A Dvar Torah by Rabbi Dovid Schulman - Fourth Grade Rebbe a Jewish Slave

YOSS NEWS

26 Shvat 5779 . Mishpatim . February 1, 2019 . Candle Lighting 4:54 PM

A Dvar Torah by Rabbi Dovid Schulman - Fourth Grade Rebbe a Jewish slave. Included in עֶבֶד עִבְרִ י discusses the laws of an פרשת משפטים The beginning of these halachos are the laws, if a Jewish slave wants to remain a slave by his master. The laws are quite interesting. A master takes his slave to Bais Din, pierces his ear with an awl, etc. What’s the true meaning behind these halachos. One answer is given by Rabbeinu Bachya. He explains, that the way of the world is that people do not appreciate the title of being a slave. It’s a derogatory term. Most people don’t say, “when I grow up, I want to become a slave.” Because of his life, he usually becomes depressed. The fact that he wants to remain a slave by his master is a new thing. He wants to remain status quo. Be- fore he was enslaved, he was a poor thief. The past six years of slavery, he’s been treated very well by his master. and the master himself has to pierce his ear. Why? The ear that בית דין Therefore the slave’s master has to bring him to B’nai Yisrael are to be servants to me), and he went and became a slave to a) הַר סִינַי, “כִּי לִי בְנֵי יִשְׂרָ אֵל עֲבָדִים” heard at slave. He’s going against Hashem because a Jew is really supposed to be a slave of Hashem and not a slave of another slave (of Hashem). and not עֶבֶד עִבְרִ י Rabbeinu Bachya continues with the following question: Why does the posuk refer to the slave as an is a very chushuv name, given to the Jewish people when we received the יִשְׂרָ אֶל The answer is that ?עֶבֶד יִשְׂרָ אֶל an is the name that the Jews had when they were still slaves in Mitzrayim. Therefore he’s called an עִבְרִ י .הַר סִינַי Torah at who only accepts Hashem as his master, and not יִשְׂרָ אֶל because he is refusing to act like a עֶבֶד יִשְׂרָ אֶל and not עֶבֶד עִבְרִ י to the הַר סִ ינַי somebody else. It’s also another reason why his ear is pierced, because he refused to listen at commandment of “Don’t steal,” for the reason he became a slave in the first place was because he stole. Why do we pierce his ear by a door-post and not just hold him and pierce his ear? The reason the Jews merited to be freed from the slavery of Mitzrayim was because they listened to Hashem by placing blood on the door-post. This was is going against that whole concept. Therefore, we pierce his ear specifically עֶבֶד עִבְרִ י our way of leaving slavery. This on the door-post. is gematria 400. This eved is adding on to the 400 years that was מַּרְ צֵעַ an awl, because מַּרְ צֵעַ The eved is pierced with a decreed for the Yidden to be slaves. The reality is that we sometimes are enslaved - by our desires, our environment, etc. We need to constantly remind our- .Have a good Shabbos .הַר סִינַי selves of our responsibilities that were given to us at

A New Term - A new term has begun in Rabbi Judowitz’s seventh grade class as the with great results) and are) מס‘ מכות boys completed their mid-term on the first perek of now starting the second perek. The second perek deals with cases of galus and the boys are really interested in judging the myriad of cases in the Gemara to see if their judgments are correct or not. We have begun a new incentive of prizes called 7J Executive Club. This involves good participation and involvement in learning We are looking forward to 7-11 trips and prizes coming up. Yeshiva Bein Hazmanim - Speak to any of the eighty three kids for- tunate enough to have participated in this year's Yeshiva Bein Hazmanim and they'll tell you that this year's program was the best (but that is what's said every year! ) Last Tuesday and Wednesday talmidim entered the building like on any other morning, to begin their day with davening and learning. Howev- er, by 10:15 the day began to resemble anything but ordinary. Each day featured exciting activities. On Tuesday, an hour and a half of bowl- ing was followed by a pizza lunch and a visit to Bounce Trampoline Sports in Syosset where the boys jumped and bounced their afternoon away. Wednes- day featured a snow tubing trip to Mountain Creek where the kids enjoyed two and a half hours of snow tubing. It's already February and although we've hardly seen an inch of snow here in New York, Mountain Creek boasted over a foot and a half of the white stuff with perfect conditions for exhilarating snow tube fun. YBH is a favorite with our students and parents alike because it combines Torah learning with exhilarating fun. Only twelve months left to YBH 2020 !

Our First Chumash - What a marvelous Chumash presentation we had on Sunday, January 6! Parents and grand- parents from Rabbi Gewirtz’s first grade, were treated to a grand performance by the class which included songs from davening and zemiros. Each boy was presented with a beautiful new Chumash by Rabbi Kamenetzky and Rabbi Robin- son and the program concluded with the fathers joining their sons in dancing. Of course, the celebration was not just about getting a Chumash, it was about starting to learn Chumash. I am proud to report that in the two weeks of school after the presentation and before our vacation, we were off and running and learning in the new Chumashim. In the first five pesukim, we already learned 4 prefixes!! (Beis=in, Vav=and, Hay=the Lamed=to). In other news, we have recently completed our kesiva book and are now writing all the letters in Kesiva. This week we started a beautiful new workbook on Yedios Klaliyos, general knowledge in Yiddishkeit. As we grow in our learning skills, we are really looking forward to the second half of the school year and all the “big boy learning” that we will be doing!

News From the Hollander ECC Each year during Chodesh Shvat all of our classes review the lessons related to Hash- kamas Haboker. Through charts and washing stations in the classroom, the children remind each other to wash negel vasser in the morning, as well as focus on the correct way to wash. This year we have added another dimension to our Hashkamas Haboker Curriculum. The boys have been learning the importance and correct way to take care of their yarmulkas and tzitzis. All of the Kindergarten children will be bringing home a Negel Vasser cup that they have designed, and the middos mission of this week is “I start my day like a mentsch”.

*This program was created Liulei Nishmas Meir Yechezkel ben Yosef Avraham Mordechai, a”h Looking Ahead - Mr. Richter’s fifth graders are back from break and back in business. The business of learning that is. Looking ahead we are going to meet the challenges of multiplying decimals in math class. In English Language Arts, we are gathering evidence to write our next essay on The Island of the Blue Dolphins. The boys loved the novel and all of the activities we completed in class. On the Social Studies front, we are learning all about life in the thirteen colonies and how the colonists lived and worked on a daily basis before the Revolutionary War. To nicely tie into what we are learning, the boys will venture on an amazing field trip to the Rock Hall Museum. Here they will experience for themselves what life was like on a farmhouse in the Colonial Era. As the spring gets closer, the boys will also be preparing for their Career Fair, where they will choose a profession to study and then give a presentation to their teachers and peers. I hope eve- ryone stays warm for the next month or so of winter, and that we keep in mind that the beautiful spring days will surely come.

Ready For Round Two! - Here we are, back from winter vacation, hopefully well rested and ready to go. In Mrs. Drucker’s fourth grade class we have accomplished so much in the first half of the year. We completed our study of multiplication and reinforced our skills with games and puz- zles. Now we are starting our unit on division. In social studies, we celebrated our unit on Native Americans by creating travel brochures. Now we are starting our unit on explorers and will learn about how Europeans settled New York State. In science we are exploring energy and forces. We have enjoyed many STEAM projects to support what we have learned so far. We have created mazes, ramps and even a Newton’s Cradle. In my ELA group we have enjoyed many stories and learned many skills and strategies. We completed a unit study in poetry and have become prolific writers. Now we are tack- ling our first novel using the strategies and skills of a Book Club. We are reading The Landry News and upon comple- tion, aspire to publish a fourth grade newspaper. All in all we are excited to continue learning as we begin round two of our school year!

Back From Vacation! - The boys came back from winter vacation refreshed and ready to learn. Mr. Lepolstat’s sixth - seventh grade class performed very nicely on the history midterms. In our history class, we are continuing to learn about the Revolutionary War and the different strategies that both the Colonists and British had throughout the war. The class just started learning a new topic in math. We introduced the class to coordinate planes, finding the difference between sets of coordinates as well as perimeter and area of different shapes located on coordinate planes. The boys are using previous knowledge of negative integers and fractions to help them work on these equations. In science, our class is preparing for a unit test. We have been learning about the water cycle, carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle in an environment. I am confident that the class will do well on their upcoming test. We are continuing our Holocaust curriculum in our English Language Arts class. We are reading a novel called “The Boy on the Wooden Box.” The boys are also working on book reports outside of the classroom. We are practicing skills based on the book that we are reading in class, and the boys are using these skills to answer similar style questions on the books that they are reading at home. G-d willing we are looking forward to a great second half of the year. Mazel Tov Mr. & Mrs. Israel Yosipov upon the birth of their son Mr. & Mrs. Daniel Konigsberg upon the birth of their daughter Mr. & Mrs. Zvi Bornstein upon the birth of their granddaughter Yisrael Ackerman upon his Bar Mitzvah Eli Blumenthal upon his Bar Mitzvah

Winter Spirit - We have really been getting into the winter spirit in Mrs. Traube’s first grade classroom! After completing a mini-unit on hibernation, we moved on to snowmen and all the fun that comes with them. We (of course) read some snowman- themed read alouds, and redecorated our front door with snowman heads. In math, we used mini snowman erasers as manipulatives to help us review our math unit on addition and subtraction to twenty, and played Do You Want to Build a Snowman, where each worksheet completed earned us another piece of a snowman to piece together. In ELA, we used snowflake pencils to write our spelling words in snow (trays of white sand) while searching for the snowman hidden behind cards with words with the i_e spelling pattern. Our favorite new Smartboard game is called Build a Snowman, where the kids get to choose from a variety of hilarious outfits and ac- cessories to decorate the snowman on the board- but only if they can answer the review question correctly first! It all culminated with another epic STEM chal- lenge: which team could work together to build the tallest snowman, using only toothpicks and different sized marshmallows. Looking forward to a great second half of the year.

Riddle Corner

1. Name the Tzaddik: .פרץ & זרח Name the parents of .2 .רשי called ספר of the מחבר Name the .3

.משנה whose name is mentioned in a (אמורא he was an רא“ש and the רש“י at least according to) אמורא Name an .4 5. How is this possible??? A person has to pay another person $10,000 (that’s ten thousand dollars) just because he heard when someone called his name!!???!!

LUNCH Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri 2/4 2/5 2/6 2/7 2/8 MENU Heroes Hamburgers Fish Sticks Tuna Salad Knishes Pizza Buns Shells with Sauce Egg Salad Pickles French Fries Salad American Cheese Week of Cake Cole Slaw HB Eggs Jello Day Fruit Chocolate Pudding Feb 4-8

Juice Bread Juice Bread Juice Bread Milk Bread