#YetzirahBeRamah

Handwritten text on lined paper describes different types of trees: corpse flower (stinkiest flower), birch (skinniest tree), pine (pointiest needles), and oak (fattest tree). Some words are highlighted with quotation marks.

We began our summer in Yahadut (Judaic Studies) by exploring the meaning of the word Yetzirah (creation). Writing their thoughts on post-it notes, the hanichim (campers) in Garinim and Nitzanim finished the sentence “When I hear the word yetzirah, I think of ___.” Their ideas included imagination, creativity, G-d creating the world, collaboration, building with legos or other materials, art, music, and more.

Yellow sticky notes with hand-drawn illustrations and writing are taped to a surface. Each note has a drawing and a label: Music, Art, Friends, Trees, People, and Animals, describing their importance. A note written on a blue sticky note says, God creating the Earth. The note is taped to a window with blue tape, and green leafy trees and plants are visible outside. A yellow sticky note with the handwritten message The creative of our brain. is taped to a window with blue tape. Green trees and foliage can be seen outside through the glass.

All three age groups took a deeper dive into the Briyah (Creation story). After acting out the story of Creation, Shorashim worked in small groups to illustrate what G-d created on each day.

Six young children, wearing colorful summer clothes and caps, are sitting and lying on a carpeted floor, gathered around a large sheet of paper, drawing and coloring together with markers. A group of young children sit and kneel on the floor, drawing and coloring together on a large sheet of paper with markers. They are wearing casual summer clothes and hats.

Garinim broke into small groups to creatively represent each day of Creation. While some groups wrote poems or short stories that incorporated facts about what G-d created on each day, others chose to mime or create a skit to depict their day.

A handwritten student worksheet describes animal and human sounds, mentioning frogs, lions, birds, cheetahs, wolves, horses, and ends with “The end!” underlined. There are spaces for the student’s name and date at the top. A handwritten poem on lined paper reads: “Tigers [scribbled out] tweets of birds, Howl of the wolf, kids playing with each other, meow of a cat.”. A handwritten note on lined paper reads: From ponds to creaks from creaks to rivers from rivers to lakes from lakes to golfs from gulfs to ocean the sky is where it comes from.

Here is one of Garinim’s creation skits:

Check out more of Garinim’s skits here, here, and here.

In Nitzanim the hanichim (campers) read the text of the Briyah (Creation story) together. They then worked in hevruta (partner study) to look for textual clues that would signal when G-d finished creating one day and began the next.

Two children sit on the floor, closely leaning over and writing on papers together. One child wears a blue cap and orange shirt, the other has long hair and a blue shirt. A pink water bottle is nearby. Two children kneel on the floor, writing on sheets of paper with pens. Other children and papers are visible in the background, indicating a group activity or classroom setting.






Categories: Garinim, Nitzanim, Shorashim, Yahadut
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