Category Archives: PS

Lech L’cha (Bereshit 12:1-5) בְּרֵאשִׁית

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Bereshit 12:1-5   בְּרֵאשִׁית יב :א-ה
1. God said to Avram, “Go, take yourself
from your land
and from where you were born,
and from your father’s house
to the land that I will let you see:		 א  וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-אַבְרָם, לֶךְ-לְךָ
מֵאַרְצְךָ
וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ
,וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ 
.אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ 
 2.   I will make you a great nation
And I will bless you,
I will make your name great.
And be a blessing.		  ,ב  וְאֶעֶשְׂךָ, לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל
,וַאֲבָרֶכְךָ
וַאֲגַדְּלָה שְׁמֶךָ
וֶהְיֵה, בְּרָכָה
3. I will bless those people who bless you
And those that curse you, I will curse;
And all the families of the earth shall find
blessing through you [by way of you.”		 ,ג  וַאֲבָרְכָה, מְבָרְכֶיךָ
;וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ, אָאֹר
.וְנִבְרְכוּ בְךָ, כֹּל מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה
4. Avram went, as God had told him,
and Lot went with him.
And Avram was seventy-five years old
when he went out of Haran.		 ,ד  וַיֵּלֶךְ אַבְרָם, כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר אֵלָיו יְהוָה
;וַיֵּלֶךְ אִתּוֹ, לוֹט
,וְאַבְרָם, בֶּן-חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים וְשִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה
.בְּצֵאתוֹ, מֵחָרָן
5. Avram took Sarai, his wife,
and Lot, his brother’s son,
and all their belongings that they had gained,
and the people they had made their own in Haran;
and they went to go to the land of Canaan.		 ה וַיִּקַּח אַבְרָם אֶת-שָׂרַי אִשְׁתּוֹ
,וְאֶת-לוֹט בֶּן-אָחִיו
,וְאֶת-כָּל-רְכוּשָׁם אֲשֶׁר רָכָשׁוּ
,וְאֶת-הַנֶּפֶשׁ, אֲשֶׁר-עָשׂוּ בְחָרָן; וַיֵּצְאוּ
.לָלֶכֶת אַרְצָה כְּנַעַן, וַיָּבֹאוּ, אַרְצָה כְּנָעַן 
Lech-Lcha-map

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noach (Bereshit-9:8-9:17) – בְּרֵאשִׁית

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Noach (Bereshit 9:8 -9:17) – בְּרֵאשִׁית

8 And God said to Noach, and to his sons with him, saying: ח  וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים אֶל-נֹחַ, וְאֶל-בָּנָיו אִתּוֹ לֵאמֹר.
9 ‘As for Me, here, I now set up [establish] my covenant with you, and with your seed [children] after you; ט  וַאֲנִי, הִנְנִי מֵקִים אֶת-בְּרִיתִי אִתְּכֶם, וְאֶת-זַרְעֲכֶם, אַחֲרֵיכֶם.
10 and with all living creatures that are with you, the fowl, herd-animals, and all the wildlife of the earth with you;  with all those going out of the Ark, of all the living things on the earth.

י  וְאֵת כָּל-נֶפֶשׁ הַחַיָּה אֲשֶׁר אִתְּכֶם, בָּעוֹף בַּבְּהֵמָה וּבְכָל-חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ אִתְּכֶם; מִכֹּל יֹצְאֵי הַתֵּבָה, לְכֹל חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ.
11  I will establish my covenant with you; never again shall all flesh be cut off again by waters of a flood; never again shall there be a flood, to destroy the earth!

יא  וַהֲקִמֹתִי אֶת-בְּרִיתִי אִתְּכֶם, וְלֹא-יִכָּרֵת כָּל-בָּשָׂר עוֹד מִמֵּי הַמַּבּוּל; וְלֹא-יִהְיֶה עוֹד מַבּוּל, לְשַׁחֵת הָאָרֶץ.
12 And God said: ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I set between me and you and all living creatures that are with you, for all ages to come:

יב  וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, זֹאת אוֹת-הַבְּרִית אֲשֶׁר-אֲנִי נֹתֵן בֵּינִי וּבֵינֵיכֶם, וּבֵין כָּל-נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה, אֲשֶׁר אִתְּכֶם–לְדֹרֹת, עוֹלָם.
13 My bow, I set in the cloud, so that it shall serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

יג  אֶת-קַשְׁתִּי, נָתַתִּי בֶּעָנָן; וְהָיְתָה לְאוֹת בְּרִית, בֵּינִי וּבֵין הָאָרֶץ.
14 And when I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen, in the clouds

יד  וְהָיָה, בְּעַנְנִי עָנָן עַל-הָאָרֶץ, וְנִרְאֲתָה הַקֶּשֶׁת, בֶּעָנָן.
15  I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and all living creatures of all flesh; so the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

טו  וְזָכַרְתִּי אֶת-בְּרִיתִי, אֲשֶׁר בֵּינִי וּבֵינֵיכֶם, וּבֵין כָּל-נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה, בְּכָל-בָּשָׂר; וְלֹא-יִהְיֶה עוֹד הַמַּיִם לְמַבּוּל, לְשַׁחֵת כָּל-בָּשָׂר.
16 When the bow will be, in the cloud; I will see it, and remember the covenant between God and all living creatures – all flesh that is on the earth

טז  וְהָיְתָה הַקֶּשֶׁת, בֶּעָנָן; וּרְאִיתִיהָ, לִזְכֹּר בְּרִית עוֹלָם, בֵּין אֱלֹהִים, וּבֵין כָּל-נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה בְּכָל-בָּשָׂר אֲשֶׁר עַל-הָאָרֶץ.
17 And God said to Noach: ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.’

יז  וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, אֶל-נֹחַ:  זֹאת אוֹת-הַבְּרִית, אֲשֶׁר הֲקִמֹתִי, בֵּינִי, וּבֵין כָּל-בָּשָׂר אֲשֶׁר עַל-הָאָרֶץ.
18 And the sons of Noach, that went out from the Ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan.

יח  וַיִּהְיוּ בְנֵי-נֹחַ, הַיֹּצְאִים מִן-הַתֵּבָה–שֵׁם, וְחָם וָיָפֶת; וְחָם, הוּא אֲבִי כְנָעַן.

Exercise: What do we eat and why / why not? -PS

Exercise: What do we eat and why / why not?


 		 I eat this Someone else in my family eats this Other people in my culture eat this In the Torah it says we shouldn’t eat it People from other cultures I know of do eat it I don’t think anyone eats this – but it wouldn’t be wrong if they did No-one should eat this– it is morally wrong
Fish              
Dried  Pineapple              
Mushrooms              
Beef              
Buttons              
Raw eggs              
Lamb              
Animal Hair              
Blood sausage              
Cats              
Gum              
Pork              
Leftovers              
Strawberries              
Ants              
Human Beings              
Dolphins              
Mice              
Paper              
Someone else’s half eaten sandwich              
A pen              
             
             

 

 

Discussion Plan: Deciding what we should eat- PS

Deciding what we should eat

  1. Do you think parents should decide what food their pre-school child should eat?
  2. Do you think your family should decide what you eat now?
  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. If a species is endangered, should people continue to eat it? (even if it acceptable to eat it)
  7. Are there animals you don’t think we should eat because it is wrong to kill them?
  8. 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?)
  9. In many ways, animals are like people – is that a reason not to kill them?
  10. Think of eating an animal’s eye – disgusting? Why does this disgust you?
  11. To what extent do you think that your culture decides what it is possible for you to eat?

Discussion Plan: Deciding what we eat – PS-HS

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. Do you think that what you eat affects your health?
  8. Do you think that what you eat affects your mood?
  9. Can you look at what someone eats and draw any conclusion about their values
  10. Do you think that what you eat or don’t eat can make you a better person?

Noach (Bereshit-9:1-7)- בְּרֵאשִׁית

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Please note: A lower primary school version of the Biblical text is offered here

 

Noach (Bereshit-9:1-7) – בְּרֵאשִׁית

1. And God blessed Noach and his sons, and
said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply [be
many], and fill the earth.		 א  וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-נֹחַ וְאֶת-בָּנָיו; וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ, וּמִלְאוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ.
2. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall
be upon all the wildlife of the earth, and upon
all the fowl of the heavens, and all that crawl
on the soil, and all the fish of the sea – into
your hand are they given.		 ב  וּמוֹרַאֲכֶם וְחִתְּכֶם, יִהְיֶה, עַל כָּל-חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ, וְעַל כָּל-עוֹף הַשָּׁמָיִם; בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר תִּרְמֹשׂ הָאֲדָמָה וּבְכָל-דְּגֵי הַיָּם, בְּיֶדְכֶם נִתָּנוּ.
 3. All things crawling about that live, for you
shall they be, for eating, as with the green
plants, I now give you all of it.		  ג  כָּל-רֶמֶשׂ אֲשֶׁר הוּא-חַי, לָכֶם יִהְיֶה לְאָכְלָה:  כְּיֶרֶק עֵשֶׂב, נָתַתִּי לָכֶם אֶת-כֹּל.
4. However – flesh with its life, its blood, you
shall not eat.		 ד  אַךְ-בָּשָׂר, בְּנַפְשׁוֹ דָמוֹ לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ.
5. And for your blood, of your own lives, I will
demand satisfaction – from all wild animals
I will demand it, and from humankind, from
every man regarding his brother, will I
demand satisfaction for human life.		 ה  וְאַךְ אֶת-דִּמְכֶם לְנַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם אֶדְרֹשׁ,
מִיַּד כָּל-חַיָּה אֶדְרְשֶׁנּוּ; וּמִיַּד הָאָדָם,
מִיַּד אִישׁ אָחִיו–אֶדְרֹשׁ, אֶת-נֶפֶשׁ
הָאָדָם.
6. Whoever now sheds human blood, for that
human shall his [own] blood be shed, for in
Elohim’s image he made humankind		 ו  שֹׁפֵךְ דַּם הָאָדָם, בָּאָדָם דָּמוֹ יִשָּׁפֵךְ: 
כִּי בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים, עָשָׂה אֶת-הָאָדָם.
7. As for you – bear fruit and be many, swarm
the earth and become many on it.		 ז  וְאַתֶּם, פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ; שִׁרְצוּ בָאָרֶץ, וּרְבוּ-בָהּ

 

Discussion Plan: Making and Creating – ps,hs

* Discussion Plan: Making and Creating, ps,hs

A. Consider what it takes to ‘make’ something in each of these  cases

  1. Can you turn a piece of fabric into a dress using a dressmaking pattern? If so, what form of activity does ‘making a dress’ involve? (what do you do to the fabric so that it is now a dress?)
  2. Can you make (or produce) a cake from flour, sugar, water and eggs? If so, what is involved in ‘making’ the ingredients into a cake?
  3. Can you make a face out of a lump of clay? If so, what is involved in ‘making’ the face?
  4. Can you produce a new song out of exiting sound clips? If so, what is involved in ‘making’ the new song?
  5. Can you make a work of art out of rubbish? If so, what is involved in ‘making’ it?
  6. Can you make/produce a new object that no-one has thought of before?  If so, what would this involve?
  7. Can you make up a story that no-one has imagined before? If so, what does this involve?
  8. Can you make a solution to a problem before anyone has even imagined the problem?  If so, how?

 For teachers: Here are some of the options for what ‘making’ might involve in the above discussion plan – but don’t limit your students to these:

Joining pieces together, mixing things together, uncovering something hidden within, moulding, reorganizing, transforming, reconceiving, inventing, intuiting.

 

B. Could any of these acts be acts of creating rather than of making?  If so, what would be the difference between them? (ie, between making a dress and creating a dress, making a cake, creating a cake, etc)?

 

Leading Idea: Moral responsibility – people & land -PS

Moral Responsibility:  toward people, and toward the land.  

 Burying the Dead

In this parshah the explanation for why we should not leave a dead body hung on a pole or tree overnight might take us by surprise. Two reasons are given. The one we might expect is that the human body itself places a moral demand on us, requiring we bury it in a timely manner so that it is not defiled (leaving a human body hanging is an affront to God, as we are ‘formed in God’s image’).  Yet we are also given a second reason, one less expected. We are told “you shall not defile (make unclean, טמאה) your land, which the Lord, your God, is giving you as an inheritance.”  that is, it is for the sake of the land that we are required to remove the body and bury it.* This suggests that we have a moral responsibility toward maintaining the environment (keeping it clean), and not just a moral duty toward the human body.

Do we have a moral responsibility to look after the environment out of a responsibility toward the other people with whom we share the environment (so they can play safely and in an aesthetic space), or do we do it out of a moral responsibility toward the environment itself (not to defile the land?). In our own contexts, what does ‘defiling the land’ mean? Are there ways our own actions or inaction leads to the land being made ‘unclean’? (open cut mining?  Littering? Destroying rainforestד? polluting rivers?). Are there physical actions in the environment we feel morally responsible to take for the sake of other human beings? Are there physical actions in the environment we feel morally responsible to take for the sake of the environment itself?

* If the body is left hanging animals may come and pull it apart and spread parts of the body on the land – since in Tanach, those things that come in touch with a dead body become unclean, unfit for use, the physical earth would now become unclean, unable to fulfill its purpose. The point here is that is our responsibility to attend to the body so that this does not happen.