Makom @ Home celebrated Tu Bishvat, the birthday of the trees, with a text from the Talmud about Honi the Circlemaker. When Honi’s town had a big drought, he drew a circle and stood inside it, crying out to God that he would not leave until it rained. Spoiler: it rained! We started by sharing things we like that are…
Tag: leadership
A Two Way Promise
It has been so exciting to watch our Makom South Philly kiddos paint our Brit Mural. A brit is a two-way promise between learners and instructors as well as between the learners and each other. Learners have taken ownership of this project coming up with a list of expectations that are as unique and caring as the kiddos themselves. In…
PJDS Camp Explores Music and Emotion
It was another fun-filled action-packed day of PJDS Camp here at Makom! We considered emotions as they relate to the month of Tevet. Students were eager to share their emotions as we brainstormed when and why certain emotions might come up. We sat around the rainbow rug and thought about a range of emotions. I watched as our youngest and…
Leading by Example
How can our leaders help guide us through challenges resiliently? In the third chapter of Sefer Yonah (the Book of Yonah), Yonah finally goes to Ninveh and warns the people that God will flip their city upside down in 40 days. The whole city, from the king all the way down the animals, dresses in sackcloth, sits down in ashes,…
Chasing After Justice to Discern Between Right and Wrong
Jewish tradition has lots to say about tzedek (justice). How do Jewish texts guide us towards fairness, being good leaders, and working together to make a more just world? Last week, we grappled with some big and difficult ideas surrounding justice and leadership. We started out unpacking “Tzedek tzedek tirdof – Justice, justice you will chase after it, so that…
Interpreting Our Text, Our Choices, and Ourselves
What an exciting week we’ve had at Makom Community! Our oldest learners practiced flexing their muscles as translators and interpreters of text. Our younger learners dug deep into self-image, leadership, and justifiable lying. Let’s see what meaningful insights we discovered along the way! Nitzanim – Interpreting Text for Ourselves Often when we present text to our kiddos, we do a…
Leading into the Unknown
Last week it was time for a journey into the proverbial unknown (cue music). Well, not us so much, but Bnei Yisrael (the Jewish people). They’ve journeyed from slavery in Egypt to the boarder of the land of Canaan. God wants them to have at it and go into their new home, but they’re not quite ready for that. Instead…
On Leadership and Strength in Torah
Garinim Last week the Garinim (PreK and K kiddos) focused in on a character study of Moshe, Bnei Yisrael’s (the Jewish people’s) greatest biblical leader. We looked at snapshots of Moshe’s life and choices to discover both what made him such a good leader, and also what mistakes he made. After growing up in Pharaoh’s palace, empathizing with the plight…
Learning 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…