Motzaei Shabbos, November 28, 2020 @8PM: Keeping Positive in an Age of Uncertainty 34th Annual Rabbi Isaac Mayefsky Memorial Lecture Sponsored by the Mayefsky Family in memory of Rabbi Isaac and Mrs. Florence Mayefsky z”l
This week’s parsha, Yayera, includes the story of the destruction of Sodom. Avrohom, the story’s protagonist, teaches us two very important lessons. When Avrohom learns Hashem’s plans for Sodom, he pleads with Him to save the city, a corrupt and immoral society. These actions teach us the importance of compassion. Although, the lifestyle of the inhabitants of Sodom is the antithesis of his own, Avrohom still pleads to G-d on their behalf. He despises their actions but not the people themselves. Avrohom understands his place and shows tremendous inner strength to pray on behalf of his spiritual enemies. As the parsha continues, Avrohomshov lmkomo,returns to his place, after Sodom is destroyed. The Talmud gleans from this phrase that Avrohom has a set place for prayer.
Avrohom’s set place for prayer takes on a significant meaning later on in the Torah, when Bilam, an enemy of the Jewish people, attempts to curse the Jews through prayer. When his prayers are not answered, he keeps switching the place where he prays in hopes of being successful. Bilam’s actions illustrate that he has the wrong attitude towards prayer. He is so arrogant and impressed with his own power that he assumes he can change Hashem’s mind and thinks that if he prays at another place, his prayers will be answered. As we know, it is true that sincere prayer can alter events, but even when that occurs, we need to realize that we are not in control of that happening. Ultimately, G-d decides what will or will not happen.
Avrohom’s act of returning to his place demonstrates the second lesson. His behavior exhibits that we need to return to our place no matter what response we receive regarding our own prayers. Avrohom taught us a lesson in humility when he returns to his place. He accepts Hashem’s decisions and moves on.
As the children of Avrohom, we are asked to maximize our potential to help others as well as ourselves. Sometimes it may seem at that moment, our prayers are answered and sometimes they are not. However, what is important to remember is, regardless of the perceived result, we should not be deterred from returning to our place and to continue to move forward.
If there’s one lesson to take from 2020, it’s that the job of a teacher extends beyond just teaching. That mental health can affect student learning is well-known, but this year it’s that much greater.
Fortunately for the ATT, in collaboration with Walder Education, Angela Searcy, Ed.D recently presented to ATT teachers how to implement social and emotional learning strategies to help students thrive in learning despite the extraordinary challenges of learning in a pandemic.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
Helping students thrive
For some teachers, being mindful of social and emotional learning may come naturally. If that’s not yet a strength, there are many tools and strategies teachers can implement to ensure students’ emotions aren’t standing in the way of learning.
A systemic approach to social and emotional learning intentionally cultivates caring, participatory, and evidence-based practices to actively involve all students in their social, emotional and academic growth.
In her book Push Past It! A Positive Approach to Challenging Classroom Behaviors, Dr. Searcy shares examples and explains where SEL fits within the mental health continuum. In her presentation, Dr. Searcy reviewed steps that support good behavior planning, outlined tools to help educators MATCH a strategy to their unique students and program, and shared what to expect at different phases of implementation.
Implementing SEL techniques
It takes time to master any new teaching strategy, so a great starting point is a visit to the National Center for Pyramid Models Innovation (NCPMI)’s Practical Strategies for Implementing the Pyramid Model for social and emotional learning idea inspiration.
Following are strategies to easily and effectively implement SEL into lesson plans.
Book Nook
There are many popular books that can be read to children to support social emotional development and teach them about various emotions and responses to life’s daily events.
Each book has a lesson or activity that is relayed in a positive and engaging manner with hands-on ways to embed social emotional skill building activities into everyday routines.
Check out this comprehensive children’s book list to teach about cultivating relationships and enhance positive behavior.
Keep in touch with student emotions
There are countless visual tools to monitor or express how one is feeling emotionally. From feeling wheels or faces to charts, to greeting boards, to bulletin board mood meters samples, teachers can be in touch with the mood of their students. More importantly, this helps the students gain the awareness to be in touch with their own feelings. These concepts are effective from toddlers to teens and help build community in the classroom.
Resolve conflict creatively
Once students understand their emotions, they can progress to conflict resolution.
There are additional videos to help teachers guide their students in conflict resolution.
Coping and calming strategies with sentence starters are also effective ways to help children practice expressing empathy and feelings in daily situations. In the classroom, creating creative, peaceful and calming corners works for some students.
By modeling these strategies for students, teachers can help inspire social emotional learning and help students thrive in learning whether it’s in the classroom or remote.
It is interesting that although all of the Patriarchs were faced with adversity, it is only Avrohom’s that are described as nisyonos-tests. Perhaps the answer lies in the proper definition of a nisoyon. Rashi relates it to the word nes-a banner. Hashem sends people challenges and trials all the time for several different purposes. One of them is to make a person’s righteousness conspicuous and visible like a banner. In this understanding the trial is not a test since Hashem knows this person is righteous; he simply wants it to be obvious to all. Avrohom Avinu was chosen by Hashem to found a Chosen People who will have special status throughout human history. Hashem wants the world to understand why it is Avrohom and no one else that was chosen. Once the world sees the unwavering loyalty and sacrifice of this founding father, it all becomes clear.
The Ramban has a different understanding of the term nisayon. He explains that it is indeed a test, but the intention is not for Hashem to gather information. It is so that the tzaddik actualizes all of the potential that he has. This way he can be rewarded and he will understand himself better. This will allow him to reach even greater heights in his love and service of Hashem. According to this, we might suggest that Avrohom Avinu’s tests were a gift to him. He had taken a stand against the entire world and Hashem wanted to give him a vote of confidence and show him how strong he is. When Avrohom overcame these challenges, it encouraged him and gave him more strength to continue his career of opposing idolatry and all of its attendant problems.
We live in tumultuous times and many are feeling very challenged. It is helpful to remember that adversity is often a vote of confidence from Hashem to help us realize our own innate abilities and strength. When we view it in this way, we will be empowered to rise to the challenge and overcome it with flying colors.
In this week’s Parsha, the Torah describes Avrohom Avinu’s trusted servant Eliezer’s quest to find a suitable wife for Avrohom’s successor, Yitzchak Avinu. He goes to Aram Naharayyim and meets Rivkah at the well. He runs toward her after he sees her filling her jug and asks her for water. She responds by offering him water and also to water his camels. Rashi, quoting the Midrash, explains that Eliezer ran toward her because he was excited to see that the water rose toward her and she filled her jug with a minimum of effort. This fact is derived from the difference in the language describing her filling her personal jug, where it says ותמלא – she filled, in contrast to her watering the camels, which is described as ותשאב – she drew, implying that she had to lower her pail to the water.
The question is that if Rivkah was so righteous that the water rose to spare her extra effort when she came to the well, why didn’t it rise as she rushed to fill the trough with hundreds of gallons of water for the 10 camels?
Rabbi Levy Yitzchok of Berditchev (18th century Chassidic master) explains that the righteous are granted favors in this world when pursuing their needs in this world. However, when they are doing Hashem’s work, they prefer that they exert the maximum effort to accomplish these tasks. This is supported by the Mishna in Avos – לפום צערא אגרא – The payment is commensurate with the difficulty.
Therefore, it would not have been a favor for Rivka to make the water rise while she did the chesed of watering Eliezer’s camels.
When we do Hashem’s will and it involves effort or inconvenience, we should regard that as a bonus. It is an opportunity to show our love and loyalty to him. This is the true measure of being an eved Hashem – a servant of G-d.
After the flood, the Torah describes an incident where Noach planted a vineyard and drank a little too much and became drunk. As he was lying immodestly in his inebriated state, Shem and Yefes, his sons, covered him showing respect for their father. Rashi points out that the verse, Vayikach shem vayefes es hasimla, says vayikach (and he took), the singular form, not vayikchu (they took), the plural form, which is confusing since they both participated in the act. Rashi states that the singular form was purposely used to teach us the importance of how a mitzvah is executed. Since Shem’s performance of the mitzvah was completed with more heart than Yefes’ was, his reward was much greater. His children merited the mitzvah of tzizis, the mitzvah of wearing tzizis (fringes), a mitzvah that is done daily while his brother’s children were only guaranteed a one-time reward, a proper burial if killed during war.
Rashi’s explanation illustrates not only the importance of how we do a mitzvah, but the powerful responsibility that we as parents and teachers have as role models for our children. Two people did the same exact mitzvah, yet their rewards were worlds apart. From this we learn that the execution of a mitzvah entails two parts, the physical action of completing the mitzvah and the way we do it. Are we putting our hearts into it? Are we connected to what we are doing or just going through the motions?
As parents, it is our duty to take advantage of the many opportunities that arise to demonstrate the beauty of mitzvos to our children. Excitement, preparation and joy of doing mitzvos can easily be transmitted to our children if we take the time to put our hearts into it. It may just mean an extra minute or two, but the results will be everlasting.
Parshas Berashis tells us about the creation and of the creation of the most noble of creations – man. The Torah tells us that man is created in the image of G-d and was originally placed in the Garden of Eden where he was to be served by the rest of creation as the master of Hashem’s entire world. The story quickly takes a turn where the evil inclination depicted as the cunning serpent seduces Chava, Eve, into eating from the Tree of Knowledge. She in turn involves Adam and the future of mankind is altered for all of time.
We learn this story as very young children and we must adjust our understanding as we mature. The purpose of the Torah’s narration is not to entertain; it is to teach us practical lessons for life. We intuit that there is great depth to this story, but we must seek some level of understanding to be able to gain the self-awareness that is necessary to deal with our evil inclination.
Rav Samson R. Hirsch (1808-1888), leading Rabbi and Chumash commentator in Germany, understands that this story is a primer in how man’s physical senses entice him. We are tempted by the allure of a physically satisfying experience to forget our morals. This temptation often leads us to rationalization. We can become quite philosophical when we justify depraved behavior, but the real rationale is the seeking of pleasure.
Rav Yisroel Salanter (1809 – 1883), the father of the Mussar movement, describes this as the internal Yetzer Hara,evil inclination. This is our natural gravitation to satisfy our animal spirit which lusts for pleasure. There are other internal tempters which he identifies as emerging from our imagination. We dream up all kinds of realities to strive for and many of them can destroy us. Ambition, greed, jealousy and lust for pleasure and power are all forces in our psyche which can have a very positive function, yet they can wreak havoc with our lives.
Reb Yisroel points out that this story also describes an external tempter. The serpent is the outside influence which introduces us to unseen temptation and to unknown influences. These can be societal pressure, a poorly chosen friend or an unexpected encounter which throws us out of equilibrium. It can also be the exposure to extreme materialism and consumerism which can turn out to be a bottomless pit for us. We must recognize these as well and understand the potential harm these external temptations can have on us.
We are told this story as a cautionary tale. Hashem wants us to understand the enemy within and without so that we can be strategic and stay away from trouble before it happens. We have turned a new page after the exalted days of Tishrei, and when we head back into our daily lives we should strive to use this lesson well.
Tonight we begin sitting and eating in the Sukkah as we celebrate the holiday of Sukkos. One reason given for why we do this is to commemorate the Clouds of Glory that surrounded our ancestors while they traveled in the desert. The question arises – what lesson is there for us today that we should be thinking about as we sit and eat in the sukkah? It was a miracle then; what relevance is it for us today?
The Vilna Gaon shares a little background information that will help us understand this. He quotes the Chazal who tell us that after the sin of the golden calf, the Clouds of Glory disappeared. This disappearance of these clouds was G-d’s message to B’nei Yisroel of his displeasure with their actions. The removal of the clouds was G-d’s way of physically distancing himself from them. It wasn’t until Moshe pleaded with the B’nei Israel to do teshuvah and they complied that B’neiYisroel was forgiven. This act of G-d’s forgiveness culminated on Yom Kippur when they received the second Luchos signifying that G-d and B’nei Yisroel were once again close. Immediately after the completion of this act, the Clouds of Glory returned which was right before the holiday of Sukkos.
Now, we can understand what we are commemorating. We are not recognizing the Clouds of Glory that were with B’nei Yisroel all those years in the desert. Rather, we are recognizing the ones that came back illustrating that we are once again close with G-d at this time of the year. May we all feel that special relationship throughout the coming year.
The need to assess students’ knowledge is vital to enhancing teaching and learning. But with so much disruption to the school year last year, assessments this fall 2020 are even more important than usual. In order to prepare for the school year, ATT teachers attended a workshop with Rabbi Dr. Dovid Jacobson, Educational Consultant, Yeshiva Educational Services, Inc., about the types of assessments they can use.
There are 4 types of student assessments:
Placement testing: a pre-assessment before instruction begins. This creates a baseline for instruction.
Formative assessment: done by the teacher at the beginning and during instruction to note students’ progress and check for understanding. This is not necessarily for a grade, it is to help the teacher assess the progress of the learning.
Diagnostic testing: used to figure out if there is an impediment to learning so that the teacher can make accommodations or provide extra resources.
Summative assessment: tests at the end of a chapter, unit, year, course for purpose of giving a grade or advancement to next level of learning and to collect data on the student progress.
Placement testing and formative assessment are used to assess readiness, and teachers might need to adjust their teaching accordingly. This is always important, but it’s more important this year since students have not been in the traditional classroom since March.
Once you have your assessment results, you’ll need to
Revisit the plan for the course/unit/lesson and make adjustments as needed.
Provide or seek support for students who are below (and above!) level,
Implement differentiated instruction based on student needs
