Today was a particularly good one for the Middle School students at OJCS. We had our annual Rabbi Simes Yom Iyun/Day of Learning. We welcomed Rabbi Mikelberg of Temple Israel, who spoke about “Modern day plagues and emerging from our own slavery.” Rabbi Polansky of KBI spoke about “The CJLS (Committee on Jewish Law and Standards) position on kitniyot.” And finally, we welcomed Rabbi Blum from the Ottawa Torah center, who spoke about ” The 15 steps to becoming free”.
Prior to the presentations, we also were honoured to have a short D’var Torah from one of our students, Lily, who spoke to the whole Middle school and our visiting Rabbis about the effects of the 10 plagues, as well as modern day feminism and her pride in how women are empowered to take active roles on Judaism.
We also welcomed Oren Baray, the brother of OJCS teacher, Morah Corinne and son of Morah Sigal. He was a student of the late Rabbi Simes and he gave a heartfelt testimonial of all of the good that Rabbis Simes did for both his students and the greater community.
After the introductions, students were split up into three groups and rotated through the session with each of our honoured visiting Rabbis.
The day went well, students were engaged and learned some new insights into the meaning and traditions of Pesach/Passover.