Receiving the Torah!

Each day we have been sharing the story of the Jewish people from the time they arrived in the desert after crossing the sea. We learned that they lived in tents and ate "mahn."  

The children were fascinated to hear about (and see) what happened next. 

Instead of using books, we took out two Torahs. 

 The first one that we looked at was a beautiful pictorial Torah with wonderful illustrations. We could see the picture of millions of people standing at Sinai. We saw the clouds and the fire. We saw that Har Sinai was blooming with flowers!

Then we took out Peretz's personal Torah which we had wrapped up in special fabric. We talked about the Torah as the most precious gift given to us by Hashem. 

We discussed:

• Treating the Torah with great care & gentleness, just the way we would treat a very new baby. 
• The fact that the Torah is written in all Hebrew letters. 
• How each Hebrew letter is very special and holy. 
• We each have a Hebrew letter that starts our name. 

The children gathered around anxiously to see the Hebrew letters in the Torah.

We passed the Torah around the circle. Each child handled it with great care. Some wanted to hold it, rock it and give it a kiss.  

They each wanted the Hebrew letter that starts their name.
Later in the day we divided into groups and worked on creating our own colorful Har Sinai. We made a list of what we wanted to include:

• grass
• flowers
• bushes
• dirt
• trees
• clouds
• blue sky

We used paints, dot watercolors, glitter glue, tissue paper, glue sticks, construction paper and paper towels. The children took turns and worked very hard putting this together. 

  

 Tomorrow we will continue to work on it and fill in some essential missing pieces. 

Next week we will go on a Torah Tour and see real Torahs up close!