Category Archives: MS

Discussion Plan: Running from, Running to – UPS, MS

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Discussion Plan: Running from, Running to

  1. When you run away, do your problems run with you?
  2. Is it possible to run away without leaving home?
  3. Is hiding from someone a kind of ‘running away’?
  4. If people know where you are going, are you still running away?
  5. Do we ever have a duty to run away?
  6. If you are running away from something, are you always running to something else?
  7. If you are running to something, are you always running away from something else?
  8. If you see a friend or child and run toward them, are you running from anything?
  9. Can you think of some circumstances when running away would be a sensible thing to do? (if so, what might they be?)
  10. Can you think of some circumstances when running away would be a brave thing to do? (if so, when might that be?)
  11. Can you think of some circumstances when running away would be the wrong thing to do?
  12. Can someone else decide for you that you should run away, or is it only something you can decide for yourself? Why? Why not?

Exercise: Good Reasons for Leaving – UPS, MS

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Exercise: Good Reasons for Leaving

Do you think the following are good reasons for leaving? Explain why or why not.

  1. You leave the room because your brother refuses to give you the video game.
  2. You stop being someone’s friend because you discover she/he stole something from you.
  3. You run away because your brother is constantly making you feel bad about yourself.
  4. You run away because your sister hits you when you do something to annoy her.
  5. You change schools because your teacher tells you that you aren’t bright.
  6. You leave your friend’s sleep-over because some of the kids are drinking alcohol.
  7. You leave home because your mother hits you when you do something that upsets her.
  8. You stop taking swimming classes because the swim instructor insists that you wear a bathing cap.
  9. You leave the softball team because you think your coach treats girls and boys on the team differently.
  10. You leave camp because you are lonely.
  11. You leave camp because you are bored.

Leading Idea: Caring for our world

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Leading Idea: Caring for our world

This section of text about the Keshet comes after the flood – after God in his anger almost completely destroys the world. The Keshet is a reminder to God to avoid global destruction in the future. This raises a larger question about our relationship to the world and our care for it. Molly Cone’s poem invites discussion around our sensory experiencing of the world and our care for it. You might like to create your own poem or artwork that draws on the way your students’ own experiences of connecting to the world through their senses.

Secondary Sources: Caring for our world

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Secondary Sources: Caring for our world

Look upon This Land – Molly Cone

Look upon this land—
Touch it.
Sand under your bare feet,
The squish of mud,
Silky coat of cat,
Soft rose petals,
A smooth round rock,
Rain on your face.

Touch it with your eyes.
Cherry trees blossoming pink,
Lake of blue and summer sky,
The green of life,
Purple grapes and apples red,
Moon rising yellow,
Orange sun going down.

Touch it with your ears.
Splatter of rain,
Crack of thunder,
Wind whispering,
Birds singing,
The crying of babies and puppies,
Kittens and ducklings.

Touch it with your nose.
Pine-scent of woods, lilacs blooming,
new-mown grass, smoke of chimneys,
strawberries in the sun.

Touch it with your tongue.
Lick of sugar,
Tang of lemon, ginger, or spice,
Bite of cold snow,
Gulp of pure water.

Look upon this land—
Touch it.
Touch it in every way you can,
For this land is part of you,
And you are part of it.

Given into your care is this earth.
See how beautiful it is.
Be careful not to spoil it,
For if you destroy the world,
There will be no one after you to restore it.

Molly Cone

(Molly Cone, Listen to the Trees, UAHC press, 1995, pp. 42-43)

Molly Cone was a well known children’s author, having published over 45 books. She was a founding member of Temple Beth Am in Seattle.

Image source: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?pid=179415367

Kohelet Rabbah, 7:28
“Think upon this and do not corrupt and destroy My world, for if you destroy it, there is no one to restore it after you”.

Activity: Interview about what we eat – MS, HS, A

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Noach-9.1.7-Eating-Meat-Microphone-ImageActivity: Interview about what we eat

Interview two people in your family or community about the following:

  1. Is there any kind of food that you personally choose not to eat? Why?
  2. Do you think that what you eat affects your health?
  3. Do you think that what you eat affects your mood?
  4. Do you think you can look at what someone eats and draw any conclusion about their lifestyle? Their values?
  5. Do you think that what you choose to eat or not eat can makes you a better person?
  6. Do you eat meat? Do you think this affects the kind of person you are?
  7. In the account of creation God blesses us and tells us and gives us all seed bearing plants to eat. In Noah, after the flood he tells he blesses us again, but this time he also allow us to eat meat. Why do you think God changes his blessing? Do you think we should eat meat?

Discussion Plan: The connection between who we are and what we eat – UPS, MS, HS

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Discussion Plan: The connection between who we are and what we eat

  1. If a person likes rare or raw meat, do you think they are likely to be more aggressive than someone who likes their meat well done? Why / Why not?
  2. If a person likes sweet things, do you think they are likely to have a sweet nature? Why / why not?
  3. Is there such a thing as ‘comfort food’? What does this mean?
  4. Is there such a thing as “Junk food”? What does this mean and why do we eat it?
  5. Is there such a thing as “soul food”? What does this mean?
  6. Do you think that what you eat affects your health? If so, give some examples.
  7. Do you think that what you eat affects your mood? If so, give some examples.
  8. If you eat healthy food are you likely to be more healthy? Why / why not?
  9. In what ways is what we eat connected to our culture?
  10. Do you think that someone who eats according to the practices of their culture has a stronger cultural identity than someone who does not? Why/why not?

Discussion Plan: Deciding what we eat -UPS, MS, HS, A

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Discussion Plan: Deciding what we eat

  1. Is there any kind of food that you personally choose not to eat? Why?
  2. What makes certain foods attractive to you – such that you want to eat them?
  3. What makes certain foods unattractive to you – such that you don’t want to eat them?
  4. Do you eat the same range of food now as you did 5 years ago?
  5. Do you eat the same range of food now as you did when you were a baby?
  6. Can people’s diets change, even when they are adults? Can you give an example?
  7. Can you look at what someone eats and draw any conclusion about their values?
  8. Do you think that what you eat or don’t eat can make you a better person?

Discussion Plan: Deciding what we should eat – UPS, MS, HS

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Discussion Plan: Deciding what we should eat

  1. Do you think parents should control what food their two year old child eats?
  2. Do you think your family should control what kinds of food you eat?
  3. Are there food you can eat too much of?
  4. Are there foods you can eat too little of?
  5. Are their kinds of food that it is hard to stop eating once you start?
  6. Are there animals you don’t think we should eat because it is wrong to kill them?
  7. If you raise an animal and look after it – would it be wrong to eat it? (Would this be the same if you lived on a farm?)
  8. In many ways, animals are like people – is that a reason not to kill them?
  9. Think of eating an animal’s eye – yuk! Why does this sound gross?
  10. Are there foods (like sushi, pizza, falafel, gefilta fish) that you associate with certain countries or cultures?
  11. How much do you think that your own culture decides what it is possible for you to eat?

Secondary Sources: Caring for Animals – PS, MS

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Secondary Source: Caring for Animals

What does the way we care for animals say about us?

Proverbs 12:10  מִשְׁלֵי

יוֹדֵעַ צַדִּיק נֶפֶשׁ בְּהֶמְתּוֹ

A righteous man knows the soul of his animal

Noach-9.1.7-Relationship-SS-Caring-for-Animals-PS-MS-Image1

You should not sit down to eat until you have first fed your animals
(Talmud, Berachot. 40a; Gittin, 62a)

Noach-9.1.7-Relationship-SS-Caring-for-Animals-PS-MS-Image2

You should not buy an animal unless you can guarantee it will have an adequate food supply
(Jerusalem Talmud, Ketubot, 4:8).

Moses and David are often described in our tradition as devoted shepherds who gave every animal in their flock personal attention. It was this trait of their personalities that made them worthy in God’s eyes of leading the Jewish people.
( Exodus Rabbah 2.2)

Once, while Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, one young sheep ran away. Moses ran after it until the sheep reached a shady place, where he found a pool of water and began to drink. When Moses reached the sheep, he said: ‘I did not know you ran away because you were thirsty. Now, you must be exhausted [from running].’ Moses put the sheep on his shoulders and carried him [back to the herd]. God said, “Because you tend the sheep belonging to human beings with such mercy, you shall be the shepherd of My sheep, Israel.”
( Exodus Rabbah 2:2)