The power went out at the Jewish Enrichment Center!
We were in musika, everyone singing together, when all of a sudden we were singing David Melech Yisrael in the dark! Never one to miss an educational moment, we grabbed the opportunity to practice our opposites ערב/בוקר (erev/boker – evening/morning) and חושך/אור (choshech/or – darkness/light).
Then we moved together to Kehillah (Rm.209), where Morah Miri magically appeared with a basket of flashlights. (We’re so glad she had planned a light/dark exploration with Shorashim!) Some children sat in laps and read stories. A group of four practiced exceptional collaboration skills, building גן עדן (Gan Eden – the Garden of Eden) out of magna-tiles as the sun disappeared. Every once in a while, a child would sing out, “Hinei!,” and a chorus would answer from the darkness, “Hinei!,” continuing our songs from musika.
As we started Shirah/Tefillah, we took a moment to see if we could smell the חושך (darkness). We listened to hear the חושך, put our אצבעות (etzba’ot – fingers) up to feel the חושך, and even stuck out our tongues to taste it. We didn’t plan to experience the חושך/אור (choshech/or – darkness/light) of the first day of Creation quite so dramatically, but boy, was it fun!
