Maimonides Community

PRUMP PRESIDENTIAL PURIMARY PARTY TUESDAY

BH.

Adar I 10, 5776 / Feb 19, 2016

Candle-Lighting: Community Newsletter of the Maimonides Hebrew Day School of the Capital District 5:14 404 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 Maimonides is accredited by the NYS Board of Regents & is a beneficiary of UJF-NENY

maimonidesschool@gmail.com

6:15

MAZAL TOV HORANS

‫תצוה‬

This newsletter is dedicated in honor of

Rabbi Gavriel & Rachel Horan had a baby boy earlier this week on Zayin (7th) Adar, Moshe Rabbeynu’s birthday & IYH a Purim-Katan Bris! Mazal Tov to Horan siblings @ MHDS.

Sid and Debbie Stark in appreciation for their friendship and assistance and for being such fine & decent people.

MAZAL TOV SHACHAR Some in the community remember Shachar Luz of Chicago from his few years here, or from subsequent visits or music playing here.

Mazal Tov on his marriage this past Sunday to Ilana Azaran (also of Chicago!) may they build a beautiful Jewish home and enjoy much happiness together always.

by a woman from Saratoga FAREWELL “MC” LAPTOP

The trusty laptop upon which Rabbi Mendel edited the MC each week for the past 6 years PASTA FROM SCRATCH has finally breathed its last digital breath MAZAL TOV SIMMY ADELMAN HS Girls enjoyed making (and eating) pasta yesterday. Good news: All the pictures & past Rick and Marian Adelman lived in Albany made from scratch in Nathan’s Kitchen with before moving to Florida, and their son Simmy Rabbi Avraham Kelman. Why make pasta? It’s newsletters are backed up and saved. And the “MC” newsletter template was saved, too, so is now engaged. Mazal Tov, Mazal Tov! his take on the verse Soles Belulah BaShemen this week’s newsletter is ready in time! (fine flour mixed with oil). He showed them the difference between semolina and flour, KOHAIN and the different words for flour in the verse.

CLOTHING

Nursery students are putting together this decorated felt Kohain with all kinds of materials as they learn this week’s Parsha of Tetzaveh.

MAZAL TOV KOLODNYS GLOBAL SIYUM NANO TALMUD See page 4. This Sunday at Shabbos House. If you’d like to come, please signup at this link: shabboshouse.org/GlobalHakhelNanoTalmud so there’s a good idea of attendee numbers to be best prepared for the luncheon.

BETTER-TOGETHER PROJECTS Two “Better-Together” projects are coming up soon. Please take the time to work on it.  Middle & High Schoolers can participate in the national Better-Together essay contest, due by March 10th. 2-4 pages about interactions or inspiration with seniors.  All age students, parents and community can (please do!) submit a recipe from a senior (think grandparents or older neighbors etc) along with short background or story for our Better-Together cookbook.

Thanks for taking the time to do this.

WHAT ARE THEY HOLDING? What’s the Parsha connection? Can you tell what these Kindergarten students are holding?

Hint: they still had to fill the cupcake holders on left with assorted colorful jellybeans…

MAIMONIDES 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208

MHDS alumna Chani (Stempel) & Binyamin Kolodny had a baby girl. Mazal Tov to the Stempel grandparents and aunts & uncles.

AND BABY MADDALI’S NAME IS: Rochel Tziporah Ahava. Mazal Tov!

CLASSIFICATION

“EARTH IS NEVER STILL...

It’s very important to be very organized in all areas of study but especially in science.

That’s why 4/5 graders are learning the system to classify all living things. They were trying to think of an easy way to remember the long list on left (on the board in their classroom) from Kingdom down to Species. Here’s one saying they came up with: King (Kingdom) Pharaoh (Phylum) Came (Class) Over (Order) For (Family) Green (Genus) Snakes (Species).

Everyday somewhere, it trembles and quivers.”

That’s the opening line of David Harrison’s story on volcanoes which is what Mrs. Maher’s 3rd graders are reading now. A TNT student must have liked that line a lot, because that student made sure to type it in exactly right.

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

TWO SIDES OF A WOLF PURIM BY NUMBER Purim is over a month away, but we’re already in the Hebrew month of Adar I, so Purim spirit is very much on our mind. This bulletin board near the school entrance is full of 2nd grades Hebrew teen-numbers, from 13 masks, to 12 Megillot, 17 graggers and 18 happy faces.

In honor of Presidents Week, Mrs. Dubarry’s 4th & 5th graders are learning President Lincoln’s most famous speech. They are working on a project to write it out in cursive or manuscript form and make the paper look old and historic. Stay tuned for pics next week.

3rd graders did these in Mrs. Levin’s art class.

One side is a black and white photograph of a wolf, the other side was blank, they did their own shading in pencil to match. The kids did a very nice job at it! The cool thing is how from

a distance, your eyes (or the eye of your mind) compensates, and even where the shading isn’t as complete or doesn’t match as well, we still seem to see a complete wolf face.

PURIM STORY NAMES & TITLES

GRILL RABBI MATHLESS 5th grade Chumash class enjoyed a hotdog siyum with Rabbi Mathless, and the rule was that the siyum party would extend as long as the students came up with good questions on Chumash Breishis to stump Rabbi Mathless.

They were well prepared for this and had some really good broad-ranging questions!

FIRST BOOK REPORTS Ms. Ford’s first graders are learning to do (the first stages of) their own book reports. Each student picked a different book for their report. They looked up and wrote down the title and author and filled in other information about their book on a form. Essay questions aren’t too far down the road now!

In their Aggadah class, 8th graders learned a segment ofTalmud Megillah which discusses whether Esther’s name was really Haddasah or Esther, the meaning and symbolism of both names; a discussion of why Mordechai seems to be titled as both a man from the tribes Benjamin as well as a man from the tribe of Judah, and why this remains important for us today. The big psychological question is whether Achashvairosh was a fool or a clever king. The class discussed how this Talmudic argument explains how a movie can at times bring out a very different point than the book, even while telling the same story.

ORDER OF OPERATIONS Mrs. Maher’s 3rd graders are now learning PEMDAS (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally) considered the Order of Operations in math.

Aunt Sally has nothing to do with it, but that’s an easier way to remember PEMDAS order.

MEGILLAH & KERIAH METER Morah Dini assigned each of her 3rd grade students to read a page of Megillah at home, time their speed and number of mistakes, so they can get better at reading, plus the amount MULTIPLE SENTENCES of lines they read get added to the rising Morah Devorah’s 2nd graders are now writing thermometer of the Keriah Meter in their classroom. Keep reading! A little each night… multiple sentences in Hebrew. Great work!

A SYMPHONY OF WHALE FACTS Mrs. Maher’s 3rd graders now have a whole bunch of “Whale Facts” booklets posted, very appropriate because this whole whale project was based on a story they read “A Symphony of Whales”. They certainly learned a lot about whales, the world’s biggest mammals.

ISH SHELEG

NURSERY

That’s Hebrew ME’EELS for snowman.

They painted these Although rain shirt/tunics like the and recent Kohain Gadol’s warmer weather Me’eel and the washed away all holes in the bottom the snowmen have little bells and our students mini pom-pom built on the pomegranates front lawn, this attached. There are snowman inside lessons that older Kitah Alef is still students learned up, and the Hebrew words they learned with it from the fact that will remain in their minds for a lifetime. This the Kohain Gadol snowman has a Kovah = hat, Ayin = eyes, Af = had “noisy” nose, Anaf = branch, Mitataya = broom, Kaftor clothing and one of = button, Kadur = ball, Ptit-Sheleg = snowflake. our classes also once learned a Rashi vs.

Ramban argument whether the bells were muffled “within” inside the pomegranates or CHINA MAP QUIZ After a unit on India, 6/7 grade history is now stand alone bells sewn “between” them. off to China. They just had a map quiz, so they have a good sense where the places are. These old histories still pop on in the news with the current tensions in that part of the world.

J-FED CAMP SCHOLARSHIPS The Jewish Federation offers scholarships to area children & college students for overnight Jewish camps, Jewish travel experiences, summer and yearlong Israel programs. Due to limited funding, its based on financial need: questionnaire form, parents recent federal tax return, and possible telephone follow-up. Application Deadline is March 4 for programs of summer 2016.

Questions? call Rebecca Miller at Federation: 783-7800 x225, rmiller@jewishfedny.org.

Forms are available at the school office or online at www.jewishfedny.org. For local day camps, the Federation funds eligible day camps directly (to a certain degree). Parents should apply directly to these camps for campership.

MISHNA Facts about Mishna from students of all ages who study Mishna at MHDS

1

STRAIGHT-FORWARD HEBREW: The Gemorah is in Aramaic, which is harder to understand. Mishna is all in Hebrew and most words are pretty easy (aside for nouns you might need to look up). Gemorah is filled with complicated back & forth questions & answers, but the Mishna keeps it simple and straight forward, usually only with an argument or two.

2

SHORT & CRYPTIC: Because the Mishna is so short and terse, there’s so much that needs to be explained and clarified, and that’s what happens when you learn Gemorah.

Sometimes Mishnas are compared and contrasted with other Mishnas and even Braysahs (unedited Mishnas) and you learn a lot more from that kind of analysis.

3

WORDS ARE PRECISE: Even though it’s the Oral Torah (not the Written Torah like Chumash) each and every word is the Mishna is very carefully chosen and precise. That’s why people learn Mishna by heart word for word, but when they learn Gemorah by heart it usually the concepts but not the words.

4

BUILDING BLOCKS: Mishna is a very important part of Jewish learning because it is the building blocks and skeleton of the Oral Torah, where most Halacha comes from.

There are Six Orders of the Mishna, comprised of many individual Mesechtot (tractates). There are holiday Mesechtos like Sukkah and Megillah, agricultural ones like Pe’ah & Shevyis, Civil Law like the 3 Bavas...

5

MISHNA = NESHAMA: Mishna and Neshama (soul) share the same Hebrew letters (only in different order). That’s one of the reasons it is customary to learn Mishnayos in memory of someone who passed away, to be a merit for their Neshama. It also helps us connect with our own Neshama, and it is said that Mishna even acts as an “air-purifier”!

BIG GEMORAH REVIEW 6/7 boys now finished learning a series of mini -Sugyas (small Talmud topics) with worksheets and tests for each one, and are now going back to review the whole interconnected piece, to get the big picture and have a test on the whole thing, just over one amud of Talmud Sukkah, from bottom of 3a to all of 3b.

SIX FLAGS: READ TO SUCCEED Kids and parents: Bring in signed log of six hours of non-school reading time to Morah Dini if you’d like to sign up for Great Escape’s free tickets. More info at: SixFlags.com/read The log is due at school on by the 27th. And reading is always good, the more practice the more enjoyment, the better!

MAKING SNOWFLAKES These snowflakes are a work of art (and they don’t melt!) Ms. Ford showed her 1st graders how to make them and they are so proud!

BEGINNING MULTIPLICATION 2nd graders are starting multiplication now, and the way they are transitioning into it is by doing very long repetitive addition problems— for which multiplication is an easy shortcut.

TORAH365 learning this week in Avot Chapter 4

“Rabbi Tzadok says… Don’t make Torah a crown to glorify yourself or a spade to dig with.”

Metaphors are meaningful. What does Rabbi Tzadok mean by a crown and what does he mean by a spade? What are these two ways of abusing Torah for personal benefit? And why specifically these two images? Especially the shovel - when Rabbi Tzadok could have used any tool or implement as a metaphor?

Rabbi Rubin has a commentary on the crown and the spade, but what are your thoughts?

MORE BALLOON CARS Mrs. Ballard-Hubble is working with an eager 2nd grader about to launch another studentbuilt balloon car. Sweet to see the onlooking classmates rooting for him (and his car)!

at Maimonides and in the Community 2/19: HORAN SHALOM ZACHOR at the Horan home, 1443 Western Ave, 8-11pm.

2/20: YARTZEIT KIDDUSH in memory of R’ Yechiel Michel Piekarski, yartzeit Shushan Purim Kattan, by his daughter Morah Rochel Rubin and family at Shomray Torah.

2/20: RABBI REISMAN SAT @7:30 Rabbi Y. Reisman’s Navi class 7:30pm at CBAJ.

2/20: THE IMPOSSIBLE SPY FILM a film about the legendary Israeli spy Elie Cohen, will be screened 8pm at Bethlehem Chabad 395 Kenwood Ave in Delmar. Call 866-7658 for info.

2/21: NEW YORK IN BLOOM Annual event at NYS Museum, $5pp, kids 12 and under are free w/adult. 100+ floral exhibits. At 13pm in the Museum Lab, kids 8 and up can look into microscopes to see tiny flower parts up close.

2/21: GLOBAL HAKHEL AND LOCAL NANO TALMUD SIYUM 12pm EST at Shabbos House. Join communities around the world in a one-hour live screening of PM Bibi Netanyahu, Rabbi Lau, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Mrs. Frankel and others. At 1pm will be the Siyum luncheon & completion of Talmud tractate Megillah by the IBM Nanotech study group. All are welcome! (Please park at Dutch Lot.) See online RSVP form (so they can be best prepared):

shabboshouse.org/GlobalHakhelNanoTalmud

2/21: HOME EXPO AT T.U.C. Annual Home Expo (with vendors & craftsmen etc) 10am-5pm at the Times-Union Center.

Admission is $10 but kids under 14 are free.

Parking is free. New this year: An indoor Zipline across the top of the stadium for $15 per ride.

2/22: NEXT KIDS AFTERSCHOOL 4th grade and up. Boys and girls programs till 4:30. Girls craft programs cost $3 for supplies.

2/22: VACHT-NACHT SHEMA

2/25: COOKBOOK Send in a recipe from a grandparent or senior, along with a short background & enter to win giftcards, recipes for raffle due by this date. DO YOU HAVE A RECIPE & STORY TO SHARE? Thanks!

2/28: “BUSY IN BROOKLYN” AT WOMENS SPA FOR BODY & SOUL 11th year! This year’s featured speaker is Chana Apfelbaum, a popular and engaging food blogger in NYC. This event at Shabbos House (320 Fuller Rd, parking in UAlbany Dutch Gold lot) is cosponsored by Capital Chabad, area Jewish Womens groups, Hadassah and Jewish Federation. $20 ahead, $25 at door. For info/RSVP call Leah 495-0779 or: jwc@capitalchabad.com. Event includes spa treatments and luncheon.

2/28: SHLOCK ROCK CONCERT Sponsored by a dozen area orgs, Shlock Rock will be in concert at the Albany JCC, starting at 4:30pm. Email: ShlockRockinAlbany@gmail.com

3/3-5: ROGERS PARK BAND Look them up: RogersParkBand.com out of Chicago - and this weekend in Albany!

Thurs 3/3: Friendship Circle Concert honoring FC volunteers at the Ramada Plaza, 3 Watervliet Ave 6:30pm. $10pp covers concert, light appetizers and drinks. Open to community.

Shabbos 3/4-5: The duo from RogersParkBand will lead services, a warm oneg-farbrengen, a spirited Shabbat & musical Havdalah at Shabbos House.

Saturday Night 3/5: Cozy & intimate Musical Kumzitz, for grad students and young adults at University Heights Chabad, 147 South Lake, 8pm

3/10: B.T. ESSAY DUE DATE This is for middle and high school students and there’s opportunities for very valuable prizes.

Other Essay Contests:

at Horans, 6pm Kids Shema, Men’s learning 9-11.

Bnai Brith Holocaust Essay BBHEC.org MyLifeAppliedChassidus meaningfullife.com/contest

2/23: PRUMP PRESIDENTIAL PURIMARY PARTY ON TUESDAY

3/6: RABBI MARC ANGEL AT CBAJ

It’s Purim Kattan (one month before Purim in Adar II) look for an exciting celebration at school.

2/23: HORAN BRIS MILAH Tues, 12pm at Shabbos House, 320 Fuller Road.

Scholar in Residence at CBAJ, topic is “Ethics in Presidential Elections” $15pp, $6 kids under 10, $50 max per family. Includes a Chinese dinner 4:30pm, lecture at 5:15. Register online: cbaj.org.

3/12: PIZZA NITE COMING UP

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!”