OJCS Jewish Studies

Hello Middle School students and families,

We are proud to announce that we will be hosting our annual Rabbi Simes Yom Iyun/day of learning at OJCS, next Wednesday, April 9th. We will be welcoming former students of Rabbi Simes to join us, as well as several community Rabbis, who will lead breakout sessions for our Middle School students.

Rabbi Polansky of KBI, Rabbi Blum of the Ottawa Torah Center and Rabbi Mikelberg of Temple Israel will be joining us to teach about various Pesach topics.

This event will take place in our chapel next Wednesday at 9am, before splitting into breakout sessions in our classrooms.

We look forward to continuing this honoured tradition in our school.

Moreh David Kogut

We will be having model Seders for all Middle School classes on the week of April 7th during class time. Each class will have their own Seder, where students will be responsible for introducing one element of the Seder in a prepared paragraph. We will also be going through the Haggadah, learning some insights into the traditions and stories of the Seder, as well as singing the festive songs together. And of course, there will be traditional Pesach foods provided for us.

Instructions for student preparation, as well as a list of student assignments can be found at this link.

Here is the schedule of seders:

Hello Middle school families. In preparation for Pesach this year, we are learning about how to prepare for the Pesach holiday. We are learning about the nuances of how to properly prepare our houses, as well as the mitzvot that we practice in advance of the holiday. We are backing this up with some connected rabbinic texts and making sure that students know how to properly prepare, if they are to keep the strict laws of Passover, including the mitzvot and minhagim (traditions) leading up to the holiday. While teaching this, we are sure to explain that each family prepares differently and that your family traditions may vary. We are learning how to prepare if you want to be as strict as possible, but not preaching that this is the only way you should be doing it.

In order to internalize these lessons, I have asked students to write a journal (can be fiction) of all the steps they have done to prepare. The assignment requirements, as well as a full journal example can be found at this link.

Have a wonderful and kosher Pesach!

Moreh David

Hello Grade 8 students and families. We have been learning about the laws of Shabbat in Rabbinics class. We have learned how the restrictions on Shabbat come from the 39 actions used to build and transport the Mishkan (Tabernacle) in the desert. We will now be working on a project to reflect our learning on Shabbat. For this project, students will work in small groups to create a model mishkan, as well as exploring sources from the Torah and Mishnah about Shabbat. Models can be created with a physical model or with a 3D model created online.

At the link below, is the description of the project, including a rubric for success and links to important information.

The project is due on Monday, March 10. Students will begin presenting their project on that day to the class. We will then create a display for other students to come visit.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JGpXtSDaZQDt37ADSL_2e7l9pkuzMcUprCI3Em9LPUg/edit?usp=sharing