ב“ה BH. Shvat
28, 5777 / Feb 24, 2017
Candle-Lighting: Community Newsletter of the Maimonides Hebrew Day School of the Capital District 5:21 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208 (518) 453-9363/3434 www.maimonidesschool.org Shabbos Ends: produced by Rabbi Mendel Rubin & students in the TNT (Torah ‘n Technology) Program 6:22 Maimonides is accredited by the NYS Board of Regents & is a beneficiary of UJF-NENY
maimonidesschool@gmail.com
משפטים
This newsletter is dedicated in appreciation of all who have contributed towards the Science Lab project up to this point and in honor of all who will help us get to the next level! STARTING THIS SUNDAY! www.maimonidesschool.org/ScienceLab is a 2-week online funding surge! Please share with friends and family, help get the word out. Each new gift will help the school reach closer UP ONE WAY, DOWN ANOTHER to the goal. And there’s The snow may be melting everywhere but a cute “Purim Points to students sure are happy to have a few giant Ponder” video about the BULL GIVES POLICE A CHASE piles left (as of now) to dig inside of (and shape of a Hamantasch Just in time for Parsha Mishpatim (which has rescue a toy police car from) and sled down, right there on the page: laws of a goring ox or a bull that’s gone wild) a even as the warm bright sun shines down at us. POINTS TO PONDER! bull escaped a slaughterhouse in Queens and ran off down residential streets leading workers & police (in cars and on foot) on something like a wild goose chase. Amazingly, while this bull was on the run, under hot pursuit, it caused almost no damage!
MAZAL TOV ANDRUSIERS Mazal Tov to Rabbi Shimon & Liba Andrusier & family, now living in Florida, on the birth of a baby girl Sara Rivka. Also Mazal Tov on their son (MHDS alumnus) Mendel’s upcoming Bar -Mitzvah at the beginning of March.
THE PHAFFS IN FROM ISRAEL FOR AN ALBANY VISIT Mr. & Mrs. Steve and Gayle Phaff, their daughter Lea and son Josh, Maimonides alumni and involved parents from their years in Albany stopped in for a visit. Josh was one of Morah Devorah’s very first students at Maimonides, Lea was Morah Devorah Leah’s very close friend!
MAIMONIDES 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208
THE LOST BLUE POLICE CAR The blue riding car had been missing for a while, but some boys noticed a wheel sticking out from a melting huge pile of snow. It was still wedged in quite deep, so they worked on chiseling it out for two days, all recess long!
WAYNE JACKSON, SGT AT ARMS
EASIER SNOW DAY ALERTS
Many of our students who have visited the NYS Assembly know the longtime Sergeant At Arms Wayne Jackson, his post (since 1979!) at the end of the center aisle of the chamber. He knows Rabbi Rubin well! The recent edition of Albany City Schools “Capital Education” newspaper featured him as an Albany High School graduate (and Honor Wall inductee) before he served in Vietnam where his legs were very badly injured (until this day!) and he was nearly killed. They didn’t speak of PTSD at that time, never mind offer any help for it, but he worked hard on turning around & improving his life. A friendship with former Assemblyman Jack McEneny (also a good friend of Rabbi Rubin and Maimonides) led to this Assembly position and to his advocacy work on behalf of veterans and their needs.
Maimonides snow days or late delays follows the Albany City School district. Will we have more snowdays? Who knows! Either way, an easy way to be notified is to sign up for text or email alerts (as non-public school families you can choose to only sign-up for snow day alerts) online via: https://snn.neric.org/albany/
ACCELERATING HEAT HS Girls made posters of what they’ve been learning in Halacha class with Morah Dini about various steps that accelerate heat and cooking and therefore not permissible on Shabbos, such as stirring or serving from a pot that’s on the fire, putting a lid back on, and of course putting a pot back onto the source of heat among other cases.
PRE-PURIM LEARNING Judging by the writing on their white-board it looks like these girls are learning about the observances of Purim. 4th grade Mishna class is learning Meseches Megillah now as well. Purim is 2 weeks away now! During these two weeks leading up to Purim Maimonides is running an online surge fundraiser to help meet the matching challenge grant for the Science Lab/STEAM Center. See it online at: www.maimonidesschool.org/ScienceLab Share the humorous Purim video with others!
FEEL BETTER CARDS Morah Devorah Leah’s 2nd and 3rd grade students wrote “feel better” cards to a child struggling with an illness, that they don’t even know! Not all kids, nor all cards, are pictured.
AND A FEEL BETTER PIZZA!
GOOD EYE TOWARDS OTHERS One class learned about how important it is to be more aware of how we judge and evaluate other people. Sometimes we can be much more forgiving of flaws in ourselves or those we love than we are of the same TWO CROWNS AT HAR SINAI or similar flaws in other people. Seeing Kindergarteners are getting extra mileage from how we’d judge ourselves in same situation, is their flower-filled Har-Sinai from last week’s one way to have perspective when it comes to Torah portion because it continues into this judging others. week’s Parsha, which ends with the Jewish people’s declaration of dedication: Naaseh THE ROARING TWENTIES vNishma! We will do, and then we will hear! It 7/8 graders with Mrs. Ramsay are now up to is said that for this double-dedication they the period of the 1920’s in US History. They each got two crowns. are learning about the “Red Scare” and the
Speaking of “feel better” these third graders enjoyed a Siyum Pizza party but felt bad that a student was home sick. So they wrapped up a pizza slice to send home for her! Now, the truth is that she wasn’t up to eating the pizza that day, but the sweet TWO ALUMNI REGARDS thoughtfulness of her classmates was This is quite interesting: Two Maimonides very much appreciated! alumni from many years back (not connected to each other) both told Morah Rochel this MISHNA MARATHON—& PIZZA week (in unrelated conversations) that one of the things that stuck with them the most from As 4th graders near a Siyum with Rabbi their years at Maimonides (both were only Shmuly, they review the last Mishnas while here for a few years) was the positive feelings running in place, to get pumped up and and warm enthusiasm for davening and excited for completing a chapter! This time bentsching. They still sing the same tunes, they finished “HaMafkid” about entrusted they feel their Maimonides education objects or money, with varying responsibility continuing into adulthood especially in the levels for different types of Shomrim. They celebrated with delicious made-at-school pizza! way that they daven!
rise of communism after WWI.
MARVEN OF THE GREAT NORTH WOODS Mrs. Maher’s 4th graders were very eager to report on this story because it features a Jewish boy who has to leave Duluth because of a disease outbreak and is a bookkeeper at a lumberjack camp trying to keep his religion. Jewish themes (like keeping Kosher!) are mentioned in the story.
WANTED: PACKING PEANUTS People are usually eager to get rid of these Styrofoam nuisances that sometimes fill (or overflow) shipping boxes, but Mrs. Kirkely needs them for a science-enrichment project. If you get them inside a box of something you ordered can you please save them and send them into school (in a sealed bag or something). Thanks!
HISTORICAL ARTIFACTS FROM BAUM FAMILY
Anne Baum (longtime teacher at nearby School 19) recently passed away and her family gave Rabbi Yossi some books for the Esty Library that belonged to her husband Martin who passed away in 2010. Two of them (A) are especially interesting. Students loved seeing actual Chinese currency (B) dating back to WWII in a diary he saved from his service time there. The big black book (A) chronicles the “Felshteen” town—see birds-eye view (E)—in Podolia Ukraine where the Baum family is from, its good times and bad, especially a terrible pogrom led by a general on February 18th (right around this time of year) 1919 when 600 Jews of Felshteen were killed. The Rabbi pictured (D) is R’ Mordechai Yosefs, a Baum ancestor, whose beard was cut in anti-Semitic humiliation, and he saved the cut beard inside a book of Prophets (C), open to the page of Habakuk with the verse: “the righteous live by their faith”. We didn’t read the whole book yet, but these snippets alone provide our students with a real palpable sense of LITTLE LIBRARY AT D.O.S. personal history—the history of our people through a unique lens. Rabbi Yossi and the HS Girls brought a “Little Library” shaped like a house and filled with larger-print or illustrated books to Families who wish to share LEGACIES with our school are very welcome: whether in person sharing their stories, using artifacts (we do have Daughters of Sarah this week and limited space for books but are open to seeing UNUSUAL OVER BREAK presented it to the residents. what could be of best use for our school and We asked students to share something unusual community), or making contributions or wills they did/saw over the recent 5-day weekend off. THE “TZRICHUSAH” dedicating lively learning in their memory. Sometimes the Gemorah asks why two cases Maimonides is all about connecting past are needed to teach the same point. That type NOT SO FROZEN LAKE: The sign said with future—in the present! not to walk on the ice, but one boy ignored of learning is called “Tzrichusah” and it shows the warning and walked on it anyways. And the differences between the cases that could he fell right through! BH he is OK, but an impact the ruling—but don’t, which is why we THE SHTENDER IS NOW IN USE important safety lesson was learned. need the law to be stated in both cases. Rabbi Remember the lecturn Rabbi Shmuly built Shmuly was especially proud of his 7/8 grade with students in a woodworking class? It’s now NEW RECIPES: Break is a good time to being used by the boys davening class, who try new things and some of our students Gemorah students when they deduced the made some recipes of things they never Tzrichusa on their own, using their own logic! now have an assigned Chazzan each morning.
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FACTOR TREE IN NAVI CLASS
NEW ANGLE!
5/6 graders are learning factor trees in Math and Morah Rochel used that same method to visually illustrate the families of Elazar & Itamar, and how it comes down to Eli and Pinchas. It all lined up that way!
This belongs in the High-5 section >> but is a cool story all its own. Menachem S. visited NYC. Here’s a riddle. He has a picture of him touching the tippy top of the Empire State Building, without him even going inside. How did he do that?
BONES AND JOINTS
STILL IN TIME FOR SHMOS...
7/8 grade are learning bones and joints. All of our movement depends on our joints! Hinge joints move only back & forth (like an elbow, and the way doors open and close). Gliding joints allow bone to move over each other (like wrists and ankles). Ball & Joint allows for multi-directional movement, like where arms meet shoulders. Often people don’t think at all about their joints until they hurt.
We’ve passed some of the most colorful Torah portions of Shmos but still have construction of Mishkan & Golden Calf ahead… Order your Book of Shmos “TheTorahTimes” now available to order on Amazon (Shmos for $18 or one joint convenient volume of Breishis and Shmos for $24.99) printed and shipped to your door. See the Amazon link at: www.TheTorahTimes.com
tried before. Some turned out great and some did not, but it’s still worth the try!
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MUSEUMS: Two families visited the new Via Aquarium in Rotterdam for the first time, and one family happened to meet Mrs. Hoffman and her family at the Albany Institute on Presidents Day. The best thing there was trying to find ordinary everday objects in 10 very clever large dioramas.
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NEW FRIENDS: Some of our students had opportunity to travel to NYC and other places. Main highlights were to see family and also some got to meet new friends from different places—even different countries!
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MORE GAMES: One student said that he played more basketball during these 5 days off than almost any other time. All that practice helped him and his brother improve their skills. Other students played games like Dungeons and Dragons.
at Maimonides and in the Community 2/24: READ TO SUCCEED Bring in a log of your child reading 6+ hours of pleasure reading for him/her to get a free ticket to Great Escape. Must be in the office by this date. More questions: Speak to Morah Dini.
2/27: MINYAN @MAIMONIDES
8am Minyan at Maimonides on Monday, 2nd day of Rosh Chodesh Adar. 2/24: J-FED SUMMER SCHOLARSHIP Our boys are excited to Applications for significant Federation scholarships read the Torah! for sleep-away camp are due by this date. Forms are available from Federation or at the school office. 2/28: ALEPPO
2/25: SHABBOS MISHPATIM This Shabbos we bless the new month of Adar, and it’s Machar-Chodesh, with Rosh Chodesh Adar beginning on Saturday Night. It’s also the first of the Four Parshiyot, we read Shekalim for Maftir. Purim is now only two weeks away!
2/25: KIDDUSH THIS WEEK The Samsons are sponsoring Kiddush this week at Shomray Torah.
CODEX Rabbi A. Kelman is the guest presenter at this week’s Torah-Tuesday at Shabbos House, 6pm class on “The Mystery of the Aleppo Codex”.
3/3: UALBANY’S SHABBAT 360
Rescheduled date for #ualbanyShabbat360 cosponsored by Hillel, Shabbos House, Lchaim, Aish and other campus orgs, it’s the largest unified 2/25: PIZZA NITE IV, LAST ONE! Shabbat dinner of the year, this year to be held in The clock changes in March, so this Pizza Nite will the CNSE Nanotech Zen Building. This event is be the last Sat Night Pizza Nite at Maimonides for open to students from nearby campuses as well. See the year! 7:30pm start. Come and enjoy! Plus Rabbi online at www.shabboshouse.org for some cute Rubin’s Megillah shiur, see below: reasons for the NanoZEN Shabbos connection, as well as the signup form.
Mad Science Show begin soon after 11am! Bethlehem Chabad 60’s Purim, Fab Buffet, Rad Entertainment, 5pm at 393 Delaware Ave Clifton Park Chabad’s “Tropical Purim” 5pm at 6 Clifton Common Court. 495-0772/9.
Check updated Purim listing in next week’s MC
3/19: ARTSCENTER TRY-IT DAY
During Pizza night, Rabbi Rubin will explain a seemingly bizarre self-aggrandizing statement of Shmuel in Talmud Megillah about Megillat Esther.
3/3-4: NCSY JUNIOR SHABBATON At CBAJ, for Albany Juniors as well as visiting fellow NCSY JRs from West Hartford CT.
The Arts Center of the Capital Region (265 River Street in Troy) is hosting its 2nd annual openhouse day free for everyone to try all kinds of art mediums they have to offer from print-making to silk-screening, pastel and chalk, working with clay— all kinds of workshops from 12pm-3pm. See www.ArtsCenterOnline.org for more info.
2/26-27: ROSH CHODESH ADAR
3/5: J-FED ON TERROR FUNDING
3/24-25: REGIONAL SHABBATON
2/25: WHY DID SHMUEL SAY THAT?
The month of joy begins! Two weeks to Purim! A Joint Society Federation event open to the Two days of Rosh Chodesh: Hallel, Torah Reading, community features Avi Jorisch, President of Red Yaale v’Yavo and Musaf. Cell IG, an expert on terrorism and illicit finance. $30pp, $20pp (ages 22-40), $40pp after Friday 3/5. 7pm at Agudat Achim in Schenectady. Register 2/26: MAZAL TOV, MEET THE online at www.JewishFedNY.org. CHASSAN THIS SUNDAY AT S.H.
Chabad on Campus Regional Shabbaton to be hosted at Shabbos House: JewishWeekend.org
DON’T FORGET THIS WEEK TO PARTICIPATE AND SHARE:
www.maimonidesschool.org/ScienceLab
Mushky’s Chassan, Moishe Denburg of FL will be in Albany for a communal meet and greet 1-3pm at 3/9: SAAJCC PRE-PURIM CARNIVAL 5:30-8pm at 340 Whitehall Rd in Albany. $5 per Shabbos House, (note new time to accommodate the rescheduled Kids Challah Bake). All welcome! child covers bounce houses, photo-booth, musicman show, SEANO circus workshop…
2/26: MEGA KIDS CHALLAH BAKE Rescheduled because of the snow: Several orgs are making this exciting hands-on Kids Mega Challah Bake experience for kids ages 5-13. Sunday, February 12th, 2:30-4:30 at the Albany JCC. Children should be accompanied by an adult. No Charge. Please RSVP by Tuesday, February 7. RSVP: www.CapitalKidsChallahBake.com Chanie@CapitalChabad.com 439-3310.
THIS SUNDAY!!!
3/11: PURIM NIGHT EVENTS
CBAJ Bounce Party with Megillah at 7:30pm Shomray Torah Megillah Reading: Saratoga Chabad’s “Purim in the Deli” 7pm “Purimtini” for 20’s & 30’s at Bethlehem Chabad with UHChabad. Open Bar, Improv..
3/12: PURIM DAY EVENTS
Shomray Torah Morning Megillah: Maimonides Megillah: 10am, Purim Prunch and
MAIMONIDES SCHOOL & COMMUNITY (Nursery / Elementary / High School) 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208 (518) 453-9363/3434 maimonidesschool@gmail.com Founded in 1980, Maimonides is chartered by the NYS Board of Regents and is a JF-NENY Beneficiary “A Beautiful Blend: Torah & Worldly Experience!”
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