Category: BMitzvah

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Top 10 Highlights from 2021-22Top 10 Highlights from 2021-22

We wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on some of our favorite moments from this year with all of you! Which one is your favorite? 10. Makom @ Home A 3rd grader in Makom @ Home who usually insists that she hates singing and turns her camera off during Tefilah (prayers), got very excited when we brought in some…

Rosh Pinah Presentations!Rosh Pinah Presentations!

Mazel tov (congratulations) to our whole class on their fantastic Rosh Pinah (capstone) project presentations last week! Not only am I extremely proud of how well they did, they are very proud of themselves! I am proud of myself for singing in front of people. Inside I was so nervous! I am proud of how well the coffin came out….

BMitzvah Update: Rosh Pinah Projects & Continuing VaykhelBMitzvah Update: Rosh Pinah Projects & Continuing Vaykhel

It has been a delight to watch each learners’ interests take off in their independent Rosh Pinah projects! These projects are building on what we previously learned about tefilah (prayer).  We looked at the history of when Jews started praying in addition to, and eventually instead of sacrifices and temple based worship. We learned about the role of early rabbis…

BMitzvah Update!BMitzvah Update!

This was an exciting week- we finished reading all of Vayishlach, keep growing our Hebrew Word Wall, and have begun preparing for our Torah service on 11/18. Also, so many students have mastered the first tefilah they chose to work on this year! In the last section of Vayishlach, learners reflected on some important ideas and questions: Yaakov got the…

BMitzvah October Update!BMitzvah October Update!

  We are two weeks into our first Rosh Pinah project about all things tefilah (prayer). After our exploration of tefillah gear, we have been learning about the various opinions about when communal prayer began, diving into ancient and rabbinic Jewish history. We talked about what Jewish communal worship looked like during the time of the Temples about the early…

BMitzvah Update!BMitzvah Update!

       We are getting into the swing of things in BMitzvah class! During Sukkot, we were ate snack and had Tefillah in the sukkah, incorporating shaking the lulav and etrog into Tefillah. That was super fun!          In text study each day, our learners are asking rich questions and creating their own commentary. Everyone decorated a binder…

BMitzvah Beginnings!BMitzvah Beginnings!

BMitzvah has been off to a great start this year. I have been delighted to find the learners all know each other quite well across the grades, enjoy talking, being silly, and learning together. We have been spending snack time these first few days out on Sansom Street playing some games to get to know each other more. Our first…

BMitzvah on Vayikra: Judaism and the Environment

Title: “BMitzvah on Vayikra: Judaism and the Environment”   On Monday we jumped into a world of Judaism that in many ways feels foreign to our own- a Judaism based in sacrifice and Temple centered ritual.   Vayikra & Environmental Justice Where do these dynamics interplay in our lives? How did they interact with ancient lives? Each of these types…

New Year, New Start!New Year, New Start!

Our first week together as a class in 2021! The day marked a variety of new beginnings for the cohort: the new year was freshly upon us, winter break had just ended, they were getting a new teacher. In ways we were all looking forward to what lay ahead of us.  “I want each of us to repeat the word…

BMitzvah Wrestles With Racial JusticeBMitzvah Wrestles With Racial Justice

“What is a criminal?” I asked the class. “Someone who’s in prison,” Nathan said. “Who a lot of people agree has done something bad.” “I don’t know if I agree,” Zoey said. “There are a lot of people in prison who haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t think you can just say that because they’re in prison that makes them…

Torah Together, Inside and Out(side)!Torah Together, Inside and Out(side)!

Living much of life online has been a challenging side-effect of the coronavirus pandemic for many of us. This reality made our Family Learning Experience of building an ark with the BMitzvah families so much more sweet! We gathered on Sunday outside Makom Community to study and create together, despite the chilly weather. The BMitzvah cohort shared some of the…

BMitzvah Builds for the Chaggim!BMitzvah Builds for the Chaggim!

“It takes a village!”  This was the refrain the day BMitzvah headed to Makom Community to build our sukkah.  “There’s a catch,” I told them. “There are no instructions.” Nathan and Leo were thrilled! Nathan reminded me that he’s been building from Legos without instructions for years and Leo said that building without instructions is his favorite way to build…

The BMitzvah cohort become Rodfei Tzedek!The BMitzvah cohort become Rodfei Tzedek!

What motivates you to pursue justice? “Anti-anti-semitism,” Zoey says. “I know Jewish people have experienced oppression in the past and that makes me want to fight oppression now.” “My friend who has a different identity than me,” Remi says. “She is amazing and has gone through so much.”   Our BMitzvah cohort are true rodfei tzedek, seekers of justice, and our…

BMitzvah Makes a PilgrimageBMitzvah Makes a Pilgrimage

In the days of the ancient temple in Jerusalem, Jews would travel to the temple for the three pilgrimage holidays, Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. While today, we often think of pilgrimage as being more present in other religious traditions, the act of walking towards a holy place is a part of Jewish tradition. Whether knowing that makes it easier to…

The soul is harder to change:  BMitzvah & the Book of RuthThe soul is harder to change: BMitzvah & the Book of Ruth

After seven weeks of studying the Book of Ruth, our BMitzvah cohort took the reigns on our discussions. Having the BMitzvah students lead text discussion is such a joy. These students deeply embody the middot (values) of “studying in order to teach” and “sharpening the wisdom of one’s teacher.” While working on these student-led discussions, we focused on using the…

Masterful Conversations in Tefilah WorkshopMasterful Conversations in Tefilah Workshop

Tefilah mastery check-ins have long been one of my favorite parts of teaching BMitzvah. Seeing the cohort so proud of the work they’ve put into learning to read and chant a prayer is amazing. Our one-on-one conversations are always rich with meaning and new ways to think about the prayers. This has continued even now that Tefilah Mastery means clicking…

Finding the Divine OnlineFinding the Divine Online

“And then I realized that everything I thought was infinite actually depends on something else. The only thing that’s infinite is dependence.” Ooph. Zahdi’s words definitely rang true for me, especially over our virtual Zoom classroom. Lots of things have changed over the past few months, but some have stayed constant. In February, we went as a cohort to the…

Feedback for all, including GodFeedback for all, including God

“Is God good?”  “What does God want from humanity?” Not the simplest questions to ponder on a Tuesday night, but our BMitzvah cohort and their parents dove in with open hearts. Following the theme of our current Rosh Pinah project, we focused on our questions about God. Our first activity exposed some of our conflicting feelings.  We wrestled with those…

Learning to LeadLearning to Lead

“I never thought a third grader could change my perspective on Jonah…” One of the most powerful things we can learn is that we can learn from anyone! At the end of our study of the Book of Jonah, the BMitzvah cohort shared some of what we learned with the Nitzanim (2nd-4th grade) class. The BMitzvah students designed and taught…

Are you there God? It’s BMitzvah!Are you there God? It’s BMitzvah!

Sometimes we spend too much time thinking about something and not enough time experiencing it. In BMitzvah, we’ve been working on a new Rosh Pinah project about God: creating art pieces that express our personal theologies. We’ve been learning about how Jewish texts show different ideas of God: God as the authority, God as everything, God as all-good and all-powerful, God…

Our American Jewish StoriesOur American Jewish Stories

“Emma Lazarus! The New Colossus!” Drew pointed at the quote on the wall as we rounded the corner to the next gallery.  “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” read the famous quote. Drew told us about the quote’s position on the Statue of Liberty and Lazarus’ history as a writer, as Lazarous was…

Those Who Learn From History…Those Who Learn From History…

We all know that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. But what about those who do learn from history? My experience with our last Rosh Pinah unit on American Jewish History tells me that they are doomed to ask provocative questions.  How can we re-balance the record and put women’s voices to the front? Can I design an…

Cooking Up UnderstandingCooking Up Understanding

“This doesn’t look at all like what it’s supposed to look like!” “It’s too thick.” “It’s too thin.” “I don’t know what the batter is supposed to look like.” “Why don’t you try this?” Nothing is more stressful than things not going to plan in the kitchen. Our BMitzvah Rosh Pinah (cornerstone) projects test the limits of our ability to…