Adventures in Mama-Land

In historical Judaism, freedom and imprisonment are just two sides of the same möbius strip. Inner and outer freedom is the prime concept of the Torah and of Jewish tradition. Yet in Judaism, freedom is at once freely given and at the same time, never without a price tag. Captivity plays an almost schizophrenic role in the Tanach, and indeed, throughout Jewish history. On one hand, we find the prisonless society described in Exodus. But then, there is the forced captivity of an innocent described in the laws of the “yefes toar” – the beautiful woman taken in battle. And, though Judaism is far from an ascetic tradition, both ancient and modern Judaism have glorified, to an almost grotesque extent, the concept of spiritual redemption through imprisonment. How do these seemingly opposite concepts build upon and complement each other? And of what use are they in the modern world? Our culture is widely assumed to be “Judeo-Christian” in character, but little remains today of the idealistic

I have been playing with ideas for a slightly more intensive variation on the parsha copywork we’ve been doing all along and come up with a 6-page booklet that I think might work well not only for us, but hopefully for others.  I will explain the ideas behind the different pages and you can decide if all or part of this would be useful to you. The whole booklet is centred around an excerpt from the parsha.  It may or may not be an entire contiguous passuk – I’ve done two so far and one is, while the other isn’t.  One draws in bits and pieces from several pessukim to create a “complete” passage that is more concise than the original text. The idea is to introduce spelling and vocabulary words through the context of the weekly parsha.  The English words are fairly easy, so this won’t make for very intensive spelling practice.  My thinking behind this is that my kid is feeling discouraged in Hebrew, so if throwing in a couple of easy English words will help boost her self-confidence, th

If we used Memory games more often, and they are certainly available for ALL subjects, I suspect that this would be less effective.  Since we really don’t, I hope this will be a quick, enjoyable way to practice the Hebrew names of all the Makkos (plagues). This is just your basic Memory game, with Hebrew names printed on half the cards and beautiful pictures (taken from this Makkos Matching Game resource at chinuch.org, which you might want to check out also) on the other half of the cards.  There’s also a simple graphical back to print on each page which will make them feel more like “real” cards. Warning!  There is NO English on the cards… however, the names of the plagues are fairly simple, and I will translate and transliterate them here for parents who are still working on their Hebrew: (and by the way, I had this entire post typed and was about to post it when the computer crashed – so here I am typing these all over again…!!!) (but just to be on the safe side, I just clicke

שְׁמוֹת / shemos / shemot / Exodus 10:1-13:16 Printable PDF version here . Parsha narrative overview here . Copywork sheet and parsha activities available here . Special thank you to Elisheva for this week’s amazing illustrations!!! This week’s parsha is the one we call Bo The parsha where Paroh at last lets us go. The shortest parsha-name in the world, you know Just two little letters, lined up just for show.   But just look again at those letters that flow, Stare at them briefly; they’ll make you say “whoa.” You might think it’s all about going , although “Bo” really means COME – a whole different tableau.   When you are stuck in a bad status quo You could hop in your boat and away you could row. But this week’s parsha says “Stop!   No, no, no! Hashem’s work comes first, so please don’t move a toe.”   “But wait,” you might cry, “that’s not apropos,” Thinking you’d rather say “bye” than “hello.” “Life in Mitzrayim is no slice of

This is a basic overview of the parsha story in a “Q&A” format adaptable for kids of any age.  Answers in brackets are traditional responses, from parsha text and midrash.  But be open to anything your child might have to say! Please see the Vayeishev overview for how we use them in our homeschool!  There are also copywork sheets to go with the weekly parsha… enjoy! בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל are still slaves in מִצְרַיִם , but things are starting to turn around! ה׳ has already sent seven מַכּוֹת , plagues, to prove that he’s going to rescue them. After the last few מכות , פַּרְעֹה   said… ( בני ישראל could go). But when each מַכָּה ended, his heart was… (hardened) and he… (changed his mind). By now, after seven מכות , אֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם was… (a great, big mess!). Many people and animals were… (dead), many buildings and fields… (destroyed, ruined). Even פרעה ’s advisors told him to let בני ישראל go free!   He just would not listen! Who did Moshe tell פרעה he