BH. Elul
27, 5776 / September 30, 2016 ב”ה
Community Newsletter of the Maimonides Hebrew Day School of the Capital District Candle-Lighting: 6:20 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208 (518) 453-9363/3434 www.maimonidesschool.org Shabbos Ends: produced by Rabbi Mendel & students in the TNT (Torah ‘n Technology) Program 7:18 Maimonides is accredited by the NYS Board of Regents & is a beneficiary of UJF-NENY
maimonidesschool@gmail.com
נצבים
This newsletter is sponsored in honor of the retirement of UPDATE 5777 SOON AVAILABLE An important new update is soon available for a limited time, this Rosh Hashanah. Look for version 5777 available for download. Rabbi Mendel used “software updates” as a parable for Chassidus’ new spiritual light that comes down to the world each Rosh Hashanah that has never been revealed ever before. This also explains the lengthy Rosh Hashanah Machzor because downloads and installs can take time especially if it has to be tailored for specific devices (us as individuals) and the trepidation and uncertainty of upgrade changes reflects some of the feelings we have during these Days of Awe. But it’s important to upgrade because the old version won’t be supported and the new update has features and fixes that will help us deal with challenges and make most of MEZUZAH ON THE MARCH 7/8 grade students in the “Better Together” the opportunities in the year ahead. program with Rabbi Yossi visited residents at Ohav Shalom apartments, sharing what they learned in their “Better-Together” classes about Mezuzah. See their giant rolled up Mezuzah scroll? That’s actually their Mezuzah-themed poster with Mezuzah knowledge they prepared. They opened it up (like a scroll!) and shared its messages with the seniors and residents–along PERES: LAST OF THE FIRST with some delicious honeycake. Top: They Shimon Peres passed away this week and his were so happy to see Mira, who used to assist burial today in Israel was being attended by with art classes at Maimonides. Above: Myrna leaders from around the world. Dubbed was excited to affix a new Mezuzah on her Israel’s “Forrest Gump” for he was Israel’s bedroom door. See more pictures inside >> longest serving politician, deeply involved at every stage of modern Israel’s growth, from pre MAIMONIDES -1948 until today, as he was still active at age 404 Partridge Street 93. He was both hawk & dove, even poetic, he Albany NY 12208 served as President, Prime Minister & Defense Minister. Despite being secular prominent figure in the Israeli left, he had an appreciation and respect for religious life. He asked that Avinu Malkeinu be sung at his funeral, in tribute to his grandfather Rabbi Meltzer, who was killed in the Holocaust. Regardless of his politics (or yours) his whole life was bound up with Israel and he served for more than a halfcentury with dignity, dedication & distinction.
Maxine Morgenbesser from State Education Dept A long-time Maimonides parent, supporter, board-member and President Wishing her much Nachas! BETHLEHEM CHABAD’S NEW HOME Bethlehem Chabad officially purchased 393 Delaware Ave, the distinguished and historic Adams House as the new Bethlehem Chabad House. Community members have already been at work at the first opportunity this week to help ready it for use this Rosh Hashanah!
WATCHING PERES FUNERAL Some Hebrew classes watched parts of Shimon Peres’ funeral today in Jerusalem.
CONDOLENCES MRS BALLARD Our condolences to Mrs. Deloria BallardHubble & family on the passing of her mother Sharon. Mrs. Ballard was a beloved teacher in our school dedicated for many years most recently as our science enrichment teacher. Our best wishes to your family at this time.
YAHADUS BOOKS SPONSOR
THIRD FINISHED SECOND
Many thanks to the Gurock family for sponsoring the whole classroom set of the new volume 3 in the Yahadus curriculum series in appreciation of the Block, Kaufmann, Levin, and Reznik families for helping carpool their kids home from school each day.
Third grade finished their second Perek of Chumash (Parsha Lech Lecha) since the start of the year and are having a test and Siyum after Rosh Hashanah.
ORDER OF MISHNA IN SONGS Rabbi A. Kellman taught our 8th grade boys a few funky fun songs to help them learn and memorize all the mesechtot (tracates) in the Six Orders of the Mishna. For example: Zerai’im, the order with agricultural laws is to the tune of “Old McDonald had a Farm”.
COLONIZATION & SMALL CITY HS Girls history is now learning about the process and effects of colonization, on both the colonizer and colonized, how cultures and values are imposed and how it worked out. And just at the same time, they learned Alter Rebbe’s “Small City” analogy for a human being and the fight for control of its institutions, and how they should be run and used.
ROSH HASHANAH FLYERS A GRASSHOPPER AT RECESS Wow, did this little one get attention!!! Kids were excited to discover this grasshopperat frecess time, they crowded around to get a closer look. It doesn’t tie into the Parsha (not the time of year for the plague of locust) but Days of Awe is an appropriate time to recognize the beauty and fragility of (even the smallest forms of) life and appreciate our many blessings.
Morah Mushky assigned her 4th graders a bunch of Rosh Hashanah topics: foods we eat, parts of the prayer, Mitzvah of Shofar, symbols of the holiday… and the students made flyers about those aspects of Rosh Hashanah.
LEWIS AND CLARK… AND ME The “Me” in the story 4th graders are reading is a dog. The story is written from the dog’s perspective, which tells the same story of adventure and exploration but from a different angle.
RE: POMEGRANATE DISHES The pomegranate dishes made at school of
MORE ONLINE VOTE CONTESTS modeling clay weren’t able to be fired at the www.brightfuturepromo.com Frigo Cheese Heads aren’t Kosher but this online contest is another chance at $10k. • www.thescienceofsoil.com/contest is another online contest but you have to answer some soil questions first. Both of these online contests are an online opportunity to win some funds towards our ambitious new science center project. •
kiln after all. So while they can’t be used for food directly (as a honey dish) they could be used as a decorative dish for candies or other holiday treats on display. And even if they were able to be used for food, an astute MC reader told us that they would not need to be toveled (immersion in a Mikvah) since they were made right here at school by us!
RETURN ESTY LIBRARY BOOKS PHASES OF THE MOON Ms. Brennan’s science classes are keeping moon journals and learning about the phases of the moon, eclipses & tides. They explained to Ms. Brennan that the Hebrew dates of the month are easy ways to know what the moon is up to: The new moon is on the first, full moon on the fifteenth. The laws of Rosh Chodesh are based on the lunar cycle.
SWEET & SAVORY TASTES Morah Rivi and the HS girls learned Hebrew words to describe types of tastes from sweet and savory to sharp and bitter. And then this same week they learned about the Tanya’s metaphor for sweet and savory in our Jewish experience.
Friday is Library Day. Students please bring in your books after you enjoy reading them so that other students can enjoy the book you read and you can borrow a different book.
ROSH HASHANAH’S 4 NAMES Do you know the four names of this holiday?
PJ LIBRARY IS BACK Pictured above kids are listening to weekly storytime with Amy Drucker frpm PJ Library and the Jewish Federation.
KINDERGARTEN SNACK The first snack of the day in Kindergarten has to a healthy one. Discuss with your children what fruit or vegetable snack they’d enjoy.
KINDERGARTEN SNACK
In their Yahadus book, 7/8 graders came across a Mitzvah called APPLE ACCESSORIES “VHalachta B’Drochov” (go in G-d’s Morah Devorah Leah’s students decorated JEOPARDY GAMES IN PLAY ways). Then Morah Raizy happened apple bags and little mini transparent apple Ms. Brennan’s class played exciting games of to teach that same verse in Pitgam class (where center-pieces (made of recycled materials) filled jeopardy as a fun and engaging review for their they write poems, draw an illustration or write with treats, as well as holiday greeting cards. science test. They played questions of up to a story etc about that verse/saying) and then it They are excited to bring them home to share 1000 pts, with daily doubles & triples. Morah was also in the Parsha last week. They learned with family on Rosh Hashanah! Mushky’s 3rd & 4th graders also played this it from so many different angles! game to review their Hebrew subjects.
KINDERGARTEN FALL TRIP TO ELLMS FAMILY FARM Mrs. Hoffman took her Kindergarten students on a fun hands-on learning trip to Ellms Family farm. Of course they enjoyed the giant pumpkin jumping pillow and other fun activities but they also got to learn a lot about how things grow and each harvested and brought home their own pumpkin. On right they each illustrated a fond memory or experience from their visit.
MISHNA & GEMORAH SUKKAH
THE FERTILE CRESCENT 5/6 are learning about the Fertile Crescent with Mrs. Ramsay, the cradle of civilization. The class was intrigued to find parallels with names of cities found in Chumash, and how the crescent follows the same route that Avraham took: From Ur to Haran, Hebron to Egypt. And the famous rivers are also in Chumash. They loved the connections!
Several grades at school are learning Mishna or Gemorah Sukkah with Rabbi Shmuly, from the maximum height of a Sukkah to the allowable width of a roof board before it disqualifies the Schach. They turn their text learning into illustrated visual Powerpoints to SHANA TOVA!!! make learning more engaging and memorable. Our best wishes to all our school families, extended school family, MC readership and SELICHOT IN DAVENING CLASS the greater community—a Ksiva VaChasima Each day our boys davening class did the main Tova, Shana Tova UMesukah… a very Happy, poem of that day’s Selichot, especially focusing Healthy and Sweet New Year! on the refrain or chorus. Today’s was a take-off from Megillat Esther.
THE SHOFAR SOUNDS LIKE
we asked several classes, what does Shofar sound like to you?
1
CRYING: A few kids wrote a baby crying. One student shared: “When I was at Rachel’s Tomb in Israel I heard the sounds of a Shofar being blown behind me, but when I turned around I saw that it wasn’t a shofar but a person crying.”
2 3
INSTRUMENT: Quite a few said trumpet or other types of horns, a few said a whistle.
4
MAKE YOU THINK OF: An alarm clock, a wake-up call, Har Sinai, Moshiach coming, the Akeida, Shofar Factory, rams at a farm, a parable of a wandering son of a king who returns home,
5
OTHER SOUNDS: A train’s whistle! The big horn of a truck. One student said that the sound depends on a lot on the type of Shofar and who is blowing it.
HOUSE ON MANGO STREET Mrs. Crawford assigned teams of 5/6 graders to each teach a different story from this book to the rest of the class, including presentation and worksheets, and things like that.
MOON COOKIES Ms. Brennan’s 5/6 graders enjoyed a tasty lesson by scraping off different amounts of white cream off dark sandwich cookies according to the degree of the moon phase.
SHOFAR FACTORY We didn’t get the pictures yet but our classes very much enjoyed Rabbi Shmuly’s Shofar Factory demo. They loved how he took a bent hanger to measure the cavity of the Shofar before sawing off the tip. They learned a lot about Shofars from the different types and sizes of Shofars made that day.
BIRTHDAY CUPCAKES Whose birthday? The birthday of the world!
PLEASE SUPPORT MAIMONIDES Look for a Jewish New Year mailing soon, and additional info about this year’s ambitious fundraising campaign for the new science center. As always contributions can be made anytime online as well using this secure link: www.tinyurl.com/MaimonidesPayPal
ANIMAL: It reminds us of a ram, but sometimes sounds more like the moo of a cow (FYI a cow’s horn isn’t Kosher for Shofar). It sounds like the crow of a rooster and reminds us of the Baal Shem Tov story of a farm boy’s prayer.
at Maimonides and in the Community 10/1: THREE GRANDSON KIDDUSH 10/3: COMMUNAL TASHLICH Sid and Debbie Stark are making a Kiddush at Shomray Torah on this last Shabbos of 5776 in honor of their three grandsons born in 5776.
10/1: WOMENS SHABBOS SHIUR This week given by Chaya Bracha Rubin at the home of Rivka Davis, 26 Glenwood (very close to the school) at 4:45pm.
10/1: FROM BK TO BM—DAF YOMI
5pm gathering at Buckingham Pond, a broad spectrum of community participates from all affiliations. PJ Library is doing a kids/family program there at 4:15pm.
10/5: FAST OF GEDALIA Daytime fast on the day after Rosh Hashanah. Parents please remember that this is a 9:30am school start, children in grades 1+ should daven before coming to school.
The Daf Yomi daily Talmud study group is now 10/9: “WAY WE WERE” CAR SHOW completing tractate Bava Kama (on damages) and beginning Bava Metziah (on disputed monies) both Front Street in downtown Ballston Spa. Old cars. classic tractates often studied in Yeshivot. The Siyum on Baava Kamma will be 6pm at Shomray 10/9: AUTUMN IN AUSTERLITZ Torah on Shabbos afternoon, and later follow-up 20th annual festival. $7pp, 12 and under are free. with a sit-down Kiddush at CBAJ on 10/8. Bava Metziah is classic Talmud, a great time to join!
10/9: RINGLING BROS CIRCUS
10/3: RABBI MENDEL ON TV Rabbi Mendel is scheduled to be on CBS6 TV this Sunday 7:45am and 8:45 for two live quick slots about Rosh Hashanah that night.
10/2: BIG TRUCK DAY 10am-1pm at Guilderland High School, 8 School Road in Guilderland Center. $5 per child, $1 per adult. Check out big trucks and the people who drive them. Dump trucks, emergency vehicles, cement mixers, a news truck and a race car. Plus a bounce house. Not sure of Rosh Hashanah connection but may be fun way to get little kids out of the house for a bit on Erev Rosh Hashanah. Plus, its in the vicinity of a number of apple orchards (under 10 minutes from Indian Ladder Farms or Altamont Orchards) so maybe pick up a fresh peck to eat with honey that night!
10/2: MEN’S MIKVAH TIMES Erev Rosh Hashanah times: 3:30-5pm at Bnos Israel Mikvah. $10pp, $30 max per family. Kids 12 & under are free, under 18 must be accompanied by adult. Please bring your own towel, or $2 fee per towel. Please don’t come too late so the boys can get home on time to prepare for YomTov. Thanks!
10/3: ROSH HASHANAH DINNER CBAJ is hosting a communal Rosh Hashanah meal at the shul by prior reservation.
10/3-4: ROSH HASHANAH Some shuls and all Chabads welcome all to come pray even without High Holidays tickets. The most important thing is to hear Shofar blown (and internalize its message) on both days of RH.
2pm show at the Times Union Center
MORE MEZUZAH MITZVAHS Our 8th grade boys went to Bnai Brith Apts with the school’s “Better Together” Mezuzah project. They helped this lady (above) put a Mezuzah on her door and JJ helped this man (on left) put on Tefillin.
10/11-12: YOM KIPPUR No School both days. See school schedule below.
“KEL-BNAY” TORAH JOURNAL SUBMISSIONS Once again MHDS alumni are preparing for an interesting and varied journal of Torah thoughts, inspiration and discussion. Hebrew and English submissions are both welcome. Please email: lebedik1@gmail.com to submit your piece or if you have any questions.
MEZUZAH BULLETIN BOARD
A NEW PLAYGROUND?
After learning all about Mezuzah with Rabbi Yossi, HS Girls made this bulletin board at the old school entrance illustrating many of the interesting things they learned.
The City is looking to put a new playground in on Woodlawn… stay tuned!
DISMISSAL PROCEDURES
MAIMONIDES TISHREI HOLIDAY SCHEDULE 10/3-4: Rosh Hashanah, No School 10/5: Fast of Gedalia, 9:30am start* 10/11: Erev Yom-Kippur, No School 10/12: Yom Kippur, No School 10/13: Day after Yom Kippur, 9:30am start* 10/17-25: Sukkot (including Chol HaMoed) through Simchat Torah, No School 10/26: Post- Simchat Torah, 9:30am start*
* on days with a 9:30am start, grades 1+ please daven before school
In an effort to keep our students safe and focused during the school day, we ask that all parents abide by the dismissal rules. If you need to pick up your child(ren) during the school day, you must go to the office and sign them out. Please do not go directly to classrooms to collect your child(ren). Additionally, teachers will dismiss students in an orderly fashion at the end of the school day. Please do not enter the building during end-of-theday dismissal. Thank you!
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!”