ENCOURAGING LEARNERS TO SEEK THE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS, CHALLENGES, AND MEANING OF EVERYDAY LIFE.

Park Avenue Synagogue

In Manhattan, children find themselves surrounded by buildings and sidewalks, supermarkets and fruit stands. It is easy to forget the farms and orchards, the factories and packaging plants, which brought the food to them. It is easy not to see the hands of men, women, and God that are part of the creation of the food children eat. Brachot act like special eyeglasses to bring into view what is not readily apparent. Brachot help children live with gratitude.

At Park Avenue Synagogue, Rina Moscovitz noticed that her Bet students always arrive tired and hungry after a full day of school. Providing a snack for them was easy. With the help of LOMED, Rina took the next step. She turned hurried snack time into an opportunity for real connection. Rina put to work the design principle her congregation was experimenting with this year: “Learning will seek the answers to the questions, challenges, and meaning of everyday life.”

Now, students enter the classroom to find eleven beautiful posters depicting the steps in the bread-making process. “Hamotzi,” Rina teaches, “lets us see the seed, the grain, the kneading and Adonai Elohaynu.” Rina invited her students to choose one of the steps of the bread making to explore through collage. The children expressed their appreciation for each step of the bread making process. Over the next sessions, Rina asked her students a variety of questions about the motzi: “What do the words mean to you? What does motzi help you see? Describe a time when you said the motzi. In what ways does saying a blessing help you experience and express gratitude?” The students depicted their answers in elaborate collages. The artwork enabled students to reflect. Their learning connected motzi to their own personal experiences.

Rina extended her teaching about brachot to the blessing for apples. In her experimentation of putting the design principle in action, she asked learners to think about where they thought the apples originated. Once they generated the steps it takes to create an apple and bring it to their table, she again asked each one to choose a step that excited them. Then she had them create a prayer of appreciation of their own.

One learner exclaimed, “When I eat an apple today it reminds me of the kindergarten field trip to the apple orchard. It was so easy to pick apples and so much fun. Now when I eat an apple, I think of what God gave us.”

By using her design principle, Rina was able to add a dimension to her teaching practice that she had not previously explored. Always a creative teacher, she realized she may not have aligned the artistic experiences she provided for children with the creative discovery and reflection that she practiced this year. “Creative activity,” says Rina, “is an opportunity for children to explore the questions of their lives.” Rina has noticed that her students have increased their ability to express gratitude and now, when they look at their food, they see the hands of people and of God—for this, Rina says, she is grateful!