Mazal tov to Leah Finkielsztein, whose entry won this week's Taste of Torah competition hosted by the ATT. We're happy to feature her winning Dvar Torah:

In Parshat Tetzaveh, we read about the Urim Ve'tumim that the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) wore while serving in the Beit Hamikdash. The Urim Ve'tumim were divine names written on a scroll in the fold of the High Priest's Choshen - breastplate. It gave the breastplate the miraculous ability to answer questions that were important for the welfare of the Jewish people. The Torah describes this as "Aaron will carry the judgment of the Children of Israel over his heart before the Lord at all times." Rashi explains that the Kohen Gadol would use the Urim Ve'tumim to figure out solutions to the problems of the Children of Israel. Rashi also offers an alternate explanation on the word "judgment." Rashi teaches us that they are referred to in the Pasuk as "judgment" because of their role in attaining forgiveness for the sins relating to faulty judgment.

I noticed that there is a connection in Rashi's commentary to the story of Eli and Chana. In the beginning of Sefer Shmuel, Chana, the then barren mother of the great prophet Shmuel, pours out her heart before Hashem at Shilo. Eli, the Kohen Gadol, seeing Chana davening quietly to herself, thought she was mumbling incoherently to herself. According to the Vilna Gaon's commentary, Eli consulted the Urim Ve'tumim and four letters lit up for Eli - shin, reish, kaf, and hey. Eli rearranged those letters to spell שכרה - shikora, the Hebrew word for drunken woman. He rebuked her by saying, "How long will you be a drunkard? Remove the wine from yourself." However, Eli should have arranged the letters into the word כשרה - keshaira, showing that Chana was "kosher" - worthy and righteous in her actions. We see here that Eli, the Kohen Gadol and leader of the Jewish people at the time, made a mistake and judged Chana unfairly.

This brings me back to my point about the forgiveness of the sins of judgment. The Gaon points out that Eli lost his divine inspiration after judging Chana unfavorably. However, I think there may be another explanation here as well: We can learn from the story of Eli and Chana that even one who is on a high level, such as Eli, is capable of making an incorrect judgment. We must learn from this that if someone like Eli can make such a mistake and must be so careful when judging others, so too must we take extra special care to judge others favorably and always look for a more favorable explanation, even when one does not come so easily to mind.

Making 3D tree collages.

Kindergarten artists created 3D tree collage pictures by using � paper tube for the trunk, then making branches, leaves and blossoms with craft sticks and lots of small wooden shapes; they painted their trees with brown, green, pink, and white. The results were really beautiful and are on display now. This week, they made very cute teddy bear pictures with pop-up "talking" mouths; they had fun performing impromptu little skits amongst themselves with their talking bears!

Leah and Rachel show off their trees.

First grade artists made lovely standing trees with paper tubes for trunks, pipe cleaner branches, and colorful tissue paper blossoms and leaves. Each tree was painted and given its own unique treatment by the artist-some even braided their branches! This week they explored the winter landscape, using a limited palette of earth colors; they used scumbling (dry-brush technique) to give their scenes anything from a mild dusting to a blizzard of beautiful snow!

Second grade artists explored a variety of fun and fascinating origami models. One second grade class spent three sessions making and assembling their 6-piece modular Sonobe cubes. The other class made the aptly named Un-Unfoldable Box and the traditional origami inflatable cube. They are now folding a clever two-piece sumo wrestler; it's a generic human figure that will assume any persona the artist wishes-and much of the fun is in the decorating!

Bella and her beads.

3rd and 4th grade artists finished their paper bead projects, many of which turned into beautiful wearable art of one sort or another. We really had a good time. Now the students are doing studies from a master work of art of their choice. They have already lightly mapped out the most important features of the foreground and background. They are off to a really great start!

Parent Portal

 School Calendar 

      

for all grades are now available on the

Parent Portal!

If you have any trouble accessing the Parent Portal, please contact frontdesk.

 

Thursday, February 13

1:00 - 9:00 p.m. Grades 1-8

4:00 - 9:00 p.m. Preschool & Kindergarten  

 Friday, February 14

9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Grade school parents, please enter Event Code VDQVR.

Preschool parents, please enter Event Code U4UR6.

Note that these codes are different from last fall's codes, and you will need to re-enter your contact information. 

Please contact Elisa Aranoff if you have any questions.

  Thursday & Friday

February 13 & 14

The Hyde Park JCC is offering Vacation Days during Akiba-Schechter's Parent/Teacher Conferences. More info here.

for Grades 1-6

Students are encouraged to read Hebrew books and record the number of minutes they read. This popular program makes reading Hebrew fun, while improving fluency. There are three prize levels and books are available at the school for the children to borrow. Click here for a full description of the program as well as a reading log.   

   Tuesday, February 25

9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

The 5/6th grade science classes are going on a field trip to the Museum of Science & Industry labs. A few chaperones are needed who can come along on the entire 6-hour field trip. Please contact Michelle Rotfeld if you'd like to chaperone.

Colored beads are placed in the following order: 1 red, 1 green, then 2 red, 2 green, then 3 red, 3 green, and so on. In all, how many of the first 100 beads are red?

Scroll down to check your answer.

Kol Hakavod!

Kehillah Matters Essay Competition