Grade 1 Students learn how to manipulate shadows using light. Through these activities students reflect on the effect of sunlight as it moves throughout the day.
A Paean to Poetry
Chidushim B’Chinuch—Insights into Education Sixth of an Ongoing Series My decision to pursue a career in education was solidified in 1989 when I saw Peter Weir’s Oscar-winning film, Dead Poets Society. As far as I can remember, I wanted to become a teacher from the...
The Legend and Legacy of Language
Chidushim B’Chinuch—Insights into Education Fifth of an Ongoing Series The great mysteries of the human condition are the topics of the first eleven chapters of the Torah. In Genesis 1-6, which we read in last week’s Torah portion, Scripture addresses the origins of...
Turn! Turn! Turn!
Chidushim B’Chinuch—Insights into Education Fourth of an Ongoing Series The reading of Kohelet, the book of Ecclesiastes, on the holiday of Sukkot remains one of the great mysteries of the Jewish liturgical year. The just-completed Festival of Booths is the most...
Yom Kippur Message 2019
Yom Kippur is a day of judgment, but it is also a day of love. In the time of the Mishna (c. 200 C.E.), Yom Kippur was a day of courtship, when the young maidens of Jerusalem would dance in white robes in the vineyards, looking for a young man with whom to fall in...
Rosh HaShanah Message from Rabbi Grossman
Shomeia Kol Truat Amo Yisrael B’rachamim Hearing the Cries of Israel with Compassion One of my first students was a Grade 9 pupil whom I would describe as a fine young man. He was clean cut and kind, socially well-adjusted, and well-liked. Academically he was not an...Akiva Calendar
Rabbi Grossman’s Corner
Shadows and Light
New Beginnings
This week we begin the annual Torah reading cycle, starting with the creation of the world in the first chapter of Genesis. Standard English translations, based primarily on non-Jewish sources, render the first words of our parasha, “In the beginning, God created the...
The Call to God
The Content of our Character The most ancient of all of the prayers for the High Holidays has a special connection to The Akiva School. Avinu Malkeinu is almost 2,000 years old, yet its central words have remained unchanged. Akiva’s founder, Rabbi David Hartman,...
Acheinu Kol Beit Yisrael
On Thursday mornings in synagogue, we recite a prayer that begins with the words, “Acheinu kol beit yisrael—Our brethren, all the House of Israel.” The tefillah offers the image of all Jews living as siblings in the same home, caring for each other as brothers and...