Spring and Gratitude

Today is Easter in North Carolina, so Happy Easter for those who celebrate this day!  Of course, the Jewish holiday of Passover has just occurred, so a belated Happy Passover to those readers.  And it wasn't too long ago that the Pagan holiday of Ostara took place, so good thoughts towards any of you who might be Wiccan or other variations of Paganism.  And there are probably some Spring celebrations in Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism that I just don't know about; if so, happy thoughts in your direction as well.

I'm sure that it is no coincidence that so many of these religious celebrations take place in Spring.  You don't have to follow any religious practice at all to be uplifted and inspired by the rebirth that takes place in Nature at this time of the year.  I'm noting that even though our past winter was so mild that it seems like turning into Spring wouldn't be that big of a deal, but the flowers and such seem even more intense this year, as if knowing they had to put on an extra special show in order to show off the contrast between the seasons in a year of temperate temperatures.

There are two non-religious Spring-related occasions that we particularly celebrate in our household, or at least we have for the past few years.  One is the opening of our local Farmers' Market in Cary.  While we do have access to fresh vegetables all year round at other Farmers' Markets in the area, the Cary market is shut down from December through March.  So by the time the first Saturday in April rolls around, I can't wait to see all my farmer friends and start buying fresh, local produce again directly from the producers.  And this year was extra special because, after a hiatus of a couple of years, the Cary Farmers' Market has once again move to downtown Cary, and is in even closer walking distance from my house than it was previously!  That means a lot to me in my ongoing efforts to reduce our family's carbon footprint.

Another event of great note in our home is the first fresh local strawberries of the year.  Every since reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (yes, that book AGAIN, for my regular readers....what can I say, it changed my life), I no longer buy fresh strawberries except locally during our relatively short growing season in North Carolina (read the book to find out why).  But I seriously love strawberries, so it is a big deal when they return to our diet, albiet for only a few, short, precious weeks.   So only buying local strawberries in season has really raised my appreciation for this wonderful fruit that is gone all too soon.

But this year, for the first time since I've been shopping at the Farmers' Market, Market Opening Day and First Strawberry Day coincided!  Apparently the mild winter has coaxed the local strawberries into blooming early.  So, joy of joy, I bought a mess of them, and they will be part of our Easter celebration at our spiritual center (we are having an egg hunt for the children, but the eggs will contain fruit instead of candy) and our Easter dinner table.  But I have already welcomed the strawberries by opening a bottle of champagne with a friend and drinking the sparkling wine with our first strawberries in the glass as well.

So pick what inspires you--your religious or spiritual tradition, Nature's beauty, the longer days, the warmer weather, or the return of the seasonal crops.  Spring is great time to be thankful for all the wonderful things that this planet continues to provide us, despite our often not-too-great stewardship of its resources.

I'll end with a lovely video on Nature and gratitude that my friend Lorna shared with me.  I hope you find it as inspiring as I did.




Enjoy!

Hanukkah Blog 2011: Lighting the Cupcake Menorah

Happy Hanukkah!  The eight-day celebration of Hanukkah begins today, December 20, at sundown.  We are not Jewish, but we have a greater appreciation of Jewish traditions since our study of Judaism in our World Religions class last year.

We are currently in Washington, DC, visiting my father (who lives there) and other family members (who are coming for what my son calls "the annual Cross family Christmas reunion") and seeing the sights.  But if we were at home, I would be tempted to make the fabulous Hanukkah Cupcake Menorah from the very interesting blog, Shiska in the Kitchen.  The cupcakes she makes for her menorah are Coconut Chocolate Chip Cupcakes--doesn't that sound wonderful?  Yum!

She also has a nice recipe for a more traditional Hanukkah food, potato latkes, along with some tips about how to make these deceptively-simple treats turn out neither burned nor soggy.

But blessings to any Jewish readers who celebrate Hanukkah, while the rest of us can just enjoy the good food!

Sukkah City St. Louis

We have just reached the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, a harvest festival in which Jewish people eat meals and spend time in a temporary shelter as a reminder of the history of their people and religious traditions.  However, some people are also re-examining the tradition and exploring what it may mean, not only for Jews, but for all of us living in modern times.

One result of that last year was an exhibit in New York City of 12 revolutionary sukkahs--temporary dwellings that followed the traditional rules, but that use modern materials and modern ideas to reinterpret the entire activity (for more, see my post from last fall).  I thought it was a really fascinating project, so I'm glad to report that another city hosted a similar competition this year.

So Sukkah City (as the original exhibit was called) relocated this year to the city of St. Louis, where it is being called Sukkah City STL.   This year's competition was sponsored by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Art, St. Louis Hillel at Washington University in St. Louis, and The Museum of ImaJewnation.  The particular theme this year was "Defining and Defying Boundaries."  To better understand the thinking behind this theme, as well as the rules explaining required characteristics of a sukkah, you can watch this video by some of the Sukkah City STL organizers:


Once again, dozens of entries were sent in from around the world, and 10 designs were selected to be constructed on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis (although only 9 ended up being built).

To see the winning design, visit the Winners page on the Sam Fox School website.  You can also see a few photographs of the actual sukkahs on the website of the St. Louis Beacon.  Just like last year, the winners are beautiful and thought provoking structures, whether or not you follow Judaism.

Lesson Plan: World Religion Dream Catchers

In my short (five-week) World Religion class, we are concentrating on the six religions that have had the most influence on Western culture--Paganism, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam (in order of when they began).   So to help the students keep the order of these religious movements straight, we made World Religion Dream Catchers.

Dream Catchers are a tradition among some Native American tribes (which fall under the Paganism category).  They are a circle created out of a branch of wood, between which string and beads have been strung, creating an open web in the middle.  The idea is that the dream catcher will capture the bad dreams sent to a child, but will allow the good ones through its openings.

Because we are on a restricted budget of both money and time, we made ours out of paper plates, from which I had cut out the centers and punched eight holes around the inner circle of the remaining rim.  I had the students write the names or draw symbols for the six religions (we covered the religious in symbols in class beforehand) on the paper plate rims, and then string yarn from hole to hole IN ORDER of the religion's founding date.  So the first hole was just the start, but then the student would string the yarn through the Paganism hole, then through the Hinduism hole, then Judaism....you get the idea.

Here are some samples of their work.  As always, they were following the same instructions, but came up with some lovely variations.

Shabbat Shalom

Tonight we went to a Jewish Shabbat service as part of the middle school world religions program we are doing in our spiritual community.  We have almost finished our three-month unit on Judaism, so we took the middle schoolers to an actual service at a local synagogue, Beth Meyer Synagogue.

Beth Meyer is a Conservative synagogue, meaning it is neither as traditional as an Orthodox synagogue, nor as innovative as a Reform congregation, but tries to meld appropriate changes into the thousands-of-years old traditions of Judaism.  It is located in a lovely contemporary building that has just been adjoined with a state-of-the-art education center.

We were given a wonderfully warm and knowledgeable couple, Howard and Judi Marguilies,  as our hosts for the visit.   They explained to us what traditions we needed to observe, such as the men and boys wearing the kippah or jarmulke sitting in a basket by the door before entering the worship space.  They introduced us to the traditional Shabbat greeting of "Shabbat Shalom," which literally translates to Sabbath Peace (the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday rather than the Christian Sunday, but because the Jews follow a lunar calendar, their Sabbath starts Friday at sunset).  The prayers are sung or chanted rather than read, and they were all in Hebrew, although the Rabbi did give the page number and a brief title of each reading in English, and the prayer books had Hebrew on the right side and English translations on the left.  The service was mostly a blessing and celebration of the Sabbath, and consisted solely of the songs/chants without any readings from the Torah or lesson or message from the Rabbi.  The children of the congregation were invited to the bimah (front) to participate in a Kiddush blessing of wine, and everyone is encourage to meet afterwards for Oneg Shabbat (a dessert).  The entire service took about 45 minutes.

Afterwards, however, both the Marguiles and Rabbi Solomon met with our group to answer questions and to explain some of the building, traditions, history, and future plans for this dynamic congregation.  It turns out that this synagogue has existed for over 100 years, and this is its third location.  When they moved out of their former location near Cameron Village to their current site between Six Forks and Falls of the Neuse on Newton street, members walked their revered Torah scrolls the entire distance from their old home to their new home.  They also brought some parts of their old synagogue, including the ark that held their Torah, some of the chairs and lamps, and some stained glass windows, and installed them in a small chapel so that the history of the synagogue would be maintained.

The eastern wall of the worship space has a face of tan bricks inspired by the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, and actually has an actual brick from the excavation site there.  My personal favorite part, however, was the ark, which was actually a translucent wall hanging with a beautiful abstract that evokes Mt. Sinai and the burning bush.  You can just barely see the Torah scrolls through the fabric, highlighting the importance of the Torah to the synagogue and the Jewish people.  I thought it was a wonderful contemporary treatment of an ancient tradition, combining the best of the old with the new--exactly the middle road that the Rabbi said is the struggle, but also the privilege, that a Conservative congregation like Beth Meyer seeks to follow.

I enjoyed the service, but I think I was more touched by the beautiful setting, the great stories we heard about the congregation, and the lovely people we met.  It had a great spiritual energy, and I feel blessed to have been there--and to have our middle schoolers get to experience the beauty of these ancient Jewish religions brought into our current world.  I think my son quite enjoyed as well, and told me on the way home that he thought he was "a little bit Jewish."  Plus, in the children's chapel, he found a humorous version of the story of Exodus, so he figures their children's program must be pretty cool.

Lesson Plan: Learning with a Maggid

Today in our world religion class, we got to hear from a Maggid, or ordained Jewish storyteller.  The maggids are part of a 17th century Hasidic tradition that incorporates storytelling into Jewish religious practices.  According to Maggid Rachel Galper, the woman who spoke to our class today, the role of the maggid is to take the same stories that might be in the Torah and other religious writings and might be addressed by the Rabbi in a Shabbat service, but to present it to people in a more informal, or in her words, "user-friendly" way.

Maggid Galper started out by asking the students, What makes someone Jewish?  They discussed various aspects--food, clothes, holidays, family heritage (especially through the mother)--but Maggid Galper said that in her mind (admittedly, she is of the Reform persuasion), people choose to be Jewish when they believe in and follow Jewish faith practices, regardless of family background or other factors.

Maggid Galper covered many of the great Jewish patriarch stories--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Joseph, Moses, Jonah, and David, among others.  She raised the issue that some take these tales as literal truth, and others as teaching stories where events or people may be symbols for a larger truth.  She explained that the name "Isreal" means "God Wrestler," and stated her belief that to be Jewish is to argue with or wrestle with "God" or spiritual truths or stories.  "If you ask a Jew about a spiritual question," she claimed, "You'll get 10 different answers."  But in Maggid Galper's mind, that is a good thing.

What was particularly great about listening to Maggid Galper, though, was that she also talked about the stories of women found in Jewish writing.  So it was that we heard the version of the Abraham and Isaac story in which Abraham's wife, Sara, is the one to rescue Isaac, or the important role Mose's sister, Miriam, had in protecting Moses and making sure the flight from Egypt and search for the promised land was successful.

She talked about the Torah, made up of black writing, known as "black fire," and white space, known as "white fire."  She related that to a story about Miriam, who received a gift of an empty box from the angels while Moses was receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai.  White fire, she said, was given to women to represent all the wonderful, valuable stories and wisdom that are NOT contained in the Torah.  Finding and telling those stories, according to Maggid Galper, is the purview of women--a teaching that I just loved.



















It was a great gift to have her, and both the students and I learned a lot to add to our understanding of the rich traditon of Judaism.

Book Review: Exodus by Brian Wildsmith

This week in our World Religion class, we are studying the story of Exodus, or the escape of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, following Moses in the desert for 40 years, and eventual entry into the Promised Land.  The book we are using to tell this tale is Exodus by Brian Wildsmith.  Brian Wildsmith is a book writer and illustrator from England who is not nearly as well known as he should be, given the gorgeous work that he does (he has won the English equivalent of the Caldecott for the best children's book artwork).

The text is clear and straight-forward and condenses an article book of the Old Testament/Torah in a concise, unbiased, and easily comprehensible way.  While it can be used with elementary students, I think it is appropriate for middle schoolers as well.  But what really sets this book apart is the artwork.  The best word I can come up with to describe the illustrations is sumptuous!  Wildsmith uses rich, almost glowing colors, and even gold leaf in some pages.  His pictures are on a grand scale, capturing the grandeur of Egypt at the time of the Pharoahs and pyramids, and including depictions of hundreds or even thousands of people in the background.  He includes, but doesn't dwell on, the less savory aspects of the story (such as the plagues and the killing of the first-born), and the drawings of that section won't upset more sensitive readers.

But one of the best parts of his take on this classic tale, at least to my mind, is how he shows the more fantastic components of the tale, such as the burning bush and God leading the people of Israel as a cloud or as a flame.  I particularly like how he illustrates God in a symbolic, non-human way.

This is the kind of book that the illustrations can bring up as many discussion topics as the text.  Like the Blockhead book,  I think the wonderful art helps make it relevent to an older audience.  Those who have heard the story before can find new information and objects of interest in the pictures, and those who aren't familiar with the tale aren't likely to forget it with such beautiful illustrations to support a visual memory of whole event.

Curriculum Resource: The Timeline of Jewish History

If there are others who are studying Judaism as part of a World Religions course, I found a website that is so helpful to me in getting myself straight about the different patriarchs and historical stories about the Jewish people.  The Timeline of Jewish History traces the entire story of Jewish development, from the time of Adam and Eve (Jewish Year 1, or Civil Year 3760 BCE) down through the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 BCE (Jewish Year 5708).  It is so helpful to see who came before whom, and who descended from Abraham, and when the events occurred that are remembered today through holidays like Purim and Hanukkah.

This timeline comes from the website Akhlah, The Jewish Children's Learning Network.  It is only one of many wonderful resources for people who are learning about Judaism.  It has sections about major Jewish figures, holidays, prayers and blessings, lesson about Hebrew, and great introductory material to many topics in Judaism.  I highly recommend it!

Curriculum Resource: Judaism

I found a great resource for the Judaism portion of our World Religion class today.  It is a book entitled The Family Treasury of Jewish Holidays by Malka Drucker (1994).  It has a really good description of the Jewish holiday, both the traditional ones, like Purim and Yom Kippur, as well as more recent ones, like Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day).   They also have recipes and craft projects, poems, songs, and/or prayers that are traditional to or appropriate for each celebration.

Best of all, however, is that there are teaching stories to go with each holiday.  Usually there is one version of a story from the Torah (or Old Testament to Christians), as well as one story from a different, more contemporary source.  It is the best collection of Jewish teaching stories I've found so far that are appropriate for a middle school student.

World Religion Curriculum Resource: Redesigning the Sukkah

I'm helping to teach a world religion class, and this month we are looking at Judaism.  Since the Jewish holiday of Sukkot begins Thursday, September 23 this year, and runs until Wednesday, September 29, our latest class including a discussion of sukkahs.

Sukkot is a celebration of the fall harvest, as well as a reminder of the 40 years the Isrealites wondered in the wilderness as Mose led them from their slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land.  In memory of those nomadic years, as well as encouraging people to leave their houses and get more in touch with nature,  Jews construct temporary buildings called sukkahs in which they are supposed to eat all their meals and spend time in during that week.  The sukkahs have various rules:  they must have at least two and a half walls, the roofs must be open but covered by organic, and the roof covering must be enough to create more shade than light during the day but also open enough to feel the rain fall and to see the stars at night.  This is a festive holiday, so families also decorate their sukkat with seasonal fruits and vegetables, plants, banners, children's cards and drawing--sometimes even "Christmas" lights.  It has been one of the most popular Jewish holidays with our students, who are intrigued with the idea of building a sukkat and spending a week outside.  This year, in fact, it overlaps with the "Take a Child Outside Week," which runs September 24-30.

What really got our students going, however, is an initiative going on right now called "Sukkah City."  A design competition selected 12 revolutionary concepts for sukkahs (out of hundreds of submissions), and they are building the winning designs in Union Square Park in New York City.  You have got to check out these designs!  They are incredible.  They are supposed to be in line with traditional rules (although there seems to be some debate about that on the Internet), but they are fabulous constructions that raise all sorts of interesting ideas about habitats, even if you aren't Jewish.

To see the winning designs, go to the website at: http://sukkahcity.com .
There is also a great article discussing the designs and how well sukkahs fit the NYC lifestyle in New York Magazine at http://nymag.com/arts/architecture/features/68057 .