Dvar Torah
Mikeitz
5th grade was the beginning to a new life for me and I didn’t even know it. It was my first year attending a Jewish day school. On day 1 my Judaic studies teacher asked me what my hebrew name was and I proudly answered Yochanana, given to me by a “rabbi” from a reform temple. As I grew in learning and understanding of the Jewish way of life I acquiesced to my morah’s opinion and was given the proper Jewish name of Chana, a name carried by Torah heroines that exceeded in strong faith despite their lifetime of challenges. A name formulated via lashon hakodesh (the holy language) carries with it the spiritual attachment to our ancestors, our nation, and our Gd.
In this weeks parsha, Yosef is appointed second to the king by Pharaoh and he is given an Egyptian name. In the words of the Torah, “and Pharaoh called Yosef, Tzafnat Paneach” (Berashit 41: 45). The Torah then adds: “and Yosef went out over the land of Egypt.” If Joseph was given a new name, why does the Torah not use that name when describing his going out to rule Egypt?
The Rambam/ Maimonides’s states that a person who lives a life of kiddush Hashem (sanctifying Gd’s name in the world) was Yosef. But, isn’t sanctifying Gd’s name
commonly associated with dying for Gd? Why did Rambam not pick any of the myriad of Jews who gave their lives for the Almighty to embody this most important principle? Why pick Yosef, who did not die for God?
Rabbi Soloveichik argues that for the Rambam, the greatest sanctification of Gd is not dying for but living for Gd. Living for Gd is no simple task, as it requires a constant commitment, every day and every moment. Doing the small things that often go unnoticed is the true test of kiddush Hashem. The Rambam actually goes at great length to list first those times when its a mitzva to transgress the law rather than die. Only after explaining when life overrides the law does the Rambam mention the few times when dying for Gd is mandated. Living for God is mentioned first, as it is paramount.
No wonder then that Yosef is the model of kiddush Hashem. He was the only Jew living in Egypt. He lived every moment for Hashem, never forsaking his Jewish identity. In the most difficult of times, he did not assimilate or forget who he was. This is kiddush Hashem par excellence.
Pharaoh’s intent in giving Yosef an Egyptian name was to encourage him to lose his identity. The Torah, however, is quick to state that Yosef went out over the land of Egypt to underscore that Yosef remained Yosef. He was not swept away by the richness of his position as the viceroy. He remained true to his Jewish identity.
This is an important message for SIHA. Despite our focus on how to succeed in the modern “general studies” world we dare not forget our roots. A good starting point is to retain our Hebrew names, Yosef, who despite Pharaoh’s efforts to rename him, to redirect him, remained the same steadfast Yosef HaTzadik.
Good Shabbos 🙂
—
Chana Uzhansky Ed.D.
Head Of School
Special Announcement
Dear parents.
Thank G-d, we all had an incredibly fun and exciting Chanukah week at Siha!
We enjoyed decorating our delicious Chanukah donuts with frosting and sprinkles. And of course, we had a great time eating them too
It was lots of fun to play dreidel and eat our Chanukah Gelt taffy in the end of the game.
The Roller Jam trip was absolutely amazing. Every one of us enjoyed skating and blading around the rink, with awesome Chanukah music playing in the background.
Today, we decorated and filled up our colorful dreidel pinatas with lots of different taffies and candies.
We are very much looking forward to the Chanukah party next week. Reminder to grades 5-8 that the Menorah contest is due on Monday at the party. In order to enter the party, each student will present their creative Menorah creation.
Winners will be chosen at the Chanukah by Dr Uzhansky and Mrs Roskamm and will receive very exciting rewards.
For all students who lit the Menorah all 8 nights of Chanukah, don’t forget to hand in your contest charts to your Judaics teacher, on Tuesday.
Have a wonderful and happy Shabbat Chanukah!
Enjoy your weekend.
Best Regards,
Miss Dershowitz
Mrs Ferber
Judaics
Kindergarten and First Grade
We baruch Hashem had another great week in Kindergarten and first grade Judaic!
We had a great time reviewing the Chanuka story (the kids know it really well!), “lighting” the menorah, and doing lots of fun Chanuka activities! On Tuesday we had a blast decorating donuts for Chanuka. We also had a special visitor – Morah Kaplan – come for Chanuka to give us treats! On Wednesday we played a real game of dreidel and were so excited to win Chanuka gelt. What a great time we had on our super trip to Roller Jam! The kids got really good at skating and had lots of fun! We even got to fill up a dreidel with delicious Chanuka treats! It was definitely a festive week!
The kindergarteners learned a new letter, chet, this week! This letter is extra special because the holiday Chanuka begins with it!
The first graders continued learning how to read different letters with kamatz or patach sounds. They’re getting really good at differentiating between the different sounds.
The first grade also learned how to write the letter nun in script letters. They make beautiful curves.
Happy Chanuka!
I’m looking forward to another great week!
Morah Chavi
Second Grade
What an exciting Chanukah week we experienced. Tuesday we had a blast frosting and sprinkling our donuts. We had choices of vanilla or chocolate frosting and a wide range of colored sprinkles to choose from. Wednesday we enjoyed a dreidel game in class and Thursday was our trip to Roller Jam. Don’t worry we did get some learning in as well. We are practicing our reading skills, reviewing the customs and laws of Chanukah and learned an important lesson about remaining humble from this weeks Parsha. Yosef was called to interpret King Phaarohs dream. The first thing Yosef told the king is that Hashem gives him the ability to do this. Even if we are smart, good looking and capable (as all our second graders are) we should never become arrogant and haughty and must remember our looks and talents are all gifts from Hashem. Shabbat Shalom and Happy Chanukah. Morah Spiegel
Third Grade
3rd grade had a super exciting week of fun Chanukah activities!
We decorated our own donuts- and ate them! We played dreidel together, went on a fantastic trip to Roller Jam USA, and filled our own dreidels with sweets. Oh what a special Chanukah we are having here at SIHA.
We know the story of Chanukah well and learned lessons about how lucky we are to be jewish and learn the Torah without anyone trying to stop us.
Have a wonderful and happy Chanukah!
Shabbat Shalom!
Morah Ferber
Fourth Grade
בס”ד
Dear Parents,
4th Grade
Happy Chanukah everyone.
It was a short week in the classroom being that Monday we were on vacation and Thursday was a terrific trip.
We enjoyed all the fun activities the school offered.
It is hard to know where to start. The Davening, the learning, and the enjoyment of Chanukah, all of them were special. The trip was a real hit. The children skating around the rink with happy faces was a joy to witness.
In class, we went through the Nekudos of Komatz, Pasach, Teirei, and Segol. After saying the letters, we searched for words using the letters with the Nekudos. Can you believe it?? We did it without Google. We got many good words. “Dag” fish, “Aba” father, “Tzav”, turtle and much more. It was loads of fun.
We had many raffle winners for Davening and learning.
We practiced for the upcoming performance which we are very excited about. Stay tuned for details.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Berelowitz
5th and 6th Girls
Dear parents.
Thank G-d, we had an absolutely incredible Chanukah week at Siha!
We decorated donuts with frosting and colorful sprinkles – delicious! We had a wonderful time learning Chumash on Wednesday. We had Ella Dery as our watchmen, in case the Greeks would come and see us learning Torah. They would kill us because that is against our King Antiochus’s decree, which does not allow us to learn Torah. Every time Ella saw Greek soldiers coming near our cave, she would shout, “The Yevanim (Greeks) are coming!” and we would speedily put our Chumashim into our desks and take out our dreidels to play.
The dejected Greeks unfortunately could not kill us for learning Torah..
We had a spectacularly fun time at Roller Jam on Thursday. I’m not sure why the girls seemed so surprised that I could rollerblade:)
We decorated our colorful dreidel pinatas with Chanukah stickers and filled them with lots of awesome candy.
I am so proud to hear that all the girls are lighting their Menorahs at home.
Each day of Chanukah, we practiced lighting a Menorah in our classroom, singing the Berachot and songs together. And, of course, don’t forget our daily Chanukah dancing after we lit the Menorah.
We tried to stick in some regular learning as well:) We learned the Beracha of Mezonot, which we say on cake, cookies, pretzels, etc. It is the blessing we make on grains that are not turned into bread.
It is important to note that tonight we are lighting the Menorah before we light the Shabbat candles because we can’t light fire on Shabbat.
Have a wonderful and happy Shabbat Chanukah!
Enjoy your weekend.
Best regards,
Miss Dershowitz
5th and 6th Boys
5th and 6th grade boys had a fantastic , albeit shortened week.
We began with learning about a Mikeitz, which incidentally always occurs on Chanuka!
Mikeitz, is an especially emotional Parasha, where Yosef actually realizes his dreams and plays them out as if they were a prophecy.
First, Paro has troubling dreams and is not satisfied with any interpretation until Yosef Hatzadik is removed from jail and interprets them for him. Paro did not accept the interpretations of his sorcerers or advisors, because they were telling him interpretations such as he would beget 7 daughters and bury 7 daughters. Paro, a non Jewish king, understood that his dream was a message from G-d, NOT for his personal family, but for his kingdom.
The brothers are now coming to Egypt and bowing down to Yosef just as they had in his dreams [In the dreams, Yosef did not actually see his brothers but a representation thereof].
In the end of this week’s Parasha , Yosef “repays” his brothers’ act of selling him, by holding Binyamin hostage.
We learned even more about Chanukah.
On Tuesday, we went to the lunch room where we all enjoyed decorating our own doughnuts and eating them.
Wednesday was playing dreidel.
Thursday was Roller Jam!
On Friday, we had a lot of fun filling our dreidels.
Rabbi Kuritsky told a fantastic story about George Washington and a Menorah!
Shabbat Shalom
7th and 8th Girls
7th and 8th grade wonderful girls had a fantastic ,albeit shortened week.
We began with learning about a Mikeitz, which incidentally always occurs on Chanuka!
Mikeitz, is an especially emotional Parasha, where Yosef actually realizes his dreams and plays them out as if they were a prophecy.
First, Paro has troubling dreams and is not satisfied with any interpretation until Yosef Hatzadik is removed from jail and interprets them for him. Paro did not accept the interpretations of his sorcerers or advisors, because they were telling him interpretations such as he would beget 7 daughters and bury 7 daughters. Paro, a non Jewish king, understood that his dream was a message from G-d, NOT for his personal family, but for his kingdom.
The brothers are now coming to Egypt and bowing down to Yosef just as they had in his dreams [In the dreams, Yosef did not actually see his brothers but a representation thereof].
In the end of this week’s Parasha , Yosef “repays” his brothers’ act of selling him, by holding Binyamin hostage.
We learned even more about Chanukah. We covereed about SIXTY relevant facts.
On Tuesday, we went to the lunch room where we all enjoyed decorating our own doughnuts and eating them.
Thank you to Noga Sayag for decorating a donut especially for her favoritre Rabbi, Rabbi Kuritsky.
It was beautiful.
It was delicious.
Wednesday we played dreidel using “taffe (chocolate coins look alike) coins”.
All were winners.
Thursday was Roller Jam!
On Friday, we had a lot of fun filling our dreidels.
Rabbi Kuritsky told a fantastic story about George Washington and a Menorah!
Shabbat Shalom
7th and 8th Boys
Happy Chanukah everyone.
What a fun filled week it was.
Yes, we had changes in our regular learning schedule to learn the topics of Chanukah.
In explaining the Davening, we went through the Beracha we add in for Chanukah “Al Hanisim” instead of the regular Berochos of Shemona Esreh.
In Gemara instead of learning the Gemara of Makkos, we learnt the Gemara of Shabbos which discusses the famous argument of Beit Shamai and Beit Hillel of how a person lights the Menorah.
This Shabbos is Rosh Chodesh and Chanukah. We read from 3 Sefrei Torah’s.
The trip to roller jam was loads of fun. The students really went fast, zooming around the rink. It was special to see those expert skaters.
Topics from the Parsha:
יוֹסף spent another 2 years in jail (a total of 12 years).
פַּרעֹה had 2 dreams:
7 big and healthy cows were eaten up by 7 small, skinny cows.
7 strong pieces of wheat were swallowed up by 7 dried out pieces.
None of the advisors had a good way to explain the dreams. The butler remembered that יוסף had helped him and told פרעה about יוסף. פרעה sent for יוסף to come; at that time he was 30 years old.
With the help of Hashem,יוסף explained the dreams: 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of terrible famine. He advised פרעה to start saving food now.
פרעה put יוסף in charge of saving up food, and made him second in command over the whole מצרים.
יוסף married Osnas and had 2 sons, who he named מנשה and אפרים.
יַעַקֹב sent the שבטים to מצרים to buy food. יוסף recognized his brothers and acted very strict to them.
Keep it up,
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Berelowitz
Elementary School
Kindergarten
This week kindergarten had a lot of fun celebrating Chanukah. They finished writing their first predictable books. They enjoyed grading their own writing and determining on their own what they felt they did well on and what they felt they need to include in their writing next time. They are also writing a pattern book about Chanukah. In math they learned how to compare numbers and determine if a number is greater or less than. The class loved playing the card game war to practice this skill and they got to play a different Chanukah math game everyday. They also noticed patterns on a hundred chart and can now identify and locate the numbers 1-100. In science they learned about severe weather and they did an experiment to make a tornado in a bottle. In social studies they almost finished their All About Me books. Their favorite part of social studies this week was making handprints and footprints for their All About Me books.
First Grade
First grade learned that veterans protect our country and help other countries when needed. We discussed family members who served in the United States armed forces, and wrote letters to thank them for their service. The first graders enjoyed reading “Kitten’s First Full Moon” wherein we learned about cause and effect. We created addition stories in Math. In Science, we discussed ways to combat water pollution. Finally, for Social Studies the first graders made Thankful projects in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Second Grade
What an action packed week! Academically, 2nd grade reviewed our 2nd math unit on addition and subtraction, in preparation for a test next week. In ELA, we had a quiz on nouns. We are also reviewing our 2nd social studies unit, “places near and far,” in preparation for our unit 2 social studies test. Some of our 2nd grade students received a thank you certificate from senator Andrew Lanza, for their participation in the Thanksgiving Day Creative Celebration! In the pictures, you can see students holding their certificates. You can also see Brianna Sanders correctly solving a challenging subtraction problem in the millions, and Joseph Cohen doing the same for a problem in the billions! We also had tons of fun celebrating Chanukah! We went to the Chanukah sale, set up by our amazing PTA, and we also went to Roller Jam! It was a great week!
Mr. F
Third Grade
This week kindergarten had a lot of fun celebrating Chanukah. They finished writing their first predictable books. They enjoyed grading their own writing and determining on their own what they felt they did well on and what they felt they need to include in their writing next time. They are also writing a pattern book about Chanukah. In math they learned how to compare numbers and determine if a number is greater or less than. The class loved playing the card game war to practice this skill and they got to play a different Chanukah math game everyday. They also noticed patterns on a hundred chart and can now identify and locate the numbers 1-100. In science they learned about severe weather and they did an experiment to make a tornado in a bottle. In social studies they almost finished their All About Me books. Their favorite part of social studies this week was making handprints and footprints for their All About Me books.
Fourth Grade
This week in math we review our unit on Operations of Whole Numbers. We solved multi step word problems with the use of bar models, continued to work on multiplying by 2 digit number and long division.
In ELA we worked on writing comparison essay. Kids used Venn diagram to organize their thoughts. Worked in groups revising their drafts and presented their amazing work to the class.
In Social Studies we continued to work on chapter 3 Exploring the East and people of the East. Identified three groups of people who have lived in the East. Described two ways that American Indians have used the natural resources of the East. Discussed why European colonists moved to North America. We also reviewed for chapter 3 test.
Fifth Grade
5th graders had a great week!
Both classes continued with their novel studies. 5A continued to read Maniac Magee, and 5B continued to read Holes. Both classes are progressing great in their reading units!
In grammar, students learned about parts of speech, and practiced telling which part of speech is which.
Both classes also got a chance to show off their signing skills in a special Chanukah Choir! Please look forward to seeing this via video form!
In Social Studies, both classes are gearing up for a big project on famous Explorers. Please look forward to it!
Middle School
Middle School ELA and Social Studies
6th Grade
Greetings and salutations!
This week has been a very busy week despite all of the festivities.
In grammar the 6th grade learned about common and proper nouns. They also wrapped up their novel study of Fish in a Tree and began their new novel, Hatchet. For Hatchet, the 6th graders are focusing on different types of conflict.
In Social Studies the 6th grade continued their journey into India. They learned about the early Indus Valley civilization and the rigid caste system.
7th Grade
7th Graders had a really busy week!
In reading, students wrapped up their novel study of Fever, 1793, and started working on their essay. In grammar, this week was all about pronouns: personal, possessive, demonstrative and indefinite. Students also wrote beautiful paragraphs as part of their State Test Prep.
In Social Studies, the 7th graders continued their unit on Early American colonies. They read primary sources by John Smith, learned about Jamestown, and wrote a response in which they critically examined the two primary sources and modern day historian perspectives on them.
8th Grade
8th graders had a really busy week!
In reading, we wrapped up Lord of the Flies and started working on our allegory essay. Students completed their prewriting and outlines, and are starting their drafts on Monday. In grammar, we started our lesson on pronouns. We learned about different types of pronouns, including indefinite, demonstrative, reflexive, intensive, and interrogative pronouns.
In Social Studies, we started our unit on World War 2.
Best of luck to all the 8th graders attempting the SHSAT this weekend. We’re cheering you on!
Middle School Math
5th grade learned how to multiply whole numbers and mixed numbers with fractions.
6th grade applied operations with rational numbers.
7th grade finished volume and learned how to use scale factors to find dimensions.
8th grade learned how to generate equations given slope and y-intercept or two points.
Middle School Science
6th gr.
Students learned and understood how tectonic plate motions have resulted in global changes in geography, climate, and the patterns of organic evolution. During an activity students were able to understand the different plate boundaries when they completed the informational chart.
7th Grade
7th grade is discovering the ways in which we identify the characteristics of physical properties, the difference between a physical and chemical change and how we determine the various characteristics of matter. Students will watch various videos and conduct hands-on investigations to determine the density of an object.
8th Grade
Students are discovering what it means to be alive! Students will be completing a Scientific Explanation answering the essential question “What does an organism need to be deemed alive?” They are investigating various articles and will watch a few videos to begin their investigation, so they can determine a position and make a claim. Once their investigation is complete, students will make their claim and support it with evidence from the sources they used to complete their investigation.
8th gr. Science Nachas
Mrs. Belli was so proud of Lana, Leora and Yisroel. Students were able to present their work in an amazing presentation: “Plants as Medicine ” Keep it up!! Great job!!
Jewish History
7th grade finished our unit on the flood and how it changed the world
8th grade reviewed the answer to their question: How do we know the Torah is true?
A group of my students had a great time celebrating Chanukah at my home on Wednesday night, including Menorah Lighting, Dancing, a D’Var Torah from Eliezer Rosskamm, homemade Latkes and Donuts, chips, pretzels, candy, cookies….
Happy Chanukah
