Category Archives: Parshiot

Exercise: Journeys

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Exercise: Journeys

This exercise strengthens our reasoning skills by asking us to reason toward the best explanation. If someone sets out with these items (amongst others) on a journey, what might you infer about:

  • Where they might be going;
  • What they might be planning to do;
  • How they plan on getting there.
  1. Sunscreen, thick boots, compass, a water bottle and a back pack with a box of worms
  2. Shorts and T-shirt, a leather jacket, gloves, goggles, a beach towel and book.
  3. A can of gasoline, bottle of water, spare tire, MP3 player, and horse in a trailer
  4. A 50ft rope, pegs, hammer, hard helmet, 4 wheel drive
  5. Iced chocolate cake, change of clothes, a CD wrapped in wrapping paper, train schedule, candles

As a variation, in pairs prepare to tell the story of this journey to the rest of the group.


Returning to the Lech l’cha text – what do we know about what Avram took with him? What might we infer from this about his thoughts about the journey he is making?

journeys

Leading Idea: Thinking about Journeys and Journeying

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Leading Idea: Thinking about Journeys and Journeying

The books of Bereshit and Shemot are full of journeys. Several ideas are explored here that prepare students for the pieces of narratives that they will encounter. In this regard the first set of discussion plans and activities can act as induction exercises to ‘journeying’ in general, as well as being used to explore more deeply questions students raise. Attention is drawn here to two aspects of journeying that can prepare students for thinking about this Parashah.

  • The meaning of journeying– what makes something a journey and what does journeying involve?
  • The act of going on a journey – what do the things people take on a journey tell us about the kind of journey they are on?

Secondary Source: Different Meanings of Lech L’cha – MS

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Secondary Source: Different Meanings of Lech L’cha

Rashi

Rashi:
Go forth: Heb לך לך, literally go to you, for your benefit and for your good, and there I will make you into a great nation. If you stay here I won’t give you children. Moreover. If you go, I will make your character known in the world.
Rosh Hashanah 16b, Tan.

Rashi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_languageרש”י is shorthand for RAbbi SHlomo Itzhaki). Rashi was a medieval French rabbi who wrote many commentaries on the Talmud and on the Tanakh. His writings are still widely read and thought about today.

Picture: By Guillaume de Paris, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41460972

Avivah Zornberg: was born in London and grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, where her father was a Rabbi.  She studied with him from childhood; he was her most important teacher of Torah. For the past thirty years, she has taught Torah in Jerusalem.

Avivah

“Lech L’cha” – start travelling – this is a travel narrative. Not to go to a particular place to do business, but as an open-ended travel. To discover   something about the place you are in – like in Gulliver’s Travels or the Odyssey – it seems the journey itself offers you something you wouldn’t get by staying home… You can never know how it will change you, but the journey itself changes you.
Matan lecture: http://www.matan.org.il/eng/show.asp?id=35416
Photo: http://www.avivahzornberg.com/

Joel Lynn: was a journalist for a New Jersey newspaper. He now lives and teaches in Israel.

Joel

A look at the Hebrew in this sentence reveals something.

  • The word “Lekh” is the command form of the word, “L’lekhet“–“to go.”
  • The next word, “l’kha,” tells us that the previous word is directed to a second person (for example, “Ten l’kha” would mean “give to you“).

“… Commentators offer various meanings of this extra word, translating the sentence as “Go for yourself,” “Go by yourself” or “Go to yourself… [My] favorite of the three is “Go to yourself.”

While Abraham had many difficult tests to overcome in his lifetime, the most important one is the first one we read about in the Torah: “Go to yourself.” Realize what your mission in life is. Recognize your potential. Become YOU. Without this, there would never have been a covenant, a circumcision, a binding of Isaac, or a founding of the Jewish people.

Source: http://www.myjewishlearning.com

Rabbi Naftali Citron: Rabbi Citron is now serving as Rabbi of the Carlebach Shul in New York.

Naftali

This week’s Torah reading, Lech Lecha, is especially significant because it represents the first Divine encounter of our forefather Abraham. The words “Lech Lecha” are often translated as “Go forth!” but these words may also mean that Abraham is supposed to “travel more deeply into himself.” As we begin our spiritual inner journeys modeling those of Abraham and Sarah, it is important to experience the depth of our own souls as we go forth to face the world. The word that is often associated with such intention and devotion in Judaism is kavanah.

Source: http://isabellafreedman.org/email/biweeklies/20091028/email.html
Picture: http://carlebachshul.org/About%20Us/Future.html

Discussion Plan: What is the Meaning of “Blessing”? – UPS, MS, HS, A

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Discussion Plan: What is the Meaning of “Blessing”?

  1. If I bless you saying “May God grant you long life”, is that the same as wishing you a long life?
  2. If I bless you saying “May God grant you long life”, is that the same as hoping you will have a long life?
  3. Can people give blessings, or only God? If people can give them, do you think there is a difference between a blessing given by God and a blessing given by a person? Explain.
  4. Can you ‘give a blessing’ without blessing someone /something?
  5. Is there a difference being blessed and being a blessing?
  6. If a quality of ‘being hot’ is that the thing that is hot gives off heat – then is it possible that a quality of ‘being blessed’ is that the thing that is blessed gives off blessings?
  7. Could you ‘be a blessing’ if you had no effect on those around you?
In Verse 3 God says:

 וְנִבְרְכוּ בְךָ כֹּל מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה

And all the families of the earth

shall find blessing through you.

What do you think this means?

Discussion Plan: Everyday Uses of the Term “Bless”

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Discussion Plan: Everyday Uses of the Term “Bless”

What is meant in each of these cases? Does “Bless” mean the same thing in each case?

  1. “Sam was blessed with children”
  2. “Sam blessed his children”
  3. “Sam’s children thought they were blessed to have him as a father”
  4. “Sam was blessed with kindness”
  5. “Sam saw kindness as a blessing”
  6. “Sam said to his friend: “Being late to the party is a blessing in disguise”

Leading Idea: Blessings and Curses

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Leading Ideas: Blessings and Curses

In this passage, God makes three kinds of claims regarding how Avram will be blessed:

  1. I will bless you
  2. You shall be a blessing
  3. All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by/through you

What is a blessing? What does it mean ‘ to be blessed’? What might it mean to regard yourself blessed by the presence of someone else?

How might giving or receiving a blessing be different from being a blessing? Or being blessed? Whereas the activity of ‘giving or receiving blessings suggests a kind of transaction – with something being passed on from one person to another, the state of ‘being a blessing’ and ‘being blessed’ suggests some state of being – some inner active quality of a person. Here there is an interesting question – is ‘blessing’ being used transitively or intransitively? There is a difference between verbs used non-transitively (like “she is standing over there” OR “she Is crying” and transitive verbs (like “Sam was hitting the pillow”). Whereas non-transitive verbs like standing and sitting don’t have any direct object, you can only be ‘hitting’ if there is some object that directly receives your action (to hit you have to be hitting something).

A lot of verbs can be used both ways – and this seems to be the case with blessing. In this way ‘being blessed’ might grammatically be more like ‘being kind’ than ‘being happy’ – to say someone is being kind is to point to the way they interact with others and the world – it is doubtful you could be kind if you were totally alone on a desert island. (where there was no-one/nothing to be kind toward). While being happy is an inner state.

Another way of thinking about “being a blessed to others” might be the sort of thing that we might have in mind when we say of someone: “she is such a calm person, when she is here she has a calming influence on the whole room.” (or spiritual person, or agitated person – the point being their state of being has an impact on their environment). We might also think of ways that we are blessed because of the presence of other people in our lives.

How might these meanings shed light on the text?

In addition to blessing Avram, God says he will bless all who bless Avram and curse all those who curse him. This not only suggests that people (as well as God) are capable of blessing and cursing – but opens up the moral question of what it means for God to act toward others according to how others treat Avram. What are we doing when we bless and curse people? Is it just another way of wishing them something (for instance, good or bad luck?). Can the idea of giving or receiving a blessing have significance even if you don’t believe in ‘ a God who blesses or curses?

In Summary:

We might see being a blessing / being blessed as :

  • An Inner Quality or state (non-transitive)
    • Could just be in you
    • Could also radiate out from you (like a person who is calm can make the room calm by their presence – the person impacts their environment)
  • A quality you have that expresses itself outward to an object (like hitting – where you are hitting something)
    • Something you pass on to someone else through the act of blessing them
    • Through your interactions with others, their lives change in a substantial way (eg., they become a great nation)


We might understand blessing as:

  • Wishing or hoping
  • Something only God can give or something people can also give, or both.
  • the person being blessed is the one being changed, or the person giving the blessing is the one being changed, or both.
  • Having meaning only if you believe in God or having meaning even if you don’t believe in God?

These are fine (and somewhat complex) distinctions, but getting the students to think about these ideas is guided by different discussion plans – for example, the discussion plan on “giving and receiving blessings’ explores the transitivity of ‘Blessing.’

Discussion Plan: Journeys and Journeying

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Discussion Plan: Journeys and Journeying

  1. Does a journey need to have a place of departure? Explain
  2. Does a journey need to have a set destination? Explain
  3. Are there different kinds of journeys? What makes them different?
  4. If I start walking but end up back where I started from, have I taken a journey?
  5. Can I end up in a different place without taking a journey?
  6. Can I take a journey without moving at all?
  7. Can journeys be good or bad, or is it the things that happen on them that are good or bad?
  8. Could a trip to the end of the street become a journey?
  9. Is there a difference between a journey I take on my own and a journey I take with others? If so, what are some of the differences?
  10. In what ways might a journey change you?
  11. In what ways might a journey surprise you?
  12. Is there a difference between a journey someone instructs you to take, and a journey you choose to take? If so, what are some of the differences?
  13. Explore this image of journeying and its possible meanings.
Journeying

Leading Idea: Establishing, remembering, and remembering in the future

In Verses 9:8-17 God turns his attention from Noah to himself. “As for me…”  Within this passage he reflects on the act of establishing a covenant and remembering it – that is maintaining a covenant (keeping it over time), and the intention to keep it in the future (I will remember).  God also reflects on the ‘sign’ (אות) , or rainbow, as representing the covenant (as a sign of the covenant), as a way of showing us his intentions (it stands as a sign between me and you), and as a way of reminding himself of his covenant. These exercises and discussion plans explore these subtle yet very powerful distinctions.

Kids’ Questions: Kol HaLev, Cleveland Ohio

These questions were asked by a 5th – 7th grade community of inquiry that meets as part of Kol HaLev’s shabbat morning programming. This inquiry convened October 2014. Question-askers’ names were attributed, but have been removed.

  1. Why are there no more sea monsters? ()  A
  2.  Why is the world today different than the new world described? ()  A | B
  3. Why is light seen to be good and not darkness? ()  B
  4. Why does God see everything He makes as good? ()  B
  5. What if God didn’t see everything He made as good?  ()  B
  6. Did God use trial and error, and not mention / “see as good” the failures?  ()  B
  7. When God created things, did he eliminate some? ()  A | B
  8. Why did God decide life had to eat vegetation? ()   C
  9. Why did God create all these diseases? ()  C
  10. Why separate ‘water-above’ from ‘water-below’? ()  C
  11. (from 4, above) Why did God at first see everything as good, but later many things (cancer, war, ebola) turned out to be bad? ()  A | B | C

Chosen categorizations:
A= why or how things change/changed (from original creation to today)
B= nature of goodness / recognizing / judging goodness
C= why is the world this way / why was the world created this way?