Our Stories

Third Graders Learn and Celebrate with Family at their Chagigat HaChumash

November 5, 2014 by Amalya (’20) (Students) Evan P (’20) (Students) Ilana K (’20) (Students) Jessica C (’20) (Students) Matthew S (’20) (Students) Samuel H (’20) (Students)

Last Friday, the third graders celebrated with their families at Chagigat HaChumash (Chumash Celebration). We had a special ceremony where we got our fist Chumash (the Torah in book form) from our Head of School G’veret Reem, and we visited four stations to learn more about the Torah. We felt lucky to get our very own Chumash as third graders and excited to be there with our families. Some of us were a little bit nervous, too.

When asked about their favorite parts: Jessica, Ilana, and Matthew said their favorite station was the one where they learned about ktav stam, the special writing used in a Sefer Torah (Torah scroll); Jessica wrote the Hebrew alphabet, Ilana wrote her name in fancy letters and Matthew wrote text from the Torah. Matthew said that writing ktav stam is very hard (especially if you have bad handwriting) and because if you make a mistake on the Torah scroll, you have to bury it and start a new one. Samuel liked the station that showed the similarities and the differences between an Ashkenazi and a Sepharadi Sefer Torah because his mom is Sephardi and his dad is Ashkenazi so they knew all the answers! Amalya liked every station and felt lucky to get her own Chumash as a third grader! Evan’s favorite part was at the end; after receiving his chumash, he read it and found out answers to questions in Judaic Studies class – he likes knowing the answers.