Shavit Hakimi sing zachiti lehov- 2009

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We Love the Saadias - Shavit Hakimi

The Book of Judges - Jeftach

I want to share with you from the happening in our class these days.
In the book of Shoftim (Judges) chapters 11+12 we hear about the judge Iftach (Jephtah). Iftach was a famous judge because of 2 things: one is the vow that he made, and the second is the massacre that he did in the people of Ephraim. Iftach's vow was if G-d will let him win the war – when he will be back home, the first thing that will accept his face and come to him – will be to G-d. When I taught this in class, the students started right away to ask the question the all commentators ask – How could he make such a vow? What will happen if it will be a non kosher animal? How can he sacrifice it? What if it will be a human being?
I was very happy to see the excitement around it, and most of it was because he was a judge, a man who needs to know the Jewish laws. The problem became bigger when Iftach came home after the victory and his daughter came to him first. He was in shock, but he told her about his vow and that he could not change it. At that point the students could not believe for what he said. How could he do that? I told them that we must understand that the answer is not simple. In the text its not mention that he actually sacrificed her. It's written that she went to the mountains for 2 months and then came back for committing the vow. We have 2 opinions in the commentators to understand what was really happened here, and I asked them to think what our options are? They thought and found that one options is that he actually killed her, because its written in the vow, and other option is that he didn’t kill her because its not mention that he killed her. I told them that their answer is wonderful, but how this group will solve the problem of the vow? It means, if he didn’t kill her – why he was very sad? Why she asked to go to the mountain for 2 months and cry? Why since then the women in Israel lament for her 4 days a year?
One of the girls raised her hand and told me "Mr. Hakimi, maybe when he said "it will be to G-d" he meant to serve G-d like Shimshon (Samson) that he was a Nazir (Nazirite- a Jewish monk)". I told her right away that this is the answer that goes with the second opinion, she was really happy about that.
Our second subject about Iftach that we spoke in class was the connection between Iftach to Gideon (another judge that I spoke about him last article). I encourage them to find it and I told them that we have at least 4 points of similarity between them. They found that both of them had problem with faith, because Gideon asked for another two proofs from God after he had already one, and Iftach had the spirit of G-d but still didn’t believe that he is going to win the war. Another student found that both of them had problems with the people of Ephraim. Another student said that Gideon knew how to handle it (he was politician) and Iftach didn’t know how to handle it. The next point was (and that was the hardest one) the fact that both of them used a strange unique test to identify something. Gideon did "The Licking Test" to find who is the best soldier, and Iftach did "The Language Test" to find out who is from the people of Ephraim (The people of Ephraim had a genetic problem, they could pronounce "SH", they said instead "S". So after Iftach and his people took control on the Jordan River (It was a kind of a siege) any person that try to walk through needed to say one word "Shibolet". If he said that he survived, but he said "Sibolet" they would kill him.)
I enjoyed a lot from these lessons; I saw how much curiosity they have, and how much creative they can be.

An article - Shavit Hakimi

It was a wonderful trimester and we learned many things. One of the important things that we learned from the beginning of the year was the new prayer "The Amidah". The Amidah "The Standing Prayer", also called the Shmona Esre "The Eighteen [‏Blessings‏]", is the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy. Observant Jews recite the Amidah at each prayer service of the day—morning, afternoon, and evening. The weekday Amidah consists of 19 blessings, though it originally had 18; hence the name "Shemoneh Esrei". Since the service of the Beis Hamikdosh can no longer be done, every jew fulfills these services by reciting a prayer called Amidah. The Amidah is the holiest part of our daily prayers. This prayer contains requests for all our needs both as individuals and as a nation.
It was very important to me that the students will learn about the Amidah from the beginning of the year. I asked the students about the meaning of prayer for them. I heard wonderful answers from them, for example: "I pray because I want to succeed in school", another one said: "I pray because I want peace in Israel" and many other interesting answers. After this discussion I taught them that the essence of the Amidah is the Kavanah – meaning. The next step was to learn the ritual of the Amidah. I taught them the rules of this Tefilah, for example: How to behave while you are praying, how to start this Tefilah and how to finish it, where to bow exc. Every week I taught the student a new blessing, and we always review the earlier blessings. This Tefilah was said at loud with me with everyone together. After I felt that the students feel more confidence, they started to pray by themselves.
One of the important things that we do in 3rd grade is to understand the meaning of the Shema Israel – שמע ישראל. The students have workbooks contain many ideas that teach the students the subject. We have three Parashiyot – sections in this prayer. Each section introduced with the new words being in big hollow letter and we use it in a different ways in class. For example: to color in different colors which word means what, or to color the root in, or to color these letters which make it singular or plural. Each section also has a picture attached to it, which will be related to the section, so as to give the students a visual image of the meaning of each section, as best possible.
The students pray diligently every day. They know how important it is. The student's consistency adds special prayer for the sick. You just need to walk in the hallway in the morning to hear their beautiful pray.
I am so proud to be their teacher and watch them growing and learning somuch. Wish you Shabbat Shalom

The stories of Avimelech - Shoftim 10 - Judges - Shavit Hakimi

Navi, the study of prophets comes alive for students in grades 5-7 through study and analysis.

In class we just finished the story of Avimelech, one of the judges of Israel. Avimelech ruled over the city of Schechm. After 3 years of judging, an argument ensued between the people of Shechem and Avimelech. This argument was a breaking point in their relationship and led to war. The people of Shechem had no chance in a battle against Avimelech, Then something strange happened. Zevul, the minister of Shechem, sent messengers to Avimelech to warn him of the Schechem’s plans. At this point the students asked why Zevul would betray his own people.

I told them to use their knowledge from the stories that we already learned and to think about why Zevul would do this. Why would someone betray the people they know and care about? The class had many ideas. One student said "He thought about the future. Zevul knew that Avimelech would win the battle so he wanted to make sure that nothing would happen to him!" That was a wonderful answer. But then I made it harder, I asked them to give me example from the Bible of the same idea. This was harder, but after some deliberation and a little help from me they remembered the story of the conquering of Jericho. When Rachav helped the Jewish spies so she could avoid being caught by the army, Joshua told her that because of this she and her family would be saved. Another answer was from the story of Gideon. When Gideon came to ask for food from the city of Sukkot, they said "You are not winning yet, so why we will help you?" They were afraid that if the Midyanites (the enemy) would win and they knew that the citizens of Sukkot helped Gideon against them that they would be killed!

The point of this lesson was to teach the students the reality of those times and how military and political decisions made today are based on the same fears and ideas.

Thank you and Shabbat Shalom
Mr. Shavit Hakimi

The story of Jephtah - Shavit Hakimi - My student

This summery was written by one of my students, Thank you Greigory!

The story of Jephtah is a very interesting and strategic story. Jephtah fought, was expelled, and basically had to kill his own only daughter.

After the death of Jair the Gileadite in the 2764 the people of Israel started acting wickedly in Hashem’s eyes. They started worshiping idols again and did not follow the 10 commandments or the laws of the torah. Ammonites started coming from Jordan into Israel and quickly conquered the land of Israel. From all the anger they had that the idols did not protect them so they destroyed all their idols and started praying to Hashem.

Then the people remember a man, Jephtah, he expelled from Israel by his half-brother and now he was living in the land of Tov. He was a brave a fearless man. When they called for him he asked him if he can be their prophet, at first he did not agree reminding them of how they
Jephtah sent a note to the Ammonites saying that the children of Israel fought for the land that was earlier sihon’s and Og’s. When he saw that the note did not work he sent them another saying that if they don’t leave the children of Israel will make them leave like they did with Sihon and Og.

The ammonites still did not listen so they went into attack through the mountains. The ammonites lost the battle and had to withdrawal their settlements back to Jordan.
Shortly after the battle the tribe of Ephraim came to Jephtah with a complaint that they were not invited to fight nor were they invited to discuss if they should attack them or not. The tribe of Ephraim set up a war against Jephtah which they lost in a bloody was, 1,000 people from the tribe of Ephraim died.

Before the battle Jephtah made a very strange vow that if he comes home victories' he will sacrifice to god whoever comes out his house. His daughter was the one that ran out the house to greet her father. There is an argument between 2 facts that he really killed her or he just broke some bone of hers which is considered her dead.

Jephtah ruled for six years until his death. He died without children. After his death the children of Israel started doing sins again. But the whole time that Jephtah ruled the children of Israel were good.