What does it look like for a group of toddlers to “study” Torah?
It looks like getting to know the defining visual characteristics of the torah– by examining, touching, drawing on, even burying (and uncovers) real photos of different Torahs for ourselves.
Together, we learn and talk about caring for the Torah– a special Jewish book– and build our own special houses, called an arc, to hold our pretend Torah.
Learning about the Torah means getting inside important Jewish stories from the Torah. Together we act out the story of Noah, and retell it to one another using toy animals
Then, of course, we need an opportunity to see the real thing: to see it with our own eynayim (eyes), to listen to the sound of the parchment with our oznayim (ears) and even to feel it with our etzbaot.
Together, we look, examine and share our observations. We notice that the Hebrew letters inside look different than the letters in the books around our classroom and our home. We notice the shape is different, the paper is different. We notice it unrolls in two directions
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Together, we are now beginning an exploration of these Hebrew letters– exploring and learning together that the Hebrew letters in the Torah are the same letters that form our names!
