The TBI Bulletin April 2019 Temple B’nai Israel, the Reform Jewish Congregation of Kalamazoo This month, we reach the celebration of Pesach, “passover” and it is my personal, favorite holiday. Growing up, I was lucky to celebrate first night at home Rabbi Simone Schicker with family and second night with family friends who were Modern Orthodox. This meant that the seder was long, [email protected] especially for a kid, but I feel blessed to 269-350-1825 this day that from those long seder nights I gained a great appreciation for participating in the seder. There was an expectation by the hosts that their guests In This Issue of would bring something relevant to share during the course of the seder meal. The TBI Bulletin Sometimes it was an article, sometimes it was a book or an item, sometimes it was another way of looking at tradition. Page The first time I brought something, it was an orange. I shared what I Rabbi’s Column 1 now know was the wrong origin for why we should include an orange on the seder plate, but I brought something to be discussed OKCJS News 3 which was not known by many at the time. I shared that it had to do TBI Calendar 4 with a woman’s place in Judaism, though that story has been proven false by Dr. Susannah Heschel, who first made it popular. The real TBI Staff, Board 10 story is as follows: and Committees In the early 1980s, the Hillel Foundation invited me to speak Temple B’nai Israel on a panel at Oberlin College. While on campus, I came 4409 Grand Prairie across a Haggadah that had been written by some Oberlin P.O. Box 19666 students to express feminist concerns. One ritual they Kalamazoo, MI 49019 devised was placing a crust of bread on the Seder plate, as a 269-342-9170 sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians, a statement of [email protected] defiance against a rebbetzin’s pronouncement that, “There’s www.templebnaiisrael.com as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the seder plate.” (continued on page 2) Rabbi’s Column (cont’d from pg. 1) At the next Passover, I placed an orange on our family's Seder plate. During the first part of the Seder, I asked everyone to take a segment of the orange, make the blessing over fruit, and eat it as a gesture of solidarity with Jewish lesbians and gay men, and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. Bread on the Seder plate brings an end to Pesach — it renders everything chametz. And it suggests that being lesbian is being transgressive, violating Judaism. I felt that an orange was suggestive of something else: the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out — a gesture of spitting out, repudiating the homophobia of Judaism. When lecturing, I often mentioned my custom as one of many new feminist rituals that have been developed in the last twenty years. Somehow, though, the typical patriarchal maneuver occurred: my idea of an orange and my intention of affirming lesbians and gay men were transformed. Now the story circulates that a man said to me that a woman belongs on the bimah as an orange on the Seder plate. A woman's words are attributed to a man, and the affirmation of lesbians and gay men is simply erased. Isn't that precisely what's happened over the centuries to women's ideas? And isn’t this precisely the erasure of their existence that gay and lesbian Jews continue to endure, to this day?” Excerpted from an Email from Professor Susannah Heschel Though I shared the wrong interpretation as a teenager at the seder, I was hooked on the idea that we still have much to learn and much to change in our world, and that the Passover Seder is an excellent place to have those conversations. I have also taken to sharing the real story at every seder I attend. This year, I look forward to learning your family traditions as well as sharing some of my favorites with you at our Community Seder on Saturday, April 20, at Temple B’nai Israel. Sign-up will be coming your way soon! Please note that there will be no Shabbat Services on Friday, April 19, as it is first night seder. If you are looking to host or be hosted for seder, please look out for the sign-up organized by the Member Connections Committee. L’shalom, Rabbi Schicker From ReformJudaism.org Do we do anything special because first night Seder falls on a Friday evening this year? • When the seder falls on Friday evening, we acknowledge both Shabbat and the holiday of Passover. We recite a slightly different candle blessing that includes the words “yom tov” (festival). The Kiddush too, is different, and is sung to a special melody. The Kiddush sung when the seder falls on Saturday night includes a special addition for Havdalah. • This url (copy and paste), from ReformJudaism.org includes both the Hebrew text/transliteration as well as a recording of the special Kiddush blessing. https://reformjudaism.org/practice/prayers-blessings/passover-evening-blessings-kiddush-blessing-over- wine-shabbat-version ____________ https://www.haggadot.com/clip/susannah-heschel-explains-orange 2 I have used this column several times to write about the Hebrew curriculum at OKCJS. This month I would like to tell you about our Judaism curriculum. Our students in PreK through High School study Judaism every Sunday. This is a very special year for our Judaism curriculum in grades PreK-7. It is most likely the first year in at least several decades that our teachers have been able to teach an entire Judaism curriculum. Prior to our two congregational schools joining together, neither congregation had enough students to have one grade per class, so the school committees had to choose which lessons were most important and many had to be left out. After the two schools joined, we had two courses of study for Judaism for the first two years (Holidays and the CHAI Curriculum). Since the CHAI Curriculum, as well as our Music and Library curriculums, include the holidays, this year we dropped the additional holiday curriculum, and for the first time in many years, each of the 27 lessons are being offered to the students. The school schedule was structured so that even when we have special events such as Mitzvah Day or Noah Aronson’s visit, we always have our Judaism lesson and our Hebrew lesson. They are the main building blocks of Jewish education and we make sure not to miss them. We have used the CHAI Curriculum for grades 1-7 for the last three years. Before that, TBI used this curriculum for many years, so we have a lot of experience with it. It was originally published by the URJ Press, and an addendum for Conservative Synagogues was recently developed by Rabbi David J. B. Krishef of Congregation Ahavas Israel in Grand Rapids for use at their combined Reform/Conservative school. Most of the lessons are identical from the Reform and Conservative perspective, but when there are differences, both are taught. The curriculum leads students on an exploration of key values and principles of Torah, worship, and acts of loving kindness that build both Jewish identity and community with the help of this comprehensive, spiraling curriculum. (A spiral curriculum can be defined as a course of study in which students will see the same topics throughout their school career, with each encounter increasing in complexity and reinforcing previous learning.) The CHAI Curriculum is built on three strands - Torah, Avodah, and G’milut Chasadim - using the principles of back- ward design outlined in Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design (UbD). It focuses on the enduring under- standings we want students to take with them in order to establish a strong basis for later Jewish learning and living. CHAI articulates enduring understandings for each of its core strands: • Torah is an ongoing dialogue between the text and its students. It is real in our daily lives and goes with us wherever we are. Developing the skills to study Torah is essential to integrating Torah into our lives. • Avodah is the work we do to find sacred connections to God, community, and self. Engaging in the work of avodah can bring order, beauty, meaning, and insight to our lives and our community. • G'milut chasadim is our way of being personally responsible for making the world a better and holier place. Each strand features a spiral curriculum core that grows through seven levels, guided by age-appropriate, enduring understandings for each level. Each core level is designed to allow teachers broad flexibility in adapting to student needs. Because we think it is important that parents and families help us to reinforce what is learned at school, each Sunday parents receive age appropriate questions to ask their children about their Judaism lesson. We call them “Questions for the Ride Home,” and it is hoped that these questions will spark meaningful Jewish conversations between parents and children so that everyone can enjoy and feel connected, and a part of Am Yisrael (the People of Israel). (continued on p. 4) 3 OKCJS News (cont’d. from pg. 3) If you would like to try your hand at teaching our children, but you think your Hebrew skills aren’t strong enough, we will be offering Judaism-only positions next school year.