Learning to Give, Curriculum Division of The LEAGUE
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Purpose:
Duration:
One-Fifty Minute Class Period
Objectives:
The learner will:
- retell the story of Rabbi Tanchum and his tzedakah-model.
- cite ways that their family can adapt a tzedakah-model to their own lives, incorporating tzedakah into family celebrations and observances.
- practice an additional or new act of tzedakah.
- identify and describe the outcomes of this additional or new act of tzedakah.
Service Experience:
The learners and their families are asked to create a Family “Tzedakah-Habit”
Materials:
- Attachment One: Sacred Giving: When?
- Attachment Two: Creating a Family “Tzedakah-Habit”
Instructional Procedure(s):
Anticipatory Set
Make two columns on the blackboard, one headed “GOOD HABIT”, the other, “BAD HABIT”. Ask the learners to assist you in creating lists of both. Once completed, ask them if they have ever tried to break or start a habit. What techniques did they use to accomplish their goal? Were they successful? Which techniques were most helpful?Teacher Note: Lead the learners to an understanding that the least successful techniques often require major life changes, and that the most successful techniques usually are those that enable one to assimilate change within ones normal life pattern. For example, some people find going to a gym very difficult. It might require coming home from work, changing clothes, getting back into the snow-covered car and going to find a parking spot in a crowded lot at the mall. Asking the learners to exercising while watching TV at home might be easier for the learners to accomplish. Diets that require purchasing special foods are hard to keep; diets that teach you how to prepare real food in low-calorie ways are easier to fit into the life of the family.
- Distribute Attachment One: Sacred Giving: When?
Teacher Note: The Torah texts are about doing tzedakah as a part of “real life”; adding Jewish values to the value of work. This activity is intended to have students think of the times that they value and apply the Jewish value of tzedakah to those times.
- Distribute Attachment Two: Creating a Family “Tzedakah-Habit”
Teacher Note: The text describes how the needs of others can be assimilated into taking care of our own needs. Since the family is the primary unit of satisfying students’ needs, the family is called upon to create a meaningful caring for others while caring for themselves. The results of family brainstorming could be collected and shared with a the entire class as a way to stimulate ideas and encourage involvement.
Assessment:
Use Attachment One: Sacred Giving: When? as an assessment to evaluate the students understanding of the two Biblical verses.
School/Home Connection:
Families will create a family tzedakah project, explained in Attachment Two: Creating a Family "Tzedakah Habit"
Extension:
- In Detroit Michigan, The Shalom Street children’s interactive museum has creative examples of holiday tzedakah. One project for Chanukah, highlighted students’ decorated night-lights for senior citizens living at local nursing homes and senior residences.
- Check your local area to see if there are museums, nursing homes or Jewish Centers that might have examples of tzedakah and arrange a trip to see these examples.
Bibliographical References:
- Siegel, Danny. Gym Shoes and Irises (Personalized Tzedakah). Town House Press Spring Valley, NY. 1982. Contains the list: 19 Occasions for Giving Tzedakah. ISBN: 0940653036. For ordering information; www.ZIV.org
Lesson Developed and Piloted by:
Shira HammermanAreyvut
http://www.areyvut.org
Bergenfield, NJ 07621
Handouts:
Handout 1Print Handout 1
Sacred Giving: When?
The Torah provides some models for when we were to "do tzedakah". Here are two of them:
Deuteronomy 24
19) When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf in the field, do not turn back to get it; it shall go to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow – in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings.
Leviticus 9
9) When you reap harvest of your land you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field… 10) You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God.
The Torah was written in a particular time and for all time. These mitzvot (commandments) are directed at farmers. We are no longer farmers, but the teachings are for our time.
- Determine the surface meaning of each. What do we have to do (or not do)?
According to Deuteronomy 24
According to Leviticus 9
These texts are not merely about WHAT we should do, but WHEN we should do it. They are about making tzedakah a part of one’s everyday acts and life, about creating a "tzedakah habit".
Tzedakah is traditionally given at major moments in life: in honor of a birth or accomplishment, in memory of someone who has died, in gratitude for something amazing that has happened to you.
You can add to the tzedakah-times of life! Think of some times in your life that giving tzedakah seems appropriate:
Handout 2Print Handout 2
Creating a Family Tzedakah-Habit
Rabbi Tanhum, though he needed only one portion of meat for himself, would
buy two: one bunch of vegetables, he would buy two - one for the poor and one
for himself.
(Midrash Kohelet Rabba 7:30)
Rabbi Tanchum knew how to create a habit! He added a pattern to something he already did; he created a tzedakah-habit and you can too!
- Working with your family, create a "holiday habit" Pick a holiday and decide how your family can perform the mitzvah of tzedakah in preparation for (or on) that holiday.
- Working with your family, create a "supermarket habit". Decide how you can take the Rabbi Tanchum model to the supermarket with you. Think about the special promotions run by stores (‘Buy 1, Get 1 Free!’ or money you get from coupons) and how they might contribute to your tzedakah plan.
- Working with your family, think about something that you might choose to sacrifice occasionally as a way of adding to your tzedakah program. What need do you care the most about in the world and how can you share your own celebration to help resolve it?
- Think about starting personal birthday tzedakah-traditions and include some ideas here:
REPORT YOUR RESULTS BACK TO CLASS BY: _________________
Unit Contents:
Overview:Sacred Giving (Tzedakah) (Private-Religious) Summary
Lessons:
- 1.
- Sacred Giving: Why? (Private-Religious)
- 2.
- Sacred Giving: How? (Private-Religious)
- 3.
- Sacred Giving: When? (Private-Religious)
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