BH
Sivan 3, 5772 / May 24, 2012
Community Newsletter of the Maimonides Hebrew Day School of the Capital District 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208 (518) 453-9363/3434 www.maimonidesschool.org
produced by Rabbi Mendel & students in the TNT (Torah ‘n Technology) Program Maimonides is accredited by the NYS Board of Regents & is a beneficiary of UJF-NENY
maimonidesschool@gmail.com
PREPARING FOR SHAVUOT
EDIBLE SINAI
Shavuot begins this Sat Night through Monday night. Many of our classes have been studying, preparing, doing crafts and hands-on learning in preparation for the holiday. See below for some of the class activities.
Torah is meant to be internalized and it is indeed tasty! That’s why Nursery kids mixed up a delicious chocolate batter (see eager mixer on right) to make Har-Sinai cupcakes which they’ll decorate, just as the Mt. Sinai was beautiful for the Torah!
Candle-Lighting: 8:03 (Friday) Yom-Tov Ends: 9:15 (Monday)
This newsletter is dedicated in loving memory of
Yetta Leifer
a founding member & dear friend of the Maimonides School, and an avid volunteer for Chabad’s Hospital Visitation Program After her passing, the Leifer Family Fund continued her support of Maimonides for another decade.
SCRIBAL ARTS IN NURSERY
Yartzeit on 2nd day of Shavuos
Nursery students tried their hand using a feather quill and bold black ink as they learned about how a Sofer (scribe) writes each of the thousands of letters in a Torah scroll.
FIRST FRUITS Shavuot is also the holiday when Jewish farmers (in Israel) brought their first fruits (Bikurim) to the Jerusalem Temple. Kindergartners made fake colorful fruits of clay, inside a basket, as was the tradition. The Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe considered the study of youth to be a form of “first-fruits” which is considered holy!
ANOTHER EDIBLE TREAT... 4th graders went into “Nathan’s Kitchen” to bake up a delicious batch of cream-cheese & butter rugelach! The tradition to eat dairy foods on Shavuos has a whole bunch of reasons behind it: (a) Torah is likened to milk & honey (think sweet cheesecake). (b) Another name for Sinai is Har Gavnunim (similar to Gevinah - Hebrew for cheese). (c) Chalav (Milk) equals 40 in Gematria, like the days Moshe spent up on the mountain. (d) Pharaoh’s daughter sought a Jewish nurse (actually Moshe’s mother) because baby
MAIMONIDES 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208
FLOWERS FOR SHAVUOS Kindergarten designed their own recycled bottle vases and tissue paper flowers to bring home for the holiday. It is customary to decorate homes and shuls with flowers this holiday. Nathan Rosenstein, a”h, would deck out the Torahs at Shteeble with plastic flowers.
Moshe would not nurse non-Jewish milk. (e) Sinai was like the birth of the Jewish people and newborns drink (their mother’s) milk. (f) At Sinai the Jews got the laws of Kosher, shechting and salting meat. They were not properly prepared for that right away, so they just enjoyed a dairy meal. (g) The initials of 3 words in Bamdibar 28:26 about the Korban of Shavuos spell Chalav. (h) Some eat foods in triangular shapes to recall the Gemorah (now studied by our 6/7 graders) about #3 having a special connection to the Giving of the Torah. (i) The “Two Loaves” of Shavuot correspond to two meals, one meat and one dairy. (j) FYI: Some have a custom to first eat dairy, then wait, and follow-up with a meat-meal. (k) Why not? It’s good to have a Yom-Tov with a different culinary twist!