“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…
Category: Learning this Week
Giving, Getting, and Responding to Bad Advice
Have you ever given advice that you knew was bad? Have you ever accepted and followed advice that you knew was bad? Why do we do that? Let’s take a look at the last part of the Daniel story we unpacked and see what we learned. The Babylonians are out and the Persians are in. With them comes a new…
I Believe in a Thing Called Love
Things really go south in the Jewish kingdom after Shlomo. People don’t like the next king, so the kingdom splits in two. And then, generations later, King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians come and take over. Many of the Jewish elite are exiled to Babylon, including these four young men: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Let’s see what their experiences and…
South Philly FAQ
Makom Community is growing! We’re opening a second location in the fall of 2020 in South Philly. Here are the answers to some of your frequently asked questions. Are we missing info that you’re looking for? Let us know! Q: Where will Makom Community’s second location in South Philadelphia be? A: 1733 E Passyunk Ave. We will be sharing…
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…
Cut the Baby in Half: Conflict Resolution with King Shlomo
Shlomo is known for being one of the wisest people ever! People came from all over the world to listen to his just decisions and to help them solve their conflicts and difficulties. Last week we unpacked Shlomo’s wisdom about a particularly famous case and extrapolated some great ideas about conflict resolution in general. Take a look at the following…
Leading Wisely: Lessons from Shlomo and our Learners
King Shlomo was well known for a few things: he built the Temple, he was super wise, and he wrote a lot of songs and poems. Last week we took a deep dive into the wisdom Shlomo exhibited in his leadership style in order to get the Temple built. Here are some of the discoveries we made, and some of…
Honoring Those Who Matter (Spoiler: It’s Everyone)
Who remembers what commentary is? We do! It’s when someone asks a question about a text or a story and then creates an answer to it. We learned a lot of commentaries about Migdal Bavel (the Tower of Babel), and last week we were at it again. We unpacked three commentaries about David. They all deal with noticing and appreciating the things…
David Commentaries Walk and Talk
Do you remember what a midrash is? It’s a commentary, a story made up to answer a question about a text. Midrash isn’t just for Torah text! This week we’re learning a few commentaries about David. Check out what we’re exploring below! Two of the midrashim we’re looking at this week explain to us that David couldn’t understand why God…
Choosing Family with Unconditional Love
Our story this week zooms in on the unique relationship between Shaul’s son Yehonatan and David. They meet after David defeats Goliath, and the text tells us that Yehonatan’s soul becomes bound up with David’s soul. Yehonatan loves David like himself. The two of them make a brit (two-way promise) together. Yehonatan gifts his cloak, sword, belt, and bow to…
BMitzvah and the Mystery of God
Have you ever watched a ship be tossed in the waves of the ocean? Take a second to watch a video of this terrifying sight. Then tell me, would you curl up in the ship and fall asleep? The prophet Jonah does a lot of things that our class has struggled to understand. Why would a prophet run from God?…
Dear David: 3000 Year-Old Relationship Advice
Our story this week is a tumultuous one. Shaul is convinced that David is trying to steal the throne from him, so he sets out with 3000 men to hunt David down. Shaul coincidentally wanders into the cave where David is hiding, and David has an opportunity to kill him. Instead, he cuts off the corner of Shaul’s cloak. David…
Our Case for Hebrew Literacy
Why do we bother learning Hebrew here at Makom Community? Why is it important? How does Hebrew help us access the Jewish text and tradition that forms the foundation of our learning? One answer, provided to me by one of the Garinim (preK and K kiddos), is that it’s about Tefilah: Prayer, Music, and Movement. We sing a lot of…
Rely on Your Instincts: Next Level Community Building
“Here at Makom Community, we talk a lot about how to manage conflict. And I know if I need to step away and take time out, my friends will understand.” It’s amazing to see a group of preteens form as tight of a community as our BMitzvah cohort has. When I met them at the beginning of the year, I…
Putting People First: The Makom Community Brit
Way back in September, our learners started exploring the text of Migdal Bavel (the Tower of Babel). Over the course of the last three months we really dug into that text and pulled it apart. We looked to the people in the story for examples of some great ways to treat each other and some not-so-great ways to treat each…
Cooking 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…
Bein Adam LeChavero: Loving the Godliness in Everyone
Some actions affect our relationship with God. In Hebrew we call those bein adam lamakom (“between a person and God”*). Some actions affect our relationships with other people. Those are called bein adam lechavero (“between a person and their friend”). We looked at some of the actions we do at Makom Community and thought about whether they affect our relationships…
Peace, Love, and Makom Community
There’s a midrash (commentary) that the people who built the Tower of Babel weren’t punished as harshly as the people who lived during the Flood. Those people were destroyed entirely – totally wiped out. The people who built the tower, though, they stayed alive, but had to spread out and speak lots of languages. Why were the consequences for their…
People First: What do we value?
What’s more valuable: a person or a brick? The answer, according to this week’s text, might surprise you. Do we value people? What actions and choices can we make to show it? This week we explored a midrash (rabbinic exploration of a textual question) that tried to answer the question: what was so bad about the people building the Tower…
Learning to Become: The BMitzvah Cohort play Ushpizin
Sukkot at Makom Community this year spurred discussion about welcoming: How do we welcome guests and why? What does it feel like to welcome or be welcomed? Our BMitzvah students delved deeper into the history of the welcoming ushpizin by becoming ushpizin ourselves! Our initial research about the ushpizin brought up some challenging questions and feelings. Why, traditionally, do we…
Welcoming and Resilience: A Sukkot Story
This Sukkot has been an adventure! We were so excited to spend our afternoons in the fabulous Center City Kehilah community sukkah in Julian Abele park. And then Wednesday it rained. No worries, though; we regrouped and changed the plan. We met up at Makom Community and spent the afternoon practicing our welcoming skills for future days in the sukkah….
Treating Mistakes with Love
According to a midrash (story that elaborates), the incident of the Tower of Babel led angels to argue with God about the worthwhileness of people. Because of the “ruinous” actions of the people in the story, the angels said to God, “Didn’t the first set of angels speak appropriately before you, that human beings are not worthy of having been…
What does becoming a BMitzvah mean to you?
What does becoming a BMitzvah mean to us? How do we innovate on rituals that have existed for hundreds or thousands of years? What do we keep and what do we change? Our BMitzvah cohort has been tackling some hard questions in our first month of classes and having a lot of fun as well! Every day in BMitzvah, we…
Jumping to Conclusions and Choosing Compassion
What happens when we jump to conclusions and judge a situation before we get all the details? The text of Migdal Bavel (the Tower of Babel) says that God came down to see the tower that the people were building (Genesis 11:5). Rashi wonders why. Didn’t God already know what was going on without coming down to look? Rashi suggests…
Walk and Talk: A New Year Blessing
Tekiiiiyaaaaa! Do you hear the sound of the shofar? We’ve already been hearing it for a week at Makom Community. Rosh Hashanah is coming up this Monday and Tuesday, and we’ve got some special plans at Makom Community to celebrate. We’ll be enjoying some extra sweet apples-and-honey themed snacks as well as some extra sweet projects and activities. In the…
On God and Misunderstandings
What do we know about God? How does the description of God in the story of Migdal Bavel (the Tower of Babel) add to or challenge our pre-existing understanding? Why does God make people unable to understand each other in this story? How did they respond to their misunderstandings? How do we respond to ours? Read on to find out…
Walk and Talk: Advice and Misunderstandings
Construction has begun in the valley of Shinar where the people have gathered. God notices the tower and the city that the people are building and doesn’t seem to like them. God says, “Let’s go look at what they’re doing.” And then, “Let’s mixup their speech so they can no longer understand each other”– lo yishm’u ish s’fat re’ehu (Genesis…
Diversity of Culture in a Unified Voice
What are the benefits of different languages? What are the challenges? What’s good and helpful about people all speaking the same language? These were some of our lines of inquiry as we dove into the first verse of the Migdal Bavel (Tower of Babel) story. The story opens by asserting that “The whole earth had one language and one set…
The Ups and Downs of Working Together
Team work! It’s a great thing, right? Sometimes. Sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes it goes wrong. The people in the story of Migdal Bavel (the Tower of Babel) get together and decide to build a city with a tower that reaches all the way up to the sky. God comes down to take a look at the tower and is not…
Is It Summer Yet?!
Is it summer yet?! How many days left of school? Are you counting today or not? How many minutes is that? Sound familiar? In your family, are these insistent questions followed by a challenging transition to summer? The whole structure of our kids’ lives changes, and there can be real pain with that shift in reality. Beginning a new school…