message to change their behavior. This brings to mind the following story. There was a cruise ship passing by a small island and everyone on deck was able to see an emaciated disheveled man shouting on top of his lungs and frantically waving his hands. “Who is that man on the Island?” a passenger asked the captain. “I have no idea,” the captain replied. “But every year when we pass by, this guy goes totally crazy!” Often in life we experience events which can serve as a wake-up call, but we have to be tuned in to hear the message. The events of the past few months have shown that we human beings are not in control of our world. It is our job to listen to that message and strengthen our reliance on Hashem.
Rabbi Eliezer Stewart Judaic Studies Supervisor Staten Island Hebrew Academy
Dear Parents! This week, we are premiering our new SIHA Weekly podcast! Produced by the 7th grade, this will contain Birthday Wishes, special mentions, and some lighter news. Enjoy!
Special Feature!
Interview with Ms. Regina, our fearless Nachas Lead Specialized Teacher!
Tyler and Ariella: How is your week going?
Ms. Regina: So far so good this week! Since I work with my students either one on one or in small groups, it’s easy for them to make progress quickly. It’s so much fun watching my students learn new things and understand things they may not have if they didn’t come to my room.
Tyler and Ariella: What are the students learning this week?
Ms. Regina: A few of my students are learning the alphabet and putting together 3 letter words, as well as practicing some sight words. Some of my older students are learning geometry and multiplication. We are also reading a novel and working on a nonfiction project about lions.
Tyler and Ariella: Are there any special events coming?
Ms. Regina: The kindergarten will soon be having their alphabet party to celebrate completing their learning of the alphabet. So I’ll be celebrating with them and my students.
Tyler and Ariella: Is there anyone who did extra good this week that you would like to commemorate?
Ms. Regina: Honestly, there is something amazing I can say about every one of my students. Every week they each progress toward accomplishing a major goal. It’s hard to pick out just one or two moments.
Tyler and Ariella: What do you do in your free time with your students?
Ms. Regina: During the school day when there is extra time, the students play games in my room like jenga or we watch movies/shows if it’s not nice enough to go outside. When they’re doing those inside activities, I sit in my comfy wheely chair and do absolutely nothing. Sometimes the kids are so tired, they sit on the couch and fall asleep!
When I’m not in school, I enjoy watching movies, cooking, and crocheting
Thank you for reading
Sincerely,
Ariella Shindelman and Tyler Nieves
Judaics Curriculum
Kindergarten and First Grade
Wow! What a great week we had in kindergarten Judaics.This week we learned about the letter dated. We learned a special song for the letter and can even twist our bodies into a daled!
In first grade Judaics, we have finished learning all the letters of the aleph bet. We are so excited to start learning to read next week! This week in both kindergarten and first grade judaics we learned about the Torah. We know that Torah is more precious than everything! More than all the gold and silver and money in the world, more than all the candy and chocolate in the world, and more than all the toys in the world! We then began to learn about the different parts of the shul. We know that the Sefer Torah is kept inside the Aron Kodesh. We enjoyed watching a video of Shuls and spotting all the Aron Kodesh. This week we also learned about Parshas Noach! We learned how Hashem brought the mabul and only Noach and his family and animals in the table lived. We made a special mabul in a bottle project that we can’t wait to show our families.
Shabbat Shalom! Morah Kaplan
Second Grade
We had a productive busy week in 2nd grade. In Ivrit we learned that if a word ends with a Chet and the patach vowel is under the chet. It is an exception letter and it is pronounced ach as in Noach. We learned all about Parshat Noach,ask your 2nd grader how long it took to build the ark and how we say ark in hebrew. We reviewed all the days of the week in Hebrew and the children all did well on the Breishit Parsha Quiz. Shabbat Shalom
Morah Spiegel
Third Grade
This week we started our first Dikduk lesson on prefixes. Students also mastered the days of the week and some are already able to write the date in Hebrew independently.
In parsha we learnt the story of Noach and the value of small things. We discussed Hashem’s presence in the world. We also learnt about the rainbow and the special blessing we say when we see it as it is a reminder of Hashem’s promise to never send a flood again.
Shabbat shalom Mrs Ivry
Fourth Grade
What an adventurous Parahah tale we have this week, we listened ,wide-eyed to the tale of the legendary flood and the miraculous survival of Noach, his family and animals. Ofcourse, our Hebrew letters are being reviewed and reviewed and then reviewed some more. We are still waiting to establish a finalized Judaic studies teacher plan and we appreciate your understanding and patience as we wait to gain more clarity.
Morah Toba
Middle School Boys
This week we reviewed comprehensive overview of Chumash and general knowledge. We continued our study of Shma and we began learning about the significance and the laws of Tefillin. We also learned Rashi in this week’s Parsha of Noach.
Rabbi Stewart
This week we continued our journey through the Mishna. With some pumpkins and grapes thrown in! (Ask your son) We also had the opportunity to discuss many ideas central to Judaism. Looking forward to next week,
Rabbi Levy
Middle School Girls
We had a great week! We continued on in Chumash Shemot, asking questions and learning Rashi as well. We had our weekly Chumash quiz on Thursday. The girls really know the Pesukim. We learned how Hashem loves us so much and He therefore counted us again although He just counted us. We learned a “Hashem loves _______…” song that we sing each day. We had our biweekly lesson on Jewish law, learning about Modeh Ani – the prayer we say as soon as we wake up thanking God for giving us another day of life.
We learned the weekly Parsha, Parshat Noach. God gave the people so many chances to repent but they didn’t and He brought a flood to the world. Noach and His family were saved in the ark (Teivah). We began our Middot scrapbook. We learned the Middot song and decorated our scrapbook covers beautifully! Have a great Shabbat and weekend! Looking forward to another wonderful week.
Best Regards, Miss Dershowitz
We were blessed with another wonderful week on our “Island of discoveries”, AKA our classroom. Thanx to Noga Sayag and Yaffa Bareket, we celebrated Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan at the beautiful pond down the block from our school with the best Rosh Chodesh spirit ever! They put on the most adorable, scorpion-themed show, as the symbol of this month of Cheshvan is a scorpion. We enjoyed our 7/11 slurpees, especially because the setting of their show was 7/11 (where else?). We began Beur Tefilah- translation of prayer. Familiarizing ourselves with the literal and deeper meaning of the words of the Brachot that we say before we eat is our first goal. Saying “Baruch” is a prime time to reflect on the idea that it is Hashem that is the source of all blessings in our lives. We finished the first Perek- chapter of Parshat Shemot in Chumash class, Mazal tov to us!! We are looking forward to celebrating by taking a nice outing.. stay tuned. We are totally sea sick from hearing all about Noach and his family’s legendary boat/ark ride in this week’s Parsha, by the way. Oh, and our beautifully decorated Shabbat journals are ready to be filled with thoughts on shabbat. We talk all about it on Erev Shabbat, Friday as we listen to Zemirot, which are songs that are traditionally sung at Shabbat meals. Things are never boring on this island.
Morah Toba
Elementary School
Kindergarten
This week kindergarten finished learning all of the short vowel sounds. They learned why the vowels are so important and they sang songs about the vowels. They also learned how to make cvc words plural. They played fun games to practice their decoding skills. They have been working hard and they are doing an excellent job. In math they had fun sorting and classifying all different types of objects. They learned how to tell the difference between left and right by dancing and singing songs. In science they learned all about the water cycle. They did a really fun experiment to learn about clouds and precipitation. In social studies they began making their all about me book. They are discovering that while everyone may like different things they all have things in common with each other. We talked about the importance of being a kind person and friend. When they do 100 acts of kindness they will earn an ice cream party. Aaron Elkaiev and Ethan Sandler have been doing an amazing job this week seeing friends that need help and finding ways to help them.
Third Grade
This week 3rd graders continued to explore different types of communities. They completed their written T-Charts on each character from the book The City Kid and the Suburban Kid, as well an illustrated T-Chart comparing the urban and suburban community they explored through the book. In Math, students have been reviewing what we had covered thus far in preparation for their first math test next week. Considering how well they have been doing on their previous quizzes, I have no doubt that they will do well. In English, they had completed another chapter quiz of our class novel and are ready to move forward to find out what other shenanigans Fudge gets into. During their Grammar lessons, students had focused on identifying the complete subject. Next week, students will be presenting the poems they have been learning throughout the week…although some couldn’t wait and had already presented with days to spare.
Miss Sasha
Fourth Grade
This week in math we started a new unit called Operations On Whole Numbers. We used different strategies to add and subtract numbers and solve word problems with the use of bar models.
In ELA we had our first test and started writing a personal narrative on a funny event that happened in our life. In Social Studies we started chapter 2 that discusses the features that form regions and why regions are important.
Ms. Shats
4b is having a great week! We are reviewing for our Math test on the four operations, place value, and PEMDAS. In social studies we are learning about the different climate regions of the United States, and how the different climate regions affect the population in that region. We also started reading “The Tale of Despereaux.” I would like to commend Ariana Guz for doing an excellent job on her current events assignment! Her summary was very detailed and well written, and it conveyed all of the vital information in her article about COVID-19 and its effect on NYC schools. If my class has free time we like to go outside and get some fresh air. Some of us enjoy throwing the football around. We are having a great week!
Mr. F
Fifth Grade
In ELA they learned about complete subjects and predicates as well as simple subjects and predicates.
They practiced reading and writing with scientific and technical texts.
And finally, we finished reading Maniac Magee. I’m looking forward to our essay next week!
In Math the 5th grade learned and reviewed the order of operations, the distributive property of math, and practiced their mental math skills.
In social studies the 5th grade learned about the diversity of people inhabiting North America. They also learned about our neighbor to the north, Canada. Lastly, they continued to work on their Native American lap book project.
I would also like to give a shout out to Idan Koldin for doing a great job during math.
Ms. Tatic
Middle School
Middle School ELA
In 6th grade, students finished reading Fish in A Tree. We had some wonderful class discussions, and wrote a journal about our novel. Students also learned about how to use anecdotes in their writing. We read nonfiction articles, and made some awesome inferences! In grammar, we revised wordy sentences, and learned new vocabulary words. Mrs. Hazen would like to commend Noam Tisona for being a wonderful student!
In 7th grade, the students continued reading The Great Gilly Hopkins in class. In grammar, we learned about revising sentences to make them more precise and clear. In writing, we read nonfiction articles about famous inventors, and practiced making inferences and writing great paragraphs. Ms. Hazen would like to commend Tyler Nieves for being a diligent student!
In 8th grade, the students had a great time during class discussions in our reading class! We continued our novel study of Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963. In grammar, we read nonfiction articles, and practiced writing paragraphs that made great inferences. Mrs. Hazen would like to commend Yehuda Mirocznik for writing great paragraphs!
Middle School Math
This week the 6th grade completed their second Unit Test on Multiples and Factors, Least Common Multiples and Greatest Common Factors and did quite well. Now they are working on dividing fractions with models and algebraically. They are all struggling a bit with it but I can see them slowly getting the hang of it.
7th Grade just took their first Unit Test on Numbers and Operations and is currently working on Expressions and Order of Operations. They just had a quiz on the latter two and the majority of them showed their understanding of the work. Additionally, 7th grade honors took their Unit Test 2 on Expressions and Order of Operations successfully. They are now working on Equations and Inequalities.
8th grade just took quizzes on exponents, properties of exponents and the importance the use of scientific notations and scored quite high overall and I’m very pleased with their results. They are now working on how to write large numbers using the scientific notation and seem to be mastering the material quite fast. On the other hand, 8th grade honors just took their Unit Test 1 on expressions and Numbers and operations and, although they struggled quite a bit during their most recent Quiz they soared got higher scores on their Test.
Thank you.
Mr. Martin
Middle School Social Studies
In 6th grade, we discussed the Assyrian Empire in depth and engaged in a state building exercise to put what we learned into practice.
In 7th grade, we learned about the Conquistadores’ exploration and conquest of the Americas and continued our maps from last week.
In 8th grade, we talked about Reconstruction laws, the Southern response, and various important Supreme Court cases of the period.
Jewish History
This week, 7th grade finished their first unit in Jewish History and is getting ready for their first test on Tuesday. We will then move on to learn about the lives of the forefathers.
8th grade finished reviewing last years lessons and will be having a test on Tuesday as well. We will then move on to learn about the Babaloniayn exile. Exciting events like lions dens coming up!
This week’s Torah portion, Braishit, the first Parsha of the Torah, discusses the creation of the world. On day 3 of creation the earth produced vegetation and fruit trees. Yet we find in later in the Parsha that no fruit-bearing tree nor herb came out of the ground, until after man was created. The Torah tells us the reason for this delay:
Because the Lord God had not brought rain upon the earth, and there was no man to work the soil.
Rashi, the foremost commentator on the Torah, explains that the lack of rain and the absence of man are not two separate points; rather, there was no rain precisely because there was no man to recognize the need for rain. After Adam was created and understood that rain was vital for the world, he prayed for rain and his successful prayers led to the sprouting of the trees and vegetation.
We see two fundamental lessons from this story. The concept of Prayer was part and parcel of the mechanism by which rain falls and the earth produces its crops for there is no produce without prayer. If we view prayer through this lens it will change the way we speak to Hashem, for we will truly feel the crucial role it plays in the functioning of the world.
We see an additional component in the first comment of Rashi. Rain would not come until there was man to recognize and appreciate it. It is not just a nice thing to be appreciative of others rather the very fabric of creation was woven with the need for people to recognize and appreciate the assistance we are given by others. We all understand how important it is for us to feel appreciated by others, and can turn that around to make sure those around us know how much we appreciate them.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Stewart
Judaics
Kindergarten and First Grade Judaics
This week in Kindergarten and First Grade Judaics we began to learn Parsha starting with the first Parsha, Parshas Bereshis, We began with an introduction on Torah. Morah made a skit where she pretended to go to Florida but could not go since she did not have a map of how to get there. We learnt how the Torah is our map for life of how Hashem wants us to live. In this weeks Parsha we learnt that Hashem created the world for the Torah and for the Jewish People, He created the world in 7 days! We made a beautiful 7 days of creation project that we cannot wait to show at home.
Shabbat Shalom!
Morah Kaplan
Second Grade Judaics
It was wonderful being back at school after our Sukkot Break. The children were so excited as we discussed the creation of the world. The world was made in one week Hashem (G-d) created the world in 6 days and figuratively rested on the 7th day. (Shabbat) The children know there are 5 books in the Torah. Every week in the synagogue on Shabbat we are privileged to read another Parsha-Portion chumush in the Torah. This week we are beginning the cycle anew as the reading of the entire Torah was completed last week on Simchat Torah. We begin with Parsha Breishit-Genesis the first of the 5 books of the Torah. We know the Torah was G-d given at Mt. Sinai to the Jewish nation. The first people in the world were Adom and Chava. They were told they could eat any of the food in the Garden of Eden except from one specific tree. After disobeying Hashem’s commandment and eating from the forbidden tree. Adom told Hashem (G-d) “It was the fault of the woman you gave me,she gave me the fruit and told me to eat it.” Hashem did not accept that as a valid excuse. We learn from here that we all must take responsibility for our own actions and not shift the blame on someone else. We have the ability to choose right from wrong and must use our inner strength to make the right choices throughout life. We are busy learning many of the daily prayers we say and the reason for saying them. We learned the days of the week in Hebrew and are reviewing rules of the Hebrew language.
Shabbat Shalom
Mrs. Spiegel
Third Grade Judaics
Third graders came back energized and happy from their sukkot holiday. Many students eagerly shared their experience eating in the sukkah and shaking the lilac and etrog.
We started the week with our first bi weekly spelling list: in accordance with the Parsha of the week, we are now learning to spell and translate the Hebrew days of the week.
We also learnt the parsha of the week including the sin of the tree of knowledge and the brother’s jealousy. We discuss that it’s important not to be jealous of our siblings, as we are each unique for our unique needs and our parents, as in the image of Hashem, treat each of us with love and specific care, bit not all exactly the same.
We learnt the new vowels called the chatafim and practice our Hebrew reading skills.
Shabbat shalom
Mrs. Ivry
Middle School Judaics
Welcome back! This week we continued on our Mishnayot journey.
We also began learning about the all important topic of Honoring parents.
Rabby Levy
5th and 6th Grade Judaics
We had a great week. We started learning the Chumash of Shemot. The girls all know the translation of all the words. We learned the question and answer of Rashi and some Hebrew Grammar (Dikduk) rules. The girls asked great questions on Chumash and all sorts of topics!
We learned the weekly Parsha, Parshat Beraishit. Hashem/God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th – giving us all the creation of rest. We learned what Hashem created each day and how although the grass, flowers and trees sprouted on the 3rd day of creation, they grew only on the 6th. That is because God wanted Adam to pray for them to grow, because God always wants us to call out to Him, pray to Him and come close to Him.
Adam was created from the dust on the ground mixed with water. Then God blew into him, giving him the Image of God, what we call a Tzelem Elokim. That is what makes every one of us special. We have a piece of God inside of us.
We practiced our hebrew reading and the girls are really great at it.
Have a great weekend and a great Shabbat!
Sincerely,
Miss Dershowitz
Elementary School
Kindergarten
Kindergarten had a great week! In ELA the class has been practicing spelling and reading many words. They are doing amazing! They also learned about punctuation marks and determined if the sentences should end in a period or a question mark. In math they reviewed for their first test by making shape trees, shape monsters, and playing shape games. In science they learned all about the different types of weather. They learned how a thermometer works, made windsocks, and they learned all about the different types of clouds. They had so much fun using puffy paint to make a cumulus cloud into different animals or objects. In social studies they learned all about Christopher Columbus. They also discussed different types of emotions and what are good things to do when they are feeling different types of emotions. Most importantly, they talked about how to be a good friend and to always treat their friends the way they want to be treated.
First Grade
This week in first grade was extremely productive. Our first graders reviewed addition facts. They learned about Cesar Chavez in reading with the strategy of retell. We even wrote a paragraph about a person at SIHA that we admire.
In Science we learned about life cycles of living things. Students were able to identify the different stages of growth in different animals from salamanders to elephants. They were so great at making diagrams of the life cycle of the butterfly.
Finally, the first graders explored the skill of blotting to create pictures. In Art class students were challenged to use water color as a medium to produce pictures of Autumn trees. As you can see, they did a wonderful job! Although no 2 trees are alike, we stress the fact that all of our artists create wonderful works of Art. We are so proud of them :).
Mrs. Adams
FirstGrade-1
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Second Grade
Second graders had a great week! In ELA, they continued reading their class novel, The Chocolate Touch. The students also took their first math test of the year! To prepare for the test, the students played addition bingo. They all did awesome! Ms. Bronstein and the 2nd grade would like to wish a very happy birthday to Mira!
In Science, 2nd grade finished the chapter about plants.
Second-Grade-Science
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Third Grade
This week 3rd graders had a chance to present their community projects. They had created posters or written about what makes their community special to them. During social studies we also continued to learn about parts of a map and began learning about the differences and similarities of urban, suburban, and country communities. While reading our class novel, students were introduced to figurative language in the form of idioms. They created illustrations of their most favorite ones to present in class. By far the most popular ones were: he is a couch potato, she cried her eyes out, mom was cooking up a storm, and let’s not forget – it was raining cats and dogs. In math we focused on identifying how many ones, tens, hundreds, or thousands there are with in a number. In grammar we completed our review of the four types of sentences and are now digging further into the specific parts of a complete sentence, beginning with the subject.
In Science, 3rd grade had a blast while they saw and observed an embryo inside a little seed through magnifying glasses.
Miss Sasha
third
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Fourth Grade
This week in math class we learned how to identify and complete regular patterns. We learned how to use the numbers given in a problem to figure out what numbers are missing, and complete the pattern. Here you see Elior Factor coming up to the board and completing a decreasing pattern, filling in the missing numbers. We also had another spelling bee this week! Joshua Nikolayevskiy emerged as the victor, correctly spelling the sixth grade spelling word “audience.”
In Science, 4th graders started learning about Human Body Systems.
Fifth Grade
5th Graders had a great week!
In ELA, they continued reading their class novel, Maniac Magee. In grammar, they learned about compound
and complex sentences, and wrote beautiful paragraphs. They read about amazing inventions, and practiced making inferences based on textual evidence and their background knowledge.
In Math, students practiced multiplying and dividing with tens, hundreds, and thousands. They also spent time reviewing for their unit test. In Social Studies, students learned about the geography of Mexico, United States, and Canada. Students also learned about the Native Americans that live there, and started their Indigenous Peoples Lap book project.
Ms. Tatic is proud of all of her students, but she especially wants to commend Sofia Sandler for being all-around awesome!
In Science, 5th graders worked very hard on the chapter: “Human Body Systems”
Middle School
Middle School Math
This week, the 6th grade dealt with greatest common factors, least common multiples and word problems involving these concepts and did quite well. They concluded their week with a quiz that put their mastery of these concepts to the test. Now, they will be moving on to their Unit Review which will prepare them for their second Unit Test which I expect will yield great results since they seem to be absorbing the material positively.
7th grade is working wonderfully. Honors students are surfing through familiar, yet challenging, algebraic operations while understanding the definitions of concepts such as variables, constants, coefficients and like terms and applying the basic, yet rigorous, arithmetic order of operations. Non-honors students continue to approach the end of their first Unit and even through some of the topics in this journey have proved challenging for them, they continue to raise to the occasion with determination and hard work. I only expect greatness in their upcoming Unit Test since they’ve been doing so well on their quizzes.
Last, but certainly not least, we have our lovely 8th grade non honors completing their first Unit Test. Although, challenging these group worked tiredness to enhance and brush up on their elementary arithmetic skills. I only see steady growth on the near future since they are always quick to make corrections and learn from them. Finally, 8th grade honors is approaching the end of their first Algebra based unit, they are currently working with operations with irrational number and slowly but steadily mastering said concept. They will soon be taking their first big Unit Test and I am confident that the results will be nothing but satisfactory.
Middle School ELA
6th grade had a great week!
In Grammar, we learned about sentence fragments and run-on sentences. We edited sentences to fix these common errors, and wrote our own beautiful sentences. We also learned about making inferences from nonfiction texts, and read articles about cryptids, such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. We also continued reading our class novel, Fish in a Tree.
Mrs. Hazen would especially like to commend Eva Leivent for being an awesome student!
7th Grade had a busy week!
In Grammar, we talked about adding detail to m
ake for strong sentences and stronger paragraphs. We practiced adding sensory details, as well as details that answer who, what, where, when and why. In writing, we reviewed making inferences from nonfiction texts, and read nonfiction articles. Mrs. Hazen would especially like to commend Tyler for being a very diligent student!
8th Grade had an amazing week!
In grammar, we reviewed how to break up stringy sentences, or sentences with too many ‘ands’ in them. We reviewed using transition words and using conjunctions to clarify relationships between ideas. In writing, we talked about how to make inferences from nonfiction texts. We also started a new class novel: Watsons go to Birmingham – 1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis. Mrs. Hazen would really like to commend Taylor for being a great student!
Middle School Science
7th grade is learning about chemical properties and identifying chemical changes. 8th grade is learning the various type of graphs that scientists use when extrapolating data and which graphs are appropriate for the type of data that is being extrapolated. They are learning about quantitative v. qualitative data and the appropriate graphs that go along with each. They are learning how to determine the appropriate scale for their graph and completing the graph to scale.
In science, 6th graders learned about the three types of rocks on Earth and their cycle.
8th grade: Mrs. Belli wants to mention Yosef Yehudai for his hard work and effort during science class.
Middle School Social Studies
In 6th grade, we learned about the Hittite and Kassite Empires and engaged in a re-enactment of the Battle of Kadesh.
In 7th grade, we learned about the major European colonial empires and created a world map to denote which territories were conquered by whom.
In 8th grade, we learned about the various plans regarding how to proceed during Reconstruction.
Jewish History
My week was very busy and quite eventful. It is good to be getting back into routine.
My break was a busy, eventful special experience. I enjoyed celebrating the holiday with my family. We built a Sukkah and had all our meals in it. During the intermediate days of Sukkos, my husband and I took my kids to Governors Island. They had a great time.
7th grade is learning about the first 20 generations of the world and the 8th grade is learning about the kingdoms of Yehuda and Yisroel
This week, both 7th and 8th grades are working on finishing the units and are headed towards a test.
The holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, revolves around the concept of Teshuva, repentance. It is a day we confess our sins to ourselves and to Hashem and make plans to better our lives, our relationships and our commitment to Torah. In Psalm 130, King David speaks about the impossibility of being sinless and shows appreciation to Hashem for giving us the opportunity to do Teshuva. King David then says, “כִּי־עִמְּךָ הַסְּלִיחָה לְמַעַן תִּוָּרֵא, For forgiveness is with You, in order that You be feared.” For many years I struggled with understanding this verse. If Hashem forgives our wrongdoing, how does that lead us to fear him?
I recently found a wonderful explanation from Rav Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892-1953). When a person has nothing to lose, there is no reason to be nervous or worried. If there is no concept of repentance, then as soon as a person sins there would “nothing to lose,” the chance for perfection having already disappeared. Such a person has no fear of Hashem and no fear of sinning further. It is precisely because we do have the chance to fix past mistakes that we are nervous that we properly take advantage of this opportunity.
This concept can be better understood with the following analogy. In the early 90’s, my favorite baseball team, the LA Dodgers, were not very good. One year, the last game of the season was against their arch-rival, the San Francisco Giants. For the Dodgers the game was meaningless as they were winding down an unsuccessful campaign. The Giants, however, were dependent on winning this game to make it to the playoffs. The Dodgers defeated the Giants soundly and we excitedly celebrated knocking out the Giants from the playoffs. For us Dodger fans, it was the highlight of the year. As I think back to that moment, I recognize that the Dodgers performance was nothing to celebrate. The Giants were under tremendous pressure knowing that this was an opportunity not to lose. The Dodgers on the other hand, had nothing to lose. Since the Dodgers had zero pressure, their win did not display any courage or fortitude. When a person has nothing to lose, there is no reason to be nervous or worried. Only by truly recognizing that we can change for the better will we indeed have skin in the game.
Some of our great Torah leaders looked noticeably different during the period of the High-Holidays. They truly felt the opportunity for improvement and were nervous and worried that they not allow the opportunity to go to waste. They truly embodied the words of King David,” כִּי־עִמְּךָ הַסְּלִיחָה לְמַעַן תִּוָּרֵא, For forgiveness is with You, in order that You be feared.”
May we all merit to optimize this opportunity to do a proper Teshuva, repentance.
We had a productive busy week in 2nd grade. In Ivrit we learned that if a word ends with a Chet and the patach vowel is under the chet. It is an exception letter and it is pronounced ach as in Noach. We learned all about Parshat Noach,ask your 2nd grader how long it took to build the ark and how we say ark in hebrew. We reviewed all the days of the week in Hebrew and the children all did well on the Breishit Parsha Quiz. Shabbat Shalom
