A Message from Rabbi Yamin Levy. LIHA Rabbi

A Message from Rabbi Yamin Levy LIHA Rabbi

Shalom My Dear Parents, Students, Friends and Supporters, Happy Hanukah!

Once lit, unlike the candles of Shabbath, the candles of Hanukah cannot be used for any practical purpose. The Halakha states they cannot be used for warmth or for light – their purpose is simply to celebrate a great miracle that took place many years ago. In fact, we recite in the prayer of Hanukah:

“These candles are sacred, and we are not permitted to put them to any use… “ How impractical and yet how meaningful. The truth of the matter is that the Jews who rebelled against the Greek empire and their decrees were not very practical people. In fact, they risked everything for their faith. They even had to resist other Jews who argued “why make waves – the Greeks are educated people, let us be like them”.

Thankfully, there were enough impractical people who joined Matityahu and his sons in the belief that security purchased at the cost of conscience is too costly.

If we are still here, 2100 years later celebrating Hanukah it is because there have been countless Jewish mothers and fathers, most of them humble, and nameless who at great peril and in the most forbidding circumstances kindled the

lights of Hanukah looked at them and knew who they were and who their children were expected to be.

This lesson runs deep in our spiritual make-up. Our sages teach us to worship Hashem for no practical reason other than our love of God. How impractical and yet how powerful. Our

performance of Mitzvoth should be motivated solely by our love of G-d and not by any hope that we will be repaid by any material reward. The reward of a Mitzvah, teach our sages, is the Mitzvah itself!

Come to think of it everything we do seems so impractical. Giving charity, Tzedaka is quite impractical. Why should anyone part with his or her money that was earned through hard work? Giving of one’s time to the community is also quite impractical. I’m sure there are many more things people can be doing with their time. Yet who can deny that it is precisely these impractical and heroic acts which humanize our lives and affords us meaning and purpose?

After we light the Hanukah this year take a close look at the flame and reflect just how meaningful this impractical act actually is.

Dalia Shabatian Volume 24 Principal Issue 8

December 11, 2020

LIHA Rabbi

Please visit our website www.lihagn.org for the FULL newsletter in color!

Parashat Vayeshev

Shabbat Candle Lighting time is at 4:13 p.m. Havdalah time is at 5:18

p.m.

THE VOICE OF OUR CHILDREN A WEEKLY PUBLICATION

December 14

No School - Chanukah

We Thank

For their

Continued Support

During these Trying

Take a Look at LIHA

Shula Ograd for

Jordana’s

Pre K

Oh Hanukkah oh Hanukkah we just can’t wait to celebrate!!!! We learned so much about the holiday of light. We learned the story of the Maccabee, the fight of the many against the few. We learned of the miracle of the oil too. We made so many beautiful Chanukah projects to share with our family on Hanukkah. We made our very own

Chanukiah we can’t wait to light them with our father using the candles we are bringing home.

We loved learning the game of the dreidel and had so much fun

making our very own decorated dreidel. We experimented with olives making oil and showing how many olives we need to actually have enough oil to light our Chanukiah every night. What a miracle that a small amount of oil found was enough for eight nights and day.

We can’t wait for our Chanukah party via zoom on Tuesday where we will sing and dance and show our family all that we have learned.

Kindergarten English

This week we read a modern version of Jack and the Beanstalk after reading the original story. The K class discussed the differences between make-believe plants and real plants. We worked on this concept in our science curriculum as well. The children reviewed

adjectives and learned what the plot of a story is. Of course we always work on vocabulary and comprehension of our main story each week. We reviewed letter s and learned

lowercase k. In math, we began working on the number 10. For STEM/STEAM the class learned about the job of a park ranger and made pretend/real animals out of pipe cleaners and pom poms. Have a wonderful Chanukah and remember to please be safe for our school. So Shabbat Shalom, Chag Sameach and have a great long weekend. Remember there is no school on Monday in celebration of Chanukah.

Kindergarten Hebrew

We have had a very busy week, painting our Chanukiah’s! The children are really having fun; learning songs, hearing the story about Chanukah and coloring book about Chanukah too!

This we learned a new letter “ח Chet” and the words were; Chalav (milk = בלח), Challah (הלח) and Cham (hot = םח). In addition, Parashat “Vayeshev "בשיו” was very interesting. We learned about Yaakov’s favorite son, Yosef, and what happened to him!

1

Grade English

Happy Hanukkah! The children had a busy week of learning. They are learning subtraction strategies in math. They learned that addition is related to subtraction. Please continue to practice basic addition and subtraction facts with your child. The children listened to the story “A Hamster for Ana” and we discussed the importance of being responsible when caring for a pet. They also read the short story “Healthy Cats and Dogs”, and we discussed how we can keep our pets healthy. The children wrote about their favorite thing in December and why. In STEM the children will learn what a paleontologist does. They did a great job sharing their book reports with their classmates!

1st Grade Hebrew

First grade is excited for Chanukah! We learned about the war between the yeladim and macabim and we spoke about the great miracles that g-d did for the Jews. The children read the story of Chanukah and had a vocabulary test on the Chanukah unit words. We also learned to say the blessing on the candles.

Happy Chanukah and Shabbat shalom!

2

Grade A English

Chag Sameach!! Happy Chanukah!

The second grade finished their chapter two math book this week. We also had a test on Thursday. The students really worked on their reading and writing skills this week. We used sequencing to help form a paragraph. The students love participating and sharing their ideas. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your day off!

Chag Sameach and Shabbat shalom!

2

A Grade Hebrew

Chag Sameach! Second grade enjoyed learning all about Chanukah. Please ask your child to use their Chanukah booklet while lighting the Chanukiah.

The kids are fascinated by the story of Parashat Hashavuah please sign the parasha after your child shares it with the family. In honor of the holiday we are not going to have homework or spelling test next week BH.

2

Grade B English

Chag Sameach!! Happy Chanukah!

The second grade finished their chapter two math book this week. We also had a test on Thursday. The students really worked on their reading and writing skills this week. We used sequencing to help form a paragraph. The students love participating and sharing their ideas. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your day off!

Chag Sameach and Shabbat shalom!

2

B Grade Hebrew

Class 2B is very excited to learn about the upcoming holiday of Chanukah. We had an amazing time painting our chanukiot, learning the brachot, songs and the laws of candle lighting. We are continued with our kriah and ketiva and ivrit unit and there is a lot to be proud of! Wishing you all a beautiful Shabbat Chanukah!

3

Grade English

This week we worked a lot on multiplication. We have been having quizzes and have been doing really well. We have been using our index cards to make our own set of review cards. We took a quiz on landforms this week and are working hard trying to remember all the different kinds. We learned about our new book report. We all got a biography! We are excited to put items related to the book into a box and explain it on note cards.

3

Grade Hebrew

It was so nice to “see" you on zoom and finally to put a face to your name and voice! The children worked very hard to learn and get ready for Chanukah. They learned all the brachot (blessings) for lighting Chanukah candles and also what they mean. I printed the blessings, they decorated them and we laminated them this way they can have it and use them every year. They worked on a packet and learned all about this miraculous and wonderful Holiday. Rabbi Levy visited our class and quizzed them on what they learned and they did amazing and all of them won “Torah tickets “.

Wishing you all a wonderful Holiday and may all the light of Chanukah manifest in your lives! Shabbat shalom and Shag Samech

4

Grade English

This was a fun week in fourth grade. We have been working really hard in math using partial products to multiply two digit numbers. We have a test next week. We have been working on states in the United States in social studies. We even get our own state to research. In science, we are finishing our unit on plants and animals and will be having a test within the next two weeks.

4

Grade Hebrew

4th grade learned this week about the halachot of Hanukkah. We read in class about the story of Hanukkah in Hebrew, each child got a turn to read. We spoke about the Symbols of Hanukkah and Children described what they like about the holiday. We also read few stories that related to the holiday and answer some questions.

Children learned the blessing of the candles. Children decorated a beautiful decoration for Hanukkah and took it home.

Happy Hanukkah to all!

5

Grade English

What a busy week it has been in Fifth grade! We took our math chapter 2 division test and are ready to start our next chapter on decimals. In Science, we are finishing our unit on how scientists work and the tools they use for experiments. It has been exciting to learn new things as we each presented our “How to” paragraphs. Some of the highlights of this included, “How to play Chess, skateboard and make a vanilla milkshake”! For Stem, we had to make a ball out of paper and tape. It was harder to do this than we expected but we had fun trying!

5

Grade Hebrew

Chag Sameach!

Fifth-grade enjoyed learning about the custom and lows of Chanukah. In honor of Chanukah there won’t be

homework or tests next week BH. Happy Chanukah and Shabbat Shalom