What a fantastic first week of school at TBI.  It was great to meet you and your students, I hope you all enjoyed our picnic, bake sale and official opening of school last Sunday.

On Sunday we had a great discussion about tzedakah and how it comes from the Hebrew shoresh (root) [צדק].  Another important Hebrew word which comes from this root is tzedek or justice.  We talked a lot about how these two words are not only connected by shoresh but also by concept.  Our students came up with many ideas about how to give tzedakah, not only by giving money, but also by spreading joy, hope, and by giving our time and skills to benefit others.

The students chose two worthy organizations to donate our collected tzedakah this year: PAWS Chicago and the World Wildlife Fund’s effort to Save Pandas.

Last Wednesday 9/7 in Trope, we began by learning our first two trope symbols: Mercha מרכא and Tipcha  טפחא.  We practiced their sounds, the hand symbols, how to identify the symbols.  On Sunday 9/11, we continued this lesson by adding the symbol Sof-Pasuk סוף פסוק.  We practiced the sound of Sof-Pasuk, and then added it to the full Sof-Pasuk Clause: מרכא טפחא סוף פסוק.  This is the first of six clause families we will be learning.  We then searched for the Sof-Pasuk clause within the V’ahavta and began color-coding it PINK.

Today 9/14 we will continue to work on the Sof-Pasuk clause, solidifying its usage, practicing the hand symbols and color-coding the V’ahavta.  We will also begin talking about the three functions of trope: melody, syllabic stress, and punctuation.